DAVE'S DIARY - 22 MAY 2017 - PREVIEW OF EPISODE 17 - SERIES 32
WILLIE NELSON DOUBLE SHOT HEADLINES NU COUNTRY TV
Shotgun Willie Nelson headlines Nu Country TV this Saturday May 27 at 9 pm on Channel 31/Digital 44 with his humorous double shot of songs lampooning his life and after life.
Prolific Pistol Annies singer-songwriter Angaleena Presley is joined by Yelawolf with strident social comment on the genre on a show repeated Monday 8 am and Sunday 1 am.
Thomas Rhett collaborated with his Georgian born dad Rhett Akins on his video for latest chart-topping hit Star Of The Show on the program hosted by Mid Pacific Bob Olson and filmed and edited by Laith Graham.
Highett bluegrass duo The Weeping Willows and Adelaide hills refugee Liam Gerner also return with the latest video clips.
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.
SHOTGUN WILLIE STILL NOT DEAD YET BUT HAS RESURRECTION ADVICE
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Octogenarian Willie Nelson celebrates his latest huge selling album God's Problem Child with one of five video clips he released to promote it. It was released on the eve of his 84th birthday on April 29 and debuted at #1 on Billboard. Willie excels in Still Not Dead Yet - a spoof of his death hoaxes - and featuring footage of him on his tour bus and performing on stage with his band. It opens with Nelson waking up in a Smoke Weed Every Day sweater pouring himself a cup of coffee and laughing at internet reports he had died. The video also includes Willie performing Still Not Dead Yet in a studio, playing poker and dancing. Willie also performs a live version of his humorous after life advice anthem Roll Me Up And Smoke Me When I Die . Perhaps the recipe would be enriched with a new product from Annie - his fourth wife of 26 years standing. |
Annie's Edibles are a sibling of the family homegrown stash Willie's Reserve , available in U.S. states where marijuana is legalised - Nevada , Washington and Colorado - and promoted as “my stash is your stash.”
Annie's Infused Chocolates are described as handcrafted, infused chocolates made from carefully sourced ingredients.
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“The chocolate comes from Fine & Raw Chocolate , who use consciously sourced ingredients and low-heat techniques to keep the chocolate's raw vitality and flavor,” Annie revealed.
“The chocolate is suffused with a proprietary, whole-plant cannabis extraction process that maintains the full spectrum of cannabinoids in low-dose confections.
“I make my infused chocolates for people who want to enjoy gourmet cannabis chocolate in a controllable way.”
The chocolatier also explains the health benefits.
“It's important that my chocolates are suitable for those with diet restrictions - whether someone is vegan, has Celiac Disease or gluten allergies, requires a low or balanced sweetener diet or if they have a low tolerance to cannabis they can still enjoy the benefits of my infused chocolates. Each piece of the chocolate is infused with 5 mg of THC.”
According to the chef, those who regularly enjoy cannabis will be comfortable with two chocolate squares, while those new to cannabis are encouraged to start with one square or half of one square, and expect the desired effect to take about 90 minutes to kick in.
Willie also hosts his 44th 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 .
ANGALEENA PRESLEY UPSTAGES ELVIS
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Angaleena Presley headed back to the Wild West to source historic footage in her satirical video for Country from her second solo album Wrangled. The Pistol Annies singer recruited rapper Yelawolf to illustrate her parody, replete with Bob Dylan style character and lyric boards. “He's the only rapper I know who can rap in waltz time, it's just amazing,” says Angaleena, now 40 and a proud Kentucky coalminer's daughter from aptly named town Beauty. “My way of fighting the system is to be clever, subtle and sneak things in. Every song on this record has a double meaning. They're all metaphors except Cheer Up Little Darling . That was just a little gem of life advice.” Presley's song Only Blood features Chris Stapleton's wife Morgane on harmonies and Wanda Jackson and Vanessa Olivarez guesting on Good Girl Down. |
She vividly recalled writing Cheer Up Little Darling with late Texan Guy Clark - his last co-write before his death from lymphoma at 74 in May 2016.
“The day that we wrote Cheer Up Little Darling I went over and that was after his health had started to decline,” Presley explained.
“I went over that day and he was like the Heartworn Highways Guy. He was full of energy, and he wasn't using a cane. He was so excited about it. He was like, ‘I've got this hot shit idea I'm telling you!' ”
Presley also recorded two albums - Hell On High Heels and Annie Up - with Texan Miranda Lambert and Tennessean Ashley Monroe as the Pistol Annies .
