DAVE'S DIARY - 13 JULY 2017 - PREVIEW OF EPISODE 1 - SERIES 33
NITTY GRITTY DIRT BAND HEADLINE NU COUNTRY TV RESURRECTION
Pioneer progressive country group The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band headline the Nu Country TV resurrection Saturday July 15 at 9 pm on Channel 31/Digital 44.
Octogenarian Willie Nelson and Oklahoma star Toby Keith add herbal humour to the show hosted by Mid Pacific Bob Olson and repeated Sunday 1 am and Monday 8 am.
Veteran bluegrass combo Austin Lounge Lizards exude more hilarity in their Hank homage in Behind Bars .
Expat Gippsland singer-songwriter Gord Bamford, who has long lived in Canada , and Toronto troubadour Lindi Ortega also return to the program filmed and edited by Laith Graham.
Yarraville singer-sign-writer Dave Baird and Williamstown lawyer Patsy Toop - Long & Short of It - showcase their bayside suburbs and also Warburton and Sherbrooke Forest in their return to our historic show .
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.
PIONEERS PROPEL OUR RESURRECTION AT THE SPEED OF LIFE
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The famed Nitty Gritty Band celebrate our rebirth with an historic live version of an inspirational song they often perform at Willie Nelson July 4 picnics. The Resurrection was on their 19th album Speed Of Life in 2009. It was written by prolific hit writer Matraca Berg - singing spouse of the band's guitarist Jeff Hanna. Speed of Life is one of 33 albums by a band, celebrating its 51st anniversary, with frequent touring. |
The group starred in famed 1969 western movie Paint Your Wagon and recorded three all-star Will The Circle Be Unbroken celebratory compilation albums with the cream of past and present country stars.
It celebrated its golden anniversary last year with Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and Friends - Circlin' Back: Celebrating 50 Years.
The disc includes a DVD recorded live at Ryman Auditorium - original home of the Grand Ole Opry - in Nashville .
John Prine, Sam Bush, Vince Gill, Jerry Jeff Walker, Alison Krauss, Rodney Crowell, Byron House, Jerry Douglas, early Dirt Band singer-songwriter Jackson Browne and longtime member Jimmy Ibbotson also contributed.
Guitarist Hanna, drummer-harmonica player Jimmie Fadden, Bob Carpenter on keyboards and accordion and John McEuen (banjo/fiddle/guitar/mandolin) comprise the band.
McEuen recently released his 16-track album Made in Brooklyn .
The band wed progressive and traditional country and bluegrass in 1972 when it featured the late Jimmy Martin on original Will The Circle Be Unbroken triple album with country music luminaries Mother Maybelle Carter, Merle Travis, Roy Acuff, Earl Scruggs and Doc Watson.
The album yielded Martin his last chart single, Grand Ole Opry Song , which peaked at #97 in 1973.
His was the first voice heard on the first NGDB disc and sang on the subsequent two volumes as well.
His appearances brought his voice and feisty spirit to audiences that may have never attended a bluegrass festival.
''Jimmy's temperature is higher than the rest of ours,'' said Jeff Hanna in a 2002 interview.
''He's a wild man in the best sense of the term, and he's the only one who brought the fire of rockabilly music to bluegrass.''
WILLIE AND TOBY – BEER FOR THEIR HORSES AND WACCY TOBACCY FOR THE BAND
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Willie Nelson and his famous guitar Trigger join Oklahoma star Toby Keith and his band as they explore perils of bus travel on the legendary lost highway.
Waccy Tobbacy - sequel to Toby's historic hit Weed For Willie - is on Keith's 21st album, out later this year.
Willie, 84, and Toby who turned 56 last week, also appeared with Texan comedian Rodney Carrington in their 2008 movie Beer For My Horses.
Keith wrote Waccy Tobaccy with longtime collaborator Scotty Emerick and shot the video on his bus in April before Sing Me Back Home: The Music of Merle Haggard tribute concert in Nashville .
Emerick and fellow singer-songwriter Mac McAnally also have cameos in the clip.
“ Wacky Tobaccy is a slogan, a saying, that's been around forever, and no one has ever put it in a song,” Keith revealed.
“When we were working on this song, somebody asked if the saying has ever been written in a song, and I said, ‘No, but they will now.'”
Keith says that the song “is written to the screws, and it fits in with what we do every night with the party crowd,” and sequel to Weed With Willie .
“ Weed With Willie was a true story,” Keith explained.
“This is just more of a bunch of fact-based laundry list of different things you can do and different kinds of people that do it. When you literally say you will never smoke weed with Willie again, you mean it - you know, till the next time.”
Keith's wrote his previous single A Few More Cowboys with Bobby Pinson and Dean Dillon - lyrics include: “With a few more cowboys, there'd be a lot less outlaws.”
Toby toured here in 2014 with Kellie Pickler and the Texan Eli Young Band.
CLICK HERE for our most recent Toby Keith feature in The Diary on January 18, 2014.
AUSTIN LOUNGE LIZARDS CHOOSE CADILLACS NOT BUSES
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The internationally acclaimed Austin Lounge Lizards perform their live version of their iconic radio staple I Wanna Ride in The Car Hank Died In for our Behind Bars special.
It's on their 1984 debut album Creatures From the Black Saloon.
