DAVE'S DIARY - 7 /7/2020 - PREVIEW OF EPISODE 7 - SERIES 44
MITCH DEAN HEADLINES NU COUNTRY TV
Edithvale singer-songwriter Mitch Dean headlines Nu Country TV with his pandemic psalm on Saturday July 11 at 9.30 pm on Channel 31/ Digital 44.
Nashville bluegrass combo Calamity Jane honour frequent Australian tourist and legend Charlie Daniels who died on Monday at 83 from a stroke.
Fellow Minnesota minstrel-fiddler Becky Buller also debuts on the show repeated Tuesday 4.30 am, Wednesday 10.30 pm and Friday 1 am.
Two cool hand Lukes - O'Shea and Combs - and Springhurst trucking troubadour Travis Sinclair 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/
MITCH DEAN NOT JUST A FACE IN A LONG LINE
 |
Edithvale singer-songwriter Mitch Dean returns with a riveting song that reflects the pandemic decimation of health, wealth and happiness.
Dean hails from the Mornington Peninsula where he was and still is guitarist, harmony vocalist and songwriter in The Distance before his solo career.
He filmed his video at the Pura Milk Factory in Chelsea Heights with extra footage from Centrelink queues and newspaper front pages.
“ A Face In A Long Line is one that I really loved for its overall sound and encapsulates all the things I was trying to reach for,” Dean revealed.
“The story it tells feels very relevant for what our country and the whole world is going through right now. It's a song that documents hardship and paints the portrait of a worker seeking to look after their family as the world twists and turns around them. It's the harsh anonymity of becoming a statistic in troubled times.”
A Face In A Long Line is on his new album Holding Back The Levee that was produced by Colin Leadbetter.
Album guests include James Gillard on bass guitar and vocals, Damian Carafella on drums, acoustic and electric guitars and mandolin and Sam See on piano and organ.
Singer-songwriter Kevin Bennett adds his vocals to the title track.
Mitch last appeared on Nu Country with his Before The Fall video that he filmed at the quaint Ashcombe maze further south at Shoreham.
It was on his solo EP Suburban Speakeasy and followed his Distance video with James Reyne for Country Life from second indie CD Grounded.
Click Here for a new CD feature in The Diary.
CALAMITY JANE HONOUR THE LATE CHARLIE DANIELS
 |
Nashville bluegrass duo Calamity Jane debut Behind Bars with an energised cut of famed 1979 Charlie Daniels hit The Devil Went Down To Georgia.
It becomes a posthumous tribute to Charlie who died at 83 on Monday in hospital in Hermitage, Tennessee , from a hemorrhagic stroke.
 |
They are not kinfolk of other Calamity Jane bands in days of yore or Texas trio Calamity Janes.
Violinist Lucy Cantley fronted the Troika band before joining singer Camille Rae in this Calamity Jane.
The video mirrors Cantley's musical journey leaving her New Jersey home as an accomplished classical artist to pursue country music in Nashville .
Rae, originally from Mount Vernon , Kentucky , moved to Nashville in 2012.
Her song I Need Me hit #26 on Music Row charts and her music videos have been featured on CMT.
In a previous band Cantley and Rae won the Nash Next 2018.
Calamity Jane have opened for Maddie & Tae , Travis Denning, Easton Corbin, Keith Anderson, recently deceased Joe Diffie and others.
Further info - https://www.calamityjaneofficial.com/
Click here for our 1998 interview with Charlie Daniels in The Diary on July 28, 2014.
TRAVIS SINCLAIR BEFORE THE DROUGHT
 |
Fourth generation Victorian truck driver Travis Sinclair also performs a timely reflection of tough times in our unlucky radio country.
Sinclair and his brother Jake join forces on their social comment in their rural hardship video Before The Drought.
Unlike national drought victims they have plenty of song fodder from way beyond their homes in North East Victoria.
They hail from Springhurst, north of Wangaratta, and near Chiltern - hometown of ABC-TV host Barrie Cassidy.
