DAVE'S DIARY - 6/2/2017 - PREVIEW OF EPISODE 2 - SERIES 32
HANK WILLIAMS JR BLUE COLLAR BLUES HEADLINES NU COUNTRY TV
Legendary outlaw Hank Williams Jr headlines Nu Country TV on Saturday February 11 at 9 pm on Channel 31/Digital 44 with social comment song Red & White Pink Slip Blues .
Sentiments of the historic song about exploitation of blue collar workers were pillaged by Donald Trump during his election campaign.
Tennessean gospel outlaw singer and actor Cody McCarver, who spent 12 years touring with Confederate Railroad , debuts on the show hosted by Mid Pacific Bob Olson and filmed and edited by Laith Graham.
Canadian born New Zealand singer Tami Neilson continues the gospel theme in Behind Bars with her video for Holy Moses.
And Williamstown and Yarraville duo The Long & Short Of It complete the Biblical trilogy with Jesus Money.
Blue Mountains minstrel Allan Caswell & Highett duo Weeping Willows celebrate Golden Days - a highlight of Caswell's 19 th album 50 Years In Oz.
Texan Cody Johnson, who graduated from law enforcement in Huntsville to music, debuts with his video for Who I Am .
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.
HANK JR TRUMPS DONALD
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Hank Williams Jr recorded his vitriolic blue collar worker exploitation song Red & White Pink Slip Blues long before Donald Trump used the subject as a fear and redemption weapon in his presidential campaign. The song, with its powerful video, was on the 67 year old singer-songwriter's 51 st album 127 Rose Avenue in 2010. It's a similar theme to workers' woes in Australia - instead of our jobs being outsourced north to China and India they are sent south to Mexico from the U.S. Four times wed Hank Jr named his album after his childhood home in Georgiana , Alabama. His long lost sister Jett Williams plays Geelong on her Aussie tour in October. |
Hank Jr is doing his bit to revive the U.S. economy with moonshine liquor - his Popcorn and White Whiskey distillery.
Popcorn Sutton manufactured the finest moonshine in Cocke County in East Tennessee in the 1970s.
The Feds arrested him and he was sentenced to 18 months in a federal penitentiary and fined $5,000 for not paying taxes on his illegal whiskey.
After the trial Jamie Grosser visited him to continue his legacy of making Tennessee white whiskey.
When he asked for the recipe, Popcorn told him, "Corn, sugar, water and yeast. And here's the recipe, but you have to promise to go on a mission and find Hank Williams Jr. because a country boy can survive. He'll know what to do."
But before Popcorn, 62 and suffering cancer, could find Hank he chose his own exit strategy - suicide.
He didn't have five grand and had no intention of being locked up inside prison away from sunshine and trees and outdoor life.
Grosser found Hank and they used Popcorn's recipe to run the first Federal approved white whiskey distillery in Nashville .
Hank hosted a party and invited some rowdy friends over to launch Popcorn Sutton's Tennessee White Whiskey .
They included Jamey Johnson, Kid Rock, Josh Thompson, Travis Tritt, Colt Ford, Martina McBride, Rodney Atkins, Randy Houser, Zac Brown, Tanya Tucker, Little Texas , Dave Gibson, Lee Brice, Little Big Town , Eddie Montgomery, Kentucky Headhunters, Two-Foot Fred, the Roys, Heidi Newfield, Jaron Lowenstein with live music by The Grascals .
There are plans to turn the Popcorn Sutton saga into a movie with Hank Jr & The Grascals - Dolly Parton's bluegrass band - in major roles.
Before he died Popcorn penned his autobiography - Me and My Likker: The True Story of a Mountain Moonshiner - source of the movie.
Hank Jr.'s son, Hank III, mentions Popcorn in his song Moonshiner's Life on his Rebel Within CD.
Bocephus went on the road, aged eight, singing songs by famed father Hank Sr and was 17 when he starred in his first movie - A Time To Sing .
Richard Thomas of The Waltons fame played Hank Jr in The Living Proof movie and George Hamilton played Hank Sr in 1964 film Your Cheating Heart .
Hank Jr was also in Roadie with Meatloaf, Roy Orbison, Alice Cooper, Joe Ely and Asleep At The Wheel .
Bocephus, father of recording artist daughters Holly and Hilary, and sister Jett recently approved another new movie on their dad who died at 29 in 1953.
