DAVE'S DIARY - 7 JULY 2014 - PREVIEW OF EPISODE 6 - SERIES 23
INDIE LINDI AND SHERYL CROW HEADLINE NU COUNTRY TV
Singing actor Sheryl Crow and Mexican senorita Lindi Ortega headline Nu Country TV this Thursday July 10 on Channel 31 with their latest video clips.
Kentucky born bluegrass veteran Ricky Skaggs and Texan Joe Ely debut on Behind Bars on the show hosted by Mid Pacific Bob Olson and filmed and edited by Laith Graham.
Van Diemen's Land refugee Casey Barnes also makes his debut on the Digital 44 program repeated Monday 5.30 am and 2.30 pm and Thursday 2.30 am.
And Newcastle singer-songwriter Morgan Evans returns with a cyclonic video after touring nationally in March with Redneck Woman Gretchen Wilson.
Nu Country TV has been added to the C 31 streaming list on Digital 44.
Just follow this link on your computer or mobile phone - http://www.c31.org.au/program/view/program/nu-country-tv
SHERYL CROW EASY AT HOME
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Missouri born singing actor Sheryl Crow shows why choose home ahead of Cancun in June in her video for Easy.
That's not how she described her split with Texan cyclist Lance Armstrong in 2006.
Armstrong attended the ceremony for Shotgun Willie Nelson when the long-time Zen disciple won his 5th-degree black belt in martial art Gong Kwon Yu Sul on the eve of his 81st birthday on April 30 in his home town Austin.
Sheryl, 52 and mother of an adopted son, couldn't make it - she was busy on her 150 acre farm at College Green in Middle Tennessee.
Crow since fought breast and brain cancer and honoured Octogenarian Loretta Lynn with Miranda Lambert on their Coal Miner's Daughter tribute CD.
Crow also appeared in movies Fairway To Heaven and Minus Man and TV shows diverse as 1 Tree Hill, Cop Rock, 30 Rock and Cougar Town .
Easy is on Sheryl's ninth album Feels Like Home .
CLICK HERE for a Sheryl Crow feature in The Diary on June 16.
LINDI ORTEGA ESCAPES CIGARETTES AND TRUCK STOPS
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Lindi Ortega finds true romance in a Wild West town with a cowboy who said he would love her until his cows came home in the video for The Day You Die.
That cowboy chose Lindi ahead of the heifers and horses in the colourful clip.
The Day You Die is on Cigarettes & Truck Stops - fourth album by the Toronto born singer, now 34, who played the Toff In Town on her debut Australian tour in April.
We previously played her video for the title track of fifth album Tin Star .
Lindi, 34, has rich ancestry - a mix of Mexican and Irish - and strutted her stuff here on guitar, piano and ukulele.
Ortega spent nearly a decade as an indie artist in Toronto , releasing two albums and an EP.
She was described as Toronto 's best kept secret and nicknamed Indie Lindi.
During 2010 and 2011 she toured extensively as backup singer for Brandon Flowers, lead singer of The Killers , in support of his solo album, Flamingo .
It included dates in the United States , United Kingdom , Germany , France , Italy , Spain and Mexico and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and Jimmy Kimmel Live.
In December 2011 Ortega moved to Nashville where she worked with producer Colin Linden to record Cigarettes & Truck-stops.
It was released on Last Gang Records, distributed here by Cooking Vinyl , on October 2, 2012.
On February 7, 2012, she was nominated for two Juno Awards - New Artist and Roots & Traditional Album.
Ortega released her third Last Gang album Tin Star on October 8, 2013.
CLICK HERE for an Ortega CD feature in The Diary.
RICKY SKAGGS BLUEGRASS BEHIND BARS
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Bluegrass star Ricky Skaggs dedicates his song I Wouldn't Change You If I Could to singing spouse Sharon White on his debut on Behind Bars . Skaggs, who turns 60 on July 18, wed Sharon of The Whites in August 1981 and sired a daughter, Molly, and son, Lucas. The icon cancelled an Australian tour last decade after tickets went on sale at the St Kilda Palais . |
Ricky also releases his autobiography Kentucky Traveller ( Harper Collins ) on August 13.
He wrote it with Eddie Dean - the author who penned the prize-winning Man of Constant Sorrow: My Life and Times with bluegrass legend Ralph Stanley.
Skaggs was born in Cordell , Kentucky , and started playing music at 5 after he was given a mandolin by his father, Hobart.
At age 6 he played mandolin and sang on stage with Bill Monroe - at 7 he appeared on Martha White's country TV variety show with Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs.
In his mid-teens he met fellow teen prodigy - late guitarist-singer-songwriter Keith Whitley.
They played with Whitley's banjoist brother Dwight on radio shows.
In 1970 they opened for Ralph Stanley and were invited to join his band the Clinch Mountain Boys.
After four years with Stanley he performed with the Country Gentlemen, J.D. Crowe & the New South and Emmylou Harris' Hot Band.
Ricky, a multi-instrumentalist on mandolin, fiddle, guitar, mando-caster and banjo, began his solo country music career in the early 1980s and formed his lauded band Kentucky Thunder.
He became a member of the Grand Ole Opry in 1982 and later the country and bluegrass halls of fame as well as winning 14 Grammy Awards in his 30 album plus career.
Ricky's 2012 album, Music To My Ears , on Skaggs Family Records was followed by a 2013 live duet album Cluck Ol' Hen with Bruce Hornsby.
Further info - http://www.rickyskaggs.com/
JOE ELY HONOURS BILLY JOE SHAVER
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Texan singer-songwriter Joe Ely first toured here with Jimmy Barnes in the eighties.
