DAVE'S DIARY - 1 /2/ 2019 - PREVIEW OF EPISODE 9 - SERIES 38
ERIC CHURCH HEADLINES NU COUNTRY TV
North Carolina singer-songwriter Eric Church headlines Nu Country TV on Saturday February 2 at 9 pm on Channel 31/Digital 44 with a paternal radio memory.
Nashville TV host Jim Lauderdale - son of a North Carolina minister - also returns on the eve of his latest Australian tour on the show repeated Monday 8.30 pm and Wednesday 10.30 pm.
Former Texan prison guard and rodeo rider Cody Johnson debuts on the episode featuring Indiana born singer-songwriter John Hiatt.
Former South London busker Mark Lucas and fellow Sydney singer-songwriter James Van Cooper also appear 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/
ERIC CHURCH RECALLS HIPPIE RADIO
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Eric Church showcases a song inspired by his childhood memories of his dad singing along to the car radio in Granite Falls , North Carolina .
Church, now 41, illustrates his musical education in his acoustic video for Hippie Radio from his seventh album Desperate Man.
Eric wrote the title track with Oklahoma born veteran Texan outlaw Ray Wylie Hubbard whom he name-dropped in his sixth album title track Mr Misunderstood.
Church is a prolific chart topper - his sixth #1 hit was Raise Em Up with expat Australasian superstar Keith Urban.
In mid-2017 Church underwent emergency surgery to remove a blood clot caused by a birth defect that put his top rib bone too close to his collarbone, causing thoracic outlet syndrome.
One night at his North Carolina home in June his left hand "was not responding like it should.”
It was swollen and he noticed his arm was "noticeably red and enlarged."
Church Googled his symptoms and headed to hospital.
An ultrasound revealed the blood clot in his chest needed emergency surgery.
"I said, ‘can it kill me?'" Church recalled. "And the doctor said, ‘today.'"
Church was admitted to ICU at Duke University Hospital in Durham , North Carolina .
"That was really when it hit me," Church says.
"To them, I was going to die.”
Church spent three days in recovery from surgery and doctors took out his top rib a week later.
"Normally, if you're athletic and have thoracic outlet syndrome, you'll start having issues at 21, 22, 23,” Church explained.
“Others, though, don't learn about the issue until they just fall over in the shower.”
Church spent summer of 2017 in rehab, doing physical therapy.
He has scars from the incident but no long-term damage.
“I can still play guitar,” he quipped, “and I play golf better than ever.”
CLICK HERE for a Church feature in The Diary on December 10, 2018.
CLICK HERE to win a Church CD on our membership page
JIM LAUDERDALE LIVE BEHIND BARS
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Fellow North Carolina born TV and radio host, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Jim Lauderdale performs live in Nashville on the eve of his latest Australian tour that includes the 12 th sold out CMC Rocks Queensland Festival in Ipswich in March.
The dual Grammy winner, 61, and band kick up a storm for line dancers on one of his TV shows.
Jim's dad was a Presbyterian minister and his mum a church organist in Troutman , North Carolina .
He performs Wild On Me Fast from 31st album Time Flies, released in August.
The video was filmed by Jeremy Dylan, son of our late benefactor Rob Potts
He also launched Jim Lauderdale And Roland White - a previously unreleased collection of bluegrass classics recorded in the basement of Earl and Louise Scruggs' Nashville home in 1979 when Jim was 19.
Those master tapes went missing for 39 years and were rediscovered at the bottom of a box by White's wife.
"I wasn't able to get a deal for it at the time with my efforts,” Lauderdale revealed.
“Several years later I thought the time was right and called Roland to get the masters.
"Roland said, 'I thought you had them.' We couldn't find them anywhere. A few months ago, as Roland was leaving the stage after sitting in with me at the Station Inn , he said, 'I think my wife found our tape at the bottom of a box.'"
CLICK HERE fora Lauderdale interview in the Diary on January 19, 2002.
CLICK HERE for a Lauderdale CD review in the Diary on December 14, 2006.
CODY JOHNSON RODEO DREAMS
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Texan Cody Johnson showed he loved rodeo more than guarding prisoners when he performed live at the famed Houston Rodeo.
Cody, now 31, proved he was no one trick pony when he rode off on horseback after playing Dear Rodeo from his seventh album Ain't Nothing To It.
Cody followed his warder dad Carl into law enforcement at the infamous Huntsville prisons in south Texas.
Carl, also a guitarist, played on Cody's first two albums - Black and White Label and Live and Rocking at Shenanigans and Confetti's Club in Huntsville in 2007.
