DAVE'S DIARY - 11/9/2017 - PREVIEW OF EPISODE 10 - SERIES 33
CHRIS STAPLETON HEADLINES NU COUNTRY TV
Kentucky coal-miner's son Chris Stapleton and singing spouse Morgane headline Nu Country TV live on Saturday September 16 at 9 pm on Channel 31/Digital 44.
Fellow chart-topper Brett Eldredge also performs live in Behind Bars on the program repeated Monday at 8 am.
Michigan singer Ryan Hurd and Texan fiancée Maren Morris open our six pack of love songs show filmed and edited by Laith Graham.
Texan singer-songwriter Aaron Watson performs his tribute to Lone Star legend George Strait and prolific Golden Guitarists Amber Lawrence and Travis Collins close the show with some back yard bliss.
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 Nu Country TV shows at the same link.
CHRIS STAPLETON SHREDS BROKEN HALOS
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Dual Grammy winner Chris Stapleton, biggest selling country artist of the last two years, returns Behind Bars with an organic version of his latest hit at Smoky Mountains Rise telethon.
Chris, 39, and wife Morgane, perform Broken Halos from his second chart topping solo album From A Room Volume 1.
His debut solo disc Traveller has sold more than two million in just two years.
Chris's new disc topped Billboard charts on debut and will hopefully be released here before his planned Australian tour.
Chris and Morgane combined with acclaimed producer Dave Cobb to blaze new trails in hard core country.
Stapleton has been nominated for three trophies - best entertainer, male vocalist and album - at the 51 st CMA Awards in Nashville on November 8.
Chris wrote a swag of hits for peers while playing guitar and singing with Grammy winning bluegrass band The Steeldrivers.
But it wasn't until he and Justin Timberlake performed Linda Hargrove-Dean Dillon classic Tennessee Whiskey on the 2015 CMA Awards he topped all genre Billboard Top 200 charts with Traveller.
Their dynamic delivery of the song, a hit for former convict David Allan Coe and the late George Jones, kick-started Traveller album sales.
Traveller included Fire Away - his powerful comment on scourge of suicide, depression and mental illness - accompanied by the video in which Chris played the barman.
Novocastrian Catherine Britt and Stapleton co-wrote Lonely - a highlight of her 2010 self-titled album that featured three collaborations with Tennessean Ashley Monroe.
Stapleton penned five #1 hits and has had 170 songs recorded by artist diverse as Adele, Tim McGraw, Brad Paisley, Dierks Bentley, Vince Gill, Peter Frampton and Sheryl Crow.
CLICK HERE for a feature on Stapleton's Traveller CD in the Diary on December 21, 2015.
BRETT ELDREDGE LIVE AT THE RYMAN
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Brett Eldredge hails from Paris in Illinois and performs a love song at the famed Ryman in Nashville.
The singer, now 31, is featured drinking at Roberts Western War bar on Lower Broadway, then strolling to the historic former home of the Grand Ole Opry .
Eldredge walks the halls of the Ryman , then heads on stage and performs Castaway.
The woman drinking near Brett at the Lower Broadway bar also follows him to the Ryman.
Castaway is on Brett's fourth album - a self-titled disc - released in August and highest debuting CD of his career with 45,000 sales.
"Some of the best memories of my music career have been celebrating big moments, we celebrate and enjoy them all," Eldredge revealed.
"I literally have a bottle of champagne in my hand right now. I'd like to say thank you to everyone who worked so hard on this album."
Brett acted out peers' dreams - he locked up his younger brother in his video for Drunk On Your Love - on a previous Nu Country show.
Eldredge performed as a cop and singer - trying to woo the same girl in a night on the town.
But Brett didn't play the convict - that was his brother Brice.
"I loved being the cop and arresting my brother," Eldredge joked.
"They told Brice, 'act like you're resisting,' so I got to rough him up a little bit too and give him some jabs back. I had to cuff him. I tried to act like I was legitimately arresting somebody but I could not figure out the handcuffs to save my life. We were all laughing."
Brett has strong bluegrass links - his cousin Terry plays with the Grascals who also perform with singing actress Dolly Parton.
His song-writing credits include I Think I've Had Enough on Gary Allan's Get Off on the Pain album.
He debuted on Nu Country in 2011 with a war song dating back to 1943.
Eldredge took viewers inside a nursing home in his video for Raymond - poignant tale of an employee mistaken by a patient with Alzheimer's for her deceased son, who was killed at war.
Further info - www.bretteldredge.com
RYAN HURD FINDS LOVE IN A BAR
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Michigan minstrel Ryan Hurd sang of his romance with Texan fiancé Maren Morris in his song Love In A Bar after they wrote another song for singing actor Tim McGraw.
“Love In A Bar is very much an autobiographical song about my relationship with Maren Morris,” Hurd revealed.
“I met Maren writing songs and I met her when I was starting to have success. We wrote Last Turn Home that Tim McGraw recorded. We would write and then after we'd go over to a bar in midtown and have a couple of beers. That's when we started making a real connection, beyond a creative partnership .”
Love In A Bar is on the debut EP Panorama by Ryan, 32, who hails from Kalamazoo, Michigan.
He moved to Nashville as a songwriter and won a Grammy nomination for writing Blake Shelton-Ashley Monroe hit Lonely Tonight .
