DAVE'S DIARY - 2 /9/2019 - PREVIEW OF EPISODE 2 - SERIES 41
GEORGE DUCAS AND ZAC BROWN HEADLINE NU COUNTRY TV
Texas City born singer-songwriter George Ducas and triple Grammy winning Zac Brown Band headline Nu Country TV Saturday September 7 at 9.30 pm on Channel 31/ Digital 44.
Fellow Texans Sunny Sweeney and Lee Ann Womack boomerang to the show, hosted by Mid Pacific Bob Olson, and repeated Monday at 7.30 am.
Dandenong Ranges singer-pianist Benny Allen also returns to 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/
SPRING LOVE FOR GEORGE AND JUSTINA
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George Ducas didn't have to look far for a brunette belle to adorn his latest video Unlove You on the eve of a planned Australian tour. Ducas, 48, chose model Justina Crosslin who also appeared in the video for Watching Airplanes by Californian born surfing cowboy Gary Allan. It premiered on Nu Country on January 19, 2008, on the eve of Allan's fourth Australian tour with Canadian rodeo rider-country star Corb Lund. The singer-songwriter was managed by expatriate Australasian publisher and entrepreneur Barry Coburn on his arrival in Nashville almost 30 years ago. |
George released Unlove You - a song about an unforgettable female - from his fourth album Yellow Rose Motel, available digitally now before it's hard copy release in November.
“ Unlove You was actually filmed in Nashville,” Ducas explained.
“Yes, it has grown that much since your last visit. It's basically exploded. The streets in the clip were First Avenue downtown and the one of the bridges that cross over the Cumberland River.
“The female lead is Justina Crosslin who also doubles as my fiancé so she was “in the budget”, as they say! She is also a model and has worked all over the world including but not in any way limited to other music videos in her past - such as Gary Allan's Watchin' Airplanes and others.”
CLICK HERE for a Ducas interview in The Diary.
ZAC BROWN BAND LEAVE LOVE BEHIND
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The triple Grammy winning Zac Brown Band return to Behind Bars with a preview of ninth album The Owl.
Brown, just 41, explains his song sources before performing in their live video for Leaving Love Behind at a concert in Irvine , California.
The singer left behind plenty of happy high-profile fans after his most recent Australian tour in 2017.
They included former Melbourne Storm icons Billy Slater and Cooper Cronk - VIP backstage guests at their Margaret Court Arena concert.
Brown's band plan a 2020 return tour to promote The Owl , released on September 20, with a hoot or two.
“We've been working tirelessly on this album over the past couple years, ensuring every detail is perfect,” Zac revealed.
“We are always pushing ourselves as musicians by blurring genre boundaries and incorporating all kinds of music we are personally inspired by, elevating what we are capable as a group. This album will have something for everyone. The Owl is exciting, raw, and unexpected. We couldn't be prouder of what we've accomplished on this record and can't wait to finally share it with the fans.”
But not his property in Alaska where he has asked Kenai Peninsula Borough Planning Commission to remove easements allowing access along his property in hills above small city Homer.
“I'm not interested in the public coming up to my home, snooping walking up to my windows. I've had to sell property for this reason.”
CLICK HERE for a previous Zac Brown Band review in The Diary on June 19, 2017.
BENNY ALLEN MAKES IT HAPPEN IN APPIN
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Dandenong Ranges singer-songwriter-pianist Benny Allen shows how he keeps love alive and the dingoes from his door in the title track of his debut album Never Knew I Was Country. Benny's video traces his graduation from tradie tools to ivories and love songs with supporting cast of well-fed bovines and horses. His bulldog Gus also had a cameo filmed by Jay Seeney in Appin, due south of Sydney. Allen wrote his autobiographical song when he returned from Tamworth Country Music Festival in 2018, after graduating from The Academy. “I was motivated about the country music industry and wondering how I got here when I never knew I was country,” Allen confessed. |
“The big thing for me was that I'd always been a songwriter, but I'd just never known where I fit. I would play for my own enjoyment, but to have found my people and where I belong and where my songs have been readily accepted was inspiring.
“The response has blown me away and, again, reinforces the way the country music family has embraced my music. I have definitely found my tribe in country and the support is humbling.”
“The songs that I'd been writing were for my own benefit and the guitarist produced the first two homemade singles that I recorded - Girl I Never Had and Yellowstone .”
Allen debuted on Nu Country on August 10 with Day One Of Missing You - a ruptured romance requiem he wrote with Blue Mountains bard Allan Caswell.
Benny, renowned for travelling to gigs with piano in the back of his Ute, was mentored by Golden Guitarists Lyn Bowtell, Ashleigh Dallas and Amber Lawrence.
Further info - https://www.bennyallen.rocks/
LEE ANN WOMACK BOOMERANGS
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Texan troubadour Lee Ann Womack boomerangs after celebrating her 53rd birthday on August 19 with second husband-producer Frank Liddell who also produces fellow Texan star Miranda Lambert of Pistol Annies fame.
Grammy winner Lee Ann performs her 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 she sang Liars Lie on Tim McGraw-Gwyneth Paltrow Country Strong movie soundtrack and appeared on Nu Country with Chances Are from The Way I'm Living .
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.
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 LIVE TRIBUTE TO GUY CLARK
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Fellow Texan troubadour Sunny Sweeney honours the late Guy Clark with one of his epics in her Nu Country rapid repeat. She performed Heartbroke, also a 1982 hit for Kentucky bluegrass ace Ricky Skaggs , at Bruce Robison's Next Waltz Country Bunker studio in Lockhart. 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 graced Nu Country with her autobiographical song Bottle By My Bed. Sunny, now 42, and police sergeant spouse Jeff Helmer 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.
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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 Gu.
CLICK HERE for a Sunny Sweeney feature in The Diary on March 27, 2011.
HOW TO KEEP NU COUNTRY ON AIR
We need your support in Nu Country TV's 41st 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.