DAVE'S DIARY - 8 MAY 2017 - PREVIEW OF EPISODE 15 - SERIES 32
REBA MCENTIRE HEADLINES NU COUNTRY TV BIBLICAL PARABLE
Oklahoma singing actor Reba McEntire returns to her home state church as she headlines our Biblical tribute on Nu Country TV on Saturday May 13 at 9 pm on Channel 31/ Digital 44.
Kansas singer-songwriter Jerrod Niemann heads south to Texas to praise his Madonna - wife Morgen - in God Made A Woman on the show hosted by Mid Pacific Bob Olson and repeated Sunday at 1 am and Monday 8 am.
Octogenarian Texan Willie Nelson blesses us with another video from his new album God's Problem Child in the program filmed and edited by Laith Graham.
Mississippi minstrel Jeff Bates celebrates his religion - his pick-up truck and fourth wife Kelly who loves fishing.
Hester Fraser - grand-daughter of late Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser - returns as Goldheist with her powerful song about combatting depression.
Highett bluegrass duo The Weeping Willows celebrate a fallen ring on the eve of their latest tour to promote their second album Before Darkness Comes A Calling .
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.
REBA GOES BACK TO OKLAHOMA AND GOD
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Reba McEntire returned to Oklahoma to film her video for Back To God with her mother Jacqueline at her family's church of choice in hometown Chockie at the ripe young age of 62.
“Music conjures up great memories and goes hand and hand with us McEntires,” Reba revealed of her church video and 32nd album Sing It Now .
The singer, who toured here with Kenny Rogers in 1998 and Troy Cassar-Daley in 1999, recruited her mother and sisters for her latest project.
“Mama, Susie and Alice even came into the studio with me to record I'll Fly Away , all of us gathered around an old hymnal straight from the Chockie church.”
Reba elaborated on her influences, upbringing and eternal help from guardian angels for the album inspiration.
The double-disc project highlights traditional hymns of “faith” in the first 10 songs with more contemporary tracks of “hope” on the back half.
“ Sing It Now was the perfect title for this album because the message and melody throughout the song connects the dots between the traditional hymns I grew up on and new music that has been uplifting for me in challenging times,” McEntire explained.
Reba's heart and friends help guide song selection including the first tune she ever sang in public - Jesus Loves Me .
She also adopted a former co-star's suggestion of Oh Happy Day and introduction from a close associate to From The Inside Out.
Reba produced it with Jay DeMarcus of Rascal Flatts in his home studio with band leader/musical director Doug Sisemore.
She also collaborated with Kelly Clarkson and Trisha Yearwood on Softly and Tenderly .
Reba and her mother also returned to the McEntire ranch at Chockie in an evocative tribute to family patriarch Clark who died at 86 on October 23, 2014.
They both appeared on Nu Country in February, 2016, in the video for Just Like Them Horses - the song she sang at her dad's funeral.
Reba starred with Kevin Bacon in 1990 movie Tremors and North in 1994 and joined Kenny Rogers and Burt Reynolds in TV movies, The Gambler Returns: The Luck of the Draw and The Man From Left Field.
She recently shot a pilot in Madison , Georgia , for new southern Gothic soap opera TV show Red Blooded - based on a July 4 parade terrorism plot.
She plays Ruby Adair, a sheriff in small-town Kentucky whose views are challenged and starts to see the world differently after a young FBI agent of Middle Eastern descent enters the picture to help with a case.
“I'm a dark character,” McEntire says of her role.
“I've got a lot of flaws and demons, and I'm having a lot of problems in my personal life. My town is being disrupted, and I'm having to deal with it all. I'm under a lot of stress.”
It's a vast contrast to her roles in Malibu County and her own sit-com.
CLICK HERE for a previous Reba story in the Diary on December 9, 2003.
JERROD NIEMANN FINDS GOD IN TEXAS
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Jerrod Niemann visited Marfa - locale of a mysterious light formation and a small church - as he joined his wife Morgen Petek in his new video for God Made A Woman.
Jerrod, now 37, married Morgen in 2014 in San Juan , Puerto Rico.