The Texan band, formed in 1980, became well known way beyond The Lone Star state for their gospel hit Jesus Loves Me But He Can't Stand You and political parodies Gingrich The Newt and The Ballad Of Ronald Reagan.
They also scored alternate radio airplay here with songs diverse as Put The Oak Ridge Boys In The Slammer, Lusters' Motel,
Going To Hell In Your Heavenly Arms, Shallow End Of The Gene Pool and Life Is Hard, But Life is Hardest When You're Dumb.
Their 11th album was aptly named Home & Deranged.
GORD BAMFORD BOOMERANGS FROM ALBERTA TO TRARALGON
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Gord Bamford was born at Traralgon in the heart of Gippsland but moved to Alberta in Canada at the age of five with singer mum Marilyn. Gord, now 41, recently returned to Traralgon on his second tour of his homeland. This week he performs Fall In Love If You Want To from his eighth album Tin Roof.
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His most recent Nu Country appearance was his video for Breakfast Beer - a vastly different diet to pastor dad Jock's Loaves & Fishes foundation in Brisbane.
When Gord's mother Marilyn divorced Jock and moved back to her home of Canada , he lost touch with his dad.
Their rocky relationship, instigated by his father's alcoholism, created an 18 year estrangement.
But Jock turned his life around and is now sober and a beloved pastor - four years ago Gord and his dad reunited and in 2016 during a Canadian tour Jock saw Gord perform on stage for the first time.
Gord released 2001 debut album, God's Green Earth , on his GWB Records before heading to Nashville in 2003 to record his second album Life Is Good .
He wrote 10 of 11 songs - six singles included top 20 hits My Heart's a Genius, All About Her, Life Is Good and I Would for You - and opened shows for Tim McGraw, Kenny Rogers, Carolyn Dawn Johnson, Don Williams and Terri Clark.
Gord's third album Honkytonks and Heartaches, produced by Byron Hill, was released on September 25, 2007 - first single, Blame It On That Red Dress , was his top 10 Canadian hit.
Gord's fourth album, Day Job , released in April 2010, featured four singles - Day Job, Put Some Alcohol On It, My Daughter's Father and Hank Williams Lonesome.
Fifth album Is It Friday Yet in 2012 had five singles - Is It Friday Yet, Leaning on a Lonesome Song, Disappearing Tail Lights , Farm Girl Strong and Must Be a Woman.
Bamford's sixth album, Country Junkie , was released in October 2013 and Christmas in Canada, in November 2013.
Further info - www.gordbamford.com
THE LONG & SHORT OF IT CHASE GYPSY WHITE MOONS
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Patsy & Dave, who record and perform as The Long & Short of It , return with an evocative lovelorn video clip filmed in the famed Williamstown Botanical Gardens.
They also shot their gypsy love scenes in Warburton and Sherbrooke Forest near the Puffing Billy .
Gypsy White Moon topped local country charts for a month and is on their sixth album The Night Of Our Life.
Yarraville singer-sign-writer David Baird and Williamstown lawyer Patsy Toop wrote their song with producer Kenny Royster.
The song is based upon friends who we would characterise affectionately as Gypsies,” the duo revealed.
“They roam around from place to place forming romantic relationships- only to run away, for fear of commitment.”
They recruited actors Maddie Vulic to play Gypsy Whitemoon and Todd Allison Fehres as her lover.
Patsy - mother of four children and award winning lawyer - joined forces with Dave after meeting eight years ago at a music charity function.
She was inducted onto Victorian Honour Roll of Women in recognition of her trailblazing litigation work and volunteering.
Patsy 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
LINDI ORTEGA RETURNING HERE SOME DAY SOON
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Toronto troubadour Lindi Ortega returns to Nu Country with Some Day Soon.
Yes, it rhymes with Gypsy White Moon.
It's on Faded Gloryville - the sixth album by the 37-year-old who credits singing actor Jeff Bridges as a mentor after his role as Bad Blake in the Crazy Heart movie.
Lindi played the Long & Short Of it venue - Seaworks , Williamstown, Meeniyan Town Hall , Northcote Social Club and Toff In Town in the Melbourne CBD on her previous Australian tours.
The singer was born in Toronto , moved to Nashville for five years and recently returned to Canada.
She also recorded a four-song EP Till The Goin' Gets Gone , released on March 17.
Ortega recorded her EP in a converted East Nashville manor where therapy horses linger outside.
She recorded it with longtime guitarist James Robertson and co-produced with Jay Tooke and Jason "Rowdy" Cope.
“I went into this project with the freedom to pretty much do what we want and if nothing else it motivated me to do something special,” Lindi confessed.
“We recorded this in an old mansion and there was a vocal booth. We set up mikes in different formations but just didn't like it. So we went out for tacos. When we got back, still nothing. We had to use the restroom. Started singing in there and loved the acoustics. So we set up mikes in there and yep I sat on the toilet and did all the vocals there. I just loved the natural reverb and the fact that nobody said we couldn't do it that way. There are many things I loved about this project, the fact we made the music the way we wanted too.”
CLICK HERE for our feature on Lindi album Faded Gloryville in The Diary on September 14, 2015.
HOW TO KEEP NU COUNTRY ON AIR
We need your support as we celebrate Nu Country TV's 33 rd 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.