DAVE'S DIARY - 22/10/2018 - PREVIEW OF EPISODE 9 - SERIES 37
JOHN PRINE HEADLINES NU COUNTRY TV
Former Chicago postman, cancer survivor and singer-songwriter John Prine headlines Nu Country TV at 9 pm on Saturday October 27 on Channel 31/Digital 44 on the eve of his Australian March return tour with Kentuckian Tyler Childers.
Crookwell singer Chalkie White, also a cancer survivor, and Mornington Peninsula born singer teacher Joe Ransom debut on the show repeated Sunday at 11.30 pm and Monday 3 pm.
Tasmanian trio The Wolfe Brothers appear during their national tour and one time New Mexico traffic cop Frank Ray heads to a Florida beach on his return.
Fellow Kentuckian bluegrass veteran Ricky Skaggs & The Whites perform live Behind Bars on 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/
JOHN PRINE CLIMBS TREES
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Legendary former Chicago singing postman John Prine returns to Nu Country after being voted Americana artist of the year at the 2018 awards in Nashville in September.
That was 25 years after Prine, now 71, performed at famed Hanging Rock race course on his 1993 tour.
He returns for a St Kilda Palais concert on March 7 with Americana award winning Kentucky singer-songwriter Tyler Childers.
Prine is joined by a vast cast on Knocking On Your Screen Door video on his 25th album The Tree Of Forgiveness that followed his 2011 album Singing Mailman Delivers.
He busks outside the Ernest Tubb Record Store with Midwest Farmer's Daughter Margo Price and her guitarist husband Jeremy Ivey who toured here this month.
He also works inside RCA Studio A with Dave Cobb, Amanda Shires and Jason Isbell and raises a glass at Arnold's Country Kitchen with wife Fiona.
Prine also picks at famed bluegrass venue The Station Inn with Sturgill Simpson and Dan Auerbach and jams with Elizabeth Cook at his Oh Boy Records label HQ.
John and wife Fiona are based in Nashville but spend much of the year in St. Petersburg , Florida.
“Fiona is a beach person,” Prine revealed.
“I just bought a 1977 Cadillac Coupe DeVille and I've got that down at the house in Florida , so I usually take that to the carwash and go get a hot dog and wait for Fiona to come back from the beach, and then we go out to a nice restaurant at night.”
They also spend time in Galway , Ireland , where Prine has family.
There, he says, he likes to “sleep all day and go to the pub at night. We're very relaxed people.”
CLICK HERE for a John Prine feature in The Diary on August 8, 2003.
DOG IN WOLFE BROTHERS LODGINGS
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Tasmanian trio The Wolfe Brothers find a dog woken from the sleep of the just in their humorous new video.
No Sad Song is the second single from the berry growing family's big selling fourth album Country Heart.
The world famous brothers operate a 120 year-old southern Tasmanian berry farm when not on the road with artists diverse as Lee Kernaghan and expat Gippsland and latter day Canadian singer Gord Bamford.
Their previous video Ain't Seen It Yet was filmed in their Fairy Glen farm near Neika in the deep south of Van Diemen's Land.
With only 217 residents in Neika it's not hard to find.
But don't go to the post office - it closed in 1969.
CLICK HERE for a Wolfe Brothers interview in The Diary on June 4, 2018.
JOE PICKS FOR GOLD IN RUSHWORTH
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Singer school teacher Joe Ransom headed north to historic Rushworth-Whroo gold mining region in northern Victoria to film his video for Bone Digging Country.
Rushworth is the same town where ABC-TV Back Roads host Heather Ewart was raised.
Joe hails from Tyabb on the Mornington Peninsula and spent three years teaching students from the Santa Barbara Bilingual School, Honduras, before returning home.
Bone Digging Country name checks the El Mochito Mountains in Honduras on his album Fear Not Fantasy, released on December 1, 2017.
Joe has since released 11 track 2018 digital album Saltar that features Palm Oil Plantations .
