DAVE'S DIARY - 22 JULY 2019 - PREVIEW OF EPISODE 9 - SERIES 40
DEL MCCOURY HEADLINES NU COUNTRY TV
Octogenarian bluegrass legend Del McCoury headlines Nu Country TV on Saturday July 27 at 9.30 pm on Channel 31/44.
Fellow North Carolina bluegrass aces Darin & Brooke Aldridge join Del live in Behind Bars in the show repeated Monday 7.30 am and Wednesday 9 pm.
Dallas damsel Adrian Johnston and Delaware export Chuck Wicks debut on the program in a wedding double shot on the program filmed and edited by Laith Graham.
Gladstone singer Hayley Marsten and Gippsland band Destiny return to the show.
Nu Country TV is a highlight of C 31 streaming list on Digital 44.
Further info - https://www.c31.org.au/
OCTOGENARIAN DEL DRIVES TRAIN
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Del McCoury celebrates more than 60 years on stage in his return to Nu Country TV.
Del , now 80, joined the late Bill Monroe's Bluegrass Boys in 1963 as banjo player but soon became a lead singer and guitarist.
He then joined the Golden State Boys in California and went back East and worked in logging and construction while playing music on the side.
This week Del 's band with sons Ronnie on mandolin and Rob on banjo perform That Old Train live at Paste studio in New York City.
It follows more than 30 albums with many bands and peers.
Del debuted on Behind Bars in 2014 with Woody Guthrie's 70-year-old song California Gold .
He added his melody to his tribute to the Oklahoma legend filmed in the Butcher Shop studio in Nashville.
Del once fired seven times wed Texan Steve Earle from one of his tours for using profanities on stage.
Pennsylvania born Del , real name Delano Floyd McCoury, celebrated his 50th anniversary of live music in 2010.
In June 2010, he received a National Heritage Fellowship lifetime achievement award from the National Endowment for the Arts and in 2011 was elected into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame.
His band has become popular at non-bluegrass festivals and worked with groups such as Phish .
Del also performed with The String Cheese Incident, Steve Martin & The Steep Canyon Rangers and Donna the Buffalo and recorded with Earle.
He has also covered songs by artists diverse as The Lovin' Spoonful, Tom Petty, and Richard Thompson.
Del has a very enthusiastic fan base - the Del-Heads .
Further info - http://delmccouryband.com
DARIN AND BROOKE ALDRIDGE FIND FORTUNE WITH JIMMY
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North Carolina duo Darin and Brooke Aldridge take to the high roads with scenic vistas in their new video with Jimmy Fortune - lead singer with Statler Brothers for 21 years.
Luckily the only one to decamp in the high country was Jimmy in his sports car.
The prolific awards winners perform Every Time You Leave from their sixth album.
The Darin & Brooke Aldridge band developed from the idea of forming his own group shortly after he joined Straight & Narrow in his early teens.
It was there he switched from banjo to mandolin before joining first touring band Acoustic Syndicate , a folk/rock/bluegrass band still on the road.
Darin, now 42, joined The Country Gentlemen (1999-2005), playing mandolin and singing harmony.
His career started in the family home in Avery County in rural northwestern North Carolina , adjacent to the Tennessee border.
His parents moved to Gaston County to be near his dad's base as a truck driver.
Brooke also grew up in Avery County in a staunchly Baptist community where she was baptized one January in a freezing creek behind the local church, the home of her earliest singing.
“Music was intertwined in my family, so it came naturally to me,” Brooke says.
“My parents encouraged me at an early age.”
Darin and Brooke sang together in each other's bands and were engaged in 2008 and married later that year.
They released their first CD of gospel tunes in 2008.
Further info - https://www.darinandbrookealdridge.com/
DALLAS DAMSEL ADRIAN JOHNSTON A HONKY TONK WIFE
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Adrian Johnston is a mirthful mistress of Texan humour in her Nu Country debut.
She started GRITS (Girls Raised in Texas ) tour in 2015 and performs way beyond the Lone Star State.
Adrian dedicated her Honky Tonk Wife song to husband Waine Close.
Their wedding was featured in the February issue of the Brides of North Texas magazine and her video debuted at a live in-store appearance at Altered for the Alter in Dallas.
Adrian began in 2014 with Just Another Blonde on her self-titled EP that was a Top 200 iTunes Country Album.
The fourth generation Texan was nominated for New Female Vocalist of the Year for the Texas Music Awards in 2015.
Honky Tonk Wife is latest in a string of Top 25 singles including Adult Beverages, Rather Have You, You, Avalanche and Damn, I Want a Love Like That.
“ I like to write stories about wine in case you haven't noticed,” Adrian revealed.
“In all seriousness, the songs may be influenced by my life experiences, but they are also something that everyone can relate to and sing along with. It's also important to me that the lyrics paint a mental picture, lyrics that you can literally envision, like ‘those magnolias made a tunnel that led us to the porch,' are what we really focused on this time around.”
She opened for fellow Texans Jack Ingram, Zane Williams, Turnpike Troubadours , Reckless Kelly , Johnny Cooper, Mark McKinney, Mockingbird Sun and more.
