DAVE'S DIARY - 26/8/2019 - PREVIEW OF EPISODE 1 - SERIES 41
FLORIDA GEORGIA LINE HEADLINE NU COUNTRY TV
March tourists Florida Georgia Line headline the Nu Country TV Series #41 premiere on Saturday August 31 at 9.30 pm on Channel 31/ Digital 44.
Texan singers Sunny Sweeney and Lee Ann Womack return live to Behind Bars in the show repeated Monday at 7.30 am and Wednesday at 9 pm.
Oregonian Alexis Ebert also debuts on the program filmed and edited by Laith Graham.
South Australian singer Abbie Ferris and Dunedin damsel Jenny Mitchell appear on the eve of tours here.
Nu Country TV is a highlight of C 31 streaming list on Digital 44.
Further info - https://www.c31.org.au/
WIVES JOIN FLORIDA GEORGIA LINE
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Florida Georgia Line toured here with Georgian Thomas Rhett and Tennessee preacher's son Morgan Wallen in March. They played Rod Laver Arena after headlining the 12th CMC Rocks Queensland festival in Ipswich. This time Tyler Hubbard and Brian Kelley lured their wives Brittney Cole Kelley and Hayley Hubbard into their sensual video for Talk You Out Of It. The duo made the most of wry wordplay in their hit from 19 track fourth album Can't Say I Ain't Country that was launched in February. |
Their CD was preceded by singles Sitting Pretty, Colorado and Platinum chart topper Simple - their 16th #1 hit.
Tyler and Brian wrote over half the tracks with guest collaborations by Jason Derulo, Jason Aldean and Michael Hardy.
The hedonistic theme of Talk You Out Of It is a vast contrast to previous Biblical videos including Holy filmed at the 12 Apostles on Victoria's Shipwreck Coast on their 2016 tour with Georgian star Jason Aldean.
Hubbard and Kelley have perfect Christian credentials - they met as Nashville university church youth group worship leaders in 2008 and precede all concerts with prayers.
"Talk You Out Of It has a very different feel for us," Hubbard, 32, revealed.
"It's the baby-making song on the album. But really BK and I are always challenging ourselves creatively and knew that we had to record it when we first heard it.”
It worked - Tyler 's wife Hayley gave birth to their second child - a son Luca - on August 20.
CLICK HERE for a Florida Georgia Line feature in the Diary on March 18.
LEE ANN WOMACK SENDS IT ON DOWN
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Texan troubadour Lee Ann Womack kept the roots country flame burning bright her return to Behind Bars.
The Grammy winner also pleaded for help from higher beings.
But not second husband Frank Liddell - also producer for fellow Texan star Miranda Lambert of Pistol Annies fame.
Lee Ann celebrated her 53rd birthday on August 19 and performed in the video for Send It On Down from her eighth album The Way I'm Living.
She also appeared on Nu Country with All The Trouble from ninth album The Lonely, Lonesome & The Gone.
Liddell produced it at Sugar Hill studio in home- town Houston where artists diverse as George Jones, Willie Nelson, Lightning Hopkins and Beyoncé made milestone recordings
Womack, daughter of a small-town East Texan DJ, won a Grammy with Willie Nelson for their 2002 duet, Mendocino County Line.
In 2010 during her recording hiatus she sang Liars Lie on Tim McGraw-Gwyneth Paltrow Country Strong movie soundtrack.
Lee Ann played a sheriff - Chief Deputy Claire Wades in a small East Texas town in another movie Noble Things.
It's a far cry from Belmont University , Nashville , when she met and wed singer-songwriter Jason Sellers in 1990.
They divorced in 1996 - five years after having a daughter Aubrie Lee, also a singer.
Womack gave birth to second daughter, Annalise, in January 1999 after marrying Liddell.
Lee Ann also appeared on Nu Country with Chances Are from The Way I'm Living .
The six-time CMA winner scored her first CMA award 15 years ago for I Hope You Dance.
That same year George Strait and Alan Jackson's version of Larry Cordle-Larry Shell penned satiric Murder on Music Row , featuring her harmonies, won Song of the Year.
CLICK HERE for a Lee Ann CD review in The Diary on March 28, 2005.