Further info - https://joeransom.bandcamp.com/
CHALKIE WHITE CANCER SURVIVOR
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Young Crookwell cancer survivor Chalkie White makes the most of a paddock party in his debut where guests drink from boots. White lives in NSW southern tablelands and wrote BYO for his debut album My Song Isn't Written Yet. Chalkie wrote the title track with Matt Scullion for a disc produced by Michael Carpenter. He won Gympie Muster Talent Search in 2001 and was a Toyota Star Maker grand finalist in 2002. But his 2016 cancer diagnosis prompted him to release his single New Day in September 2017. |
My Song Isn't Written Yet was released in April 2018 - a culmination of his life experience in lyrics and co-writes with Vernon Rust, Narrell Brown and Golden Guitarist Scullion.
“The road I had to travel to get to this point in my career has been long and winding,” White says.
“Despite the bumps and bruises, the scenery along the way is something I'm glad to have seen, this album tells a few of the stories from the journey. The record is produced by the super-talented Michael Carpenter who has captured the stories exactly how I pictured them. There is more to come but this is the beginning of me sharing my story.”
“I'm very excited about the release of this album. It's all about getting my music out there. Having one song out there was great, but to have a whole album out there in the mix feels like a lifetime achievement. When you've waited 28 years to release something, to have the finished product in my hand is a huge achievement.”
Further info - https://chalkiewhite.net/
THE WHITES LIVE WITH RICKY SKAGGS
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Grammy winning veteran bluegrass group The Whites are joined by Ricky Skaggs for live gospel on our live Behind Bars segment.
Buck White performed Lifted Up with his daughters Cheryl and Skaggs singing spouse Sharon.
Ricky has released more than 40 albums since 1975 including some with Sharon and The Whites.
Skaggs, now 64, wed Sharon in August 1981 and sired a daughter, Molly, and son, Lucas.
Ricky and The Whites also appeared on Nu Country with I Wouldn't Change You If I Could after his Blue Night video with Simply Bluegrass.
The Whites record for Skaggs Family Records and have released 16 albums dating back to 1972.
Buck White, now 88, started his musical career in Texas after the end of World War II, working the dance halls and radio shows in diverse bands playing piano and bluegrass mandolin.
In 1961 tired of the rough-and-tumble life of the honky-tonks Buck, wife Pat and daughters moved to Arkansas and called themselves the Down Home Folks .
The Whites recent albums include Salt of the Earth in 2007 with Skaggs and Heart Like Ours in 2104 featuring Sharon White and Ricky.
Skaggs released his autobiography Kentucky Traveller (Harper Collins) on August 13, 2014.
He wrote it with Eddie Dean who penned prize-winning M an of Constant Sorrow: My Life and Times with bluegrass legend Ralph Stanley.
Skaggs was born in Cordell , Kentucky , and began playing music at 5 after being given a mandolin by his father, Hobart.
Further info - https://skaggsfamilyrecords.com/artists/whites
FRANK RAY HUNTS A TEQUILA MOCKING BIRD
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Former New Mexico traffic cop Frank Ray hunts a Tequila mockingbird on a beach on his return.
Ray proves chasing females is more fun than felons - especially in Key West, Florida, where Jimmy Buffett sails and surfs.
Frank was born in San Antonio, Texas, and spent a decade as a Las Cruces cop before he changed careers and opened concerts for expat Australasian star Keith Urban.
Tequila Mockingbird, recorded in Nashville and produced by Steve Dorff, is on his second EP and details a partner's traits.
"If she's a book, I'm getting hooked with every page that I turn," Ray sings.
"Find a fun way to appreciate all the little things in your special someone, how they make you feel and never stop trying to discover new things about them."
He previously appeared on Nu Country with Every Time You Run on his debut EP Different Kind Of Country produced by Tony Ardoin - the man who discovered Hunter Hayes - at Sonic Ranch studio in Tornillo, Texas.
Ray, real name Gomez, quit Las Cruces - same hometown as Bri Bagwell - to follow his music
He was lead singer of Border Avenue for three years and opened for major artists including Urban, A Thousand Horses, Eli Young Band , Craig Campbell and others.
In Different Kind of Country he sang about the Hispanic immigrant experience in the United States.
"I wanted it to be a message to say, 'Hey, we're different but we're very much the same,'" Ray revealed.
"But also from a logistical standpoint, we can't deport every single illegal immigrant - United States agriculture highly relies on that labor. We have to find a way to make it work."
Further info - https://www.facebook.com/frankraymusic/
HOW TO KEEP NU COUNTRY ON AIR
We need your support as we celebrate Nu Country TV's 37th 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.