Further info - https://www.adrianjohnstonmusic.com/
CHUCK WICKS BETTER THAN FLOWERS
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Delaware export Chuck Wicks fuels floral tributes in his Nu Country return.
Chuck, now 40, dated Georgian star Jason Aldean's sister Kasi but trouble struck last year.
Wicks was in a near-fatal car crash with two of his co-hosts on the Nash FM radio morning show.
Chuck also appears on the top rating Nashville TV reality TV show.
This week he performs Better Than Flowers from his third album.
Chuck debuted on Nu Country a decade ago with Stealing Cinderella and All I Ever Wanted - two original songs on debut album Starting Now.
Wicks hails from a Delaware spud farm and once dated fellow singer Julianne Hough - a Dancing With The Stars champ.
Chuck grew up in Smyrna and was tipped $50 by superstar Kenny Chesney for parking his car in a previous career as valet.
Adam Brand cut Wicks song Get On Down The Road on seventh album Blame It On Eve - a collaboration with frequent Australian tourist David Lee Murphy and Rivers Rutherford.
RCA signed Wicks six years ago after he left Florida Southern College for Nashville .
But instead of a contract, the deal led to a valet parking job at Fleming's Steak House .
"I would work there, and I would write during the day," Wicks said.
"I didn't have a publishing deal or anything anymore, so my only source of income was parking cars and then writing. And the weird thing was it was a blessing, because through that development deal I was able to establish great relationships with songwriters. Some of the best songwriters in the world took me under their wing. I had a lot of motivation and lot of great people helping me steer the ship and helping me figure this out."
Further info - http://www.chuckwicks.com/site.php
HAYLEY MARSTEN GLAD TO BE IN GLADSTONE
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Gladstone born singer Hayley Marsten injects some maternal mirth in her Nu Country return.
She followed her mum Wendy's advice after a ruptured romance and tore pages from her dog Bible - the Book Of Wendy - with peanut butter chasers
Hayley's mum suffered her split after a 22-year marriage but she wrote Wendy in three days when dumped by phone after a 7-month romance.
She filmed her video for Wendy at the home of her co-writer-singer Lyn Bowtell - for her second album Lone.
Hayley proved she was a lover - not a fighter - and rebel with a cause on her Nu Country debut in 2015 with Storm in A D Cup from EP Even, cut with Bill Chambers at son Nash's Foggy Mountain studio in December, 2014.
Hayley, 25 is a protege of Texans Miranda Lambert and Kacey Musgraves, Dolly Parton and Taylor Swift.
She was humbled when Bill flew to Gladstone to play in her band and opened the show for the home-town launch of Even .
“Hayley came fully prepared with her songs already arranged and pretty much ready to go,” Bill revealed.
“Even though this was her first recording experience Hayley sang with conviction like she'd been doing it for years. I was also impressed with the way she guided the band, obviously knowing exactly what she wanted, yet with a casual attitude that made working with her a pleasure.”
The five originals on Even feature dobro, banjo and steel guitar.
She wrote her first song, aged seven, and plays mandolin - her 21st birthday present.
Further info - http://www.hayleymarsten.com/
DESTINY BAND IN THE FAST LANE
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When award winning bluegrass duo the Davidson Brothers left Yinnar in Gippsland the Destiny Band moved in.
Thomas and Tessa Libreri formed their sextet after leaving previous homes in Kilysth and King Lake after the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires.
They expose dramas of life in the family fast lane in latest video Hours In A Day from their third album that follows their Streets Of Old Kilsyth video.
It was on their EP From The Heart recorded after two albums - Take Me Back in Time in 2016 and Makin Music released in June 2017.
Tessa was raised in Kilsyth and graduated from Johnny Young Talent School in Richmond and was an extra in Neighbours, Skirts, Flying Doctors, Carson 's Law, The Henderson Kids and Mission Impossible.
She met Reservoir born Thomas Libreri in Kinglake when they formed a duo and band.
They married, had children and performed in the Yarra Valley , King Lake and Yea, Crown Casino, Parliament House and Federation Square while running their building and maintenance business.
In 2009 they fought Black Saturday Bushfires saving their family, neighbours and a dream home they purpose-built.
The home, replete with soundproofed studio and band rehearsal room, is now hired out by the new owners for corporate getaways and song-writing workshops by country duo Carter & Carter.
Thomas received a Bravery Medal from the Governor General for saving a neighbour who had been burnt in the fires but tragically died three weeks later.
They later moved to Gippsland with their children and front the Destiny band featuring pianist Ron Armstrong, drummer Tony Desira, bassist Bob Hutton and backing vocalist Jessica Loprese.
The sextet showcases its music live in Gippsland and beyond.
Further info - https://destinyband.webs.com/
HOW TO KEEP NU COUNTRY ON AIR
We need your support in Nu Country TV's 40th series with Australian record companies and artists teaming to ensure our survival.
You can join Watling & Bates as members and win their 13 track CD Small Town Tales.
Also 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 details.