"As children, we learn all about the great wonders of this world," Niemann revealed of the song - a highlight of his seventh album.
"The one thing I realise now as a man, no longer walking alone in this world of wonders, is that God's greatest gift is the love of a woman.
"I didn't write a whole lot for the new album, just because I hadn't been able to write a lot, but what's cool about being able to produce your own record is being able to turn other people's art or music in your own way, which is exciting.
"I do tweak some lines and stuff - not that the songs aren't perfect the way they wrote it, but sometimes I want to say things a little different. Obviously I don't become a writer on the song, but in the interpretation, I tweak things here and there."
CLICK HERE for a Jerrod CD feature in The Diary on April 6, 2014.
SHOTGUN WILLIE - ACTOR, SINGER AND OLD TIMER
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Texan singer-songwriter-actor Willie Nelson takes us on a journey through his back pages in his video for Old Timer - one of five he made to promote his album God's Problem Child .
Willie filmed it at his western movie town Luck near Austin .
The singer turned 84 on April 28 - the day before his album was released.
Sadly his occasional duet partner and Kentucky Coalminers Daughter Loretta Lynn suffered a stroke on May 4 - less than a month after her 85th birthday.
"You've been down every highway," Willie sings.
"Burned your shallow bridges. You found forgiveness. You think you're still a young bull rider, but you look in the mirror and see an old timer."
Old Timer follows It Gets Easier where he addresses the topic of aging and laments that "it gets easier as we get older; it gets easier to say, 'not today.'"
Willie has also released another new video Still Not Dead - a spoof of his death hoaxes - and featuring footage of him on his tour bus and performing onstage with his band.
The video opens with Nelson waking up in a Smoke Weed Every Day sweater pouring himself a cup of coffee and laughing in the face of internet reports he had died.
It includes concert footage, clips of Nelson performing Still Not Dead in a studio and shots of him playing poker and dancing.
Willie also performs Dianne Warren song, To Get Here , in advance of the release of Dog Years - the new film in which it appears.
Burt Reynolds plays an aging movie star who is being driven around Tennessee by a young woman (played by Ariel Winter) while trying to figure things out in his life.
The reflection that Nelson is singing about in To Get Here mirrors what Reynolds is feeling in the movie.
Willie also hosts his 44 th July 4 picnic in Austin with little mates including his family band, Kacey Musgraves, Jamey Johnson, Steve Earle, Margo Price, Asleep at the Wheel, Turnpike Troubadours , Hayes Carll, Sheryl Crow, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Johnny Bush, Billy Joe Shaver, David Allan Coe, Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real, Insects vs. Robots , Raelyn Nelson Band and Folk Uke .
HESTER FRASER VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS DEPRESSION
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Hester Fraser enriches her growing social comment catalogue with a powerful video about the importance of human solace in fighting the perils of depression.
You Were There is the latest release by Goldheist - Hester and drummer Mark Spiteri.
Hester, now 28 and a 2011 Sydney Music Conservatorium graduate, grew up on the Fraser family farm near Armidale.
She previously released Dust inspired by drought on Arran - the Fraser's 1050-hectare Armidale cattle property.
It raised awareness of the plight of farmers including father Hugh who had to sell half his herd during one drought and inspired Goldheist to stage a drought relief concert in Armidale to support farmers.
“I knew the drought was bad but it was overwhelming when you realise the scale of what it means to live through it,” Hester said.
“The manual labour that goes into keeping stock alive - I hadn't understood the financial cost. I wanted to write about issues but I also wanted to create a message of support.”
Hester said she was inspired by volunteer group Aussie Helpers who deliver hay and visit farmers in need.
“The most powerful thing Aussie Helpers do is help farmers realise they're not forgotten,” she said.
“When we went through drought in the ‘90s, I was pretty little and don't remember much but dad had to make some tough decisions.”
Hester also filmed a cinematic video for Far Away From Here after winning a Tamworth busking quest in January 2016
She continued her family tradition with grand paternal tribute The Camelia Tree that raised funds for the Asylum Seeker Resource centre.