Song writing and trucking are the Sinclair staples.
Travis, father of four, has driven trucks for 25 years after his 2003 Golden Guitar victory and Jake is a Starmaker grand finalist.
Further info - https://www.facebook.com/travissinclairmusic/
LUKE O'SHEA IN THE OCHRE
 |
Cronulla singer-songwriter-secondary teacher Luke O'Shea returns with an evocative exploration.
The prolific award winner took his vast cast of passengers on an emotional roller coaster as he checked out hats and tatts.
“It was shot at Couridjah Train Station in between Bargo and Picton on what we thought was an abandoned train line,” Luke, 50, revealed.
“Occasionally on a Sunday they might have a novelty Thomas the Tank Engine train ride from the nearby train museum - but this was a very early Saturday morning shoot. It wasn't until we wrapped everything up that we looked down the line to see tall puffs of steam heading our way. Fortunately, Jay Seeney (who filmed and edited the clip) is pretty handy with a drone - that he still hadn't packed away - & viola!”
And the theme of song?
“Supposedly - there are seven key mindsets - Anger, Contempt, Disgust, Fear, Sadness, Surprise & Happiness (Love/Joy),” Luke explained.
“Like all videos you pester family, friends & work colleagues. The trick here was to somehow match the physical with the specific emotion - no surprise that all my family ditched me. So it was work colleagues and their oblivious - but now legendary - partners who covered Love & Fear, Sadness & Disgust - & Contempt. An old, animated school mate was Surprise & Anger was superbly cast with great mate and the lead singer from the Death Metal band HAZMAT - who happens to live in Bargo and the reason I discovered the ideal little train station at Couridjah.
Right Now Station is on There In The Ochre - the seventh album by O'Shea who has won 11 Golden Guitars.
CLICK HERE for an O'Shea CD feature in The Diary on April 3, 2017.
LUKE COMBS SIX FEET APART
 |
North Carolina nouveau outlaw Luke Combs returns with his topical health video warning Six Feet Apart.
Luke, 30, performed an acoustic version of his song that may surface on his third album.
Combs and mentor Eric Church, now 43, appeared last week with Does To Me from his second album What You See Is What You Get .
Luke became engaged to Nicole Hocking in late 2018 and played St Kilda Palais on March 13, 2019, with Arkansas traveller Ashley McBryde.
Nicole inspired previous hit Loving On You on his five track EP Prequel and second album.
It followed smash debut deluxe disc This One's For You 2 - #1 for 44 weeks on Billboard country album 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.
Combs recorded Let's Just Be Friends for The Angry Birds Movie 2 soundtrack.
He was 29 when inducted into Grand Ole Opry on June 11, 2019, by fellow stars Craig Morgan, Chris Janson and John Conlee.
Combs charted five tracks from The Prequel on Billboard Top 25 in June, 2019 - a feat not accomplished since Johnny Cash in 1959.
CLICK HERE for our What You See Is What You Get CD feature in The Diary on November 25, 2019.
BECKY BULLER PLAYS THE BARBER'S FIDDLE
 |
Dual Grammy winner Becky Buller takes her fiddle to a barber's shop in her Nu Country debut.
The Minnesota born belle's songs have been cut by peers diverse as Ricky Skaggs and Rhonda Vincent.
The eight time International Bluegrass Music Association awards winner often tours with fellow bluegrass belle Dale Ann Bradley.
But Becky is now isolated in Manchester in Tennessee with her husband Jeff and her feisty feline Curly Ray.
This week she performs her vibrant video with a barber's shop octet featuring iconic stars diverse as Sam Bush and Shawn Camp.
Becky wrote The Barber's Fiddle with Lynda Dawson for her third album Distance And Time.
Further info - https://beckybuller.com/
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 also 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, Dierks Bentley, Eric Church and late larrikin legend A.P. Johnson.
CLICK HERE for our Membership Page for details.