Miranda and Ashley guest on vitriolic Dreams Don't Come True on Wrangled .
She produced her 2014 debut solo album American Middle Class with husband Jordan Powell.
One of her originals, Knocked Up , was featured by Hunter Valley singer Kirsty Lee Akers on Nu Country TV .
Further info - http://www.angaleenapresley.com/
THOMAS RHETT STAR OF THE SHOW
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Thomas Rhett returns to our show with a vivid video for a song he penned with his equally prolific singer-songwriter dad Rhett Akins. Akins, now 47, scored wide exposure on Nu Country FM in our radio era with memorable hits including That Ain't My Truck . The two generations combined on Thomas's seventh No 1 hit Star Of The Show from his deluxe version of his second album Tangled Up . “I was in Houston for the Super Bowl when I got the news," Rhett, 26, revealed of the song hitting #1. |
"It made for a really fun start to the game, even though my Falcons didn't pull through in the end! I've always known this song needed to have its moment, so it's really sweet to be able to celebrate it now and with Lauren and my dad.
" Star of the Show is one of those songs that I have lived with for a while and kept coming up as a song we needed to record and get to the fans."
"I wrote it with my dad right after I got married, and it was the first song I ever wrote about Lauren. It was a staple in our set before we had any hits and fans still request it to this day."
Rhett also appeared on Nu Country with Die A Happy Man - his fifth #1 hit from Tangled Up - penned with Sean Douglas and Joe Spargur.
While on the road he wanted to pen a love song for wife Lauren and created the romantic track.
“We were on a bus in Little Rock , Arkansas , and I was just starting to get into my last, final stages of writing for the Tangled Up album,” Rhett recalled.
“I had already cut about six songs for that record. I remember going out and my wife just really encouraging me to write. She's always wanted me to write a song like a Just to See You Smile by Tim McGraw.
“Even though Die a Happy Man and that song sound nothing alike, the sentiment is the same. I looked back and was like, ‘I've never just written a song about my wife or for my wife.”
“The two other guys who wrote it, one of them has a girlfriend, and the other is married. So we took collaborative ideas and came up with the song Die a Happy Man . I think the reason it translated so much is because every single line in the song is directly personal to our relationship and our marriage. I think my fans looked at that and saw it as very genuine, which it was, and I think that's the reason it was so successful. It was one of the most fun songs I ever got to write.”
Further info - http://www.thomasrhett.com/home
WEEPING WILLOWS
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Highett duo the Weeping Willows - Laura Coates & Andy Wrigglesworth - return with their video for The Pale Rider.
They are promoting it on their autumnal tour with Mornington Peninsula born singer-songwriter Lachlan Bryan to promote their second Before Darkness Comes A Calling.
The duo added a nice touch to their new video - his and hers horses on their joyous journey.
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.
The Weeping Willows tour embraces Victoria , Tasmania , Canberra , Sydney , 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
LIAM GERNER – FROM THE ADELAIDE HILLS TO A HUON BOATHOUSE
Former Adelaide hills farm boy Liam Gerner found solace in his water retreat in his latest video where his sole companions were the wind, rain and the waves crashing down
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Time stands still like love - especially if you shelter in bare foot bliss – in his video for Huon Boathouse from his second album with the Sunset Pushers that features 12 Liam originals. Gerner grew up in Yongala in the mid-north of South Australia before moving to Mt Barker in the Adelaide Hills and going on the international road. He received wide exposure on Nu Country for his Hank And Tammy video from debut 11 track solo album Land Of No Roads recorded at Rick Rubin's Shrangi La Over 3 studio in Malibu and produced by his engineer and co-writer Eric Lynn. |
Gerner cut his album after a Trans-Atlantic trek that began in London with pit stops in the U.S. where Gerner toured with artists diverse as Jason Isbell, Drive By Truckers , Oscar winner Ryan Bingham, Dale Watson, Jackson Browne and singing actor and Rhodes Scholar Kris Kristofferson.
Fellow South Australian born Kasey Chambers guested on his new album recorded at Tendertrap Studio in Melbourne .
We'll that album here soon
CLICK HERE for a previous Gerner CD feature in The Diary on March 5, 2014.
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.