DAVE'S DIARY - 25/6/2018 - PREVIEW OF EPISODE 29 - SERIES 34
SUNNY SWEENEY BOOMERANGS TO TEXAS
Texan troubadour Sunny Sweeney headlines Nu Country TV on Saturday June 30 at 9 pm on Channel 31/ Digital 44 with a song about boomeranging to her home state.
It's also déjà vu for fellow Texan Kacey Musgraves who returns with a double shot on the show repeated on Sunday at 11.30 pm and Monday at 3 pm.
Western swing king Ray Benson and his legendary band Asleep At The Wheel return live Behind Bars on the program filmed and edited by Laith Graham.
Victorian based John Flanagan Trio debut with some Preston front porch picking.
And former Adelaide singer-songwriter Mike Erlington pays tribute to his late grandmother in a video clip that features scenic footage of Yarra Glen racecourse.
Nu Country TV is a highlight of C 31 streaming list on Digital 44.
Further info - https://www.c31.org.au/
SWEENEY FINDS A LITTLE RAY OF SUNSHINE
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Austin singer-songwriter Sunny Sweeney showcases the magnetic pull of her home state during a live double shot in Behind Bars. Sweeney performs Nothing Wrong With Texas on singing actor Ray Benson's Texas Music Scene TV show. Sunny, 41, and singing spouse of Austin police sergeant Jeff Helmer also filmed a video on her autobiographical song Bottle By My Bed. The couple tried to have a baby with fertility treatment but she suffered miscarriages. Sweeney candidly addressed pain they endured in their baby quest in a video with intimate glimpses of them with brief shots of infants, young children and parents. Sweeney envies her Bottle By My Bed co-writer Lori McKenna, now 49 and a prolific mother and songsmith, who has five children and released 11 albums. Sunny and Massachusetts based dual Grammy winner Lori also wrote Nothing Wrong With Texas for her fourth album Trophy. |
Lori penned Grammy winning Little Big Town hit Girl Crush and singing actor Tim McGraw's smash Humble And Kind .
Her recent hit The Bird & The Rifle is title track of her Dave Cobb produced 11th album.
Sweeney also recorded The Next Big Nothing , penned by late Tasmanian Audrey Auld, on 2006 debut CD Heartbreaker's Hall Of Fame .
CLICK HERE for a Sunny Sweeney feature in The Diary on March 27, 2011.
BENSON - MILES AND MILES OF TEXAS
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Sweeney benefactor Ray Benson and Asleep At The Wheel also perform live in Behind Bars with their Lone Star state travelogue.
Miles & Miles Of Texas is on several of the band's 32 albums in their 48 year career that began in Paw Paw, West Virginia, in 1970.
They performed in San Francisco with Commander Cody & The Lost Planet Airmen before moving to Austin more than 30 years ago.
The band won nine Grammys and released more than 20 studio albums and 20 plus Billboard chart singles.
Co-founder pedal steel guitarist Lucky Oceans, now 67, won a 1978 Grammy for Best Country Instrumental for the Wheel's remake of Count Basie's One O'clock Jump.
Oceans, real name Reuben Gosfield, met Christine Haddow - a young Australian photographer on The Boston Globe in 1977.
They wed in 1979 and moved to Fremantle where he released solo albums Lucky Steels the Wheel in 1982 and Secret Steel in 2005 and discs with his Australian bands including Dude Ranch and the Zydecats.
Lucky hosted ABC-TV and radio show The Planet and in 1993 won a second Grammy with Asleep at the Wheel for their collaboration with Lyle Lovett on Blues for Dixie from 1993 album A Tribute to Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys.
It's one of three Bob Wills tribute albums released by the iconic band formed by Benson who hosts TV and radio shows in Austin.
Benson and fellow Texan Dale Watson last appeared on Nu Country with Feeling Haggard - their tribute to Merle Haggard who died on his 79th birthday on April 6, 2016.
Ray's band also combined with Haggard duet partner and Octogenarian Willie Nelson for a live album.
