DAVE'S DIARY - 21 MAY 2018 - PREVIEW OF EPISODE 24 - SERIES 34
TOURISTS GRANGER SMITH AND JOSHUA HEDLEY HEADLINE NU COUNTRY TV
Texan Granger Smith and Floridian Joshua Hedley headline Nu Country TV with new videos on Saturday May 26 at 9 pm on Channel 31/44 on the eve of their latest Australian tours.
Midwest Farmer's Daughter Margo Price and Florida band The Mavericks also return to the show repeated on Monday at 3 pm.
Price doubles as a soda fountain serf and singer while The Mavericks host a roller derby on the show repeated Mondays at 3 pm.
Queensland Golden Guitarist Brad Butcher and New Mexico refugee Bri Bagwell also return to the program filmed and edited by Laith Graham.
Nu Country TV is a highlight of C 31 streaming list on Digital 44.
Further info - https://www.c31.org.au/
GRANGER SMITH WHEN THE GOOD GUYS WIN
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Dallas born Granger Smith escaped the storms of life in his new video for Happens Like That from his ninth album When The Good Guys Win that will hopefully be released for his tour.
The 38-year-old found true love dancing in the arms of his actress wife Amber and their baby.
Smith, who also records as Earle Dibbles Jr, follows expat Gippsland singer Gord Bamford into the famed Village Green Hotel in Mulgrave on July 26 with Fawkner singer-songwriter Jasmine Rae.
The Texan also performs at the free Groundwater Country Music Festival at Broadbeach on the Gold Coast from July 27-29 with Hedley and Lillie Mae who played the Out On The Weekend Festival at Williamstown last year.
Smith, who also played CMC Rocks Queensland in Ipswich this year, explained the change of name for his album.
“It was originally going to be called Not Everybody Lives ,” Smith revealed.
“There's a song called Everybody Lives , and it really encompasses a feeling that I've had about the whole record of living in the moment and taking advantage of what we have today. We sent the album off to get printed, and then Hurricane Harvey hit Texas , my home state, and we kind of threw up our hands and said, ‘we can't release an album called Not Everybody Lives after a hurricane." So we scrambled a bit, and we all unanimously agreed on When the Good Guys Win . It actually fit. It felt right from the beginning when we did that, and it still feels like it was meant to be that.”
Granger moved to Nashville at 19 for five years and performed for American troops in Iraq and Kuwait in 2008.
He now lives in Texas with wife Amber, whom he met in one of several of his video clips in which she appeared, and their daughter and two sons.
Further info - http://www.grangersmith.com/
JOSHUA HEDLEY JUKE BOX JUNKIE
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Joshua Hedley cut his chops playing the famed Roberts Western World on Lower Broadway in Nashville before his Australian tours with Justin Townes Earle and Johnny Fritz.
The Floridian fiddler proves he is a true honky tonk hero in his live video for Mr Juke Box - the title track of his debut CD released in April on Third Man Records.
Hedley, now 33, also appeared in the 2015 documentary Heartworn Highways Revisited .
Hedley began playing fiddle at 8, and by 12, he was playing with middle-aged pickers at the VFW halls.
At 19 he moved from Florida to Nashville where he became an in-demand sideman at Roberts Western World and became known as the Mayor of Lower Broad .
Hedley didn't start writing his own songs until he was about 28 but his album features only one cover - When You Wish Upon a Star recorded as a tribute to his late father Richard - a Disney fan.
“I've always been able to sing,” Hedley recalled.
“My earliest memories in music are riding to pre-school singing third harmonies to Everly Brothers songs and Disney songs. My mom knew that I was going to be a musician because I kept telling her to stop singing along to the Disney tapes because she can't sing.”
Joshua penned These Walls about FooBar - a beloved East Nashville dive Hedley lived near before it shut down.
His other album originals include Counting All My Tears, Weird Thought Thinker, Let Them Talk, Let's Take a Vacation and Don't Waste Your Tears.
“ I Never Shed a Tear is based on someone else's experience, but everything else I lived it,” Hedley said.
“I don't want to make my songwriting so personal that people can't relate to it. I think that's a really important aspect of country music. I try to steer my writing toward subjects I know everyone has been through. Heartbreak is a big one. Everybody's felt that.”
Further info - http://joshuahedley.com/
MARGO EASES A LITTLE PAIN
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Illinois farm girl chorister Margo Price showcased a diversity of role play in her latest video filmed at famed Elliston Place in Nashville.
The Mid-West Farmer's Daughter delivered soda shop summary justice to a bully as she defended herself in A Little Pain.
It's one of 12 songs she wrote for her second album All American Made that she released on October 20.
Margo, now 34, and guitarist husband Jeremy Ivey front her quintet have won wide acclaim after selling their wedding rings and cars to finance her first solo album Mid-West Farmer's Daughter at Sun Studios in Memphis .
Price is joined on her album by Shotgun Willie Nelson, now 85, and the McCrary Sisters.
Margo graduated from performing live video clips in Willie's Luck chapel on his movie town ranch and has played his July 4 picnics, Farm Aid and toured with him.
