DAVE'S DIARY - 12/1/2015 - PREVIEW OF EPISODE 7 - SERIES 25
BLAKE SHELTON AND ASHLEY MONROE HEADLINE NU COUNTRY TV
Oklahoma superstar Blake Shelton and Pistol Annie Ashley Monroe headline Nu Country TV Thursday January 15 at 10.30 pm on Channel 31, Digital 44.
Gippsland raised bluegrass band The Davidson Brothers return to the show on the eve of their lunge at more Golden Guitars in Tamworth .
And fellow bluegrass-rockabilly-country star Marty Stuart performs live on the show repeated Monday 5.30 am and 2.30 pm, Thursday at 2.30 am and Saturday at 11.30 pm.
Tim O'Brien's bluegrass band Hot Rize also appear in Behind Bars in the program filmed and edited by Laith Graham.
Virginian Americana band Sons Of Bill - not Monroe - debut on the show featuring dual Grammy nominee Brandy Clark.
And we also feature a snippet of singing Texan crime novelist Kinky Friedman's classic They Ain't Making Jews Like Jesus Anymore on the eve of his return to Caravan Club , Oakleigh, on January 23 and 24.
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 AND ASHLEY LONELY TONIGHT
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Blake Shelton didn't have to look far for a duet partner on his latest hit and video clip.
Shelton, 38, chose Tennessean Ashley Monroe, now 28 and Pistol Annies band-mate of his Texan singing spouse Miranda Lambert - for Lonely Tonight from 11th album Bringing Back The Sunshine .
Shelton won his fifth CMA male vocalist award and debuted the album's second single with Ashley on the 48th Awards show.
Blake also enlisted second wife Miranda and Pistol Annies to fire up a previous video for Boys Round Here from eighth album Based On a True Story.
Blake also made a Valentine's Day video for Doing What She Likes featuring him talking on the phone to 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.
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 on December 15.
CLICK HERE for another 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 for an Ashley feature in The Diary on May 27, 2013.
CLICK HERE to win CDS by Blake and Ashley on our membership page.
DOG AND CAT LOVER KINKY HEADS TO CARAVAN CLUB
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Singing Texan crime novelist Kinky Friedman reprises a live snatch of classic They Ain't Making Jews Like Jesus Anymore on the eve of his return to the Caravan Club in Oakleigh on January 23 and 24.
The Kinkster, now 69, was returned to the private sector after running for Texas Agricultural Commissioner in last year's Lone Star State elections.
Kinky promised to legalise marijuana as a cash crop for medicinal purposes - a campaign that suffered a similar fate to his run for JP at Kerrville in 1986 and Texas Governor in 2006.
The defeat freed the singer up to finish a new novel The Detective In The Hard Boiled Computer that is now at the printers but is unlikely to be on sale here for his Journey In Time Misunderstood Genius tour.
Instead the Kinkster, who runs Utopia animal shelter on his Echo Hill ranch in Texan hill country, is touring to promote some recording relics, now available on CD.
“But anyway, politics' loss has been literature's gain, and I'm back to writing again for the first time in about eight years,” the legend revealed.
“I did a Victory Tour on the East Coast of the U.S. and a Bipolar Tour in Europe last year. A Bipolar Tour is an idea that Willie Nelson gave me, which is very practical. You never take a night off. You push yourself until you're running on pure adrenaline. I did thirty-four shows consecutively in seven different countries.”
The Kinkster is philosophical about his political defeats.
“And remember, there was a guy in the State Department in Pakistan that contacted me when I lost the race for governor in 2006 and he said, "Don't feel bad, the crowd always picks Barabas." That's a biblical reference, the crowd always says, "Free Barabas, kill Jesus." I think Willie Nelson is probably correct again when he says, "If you fail at something long enough, you become a legend."
The Kinkster also performs Vanguard Hotel , Sydney , on January 16 & 18 and New Globe Theatre , Fortitude Valley , Brisbane on January 22 en route to Oakleigh.
CLICK HERE for our Caravan Club review in our Concerts section on November 28, 2013.
CLICK HERE for our feature on the Kinky-Van Dyke Parks tour in the Diary on June 28, 2011.
CLICK HERE for our exclusive Kinky interview in The Diary on May 18, 2011.
MARTY STUART IN THE JAILHOUSE
Mississippi born multi-instrumentalist and eclectic singer Marty Stuart returns with his band The Fabulous Superlatives for the vibrant video for his song Jailhouse.
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Jailhouse is on his 17th album Saturday Night & Sunday Morning . The five time Grammy winner toured here with former singing spouse Cindy Cash, father-in-law Johnny Cash and Cowboy Jack Clement in 1981. Marty, now 56, wed Cindy Cash and is fourth husband of fellow country singer Connie Smith - 17 years his senior at 73. Stuart and Cash were married from 1983-1988. Marty made his first professional appearance at 13 with Carl and Pearl Butler, performed with gospel group The Sullivans at weekends and at 14 made his Grand Ole Opry debut in an eight-year stint with Lester Flatt and The Nashville Grass. |
When Flatt died in 1979 Stuart stayed in Nashville , working sessions.
He also toured with Vassar Clements, Doc and Merle Watson and Bob Dylan before joining Johnny Cash's band in 1980
Marty wed Connie Smith in 1997 and often play historic Ryman Auditorium - original home of the Grand Old Opry - where he cut a live album.
Marty released his second gospel album - The Gospel Songs of Marty Stuart - on April 15, 2013.
It included some of his most-beloved hymns and spiritual songs and sequel to Soul's Chapel in 2005.
CLICK HERE for a Marty Stuart CD review in the Diary on July 5, 2005.
