DAVE'S DIARY - 10/8/2020 - PREVIEW OF EPISODE 12 - SERIES 44
ERIC CHURCH AND LUKE COMBS HEADLINE NU COUNTRY TV
North Carolina chart toppers Eric Church and Luke Combs headline N u Country TV on Saturday August 15 at 9.30 pm on Channel 31/ Digital 44.
Missouri minstrel Chris Janson returns in his live gigs plea on the show repeated Tuesday 4.30 am, Wednesday 10.30 pm and Friday 1 am.
Florida born John Anderson and Tennessean Larry Fleet also boomerang on a program filmed and edited by Laith Graham.
Melbourne band Honk , featuring magistrate Tim Hoare and fellow barrister and former National Party MLC David O'Brien visit the gates of Graceland .
Nu Country TV is a highlight of C 31 streaming list on Digital 44.
Further info - https://www.c31.org.au/
ERIC SINGS IN HOME CHAPEL
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Eric Church makes the most of his isolation by performing acoustic at home on his return.
Flanked by guitars the stone country star makes an emotional plea for survival in his pandemic psalm.
Church, now 43, preaches to his large parish from safety of home on Never Break Heart.
Eric is a mentor for fellow North Carolina star Luke Combs and protegee of veteran Texan outlaw Ray Wyle Hubbard who joined him on his ninth album Desperate Man.
Ray Wylie, now 73, co-wrote the title track and was in a Church video.
Church and wife Katherine created The Chief Cares Fund non-profit organization that helps underprivileged families in Tennessee and North Carolina.
It helps orphans in Nepal receive clothing, proper bedding, and schooling and has delivered Bibles to Haiti and helps fund Humane Society no-kill animal shelters.
Church wears aviator sunglasses and contact lenses and is an avid advocate for cannabis use in Smoke a Little Smoke, The Joint and I'm Getting Stoned.
CLICK HERE for a Church feature in The Diary on December 10, 2018.
LUKE COMBS COLD IN ISOLATION
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Fellow North Carolina chart topper and Church protegee Luke Combs returns with another unreleased song filmed in isolation.
Combs, 30, draws inspiration from wife Nicole whom he married on August 1 on a beach in southern Florida.
This week he performs honky-tonk road song Cold As You - not about Nicole - in front of his many BMI Awards in his home studio.
It follows his Nu Country appearance with topical Six Feet Apart.
Combs and Church appeared recently with Does To Me from his second album What You See Is What You Get .
It followed smash debut deluxe disc This One's For You 2 - #1 for 44 weeks on Billboard charts.
Combs broke a record set by Randy Travis Always and Forever that spent 43 non-consecutive weeks No.1 in 1987-1988.
His album holds second-longest run at No.1 for a country album after Shania Twain's 1997 album Come On Over 50 weeks reign.
In July he became first artist to have their first two studio albums spend 25 weeks or better at No. 1 on Billboard Country chart.
It broke the record set by Taylor Swift who previously led with 24 weeks.
Combs charted five tracks from The Prequel on Billboard Top 25 in June, 2019 - a feat not accomplished since Johnny Cash in 1959.
He recorded Let's Just Be Friends for The Angry Birds Movie 2 soundtrack.
Luke was 29 when inducted into Grand Ole Opry on June 11, 2019, by fellow stars Craig Morgan, Chris Janson and John Conlee.
He played St Kilda Palais on March 13, 2019, with Arkansas traveller Ashley McBryde
CLICK HERE for our What You See Is What You Get CD feature in The Diary on November 25, 2019.
CHRIS JANSON BACK TO WORK PLEA
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Combs Missouri born peer Chris Janson also wants to be a working man again.
Sadly, the trump chump was too slow to lock down his once great country.
Chris, now 34, is a major mentor of younger artists in altruistic pursuits.
He played midnight grand pianos on Lower Broadway in Nashville in a previous video Drunk Girl.
Chris's advice to peers was to protect women.
Drunk Girl was one of 12 songs he wrote for second album Everybody including five from his Fix A Drink EP that followed debut disc Buy Me A Boat.
His new tune Put Me Back To Work has an equally strong message.
He filmed at home almost a year after releasing his third album Real Friends.
Janson spread happy tidings on a joyous road journey in recent video Good Vibes.
Chris took wife Kelly and two sons fishing and joined their extended family in a trip back in time.
CLICK HERE for a Janson CD feature in The Diary on November 16, 2015.
JOHN ANDERSON STILL HANGING ON
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Veteran Florida born singer-songwriter John Anderson was enjoying a career comeback before Covid-19 laid him and peers low.
At 65 his career rebirth was boosted by peers including Oklahoma singer-actor and TV host Blake Shelton.
Shelton guested in Anderson 's video for Tuesday I'll Be Gone from John's 23rd album Years, released on April 10.