She previously appeared on Nu Country with videos for Desperate & Depressed, Weakness, Hurting on the Bottle, Hands Of Time and It's Not Drink Driving If You Are Riding a Horse.
She played piano, sang in a church choir and studied dance and theatre in tiny Ohio town Aledo before moving to Nashville at 20.
Margo started Buffalo Clover with Jeremy and released three albums and fronted Margo & The Price-Tags whose members included Sturgill Simpson and Kenny Vaughan.
"I used to write story-songs, about a couple robbing a bank or whatever," says Price whose dad worked as a prison guard after having to sell the family farm when she was two.
"But I decided I'm going to go ahead and lay it all out on the line here. And it felt really good, really therapeutic."
Price, who once spent a weekend in gaol on drink driving charges, says the late Merle Haggard and Waylon Jennings are her biggest heroes.
"A lot of times, people say, 'You're so much like Loretta or Tammy Wynette,'" says Price.
"But I feel kind of like one of the men. I'm like David Allan Coe. I've been to prison, man! I think that's what separated me from the Kacey Musgraves, stuff like that. There's not a lot of glitter or girly bows and stuff."
CLICK HERE for our Margo Price CD feature in The Diary on March 19.
THE MAVERICKS ROLLER DERBY
The Mavericks mixed roller skating with trombones and saxophones in their return to our live segment Behind Bars.
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They perform in The Only Question Is from their eighth album Mono that was released after a 10 year hiatus. The band also recorded several live discs in a career that began 1989 in Miami . They last appeared on Nu Country with Brand New Day - title track of their 11th album in a 28 year career. “I think we're definitely aspiring for a brand new day,” Malo revealed. “I know this sounds idealistic and perhaps unrealistic, but I'm not one of those guys who thinks we're at the end of the world. But we do have to be vigilant and if we have to protest and stand up for what we believe in, we will. I'm confident in the American people and in democracy in general. Maybe this is a wakeup call that we so need.” |
Raul released six solo albums during the Latin American combo's break.
The Mavericks stomped the stage when they played historic St Kilda Palais on their 2014 October tour with Californian surfing cowboy Garry Allan and Blackjack Billy .
CLICK HERE for a Mavericks CD feature in The Diary on June 29, 2015.
BRAD BUTCHER BATTLES BULLIES
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Mackay born cane field escapee Brad Butcher returns with his new anti-bullying song and video filmed in the Lockyer Valley in Queensland .
Crawl, Beg and Cry is on his Brad's third album From The Bottom Of A Well.
The crane operator-coal miner graduated to music - at 34 he won best new talent at the 46th Golden Guitar awards this year in Tamworth.
Brad won his Golden Guitar for Well Dressed Man - a song he wrote for his grandfather Norman.
Norm was one of 13 siblings raised in a cane cutter's cottage on the banks of the Pioneer River south of Mackay.
During the tough post-depression era and World War 2, Norm was a beacon of hope and resilience to the large family.
“It takes a unique strength and character to raise a family, create your own future and leave behind a lasting legacy from the most unlikely of beginnings, and it feels like the perfect fit to dedicate this album to my Pop, Norman George Butcher,” Brad revealed.
“There's no greater source of motivation than survival and Pop was determined to make sure his family had a future.
“He was far from the eldest in the family but he and his brothers were more like father figures, working the local cane fields and fishing the Pioneer River to live. He taught me that there is no substitute for hard work”.
Brad grew up fishing in the Pioneer, playing Rugby League in Mackay and working in coal mines as a crane operator and rigger.
He has since toured the world with concerts at iconic Bluebird Cafe in Nashville and New York City 's The Bitter End in Greenwich Village in 2016 and prime time breakfast TV show, Canada AM, in 2013.
Further info - http://bradbutcher.com/
BRI BAGWELL LAS CRUCES
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Bri Bagwell recalls her days in New Mexico in her video for Las Cruces from her second album When A Heart Breaks.
She found a wind mill in the desert and mountains near home town Las Cruces - the city of the crosses on the famed Rio Grande River.
The 31-year-old also soaked up wine, gridiron, golf and gal pals in her new video.
Las Cruces also inspired her debut 2011 album Banned From Santa Fe.
The four-time Texas Female Vocalist of the Year spent six years with her band The Banned .
Bagwell began performing with her two brothers as a teenager before moving to Austin at 18 and graduating with a marketing degree from the University of Texas .
She was a top 10 finalist on CMT's Next Superstar reality TV show before she released an EP of demos recorded as a songwriter at Sony ATV in Nashville .
Further info - http://www.coloredlion.com/BB/
HOW TO KEEP NU COUNTRY ON AIR
We need your support as we celebrate Nu Country TV's 34th series with Australian record companies and artists teaming to ensure our survival.
You can win Kip Moore's third album Slowheart , thanks to EMI promotions chief Dave Parker, 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 Brad Paisley, Carrie Underwood, Gary Allan, Dierks Bentley, Eric Church and late larrikin legend A.P. Johnson.
CLICK HERE for our Membership Page for full details.