DAVE'S DIARY - 1 MAY 2017 - PREVIEW OF EPISODE 14 - SERIES 32
RODNEY CROWELL HEADLINES NU COUNTRY TV
Texan troubadour Rodney Crowell headlines Nu Country TV on Saturday May 6 at 9 pm on Channel 31/Digital 44 with a nostalgic video and song about his arrival in Nashville in 1972.
South Carolina singing actor Josh Turner returns to the show repeated Sunday at 1 am and Monday at 8 am, and filmed and edited by Laith Graham.
And Californian singer-songwriter Brett Young performs his latest hit in the program hosted by expat Mid Pacific Bob Olson who also hails from the Golden State .
Gippsland Lakes born twins Lee and Paula Bowman front their trio Jetty Road in a humorous bondage abduction video.
Mornington Peninsula singer-songwriter Mitch Dean, who previously appeared on Nu Country with The Distance and James Reyne, visits the Shoreham maze in his debut solo video.
And North Carolina nouveau outlaw Luke Combs returns with a vitriolic live social comment tune about the genre in Behind Bars.
Nu Country TV is a highlight of C 31 streaming list on Digital 44.
Just follow this link on your computer or mobile phone - http://www.c31.org.au/series/487
Viewers can access new and previous Nu Country TV shows at the same link.
NOSTALGIA REIGNS FOR RODNEY IN MUSIC CITY
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When Rodney Crowell left Houston for Nashville to follow his musical dreams he hooked up with fellow Texans Guy Clark and Townes Van Zandt in a creative song-writing posse.
So memorable Crowell, now 66, pays homage to his late mentors in his video for his song Nashville 1972 from his 18 th album Close Ties.
The singer also honoured Clark's late wife and prolific songwriter Susanna in the anguished Life Without Susanna and his Texas childhood in East Houston Blues.
Rodney revisited the Ryman Auditorium - former home of the Grand Ole Opry - and other historic locales in his video.
He also name-checks songwriting peers diverse as Willie Nelson, Steve Earle, Harlan Howard, Bob McDill, Richard Dobson and Tom T Hall.
Crowell reached back to better days with former wife Rosanne Cash, Civil Wars duo co-founder John Paul White and Willie's harmonica player Mickey Raphael in their video It Ain't Over Yet that appeared on Nu Country on March 25.
Crowell produced and sang with Cash in their 13 year marriage from 1979-92 but it was the first time they appeared on record together since Rosanne's Interiors album in 1990.
Cash's 1985 album Rhythm and Romance preceded Crowell's mainstream breakthrough of five consecutive #1 hits from 1988's Diamonds & Dirt and subsequent collapse of their marriage.
Close Ties is his first album in over three years and follows The Travelling Kind collection of duets with longtime collaborator Emmylou Harris.
It also features lost love lament Forgive Me, Annabelle and a duet with Sheryl Crow on haunting I'm Tied To Ya.
His songs have been recorded by Cash, Waylon & Willie, George Strait , Tim McGraw, Keith Urban, blues icon Etta James and rock legends Van Morrison and Bob Seger.
Crowell is a Grammy award winner, Nashville Songwriters Hall of Famer, recipient of 2009 Lifetime Achievement Award for Songwriting from Americana Music Association and author of his autobiography Chinaberry Sidewalks .
CLICK HERE for a previous Crowell CD feature in The Diary on June 1, 2014
CLICK HERE for a Crowell-Emmylou Harris Palais concert review in The Diary on June 25, 2015.
CALIFORNIAN BRETT HEADS SOUTH TO MEXICO
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Host Mid Pacific Bob Olson's fellow Californian born artist Brett Young headed south to a songwriters' retreat in Mexico to write In Case You Didn't Know - one of 11 originals on Brett's self-titled debut album released last year.
It's not as south of the border as Bob's retreat at Northcote in the Beer Can Hill delta.
Young, now 36, was born in Anaheim in Orange County near Disneyland far away from famed Napa and Sonoma wine mecca up north where Bob was a champion athlete in his youth.
Brett was joined on famed Malibu beach with Miss USA 2015 - Olivia Jordan - in his video for debut #1 hit Sleep Without You on his self-titled 2017 album, released on February 10.
That video was Young's Nu Country TV debut on March 4 and major marketing tool for the album recorded in Nashville with producer Dann Huff.
Brett attended Calvary Chapel High School in Costa Mesa , California , and Ole Miss, Irvine Valley College , and Fresno State University .
Young was a pitcher on his high school baseball team and went to Ole Miss on a baseball scholarship in 1999 after turning down pre-draft selection by both Tampa Devil Rays and Minnesota Twins .
He quit baseball after an elbow injury at Fresno in 2003 and started singing in the late 1990s when he replaced an absent leader of a band during a Christian worship meeting at high school.
Young was inspired by Gavin DeGraw and released indie self-titled 4-song EP in 2007, Make Believe in 2011, On Fire and Broken Down in 2012-13.
Further info - http://brettyoungmusic.com/home
JOSH TURNER RECALLS THE DEEP SOUTH
Singing actor Josh Turner returns to the show in Behind Bars with his live acoustic version of Deep South at Eugenia Hall in Nashville.
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Turner reveals his love of his family's seven generation farm in the title track of his ninth album, out earlier this year. Josh, now 39, played George Beverly Shea in 2008 film Billy: The Early Years. The movie was about evangelist Billy Graham who also attracted in his trip to the real Deep South - Australia. Turner has long kept the flame of true country burning - especially in previous videos on Nu Country including Lay Low from his eighth album and Find Me A Baby from his seventh album Punching Bag. |
Josh and wife Jennifer have created three children on their South Carolina farm that boasts a log cabin where he can retreat and write songs to feed their babies.