Ryan also penned songs for Arizona singing pilot Dierks Bentley, Lady Antebellum , Floridian Jake Owen, McGraw and other major artists.
Hurd arrived at Nashville's Belmont University with Michigan mate Aaron Eshuis.
He got a sociology degree and considered graduate school but pursued song-writing with talented friends.
“The short story is, we kind of all just put our heads down and started writing songs together and would do some demos,” Hurd recalled.
“The hardest part is getting people to listen to you and being patient. I think one thing I've always focused on is getting better instead of getting somewhere. That's a lonely place when you think that nobody wants to work with you but in reality they're just wanting to see you get good enough to get a publishing deal or to be a professional songwriter.”
Further info - http://www.ryanhurd.com/
MAREN MORRIS HEROINE OF LOVE SONGS
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Grammy nominated Texan troubadour Maren Morris returns with her latest love video.
I Could Use A Love Song is on the 27-year-old Arlington born singer's fourth album Hero .
Morris previously appeared in her video as a 90's lady in her 80s Mercedes.
Maren joined fellow Texans Kacey Musgraves, Miranda Lambert and the Dixie Chicks at the 59th Grammys in February.
Morris ensured healthy publishing royalties by co-writing all 11 songs on her album that landed her support roles on the high profile Ripcord U.S. tour by expat Australasian star Keith Urban.
Hero , released on June 3, 2016, debuted at #5 on Billboard all genre Top 200 chart and #1 on country charts with 45,000 sales.
Her single My Church cracked Top 5 - handy sequel to her duet with Dierks Bentley on I'll Be The Moon that reached #22 on his 10th album Black.
CLICK HERE for a Morris CD review in The Diary on June 18, 2016.
AMBER LAWRENCE AND TRAVIS COLLINS BACKYARD BLISS
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Former Qantas accountant Amber Lawrence and Cessnock singer Travis Collins join forces in their video for Our Backyard - title track of their new seven song EP.
Amber, now 38, hails from Mascot and Travis, 32, grew up in Macquarie Fields and busked on the streets of Campbelltown as a teenager before winning the 2004 Tamworth Starmaker Quest.
This enabled Travis to write songs in Nashville and tour U.S. and Europe.
He has lived in Cessnock - hometown of wife Rebecca - for seven years and appeared on Nu Country as a member of Perth born, Colac and Wallington raised singer Adam Brand's Outlaws.
Travis also appeared on Nu Country with his lament about lost love slipping through his hands in Just Another Girl from fifth album Hard Light.
Amber has released five solo albums and duet singles with artists diverse as Cronulla singer-songwriter schoolteacher Luke O'Shea and trio tune Cheers To The Girls with Fanny Lumsden and Catherine Britt.
It was the second single from Amber's fifth album Happy Ever After on Social Family Records .
Amber won best female vocalist Golden Guitar at 43rd Australian Country Music Awards at Tamworth in 2015.
Her song The Lifesaver was based on her parents - the video and song tell the love story of her life saver dad who died at 52 of leukemia in 2008.
He was orphaned at 10, left home at 15 and homeless before he met her mum - Miss Maroubra Beach - at the famous surfing locale.
The Lifesaver is on her 2014 album Superheroes .
CLICK HERE for a review of Superheroes in The Diary on November 10, 2014.
CLICK HERE for a Travis Collins interview in The Diary on June 16, 2008
AARON WATSON HEADS HOME TO AMARILLO
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Texan singer-songwriter Aaron Watson is one of many artists to record tributes to singing Texan rancher George Strait.
George, now 65, has retired from touring but still records and plays concerts like a fund raiser for Houston flood victims.
Strait owns a house in Rockport, one of the areas hit hard during Hurricane Harvey .
Watson, 40, had good reason to perform the Terry Stafford-Paul Fraser penned Strait 1982 hit Amarillo By Morning .
Aaron was born at Amarillo and has a ranch at Buffalo Gap near Abilene.
He has released 12 solo albums including aptly named indie #1 smash The Underdog .
Watson previously appeared on Nu Country with an evocative tribute video to late rodeo champion Lane Frost who died after being high in the saddle on July 30, 1989, in Cheyenne, Wyoming.
The singer honoured Frost, just 25, who died in rain, mud and blood at the rodeo after being thrown from the Brahma bull - Taking Care Of Business .
July in Cheyenne was on Watson's 11th album Real Good Time .
Watson also recorded Raise The Bottle - tribute to unsung war heroes including his late grandfather who returned from World War 2 in a wheel chair and walked with a cane.
He used the song to raise money and awareness for Boot Campaign foundation that supports American troops upon their return home.
Asleep At The Wheel icon Ray Benson produced Watson's 2004 album The Honky Tonk Kid with cameo by Shotgun Willie Nelson.
In 2006 Watson released a collection of gospel songs - Barbed Wire Halo - including readings by latter day veteran Waco singer-songwriter Billy Joe Shaver.
Watson's eighth album Angels & Outlaws peaked at #28 on Billboard in 2008 on the Top 200 all genre chart before he released The Road And The Rodeo in 2010 and Real Good Time in 2012.
Further info - www.aaronwatson.com/
HOW TO KEEP NU COUNTRY ON AIR
We need your support as we celebrate Nu Country TV's 33rd 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.