DAVE'S DIARY - 15/12/2014 - PREVIEW OF EPISODE 3 - SERIES 25
BLAKE SHELTON NEON HEADLINER OF NU COUNTRY TV
Oklahoma star Blake Shelton headlines Nu Country TV this Thursday December 18 at 10.30 pm on Channel 31, Digital 44, with the video for his 18 th #1 hit Neon .
Goulburn cattle farmer Roo Arcus and Sydney singer Matt Cornell also appear on the show repeated Monday at 5.30 pm and 2.30 pm and Thursday at 2.30 am.
Texan Kevin Fowler and Connecticut pastor's daughter April Kry appear on Behind Bars in the program filmed and edited by Laith Graham.
We also feature the debut of Maryland singer Maggie Rose who began recording under her maiden name Margaret Durante.
Nu Country TV is a highlight of 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
BLAKE BRINGS BACK THE SUNSHINE
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Blake Shelton, who won his fifth CMA male vocalist award winner this year, showcases his video for Neon Light from 11th album Bringing Back The Sunshine. The singer mixes live footage with backstage cameos as he struts his stuff. Shelton debuted his album's second single, Lonely Tonight , featuring Ashley Monroe on the 48th CMA Awards show. Blake also enlisted singing spouse Miranda Lambert and her Pistol Annies to fire up a previous video for Boys Round Here from his eighth album Based On a True Story. Blake, now 38, also made a Valentine's Day video for Doing What She Likes featuring him talking on the phone to second wife Miranda, 31, offering to make her dinner. They married on May 14, 2011, and live on their ranch at Tishomingo. Miranda recently opened her new no-kill animal Redemption Ranch shelter in Tishomingo. |
Through her Mutt Nation Foundation charity and pet food company Pedigree Lambert took over the government-run dog shelter and turned it into a home for dogs to be adopted by prospective pet owners.
Redemption Ranch holds up to 50 dogs in large kennels, and features new fencing around the property, an Airstream trailer office, and intensive care unit.
Lambert, who has seven rescue dogs and five rescue cats of her own, launched Mutt Nation Foundation in 2009, and raised more than $1.5 million for treatment, housing and adoption of homeless dogs.
This is Lambert's third business in adopted hometown Tishomingo - she also owns clothing and gift store Pink Pistol and bed and breakfast the Ladysmith .
CLICK HERE for a new Shelton CD review in the Diary.
CLICK HERE for a previous Shelton CD Review in The Diary on May 5, 2013.
CLICK HERE for a Shelton interview in The Diary on February 21, 2011.
CLICK HERE to win Shelton 's previous CD on our Membership Page.
ROO ARCUS GETS OUT OF HERE
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Goulburn grazier Roo Arcus leaves the dock of the harbour in a VW for some river bank fishing in his video for self-penned song Let's Get Out Of Here on third album Cowboys & Sunsets .
Roo took an eight year break from recording after his mum was diagnosed with cancer and drought devastated their family farm.
The new song is first from his album launched on January 20 at Honky Tonk bar of the Family Hotel at the annual Tamworth festival.
It expresses the feeling that everyone has once in a while, when life and work has taken its toll and it's time to get away.
Roo shares his time on the family cattle property and writing/performing his distinctive music.
Bluegrass musician Jerry Salley produced Roo's album in Tennessee amongst landscapes and people that inspired him as a child.
Roo spent two weeks in June recording the album in Gallatin outside Nashville with three of twelve tracks self-penned and one co-write.
Salley invited Roo to record at Gallatin after he recorded Jerry's song If We Didn't Know So Much for his previous album.
Arcus struck gold early in his career when late bush balladeer Slim Dusty recorded his tune Ringers, Rigs and Drivers for his trucking album Making A Mile .
The song - written about a traffic jam when 13 road trains pulled into the Arcus family farm - also landed Arcus a 12-month stint as Slim's touring partner.
Touring tutelage with Dusty and bandleader - former New Zealand dairy farmer Rod Coe - enabled Arcus to cut his 2000 debut album Station Boy .
It earned Roo two 2001 Golden Guitar nominations and a creative career that began on graduation from the inaugural 1997 Australian College of Country Music.
CLICK HERE for a previous Arcus CD review in The Diary on September 23, 2012.
MATT CORNELL NEVER GETS OUT OF HIS TOWN
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Sydney singer-songwriter Matt Cornell chanced his arm on a railway line before a cemetery visit in his video for Never Get Out Of This Town on his self-titled debut album, released on September 5.
The album, produced by multi-award winning producer Matt Fell features, three singles Days To Remember, Give It To Me , Outta This Town and eight other originals.
Cornell toured as opening act for Adam Brand on his My Side Of The Street tour.
“Aussie country fans are about to find out what all the buzz is about because this album Matt Cornell is full of great songs," Brand says.
The Golden Guitarist finalist's dad Wayne was one of the lead singers of the famed Delltones in the sixties
"This album has been almost two years in the making, I've given it my all. It's a great representation of who I am as a person and as an artist. I've collaborated with some amazingly talented people and I'm so proud of this record. These songs mean a lot to me and I hope they touch you in some way," says Cornell.