This week Anderson performs aptly titled video for I'm Still Hanging On from his 23rd album Years.
Anderson also joined Blake, 43, on his Friends & Heroes arena tour before the pandemic.
Years , produced by Dan Auerbach and David Ferguson, has 10 new Anderson original songs.
We went in the studio, and I remember saying, I'm going to do this like it might be my last, Anderson revealed.
It still could be, but now the chances of that are getting slimmer and slimmer every day. I'm doing better so I'm not hardly thinking that way anymore. There's a few things that I came out of this whole deal better with. Part of it is my love for music and part of it is my appreciation for my family. But the biggest part is knowing that I might die here any minute, for who knows what reason, but I know that the good Lord already came down and touched me. There's not a doubt in my mind.
Other songwriters on the album include Paul Overstreet, Pat McLaughlin, Dee White, Joe Allen, Bobby Wood, Larry Cordle, Auerbach and Ferguson.
Anderson recently released two-disc, 40-track album called 40 Years and Still Swingin.'
CLICK HERE for a John Anderson feature in The Diary on December 18, 2012.
LARRY FLEET ON HIS FEET WITH NO FILTER
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Tennessean Larry Fleet shares honky-tonk roots with Anderson .
He returns by popular demand with No Filter after his Mix Them With Whiskey reprise from solo album Working Hard.
It follows Where I Find God where he fished with family and worshiped in the Old Harmony Church.
Fleet's joyous journey began after Florida born star Jake Owen, now 38, found him singing at night in bars after his construction day jobs.
Larry has since toured with Owen.
He just, kind of, took me under his wing introduced me to a lot of people and helped me out along the way, Fleet revealed.
Working Hard was produced by Joey Moi of Florida Georgia Line and Morgan Wallen fame and features eight tracks including Lied About Love that landed his deal with Big Loud Records .
I sent the song to Jake, and he called me and told me to get a hold on it. I didn't have a record deal at the time, so he offered to finance the record that featured this song on it, Fleet explained.
A couple of days later, I find out the song is still getting pitched. It gets over to Big Loud and they ask who is singing on the song. They started searching to find out who I was, and they wanted to talk to me. They called me in and told me they wanted to offer me a record deal. So I got a record deal from a song that I sang a demo on that nobody probably wanted me to have. So yea, that song kick-started this whole process.
Further info - https://larryfleet.com/
HONK AT GATES OF GRACELAND
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Melbourne roots country band Honk return with their Elvis homage - reliving a famous act at Graceland.
They perform their humorous video for Gates Of Graceland from debut album With The Lot.
Like Jerry Lee Lewis they can't visit Graceland - instead they recreated the event on the mean streets of Melbourne and beyond.
Former National Party MLC and Geelong barrister David O'Brien and latter-day magistrate Tim Hoare are in the band.
O'Brien shared chambers with former Geelong star and Fremantle coach Damian Drum who sang country songs on the team bus in his 63 game VFL era.
Drum, now a Federal MP, appeared with Kevin Sheedy at the MCG for annual Geelong-Essendon country clashes and produce markets in Yarra Park.
But not this year.
O'Brien owns a farm at Penshurst south of Hamilton and is busy at another bar - he defends victims of pedophile priests in court when not playing double bass for Honk .
Members of Honk met at school, began playing in late eighties and resurrected two years ago at the Carringbush Hotel .
O'Brien, Hoare and Honk band-mates Andrew Parisi, Julian Lambert, Luke Savage and Ed Prendergast are honky-tonk veterans.
It was at Gippsland born Weddings, Parties, Anything singer-songwriter Mick Thomas's Yarra Hotel, Abbotsford, they performed She Picks Me Up on debut EP Never Planned .
We are all outlaw country tragics so there's a lot of common love of the rough diamonds of the 1970s, the band revealed.
We write songs about the underdog, about losing in love, falling asleep on trains, and perhaps overindulging. It's not just country though - we also blend in rock, blues, boogie, jazz and soul. It's music that is meant to be fun and meant to be played live.
They filmed previous video Barry's Lament at the former Penshurst courthouse.
Their song depicted a court case that highlighted parallels between the lives of an accused criminal and the judge hearing the case.
Further info - https://www.facebook.com/Aussiehonk/
HOW TO KEEP NU COUNTRY ON AIR
We need your support in Nu Country TV's 44th series with Australian record companies and major artists teaming to ensure our survival.
Singing Texan crime novelist Kinky Friedman has donated his 18th album Resurrection that features Willie Nelson.
You can join Watling & Bates as members and win their 13 track CD Small Town Tales and Kip Moore's third album Slowheart.
We have other CDS by major artists you can win by becoming a Nu Country TV member or renewing your membership.
They include Brad Paisley, Carrie Underwood, Gary Allan, Eric Church and late larrikin legend A.P. Johnson.
CLICK HERE for our Membership Page for details.