Josh lost beloved bloodhound Moses - an extra in videos - aged six on September 24, 2010
CLICK HERE for a Turner CD review from the Diary on December 11, 2007
LUKE COMBS – AN OUTLAW LIVE BEHIND BARS
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North Carolina singer-songwriter Luke Combs returns live to Behind Bars with some strident social comment on Can I Get An Outlaw.
Combs praises mentors including the late Hank Williams, Merle Haggard, Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings in his parody of faux modern country stars.
Luke and some musical mates massage their message in their roots roughage from his debut album This One's For You that follows three indie EP releases.
Combs, just 27, grew up in North Carolina music mecca Asheville - his first indie single Hurricane reached Top 10 on iTunes and debuted at 46 on Billboard.
Hurricane was an accidental hit born from a $200 mistake that almost derailed his career.
Combs saved enough money for what he thought would be a six-song EP.
That figure was based on what he paid for his first two DIY projects.
"We recorded six tracks, and when they got done producer Scott Moffatt (of 90's Canadian boy band The Moffatts ,) was like, 'Hey man, we need to master these,' and I was like, 'what's that?'" Combs revealed.
"I never mastered my first two, I just mixed them. I think the price was $200 per song, so I was like, 'I don't have $200 per song, and I'm not going to have it.'"
Combs went home as they hadn't even cut his final vocals but one song sounded good enough: Hurricane .
After scraping together cash Combs mastered just that track.
They released it on iTunes and sold 14,000 copies in the first week, allowing Combs to finish the album and pay Moffatt, who was working for IOUs.
Luke is now touring with Georgian Brantley Gilbert to promote his album that includes Hurricane, One Number Away, When It Rains It Pours, I Got a Way With You and the title track .
Further info - http://www.lukecombs.com/
NUNGURNER NYMPHS IN A SHAKEDOWN
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Victorian band Jetty Road prove crime doesn't pay in their vivid video for Shakedown - a classic case of art imitating modern life.
They also demonstrate why men should never tangle with twin sisters - especially Lee and Paula Bowman.
The siblings, aged 40, long ago left Nungurner in the picturesque Gippsland lakes for the big smoke of Melbourne and way beyond.
Armed with a baseball bat, they practiced a little bondage, as they tied up band mate Julian Sammut as a hostage in their dash for cash.
The red Mustang used in the abduction may be symbolic or just what happens after performing for 12 years as a band.
"After the success of the first few singles, we definitely wanted to push the boundaries a bit for the Shakedown music video, and do something out of our comfort zone,” Paula revealed.
“Having never really acted in a clip before, we decided to come up with a dramatic plot line and really have some fun with it. Turns out we had most fun we've ever had filming a music video – even Julian!"
Shakedown is the fourth single from their fifth album Hearts On Fire.
Jetty Road has also performed international concerts and festivals on the rolling prairies of Canada and the peaks and valleys of Switzerland , Germany , Belgium , Norway , France , Denmark , Austria and honky tonks of Lower Broadway in Nashville .
The band recorded its fourth album Far Away Places in Vancouver in Canada .
CLICK HERE for a previous Jetty Road CD review in The Diary on December 13, 2010
MITCH DEAN LASTS THE DISTANCE BEFORE THE FALL
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Mitch Dean played guitar, wrote songs and sang harmony vocals for Melbourne band The Distance for a decade but returns to Nu Country with latest single Before The Fall.
It's a far cry from his adolescence when he wrote and recorded songs in a shed at the Dean family's Mornington Peninsula home.
Mitch chose the quaint Ashcombe maze further south at Shoreham to film his video from his solo EP Suburban Speakeasy - entrée for a new solo album.
Dean will showcase his new songs at The Harvest Festival at Chelsea on May 13.
He previously appeared with Mornington Peninsula peer James Reyne on Nu Country on August 23, 2008, in The Distance video for Country Life from second indie CD Grounded .
Reyne did his time in Australian Crawl before returning to chart tops in 1992 on his duet with James Blundell on Dingoes hit Way Out West.
The musical marriage of The Distance and Reyne wasn't a farm gate friendship.
"I met James through our family business," Distance singer-songwriter Gavin Leadbetter revealed at the time.
"We sell guitars and James is a regular customer. We've become mates over the years. He loved our first album Don't Look Back so we are always talking about gigs and recording.
“When we were talking about the new Distance album he suggested we do a song together. I said cool. He is a great bloke, very casual and amazingly talented which all makes him very easy to work with."
The Distance also showcase other originals in previous Nu Country appearances.
Further info - http://mitchdean.com.au/
HOW TO KEEP NU COUNTRY ON AIR
We need your support as we celebrate Nu Country TV's 32 nd series with Australian record companies and artists teaming to ensure our survival.
We have Kasey Chambers 11th CD Dragonfly and Blake Shelton's 12th CD If I'm Honest from Karen Black and Tony Midolo at Warner Music.
We also have other CDS by major artists you can win by becoming a Nu Country TV member or renewing membership.
They include singing actor Tim McGraw, Ashley Monroe, Brad Paisley, Carrie Underwood, Gary Allan, Dierks Bentley, Eric Church and more.
CLICK HERE for our Membership Page for full details.