SUNNY SWEENEY HEARTBROKE FOR GUY CLARK
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Fellow Texan troubadour Sunny Sweeney honours the late Guy Clark with one of his epics It's a different shade of love for Sunny - singing spouse of Austin police sergeant Jeff Helmer. She performed Heartbroke at Bruce Robison's Next Waltz Country Bunker studio in Lockhart. Kentucky bluegrass ace Ricky Skaggs also had a 1982 hit with Heartbroke. Clark, a revered singer-songwriter, attracted celebrity studded audiences on his Australian tours, before he died of lymphatic cancer at 74 on May 17, 2016. Sweeney also appeared on Nu Country with autobiographical song Bottle By My Bed . Sunny, now 42, and Jeff tried to have a baby with fertility treatment but suffered miscarriages. Another Texan Aaron Watson, 41, paid homage to Clark on his 14th album Red Bandana by opening with The Ghost Of Guy Clark. |
The famed mentor to younger peers wrote a song with Catherine Britt in 2003 when she arrived in Nashville as an 18-year-old after cutting her debut EP here with Bill Chambers.
Clark was also honoured by seven times wed Texas reared Steve Earle on his recent CD Guy .
CLICK HERE for a Sunny Sweeney feature in The Diary on March 27, 2011.
ALEXIS EBERT RIDES
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Oregonian Alexis Ebert was aged just six when she joined expat Australasian superstar Keith Urban and Texan Tanya Tucker live on stage in her home state. Alexis appeared in concert with Miranda Lambert, Reba McEntire, Sugarland, and Trace Adkins before she was a teenager. She officially arrived in Music City in 2003 and signed with Warner Bros in 2004 and combined acting, songwriting and performing. Alexis appeared in and wrote two songs for the movie Like A Country Song that starred Billy Ray Cyrus. She also penned The Real Me for popular Disney movie Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen starring Lindsay Lohan. |
Alexis is now with Smashville Entertainment Records and releases an album later this year.
Her debut single Ride Or Die premiered March 29 and was followed by Trailer Trashed on August 2.
It showcases her personality and mirrors her story of a young aspiring artist being signed to a record label.
Further info - https://www.alexisebertmusic.com/music
ABBIE FERRIS FROM STOCK YARDS TO STAGES
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South Australian teenager Abbie Ferris debuts with an all-female band.
Abbie grew up on a 90-acre farm near tiny town Malalla and rode horses while her dad was a stockman at the local sale yards.
Soon after she fell in love with music and worked as a singer-songwriter.
Her family have fond memories of a four-year-old singing Kasey Chambers songs, using the kitchen table as her stage.
Ferris was awarded the Market the Music Emerging Artist Scholarship in 2017, receiving a year of industry mentoring
Abbie wrote second single Beat You At Your Own Game - with producer Michael Carpenter.
Her video was directed by Kirsty Lee Akers signing spouse Jesse Anderson of Klik Productions .
The video depicts a personal experience, where Ferris as an impressionable teen, was conditioned to believe she should settle for less than her true value.
It's the ultimate reply to being told she would never achieve her potential.
She shows strength as she takes up the life-long challenge to prove her doubters wrong.
Further info - https://abbieferris.com/
JENNY MITCHELL – KIWI TROUBADOUR
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Dunedin damsel Jenny Mitchell filmed her new video for her song Troubadour live in a south-island city studio in her latter-day hometown.
It portrayed her life on the country road on second album Wildfires that Jenny promotes here on her spring tour.
She plays Spotted Mallard and Caravan Club in Melbourne and Maldon folk festival and Ararat in November.
Her song is inspired by her life as a travelling musician and tribute to the realities of being on the road.
“ Troubadour was inspired by a conversation with Adam McGrath - a fellow New Zealand songwriter - long before I caught the travel bug,” Jenny revealed.
“Life on the road didn't appeal to me at all back then, but my perspective has definitely changed since!”
She recorded her album with Matt Fell at Love HZ Studios in Australia .
Mitchell says her video is, “my way of portraying both the lonely and truly magical times tend to co-exist in the life of musicians.”
It features her playing on a stage, to what is eventually revealed to be an empty theatre.
Mitchell recently toured with Australian artists Luke O'Shea, Felicity Urquhart and Brad Butcher.
The album title track Wildfires describes a passionate yet toxic relationship and paints a picture of what it feels like to be in the eye of the storm.
Wildfires also explores the story of Mitchell's grandparents' migration and the highs and lows of life as a singer-songwriter.
“It can be a transient existence,” Mitchell explained “but I just hope people will listen and be reminded of themselves, or those around them, in my lyrics.'
Further info - http://www.jennymitchell.co.nz/
HOW TO KEEP NU COUNTRY ON AIR
We need your support in Nu Country TV's 41 ST 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.