DAVIDSON BROTHERS HEAD TO THE MOUNTAINS
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Gippsland born The Davidson Brothers prove why they are hot favourites for more Golden Guitars in Tamworth this month in their video for Take Me To The Mountains from their seventh album Wanderlust . They fled smoky Gippsland coal mines and fertile dairy country at Yinnar for fresh air in the bush and slopes in their song. Fiddling banjo ace Dr Hamish Davidson provides running repairs at his Bendigo chiropractic clinic - source of instrumental Bottle Cappin,' Back Cracking Blues - for local denizens. The good doctor and mandolinist brother Lachlan keep the dingoes from the door with off stage careers in this unlucky radio country. They plunder similar wells as octogenarian mentor Dr Ralph Stanley, the late Bill Monroe and contemporary peers on trips to Kentucky, Virginia and Tennessee . |
Regular sojourns to the home of bluegrass - and more recently Europe - enabled them to soak up the roots of the rich genre and refine their take on it.
Although they have recorded in diverse locales they inject a hefty dose of their joyous journey into 11 originals on their self-produced album, cut at Sing-Sing Studio - not the prison - in inner eastern Melbourne suburb Cremorne, nee Richmond .
It's a far cry from their Nu Country TV Arts Centre lawn concert back on January 30, 2005.
CLICK HERE for a Davidson Brothers CD review in the Diary on August 4, 2014.
HOT RIZE FALL INTO THE BLUEGRASS
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Hot Rize band leader Tim O'Brien, now 60, first toured here in 1987 for a Mittagong bluegrass festival. This time Tim and his band Hot Rize perform their video for Blue Is Falling from seventh album When I'm Free . The multi-instrumentalist plays guitar, fiddle, mandolin, banjo, bouzouki and mandocello and has released 18 solo and duet studio albums. |
Tim and singing sister Mollie performed together in churches and coffee houses as children in Wheeling , West Virginia .
Both have recorded together and toured here since O'Brien formed Hot Rize in 1978 and alter ego Red Knuckles & The Trail Blazers .
In 1984 Tim and Mollie reunited for a Mother's Day concert as the Mother Folkers and four years later recorded duet album Take Me Back .
In 1986 they performed again as an Americana duo and produced two more albums, Remember Me (1992), and Away Out on the Mountain (1994) on Sugar Hill Records.
In 1990 O'Brien also charted with Kathy Mattea on the duet The Battle Hymn of Love that peaked at No. 9 on Billboard .
In 2005 Tim won a Grammy for Best Traditional Folk Album for Fiddler's Green .
As a songwriter O'Brien's success included Garth Brooks covering When There's No One Around , Dixie Chicks More Love, Kathy Mattea Untold Stories and Dierks Bentley You're Dead To Me.
Documentary-maker Ken Burns also included O'Brien's Art Stamper in his three part 2011 film , Prohibition
CLICK HERE for a Tim O'Brien review and Mollie O'Brien interview in The Diary.
BRANDY CLARK HUNGOVER
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Dual Grammy nominee and Washington born singer-songwriter Brandy Clark debuted live on the Grand Ole Opry with a little help from Marty Stuart. She performs Hungover from her acclaimed debut album 12 Stories. Brandy has written hits for Miranda Lambert and fellow Texan Kacey Musgraves who plays CMC Rocks Queensland at Ipswich in March. |
Clark, now 37, has lived in Nashville for 16 years and co-wrote Miranda Lambert's #1 hit Mama's Broken Heart and Band Perry chart-topper Better Dig Two.
She also landed songs on albums by artists as diverse as Gretchen Wilson, Ashton Shepherd, Reba McEntire, Sheryl Crow, Keith Urban and Darius Rucker.
Clark won 2014 CMA Awards for Song of the Year for Musgraves hit Follow Your Arrow.
Brandy was reared in Morton , Washington - a logging town of only 900 people in the shadow of Mount St. Helens.
Her indie album features Vince Gill on background vocals and debuted at #28 on Billboard .
On January 6, 2014, Clark made her CBS network TV debut with Stripes on The Late Show With David Letterman .
Clark opened for Sugarland singer Jennifer Nettles on her 2014 tour and wrote satiric Songs About Trucks for Waco country singer Wade Bowen.
Further Info - http://brandyclarkmusic.com/
SONS OF BILL
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Virginia Americana quintet Sons Of Bill flee Santa Ann Winds in their video from their third album Sirens. Sam, Abe and James Wilson took their name from father Bill - a musician & professor of philosophical theology and southern literature at University of Virginia . Sons of Bill hail from Charlottesville and were founded by the three brothers along with bassist Seth Green and drummer Todd Wellons. The quintet played its first formal show on December 23, 2005 and within several months the brothers returned to Virginia to pursue the band full time. |
In February 2006 they won a Battle of Bands and recording time at Crystalphonic Studios, Charlottesville .
The indie album, Far Cry From Freedom , featuring nine original songs by James and two by Sam, was released in April 2006.
In October 2008 they recorded their second album One Town in Santa Clarita , California , with acclaimed recording engineer and producer Jim Scott, and released it in June 2009 on Gray Fox Records .
The album features songs written by James and Sam Wilson, keyboardist Abe Wilson and bassist Seth Green.
Sons of Bill released third album Sirens , also produced by Scott and Cracker band member David Lowery and engineer John Morand at Mission Sound Studios in Brooklyn , New York , on March 27, 2012.
Their fourth album Love & Logic , produced at Creative Workshop studios in Nashville , with Ken Coomer of Uncle Tupelo and Wilco , was released September 30, 2014, on CD and vinyl.
Further info - http://sonsofbill.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 DVDS by Lady Antebellum.
CLICK HERE for our Membership Page for full details.