DAVE'S DIARY - 20/2/2017 - PREVIEW OF EPISODE 4 - SERIES 32
LITTLE BIG TOWN HEADLINE NU COUNTRY TV ON EVE OF HAMER HALL CONCERT
Nashville quartet Little Big Town headline Nu Country TV at 9 pm on Saturday February 25 on Channel 31/Digital 44 on the eve of their debut Melbourne March concert with Georgian Kip Moore.
Bluegrass singer Bradley Walker proves he has long overcome a life long battle with MS to record and performs on the show hosted by Mid Pacific Bob Olson and filmed and edited by Laith Graham.
Texan Randy Rogers honours fellow Lone Star state stars George Strait and Bruce Robison and Montana minstrel Stephanie Quayle pays tribute to singing actor Dolly Parton.
Missouri singer-songwriter Chris Janson also details a true love story about his wife.
And young Hunter Valley singer Tori Forsyth explores the Helensburgh Railway Tunnels south of Sydney in her new video.
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.
LITTLE BIG TOWN THE BREAKER
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Nashville quartet Little Big Town play Hamer Hall on March 22 with Georgian Kip Moore on the eve performing with the Dixie Chicks at the 10 th CMC Rocks Queensland festival at Ipswich from March 24-26.
Little Big Town perform Better Man from eighth album The Breaker.
The reigning Grammy Country Duo/Group and CMA and ACM Vocal Group of the Year when their hit single Girl Crush won Best Country Song at the 2015 Grammy and CMA Awards.
It was best-selling country single of the year after they released 2012 album Tornado and Pain Killer in 2014.
The band, formed in 1998, was inducted into the Grand Ole Opry in 2014 by Reba McIntire and has won 20 awards including multiple Grammy's, CMA and ACM Awards, and an Emmy.
Band members are Karen Fairchild and Kimberly Schlapman, both 47, Jimi Westbrook, 45, and Phillip Sweet, 42.
They rely on four-part vocal harmonies, all four members alternate as lead singers; Westbrook and Sweet also play rhythm guitar.
The band's 2002 self-titled debut album was followed by 2005 platinum disc The Road to Here , A Place to Land in 2008, The Reason Why (2010), Tornado (2012), Pain Killer (2014), Wanderlust (2016), and The Breaker (2017).
Their No. 1 singles Pontoon and Girl Crush followed top 10 hits Boondocks , Bring It On Home, Little White Church, Tornado, Day Drinking and Better Man.
Karen Fairchild and Jimi Westbrook married on May 31, 2006, and have a son Elijah Dylan Westbrook, now six.
Kimberly Schlapman and her second husband Stephen have two daughters - Daisy Pearl and Dolly Grace.
The Schlapmans have been married since November of 2006 - she was previously wed to Steven Roads who died of a heart attack in 2005.
At the time she and Stephen Schlapman - who had lost a close friend - were “just really good friends,” but they bonded over their grief and fell in love.
Further info - http://littlebigtown.com/home
KIP MOORE
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Moore, now 36 and one of six children, played the Snowy Mountains country festival at Thredbo and CMC Rocks Queensland in 2016. Moore 's mother plays organ in the Baptist church at Tifton , Georgia , where he debuted at the Mellow Mushroom restaurant. Kip was an avid surfer before choosing music - he wrote tunes for fellow young guns Thompson Square and James Wesley. The singer also performed Lead Me on the soundtrack of movie The Best Of Me , starring Michelle Monaghan and James Marsden. |
CLICK HERE for a Kip Moore feature in the Diary on February 20, 2013
BRADLEY WALKER – AN OLD FASHIONED SURVIVOR
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Alabama singer Bradley Walker proves being in a wheelchair all his life has not prevented him excelling at his chosen love - music.
Born with muscular dystrophy, he debuted on local TV aged three before appearing at 11 on Nashville Now with The Oak Ridge Boys.
“We did that Nashville Now show in March of 1989, and folks at Muscular Dystrophy Association somehow caught wind of that appearance,” Walker, now 38, revealed.
“They contacted us and wanted to know if we could recreate what we had done on the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon that September in Las Vegas . The following year, MDA sent a camera crew to my home, spent three days with us, filmed my story and aired a Biography-type profile on the Telethon.”
Walker performs on Nu Country in his video for Call Me Old Fashioned - title track of his second album.
Bradley recorded it with Rory Feek of Joey & Rory fame at their Nashville farm
He sang Leave It There at Joey's funeral in March, 2016, after she died of cancer at 40.
When he visited the Grand Ole Opry to catch late bluegrass king Bill Monroe he drove his wheelchair backstage to meet his idol.
"I thought that it would probably be my only chance to meet him, so I went over to him and introduced myself," the Alabama singer recently revealed.
Monroe handed Walker $5.
"I don't know why he did that, but I went back and showed my mother, and she told me to get him to autograph it," Walker recalled.
The framed $5 bill with Monroe 's signature hangs in Brad's office with autographed pictures of stars including Reba McEntire and George Strait .
Walker was regular guest on the Opry long before stunning 2006 debut disc Highway Of Dreams.
Despite singing with many bluegrass bands since graduation Walker maintained his day jobs.
Since 2002 he has worked at Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant in Alabama as a material analyst, supporting warehouse inventory and purchasing.
"I've never known a life outside of a wheelchair," says the singer who joined Trinity Mountain Boys in 1998 for their album Breaking New Ground before singing with Atlanta bluegrass group Lost Horizon.