Since then he has released 24 solo albums including five live discs and three with The Flatlanders with Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Butch Hancock.
This week Joe, now 67, performs Live Forever - a song penned by fellow Texan Billy Joe Shaver and performed by singing actor Robert Duvall on a boat in the Jeff Bridges movie Crazy Heart .
Ely was ran away from home in Amarillo and joined a circus before hooking up with The Flatlanders in Lubbock where they cut their first disc in 1970.
His eclectic music is a healthy hybrid of honky-tonk, Texas Country, Tex-Mex and rock in his work with Bruce Springsteen, Uncle Tupelo, Los Super Seven, The Chieftains, The Clash and roots country acts James McMurtry, Lyle Lovett, John Hiatt, and Guy Clark.
Joe released his debut self-titled album in 1977 - his most recent was Satisfied At Last in 2011.
His song Brainlock was featured in 1980 movie Roadie starring Meat Loaf , Alice Cooper, Roy Orbison, Art Carney, Merle Kilgore, Hank Williams Jr, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Asleep At The Wheel , Blondie, Alvin Crow & The Pleasant Valley Boys , Don Cornelius, Kaki Hunter and late legendary folkie Hamilton Camp.
He also joined John Mellencamp, Dwight Yoakam, John Prine, Joe Ely, James McMurtry in the Buzzin Cousins on the song Sweet Suzanne in 1992 movie Falling From Grace, based on a Larry McMurtry novel and directed by Mellencamp.
In the late 1990s he wrote songs for the soundtrack of Robert Redford movie The Horse Whisperer , which led to re-forming The Flatlanders with Gilmore and Hancock.
A new album from the trio followed in 2002, with a third in 2004.
His book Bonfire of Roadmaps was published in early 2007 by the University of Texas Press .
CLICK HERE for an historic Joe Ely CD review in The Diary.
MORGAN EVANS LIKE A TORNADO
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Novocastrian Morgan Evans ignites a weather metaphor for love in the video for Like A Tornado - the second single on his self-titled debut album. Evans wrote it with fellow Newcastle singer-songwriter Mark Wells on a disc produced by Quorn born expat Aussie singer-songwriter and guitarist Jedd Hughes. They performed it live on their March tour with Redneck Woman Gretchen Wilson at the historic Forum in Melbourne CBD. Evans returned to Victoria and played the Revolver rock club in the mean streets of Prahran. Evans released two EPS before his belated album on March 14 that he is promoting on a Victorian tour in June after sharing bills with Van Diemen's Land band The Wolfe Brothers. Morgan won three awards at the seventh CMC Rocks The Hunter Festival in March and also wrote the theme song for the Newcastle Knights. |
“I've been to Rugby League games in Sydney and seen how the supporters come together and lift to songs like Glory, Glory To South Sydney and Oh When The Saints and I thought it'd be great to have something like that, here in Newcastle, to match the passion of the Knights fans,” Evans said of his song Long Live The Newcastle Knights .
“I wanted to create something that would capture what it means to be a Novocastrian, what it means to be a Rugby League fan in Newcastle and what it means to wear that red and blue jumper to represent your family, your mates and your town.
“Through my contacts at the Knights I went in with my guitar and performed a very rough version of what I envisaged the song to be. It was seriously nerve racking experience performing it in front of Knights legends Matt Gidley and Chief as well as the current team. But the idea of singing this song, with the crowd, in a full Hunter Stadium, after cheering the boys on to a big win gives me goose bumps.”
Further info - www.morganevans.com.au
CASEY BARNES FLESH & BONE
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Casey Barnes shares his Van Diemen's Land roots with a brace of exports diverse as Audrey Auld, late drummer and Across Country magazine editor James Jazzer Smith and members of Ida May Mac and The Rejected who landed on the mainland in the sixties.
Barnes, now 35 and father or two daughters, was born and raised by musical parents and now calls the Gold Coast home.
He wrote his videogenic EP title track Flesh & Bone with Rick Price in Nashville and released it on June 13.
He wrote Michelle about his wife and Never Break You became a state anthem after devastating Queensland floods.
Casey taught himself to play the guitar by the time he graduated high school in 2003 - in April 2006 he released What The Hell Are You Waiting For ?
It was the lead single from 2007 self-titled second album that he promoted on a five-week tour in America and Europe .
In November he recorded a song with Connor Maclean How Good It Would Be that was featured on a Christmas album by Connor - proceeds of the single and album went to Westmead's Children's Hospital.
Barnes cut three albums before he was a finalist on the seventh series of Australian Idol in 2009 .
He developed a passion for running after an incident playing Australian Rules football that required an ankle reconstruction.
“I had a substantial ankle injury a couple of years ago which set me back and disallowed me from playing football ever again,” Casey said before competing in a Gold Coast Airport marathon.
“The injury led me to running which was part of my rehabilitation process. Running has become a chance for me to get into my own head space and listen to music which has assisted me to increase my distance over time.”
Further info - http://www.caseybarnes.com.au/
HOW TO KEEP NU COUNTRY ON AIR
We need your support as we celebrate our 23rd series of Nu Country TV.
Australian record companies and artists have joined forces to ensure our survival.
We have new CDS by major artists you can win by becoming a Nu Country TV member or renewing your membership.
They include singing actors Willie Nelson and Tim McGraw, Voice judge Blake Shelton, Ashley Monroe, Brad Paisley, Gary Allan, Toby Keith, Dierks Bentley, Eric Church, Carrie Underwood, Chris Young, Charley Pride, Slim Dusty, Rosanne Cash and more.
We also have the latest John Denver all-star tribute album and DVDS by Lady Antebellum.
CLICK HERE for our Membership Page for full details.