CLICK HERE for a Hank Jr CD feature in The Diary on February 16, 2010.
GOSPEL OUTLAW CODY MCCARVER RISES UP
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Singing actor Cody McCarver's song and video for Rise Up were inspired by his church raising and death of his dad in jail Rise Up is on his third album out this month with Sing Hallelujah and No Such Thing as a Miracle. He also landed music in movies and acted in westerns Cole Younger & The Black Train and Billy The Kid after starting his country career playing bass for Lynn Anderson and 12 years with Confederate Railroad. He also worked with David Allan Coe, Charlie Daniels and the late Merle Haggard and Johnny Paycheck. In 2010 he returned to Christian music where he began playing piano in the small mountain church in Spencer , Tennessee , where he was raised. |
Accolades included Music Row independent artist award for three consecutive years after major solo success with songs Red Flag, Redneck Friends of Mine and Through God's Eyes - about his father being in prison.
He returned to Christianity after a God Encounter - Proverbs 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.
“Like a lot of people I thought church people were just a bunch of hypocrites,” Cody revealed.
“For 20 years I never darkened the doors of a church. I used excuses like the roof would fall in if I went to church. Although I was somewhat successful in country music I was just miserable. I had a bus, band, CD's in Wal-Mart and Best Buy , everything a guy wants when he says I want to be a country artist. I was also drinking every day. Jack Daniels was my best friend. I got to the point where something had to change or I may no longer be here so I went to church. I began to search for joy in some other way than drinking. God is the only A.A. you will ever need. God let me know he had his hand on me the whole time and from the beginning I was supposed to be working for him. He gave me my talents and I heard God say, “Cody that's enough!”
The title track of his first solo album The Lord's Will is an emotional journey about Cody's father - Cody mixes old hymns and five originals including Believe, Hey God and I'm Gonna Meet Jesus.
His second release in 2015 featured inspirational songs I'm Forgiven, Here Today and Hey God.
Lionsgate Films signed Cody to make a Docudrama about his life and his father's time in prison - several hours of footage was filmed in the prison with Cody and his father before his death.
This footage has never been used until now and production of the film has started.
Further info - http://www.codymccarver.com/
TAMI NEILSON FINDS HOLY MOSES
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Canadian born latter day New Zealand singer-songwriter Tami Neilson extends the roots of her family gospel quintet in her new song and video for Holy Moses that features in Behind Bars. Tami, 39 and mother of two sons, left Canada and moved to New Zealand in 2007 Holy Moses is on her fifth solo album Don't Be Afraid. Tami also wrote another new song Lonely, inspired by her father Ron who died in February, 2015. She grew up performing in a family band with Ron and her family throughout Canada and the U.S. and opened for Johnny Cash and major country stars. Ron began writing Lonely in 1972 and recorded a demo for it outside a hotel room while on tour in Canada. He didn't share or finish the song - it remained a forgotten demo until Tami and her brother Jay discovered it a week after he died. |
Tami and Jay finished her dad's song and recorded it for her album with Marlon Williams and released the song and video on her father's birthday.
“I guess my first idol was my dad. He's a musical giant for me,” Tami revealed.
“When I first came back to New Zealand , it was only a month after dad had passed away, and I'd written most or all of the songs for the album, and we were recording six weeks after he died. It was already all booked in. But of course the album ended up being a very different thing than originally thought.”
Her dad also wrote the title track of Don't Be Afraid .
“I actually inadvertently wrote the title track without realising it would be for the album the week Dad died,” Tami recalled.
“ Don't Be Afraid was the last song Dad wrote, while in the hospital. He had written the melody, lyrics and everything, but he was on oxygen and could barely breathe to speak. He told me that it was driving him crazy that he had this new song stuck in his head but had no way of offloading it. It's an awful feeling, I know, so I said I would bring him in his guitar so he could play it, and I'd record it on my phone.”
Further info - http://www.tamineilson.com/
LONG AND SHORT OF IT COIN JESUS MONEY
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Yarraville singer-sign-writer Dave Baird and Williamstown lawyer Patsy Toop sourced Biblical song Jesus Money from a homeless woman living in an alley near a Nashville recording studio where they recorded.
Dave and Patsy, who record and perform as The Long & Short Of It , showed the neglected beggar ascending to singing again in their video.