"I think it would be harder on me if I had known what it's like without one and then had to live in one."
So it's no surprise that Walker drove his customised van from his home in Athens to Nashville to record his Carl Jackson produced album with a stellar support cast.
Further info - http://www.bradleywalker.com/
RANDY ROGERS WRAPPED IN STRAIT
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Texan Randy Rogers honours revered Lone Star state legend George Strait by performing his video for the Bruce Robison song Wrapped.
It was George Strait 's 55th No 1 hit in 2007 - Strait, now 64, has released more than 28 albums and 4 box set greatest hits.
Randy, 35, hails from Cleburne in Texas and recently bought Cheatham Street Warehouse in nearby San Marcos where he cut a live album in 2000.
Rogers bought Cheatham Street Warehouse from the children of the venue's original owner, Kent Finlay, on December 20. Finlay, who died at 77 on March 2, 2015, opened the venue in June 1974 - it's where George Strait first played with his band, Ace in the Hole , on October 13, 1975.
And in 1977 Finlay and songwriter Daryl Staedtler began making writing trips to Nashville with Strait in a cargo van.
Cheatham Street Warehouse has hosted a songwriters open mic night almost every Wednesday for more than 40 years.
Guest artists include Randy, Hal Ketchum, James McMurtry, Willie Nelson, Guy Clark, Billy Joe Shaver, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Ernest Tubb, Townes Van Zandt, Todd Snider, Terri Hendrix, Bruce Robison, Tish Hinojosa, Adam Carroll, Walt Wilkins, Will & Charlie Sexton and many more.
“I still get butterflies when I step on that stage,” Rogers says.
“I'm going to make sure other songwriters and musicians, young and old, get to experience that same feeling for many years to come. That's my goal.”
Rogers recently released Tequila Eyes - third single off his 10 th album Nothing Shines Like Neon .
Further info - http://www.randyrogersband.com/
STEPHANIE QUAYLE DRINKING WITH DOLLY
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Stephanie Quayle yearned for days of yore when singing actor Dolly Parton reigned in Drinking With Dolly.
Stephanie, now 25, grew up on a buffalo farm in Bozeman , Montana , and shot her video at The Wren Nest farm in Murfreesboro , Tennessee .
Drinking With Dolly - replete with references to her fans Flock Of Quayle - is on her third album.
“ Drinking With Dolly is so special because the beautiful women in this song have helped shape me into the artist I am today," Stephanie recalled.
"I remember racing to the barn and listening to country music on a tiny little AM radio. That is where I fell in love with music. From the front porch, to the barn, to nervously getting ready in a bathroom with my guitar, these moments are my story. What better way to express how much this song means to me than to take it back to where it all began."
Drinking With Dolly is an anthemic song close to Quayle's heart.
“Last fall when my producer asked if he could play me a song, I felt a magic from the first words and chords,” Quayle added. “That is where my love affair with this beautiful tribute to women in country music began. As a songwriter I felt as if these were my own words and my own story. This song was a must.
“This music has changed me and I have found what I believe to be my place in country music.
I have never been more comfortable in my voice and skin as I am today.”
Growing up on a working Montana buffalo farm, Quayle spent much of her time out in the barn mucking horse stalls while listening to the local AM radio.
She became fascinated with the way a story could be expressed through songs, and at the age of 12 she began writing songs.
After learning to play piano, at 15 Quayle bought a second-hand guitar and taught herself to play, setting her lyrics to music. When she was 16, Quayle spent several months in Switzerland as an exchange student; while she was there, she joined a local band as lead singer, and even recorded an album with them before returning to Montana .
Further info - http://www.stephaniequayle.com/
CHRIS JANSON HOLDING HER
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Missouri minstrel Chris Janson illustrates his song about how he met his wife nine years ago in a pool hall in his video for Holding Her.
Janson, now 30, and his wife Kelly Lynn now have four children.
Holding Her is one of 11 originals on Perryville born Chris's debut album Buy Me A Boat including a duet with singing actor Tim McGraw.
CLICK HERE for a review of Chris's album in The Diary on November 16, 2015.
TORI FORSYTH CLIMBS A NEW WALL
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Tori Forsyth travelled from her tiny hometown Congewai in the Hunter Valley to the Helensburgh Railway Tunnels south of Sydney to film her video for her haunting song New Wall.
Prolific Sydney singer-songwriter Michael Carpenter directed the video for the song produced by Shane Nicholson and Trent Crawford.
Tori examined her demons in New Wall - second single from her debut EP Black Bird.
“Everyone has their own demons lying dormant inside their heads,” Tori revealed.
“On the day I wrote New Wall , mine were running rampant. New Wall is about overcoming those demons.”
“In the video I wanted to portray what my head can sometimes feel like. From taking parts of my character away through clothes and the struggle of getting back to bare minimal by taking off my makeup. I wanted to feel vulnerable and being seen without makeup is how I can best describe that visually.
“My proudest song so far is New Wall. It always seems to be the most intimate and well-received live. I wrote this song when I was having a bad day and the words basically wrote themselves in 20 minutes.”
Further info - http://www.toriforsythmusic.com/
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 actors Tim McGraw and Toby Keith, Ashley Monroe, Brad Paisley, Carrie Underwood, Gary Allan, Dierks Bentley, Eric Church and more.