Cody released third album, Six Strings One Dream , in 2009 and fourth album, A Different Day , in 2011.
He teamed with Kyle Park in 2012 for the Dancin' and Drinkin' at Johnson Park Tour and changed their name to the Rockin' CJB's.
Johnson's fifth album Cowboy Like Me - the second produced by Trent Willmon - was released on January 14, 2014.
Further info - http://www.thecodyjohnsonband.com/home.php
JOHN HIATT NOT OVER THE HILL
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John Hiatt struck gold when he moved from Indiana to Nashville at 18 as a songwriter and wrote hits for artists diverse as 3 Dog Night , B.B. King, Bob Dylan, Emmylou Harris, Emmylou Harris, Eric Clapton and Willie Nelson.
He also showcased his sardonic wit on several tours here.
So it's no surprise he proved he was not Over The Hill - a highlight of his 23rd album The Eclipse Sessions, inspired by a recent solar eclipse in Nashville.
"I'm still kind of restless, but I feel good,” revealed Hiatt who suffered touring burn out after 2014 album Terms Of My Surrender.
“I'm 66 now and I feel healthy and feel like I'm in good place.
"I was lost. I spent the whole 2000s touring and putting records out. I was touring with bands, touring solo, doing my thing with Lyle Lovett. I was burned out. I ran out of gas.
"I came home and told my wife, 'I need to slow down.' I was doing 100-120 shows a year, like 200-plus days on the road. We've been married 32 years and we've been apart a good deal of that time."
Right after Terms of My Surrender hit the streets, he and his wife sold their family farm and moved into Nashville .
"There were a lot of big changes. That farm, that's where we raised the kids; it was our family place for 25 years,” Hiatt explained.
“It was an adjustment. And now, on top of that, I decided to slow down touring. For 2016 and 2017, I was doing something like 60 shows, and so that was an adjustment for my wife. She wanted me to be home more but then it's like are we sure about that?"
CLICK HERE for a John Hiatt CD feature in The Diary on January 14.
MARK LUCAS GHOST ON THE HIGHWAY
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Mark Lucas busked South London streets as a teen but moved to Sydney more than 25 years ago to pursue music.
But a different journey inspired The Ghost of Lost Creek Road from Mark's 10th album Prisoners of The Heart.
One fateful day Lucas was stuck in a traffic jam with his young family on Pacific Highway south of Bellingen after a truckie crash into a gully.
A sign on the opposite side of the highway read Lost Creek Road so he created the song as he waited for traffic to clear.
Lucas's 20-track CD compilation Prisoners of the Heart includes diverse original songs from his 10 previous albums inspired by his time and travels.
The Ghost Of Lost Creek Road was originally title track of his 2001 CD.
Lucas released his new album after a month-long overseas jaunt in Southern California and concerts in San Francisco , Dublin and the UK .
Mark recorded with the Parwills and his Dead Setters and was entertainment booker for Petersham Bowling Club from 2008 where many artists got their break.
It was where he opened for fellow Englishman Albert Lee - guitarist in Emmylou Harris's famed Hot Band - who toured here in the eighties in a duo with Oklahoma born star Vince Gill.
He also supported the legendary Danny O'Keefe - writer of Good Time Charlie's Got The Blues and memorable songs covered by artists diverse as Elvis Presley, Charlie Rich, Willie Nelson, Mel Tormé, Dwight Yoakam, Jerry Lee Lewis, Cab Calloway, Leon Russell and Waylon Jennings.
CLICK HERE for a Lucas interview in The Diary on August 14, 2016.
JAMES VAN COOPER COMES HOME
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Fellow Sydney singer-songwriter James Van Cooper debuts with a travel video of sorts. James, just 21, performed Passing Through live from his debut CD Coming Home. It featured a duet on Come Home with US Americana artist, Jaime Wyatt. Van Cooper started writing it late last year but felt he needed a duet partner. |
He tracked down Jaime on tour with Shooter Jennings in Huntington Beach , California.
James and his manager jumped in an Uber for the hour and a half drive to persuade Jaime to sing on a song she hadn't heard, written by a guy she hadn't met.
“She said yes,” Van Cooper explained, “and made the song what it is today. She saved the song.”
James wrote nine of the 10 songs on his album.
“I'm proud of this album. I went to write it three times before it became what it is now,” James revealed.
“I wrote the songs in Europe and the UK and then made the record in LA. It's a snapshot of what my life has been.”
Further info - https://www.jamesvancoopermusic.com/
HOW TO KEEP NU COUNTRY ON AIR
We need your support as we celebrate Nu Country TV's 38th 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.