They used local landmarks to illustrate the video from their sixth CD - The Night of Our Life.
Producer Kenny Royster provided the song concept.
“Liana is the name Dave & Kenny assigned to a homeless woman who goes to Kenny's studio in Nashville and begs for money,” Patsy revealed.
“Kenny and Dave based the story upon Kenny's experience as he always helps her out and wonders about her past.
“We filmed in the Williamstown Botanical Gardens. We were trying to give the impression of LA that's why scenes with tall palm trees. The buildings back drops were in St. Kilda, a studio in the city and Paris Cat Jazz Club .”
Dave and Patsy - mother of four children and award winning lawyer - joined forces after meeting seven years ago at a music charity function.
They won best duo at Tasmanian independent music awards and Southern Star Music Awards in Mildura.
Patsy was inducted onto Victorian Honour Roll of Women in recognition of her trailblazing litigation work and volunteering.
She was recognised for 34 years' legal work representing workers' human rights in cases of asbestos-related and chemical-induced illnesses and was founding board member and passionate volunteer for Seaworks Foundation that supports restoration and preservation of Williamstown's maritime precinct.
“I love the law and do miss it but I am now concentrating on the music with Dave,” Patsy revealed.
“We're working on a studio in Yarraville to provide a performance space for independent musicians. This project is taking a lot of time.”
Further info - www.thelongandshortofit.com.au
ALLAN CASWELL FINDS GOLDEN DAYS WITH THE WEEPING WILLOWS
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Blue Mountains minstrel Allan Caswell crossed the Murray Dixon line to bayside musical mecca Highett to find the Weeping Willows sweet vocals, instrumentation and tame canine for his video for Golden Days.
The Medlow Bath balladeer penned the nostalgic song with Andrew Wrigglesworth whose Weeping Willows partner Laura Coates also performed in the video for the song from the 64 year-old Chester born singer's 19th album 50 Years In Oz.
Caswell arrived here at 14 and has since written more than 500 songs for a vast cast of peers.
The Weeping Willows also released their second CD Before Darkness Comes A-Callin' in April.
CLICK HERE for a Caswell feature in The Diary on September 19.
CODY JOHNSON ESCAPES HUNTSVILLE FOR FISHING AND FAMILY
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Texan troubadour Cody Johnson could be excused for writing songs about crime and prison - instead he chose fishing and family in his video for Who I Am from sixth album , Gotta Be Me, released on August 5, 2016.
It debuted at #2 on Billboard.
Cody, 29, quit Texas Department Of Criminal Justice in 2011 to follow his musical dream after winning the Texas Regional Music Award for New Male Vocalist.
Johnson had worked as a prison guard near hometown Huntsville - the Lone Star State 's prison capital.
“People think there's one big huge prison in Huntsville , Texas , and there's not,” Cody revealed.
“There's probably five. Each one has its own designated type of inmate that lives there, and then there's a couple of them that are on the outskirts of town that are very serious maximum security facilities.”
“My dad worked there for a long time I grew up around convicts and inmates and I had my taste of it. My dad was a good man. He didn't beat on us and holler at us and all that stuff, but he spanked our ass if we did something wrong. I knew that came from work. In the prison, it was a blood sport every day. And he saw a lot of things that I didn't.”
Johnson began singing and playing guitar when he was 12 and in 2006 formed the Cody Johnson Band with his dad Carl and drummer Nathan Reedy.
They recorded an album, Black and White Labe l then Live and Rocking , at Shenanigans and Confetti's Club in Huntsville in 2007.
Cody released third album, Six Strings One Dream , in 2009 and fourth album, A Different Day , in 2011.
He teamed with Kyle Park in 2012 for the Dancin' and Drinkin' at Johnson Park Tour and changed their name to the Rockin' CJB's.
Johnson's fifth album Cowboy Like Me - the second produced by Trent Willmon - was released on January 14, 2014.
Further info - http://www.thecodyjohnsonband.com/home.php
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 from Warner Music.
Warner promo wizard Tony Midolo has also given us Blake Shelton's 12 TH CD If I'm Honest and other CDS by major artists you can win by becoming a Nu Country TV member or renewing membership.
They include singing actors Tim McGraw and Toby Keith, Ashley Monroe, Brad Paisley, Carrie Underwood, Gary Allan, Dierks Bentley, Eric Church and more.