Cornell established strong creative bonds and friendship with APRA nominated, Golden Guitar winning writer Mike Carr during the album's song writing process.
Other song writing contributors include hit writers David Lee Murphy, Anthony Smith and Jeffrey Steele who plays the CMC Rocks Queensland festival in March.
Further info - http://www.mattcornellmusic.com.au/
MAGGIE ROSE NO MAMA
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Maryland singer Maggie Rose exudes humour in her video for I Ain't Your Mama on new album Cut To Impress . She's also no longer Margaret Durante - her birth name used on her first EP. Maggie, now 26, signed to Universal Republic in 2009 as Margaret Durante and released a cover of Kings of Leon 's Use Somebody. She left Republic , signed to indie Emrose - an imprint of James Stroud's Stroudavarious Records - and charted two singles and released digital EP, Maybe Tonight. |
Maggie also recorded two songs featured in episodes of the Disney Channel's Shake It Up and Good Luck Charlie TV series and included on the Shake It Up: Break It Down soundtrack album released on July 12, 2011.
Durante changed her recording name to Maggie Rose in 2012 after signing with Scott Siman's RPM Management .
When Siman expanded RPM to include a mainstream country label he launched the album with her as flagship artist with first single I Ain't Your Mama .
But the label closed after releasing her third single Girl in Your Truck .
Further info - http://iammaggierose.com/
APRIL KRY BEAUTY QUEEN
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Connecticut pastor's daughter April Kry portrays a beauty queen who becomes a bad girl when she drops her crown and apple pie in her video for Beauty Queen on her debut EP Music Speaks. She found new reflections in a broken mirror during the video shoot on a Long Island farm. April started singing in church, where her father was a worship leader, when she was barely 5 years old. |
Beauty Queen was written by Jennifer Pappas, JP Rende and Kathryn Raio.
It's the story of a local Southern beauty from a broken down town near Memphis .
In the same vein as the film The Last Picture Show , the central character finds herself stuck, wanting to break free of the past and a life she sees as a dead end road.
She hints at a dangerous intrigue with the line “I'm a bad girl behind this pretty face, and I've gotta get out of this place.”
April enjoyed making the video.
“It was my first professional video shoot and it was a really long day, but I had so much fun,” she recalled.
“We were hoping for good weather and we got it until a downpour started just as we were filming the final scene.”
She says the video captures the song's lyrics perfectly.
Lyrics are a big part of why April writes and performs music, and what she hopes her identity will ultimately be as an artist. “The reason I love doing music is that it truly brings people together. I truly believe that the lyric is the heart of a song, and without substance, you won't make a lasting impression. It doesn't matter where you're from or what language you speak, music is a universal language and if I can touch just one person with a melody or lyric of mine I've done my job as an artist.“
Further info - http://www.aprilkry.com/
KEVIN FOWLER WEST TEXAN PANHANDLE POORBOY
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Amarillo born Kevin Fowler reveals what it's like to be a West Texan Panhandle Poorboy in his video from seventh album How Country Are Ya?
Fowler, 48, takes viewers on a trip to where he was raised and Santa visited the fourth generation Fowlers farm.
Kevin has written hits for dual Louisiana Gubernatorial candidate Sammy Kershaw and Mark Chesnutt.
Fowler evoked humour with Willie Nelson spoof Santa Got Busted By The Border Patrol with a cameo by Asleep A t The Wheel singer Ray Benson and recorded satirical Don't Touch My Willie about the Red Headed Stranger's drug busts.
His propensity for booze songs includes The Lord Loves a Drinking Man, Beer Season, Long Neckin' Makes for Short Memories, Drinking Days, Ain't Drinking No More, Beer Money, All The Tequila in Tijuana and Beer, Bait & Ammo .
Fowler, father of three daughters, could feel jinxed - his last three labels closed shortly after releasing his albums.
In 2010 when Kevin signed with Disney subsidiary Lyric Street Records he was on a roll but eight weeks after release of his single Pound Sign they folded.
Fowler signed to Colt Ford's label, Average Joe's Entertainment and collaborated on Ford hit Hip Hop In A Honky Tonk for 2010 Ford album Chicken & Biscuits .
Fowler also recorded a duet with George Jones on Me and the Boys, wrote Long Line Of Losers for Montgomery Gentry and sources songs driving his pickup at his ranch near Junction - he calls these songs "presents from the song gods."
"Those seem to be the best ones," he said of songs including Cheaper To Keep Her, Ain't Dead Yet and Now You're Talkin' with frequent Aussie tourist David Lee Murphy.
Further info - www.kevinfowler.com
HOW TO KEEP NU COUNTRY ON AIR
We need your support as we celebrate the 25th 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, Chris Young, Charley Pride, Slim Dusty, Kacey Jones, Rosanne Cash and more.
We also have the latest DVDS by Lady Antebellum.
CLICK HERE for our Membership Page for full details.