CLICK HERE for a Willie & The Wheel feature in the Diary on July 4, 2009.
KACEY MUSGRAVES MAMA AND BUTTERFLIES
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Texan Kacey Musgraves opens our show with an evocative tribute to her mum that she wrote on the road during an acid trip.
Her double shot continues with one of the first songs she wrote after meeting her singing spouse Ruston Kelly.
Kacey and Ruston, both 29, wed on October 14, 2017.
Both Mother and Butterflies are on Kasey's seventh album Golden Hour.
Musgraves has promoted her new album on TV shows as diverse as Saturday Night Live , Jimmy Fallon, Austin City Limits and Ray Benson's Texas Music Scene.
Musgraves recently performed High Horse and Slow Burn on Saturday Night Live hosted by Amy Schumer.
She also appeared in a pre-taped Spirituality Rap skit that features Musgraves as a choir girl - spoof of a rap music video airing on MTV Hungary.
CLICK HERE for a 2018 Kacey interview in The Diary.
PRESTON PORCH PICKING
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John Flanagan's trio exuded a little front porch frivolity in uptown Preston in their Nu Country debut.
John, Liz Frencham and Daniel Watkins enjoyed an expansion of sorts when the band multiplied in mid-song.
The smart meter reader helps created a smart video theme in Something To Complain About on John's third album Honest Man.
Honest Man was recorded in February 2017 over four days at Dog & Bear studio in Trentham - the central Victorian town that veteran country singer and DJ Gene Bradley Fisk now calls home after moving from Moriac.
It features songs on Ayers Rock, uber driving for Paul Kelly that inspired The Last of The Cassette Men and historic lament Free John Zarb.
Pascoe Vale postman Zarb went to gaol - instead of delivering mail - in 1968 as a Vietnam War conscientious objector.
Collateral damage suffered by Zarb and his family was a focus for opponents of the war.
Flanagan took part in a theme concert Going Back with peers Jeff Lang, Mick Thomas and Tracey McNeil who looked through Moreland city archives and wrote a song based on local history.
Flanagan researched the story of Zarb and was surprised he had no knowledge of this significant part of Australian history.
Honest Man followed Flanagan's second album There's Another Way to Where You're Going that was recorded in Nashville with producer Viktor Krauss.
Viktor, brother of bluegrass star Alison, also played with Texan singing actor Lyle Lovett's Large Band and Peter Rowan's Free Mexican Airforce and released three solo albums.
Flanagan performed in Melbourne since 2004 as singer/songwriter for Melbourne quintet Glory Tuesday
CLICK HERE for a John Flanagan CD feature in The Diary.
NOW AND THEN IN YARRA GLEN
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Adelaide born singer-songwriter Mike Elrington heads north from his latter day Melbourne home to Yarra Glen racecourse to honour his late grandmother Josephine.
Mike pays tribute to the grand maternal wisdom that helped him on his musical and life journey.
He wrote Oh Josephine on the night she died at the age of 87 in 2015.
She spent her final two years at Safety Beach on our Mornington Peninsula
Josephine, like Mike, lived most her life in Adelaide.
“Often it can take ages for me to finish a song, but with this one - it had to be completed that night, because there's no way I could've woken up the next day to something half-done,” Mike revealed. “Nan hated leaving things unfinished. I wanted to take the whole “less is more” approach with this track, as I really wanted the focus to be on the lyric, the story behind it, to show just how much Nan meant to me in my life. She was always a colourful character, never afraid to say exactly what was on her mind, and this was something I always loved about her. Nothing was ever dull or boring with Nan.”
Mike featured just an acoustic guitar and cello on the song and filmed some of his video on the home straight at historic Yarra Glen racecourse
Oh Josephine is on his 10th album out later this year.
The gentle giant, now 35, began his career in Adelaide at 18 and released nine albums and toured excessively throughout Australia, the United Kingdom & New Zealand.
Mike also appeared on iconic TV show Neighbours with his songs Believe and Still In Love With You .
Further info - https://mikeelrington.com/
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.