It was a favourite cause for her late grandfather Malcolm - a grazier at Nareen near Hamilton when he entered politics.
Malcolm became the 22 nd Australian Prime Minister from 1975-83 and died at 84 on March 20, 2015.
Further info - http://www.goldheistmusic.com/
WEEPING WILLOWS FALLEN RING
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Highett bluegrass acoustic duo The Weeping Willows - Laura Coates and Andy Wrigglesworth - return with their video for Fallen Ring from second album Before Darkness Comes A Calling. “My lust for you has taken both my wings,” Andy sings on Fallen Ring recalling that famous cautionary tale - the fable of Icarus ' ill-fated flight. All that glitters is not gold but often leads to ruin. Laura said the 10 track album has a much darker and brooding feel than their first album with themes of death, loss and the country staple - ruptured romance. |
“The album was written over the three years since first album Till The North Wind Blows , primarily in our dimly-lit back room, in between two visits to the southern states of America ,” Coates said.
She said their music is a more “stripped-back” style of country/folk with roots in America 's south.
They are now promoting new single The Pale Rider on their autumnal tour with Mornington Peninsula raised singer-songwriter Lachlan Bryan.
The duo played Victoria last week and Tasmania this week before heading north to Canberra and Sydney and west to Perth and Bunbury.
They also appeared on Nu Country with expat Englishman and latter day Blue Mountains singer-songwriter Allan Caswell, now 64, on Golden Days from his 19th album 50 Years In Oz.
That was after playing Gympie Muster in August, 2016, and Morrisonville Americana Festival with Texans Kinky Friedman and Hayes Carll, Eagle & The Wolf and Paddy McHugh and supporting Eilen Jewell at The Corner Hotel .
Further info - http://www.theweepingwillows.com.au/#home
JEFF MASTERS FISHING BATES
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Mississippi minstrel Jeff Bates returns with his latest video featuring two of his loves - his pick-up truck and fishing with fourth wife Kelly. That's The Thing We Do is on the 53-year-old singer's sixth album Me And Conway, dedicated to the late Conway Twitty. Bates career suffered a hiatus during his methamphetamine addiction in late 1999. He sold everything he owned and resorted to stealing, including a guitar from his friend Kenny Beard. On March 14, 2001, he was arrested for drug possession and grand theft and revealed his low self-esteem stemmed from his adoption. When he was 7 years old, a boy on the school bus in hometown Bunker Hill told him he "wasn't a Bates" and didn't "belong to those people." |
Bates confronted his mother who confessed they found him as an infant abandoned on their doorstep with double pneumonia, malnourished and covered in cigarette burns.
"She took me in her arms and said, 'I just want you to know that you are an answer to prayers for us. We wanted a baby so bad and then you showed up,'" he recalled of his parents who had eight biological children.
"Plus you're special because out of all these kids, we got to pick you."
Bates couldn't shake the feeling something had to be wrong with him for his biological mother to abandon him.
The notion followed him through adulthood and the overconfidence he gained while high was "very addictive."
After rehabilitation and jail he signed to RCA and wrote the song One Second Chance, inspired by his recovery.
In August 2006 a $3,500 guitar gift to Bates from Takamine and used in his video One Second Chance was stolen from his garage.
Ironically, Detective Rick Mavity - the same officer involved in Bates' arrest in 2001 - found the stolen guitar in a pawn shop and returned it to Bates.
The first half of Jeff's album Me And Conway features his original songs and cover of T.G. Sheppard's Slow Burn - the rest is Bates covering Conway Twitty hits and a duet with Loretta Lynn on After the Fire is Gone .
" Conway sung what we live," Bates said.
"He would depart from singing relationship songs and would do a story song every now and then. I love that Conway sung songs that said things that women needed to hear and that guys wanted to say and didn't know how."
Bates first heard Twitty on an album his mother received in the mail when he was a child and was immediately captivated.
"There's a whole country full of people out here who still love country music like I do and are still looking for something in that traditional vein," he said.
"They have a love of the man's music."
CLICK HERE for a Bates feature in The Diary on December 20, 2006.
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.