DAVE'S DIARY - 1/3/2021 - PREVIEW OF EPISODE 2 - SERIES 47
ERIC CHURCH HEADLINES NU COUNTRY TV
Prolific award winning North Carolina born star Eric Church headlines Nu Country TV Saturday March 6 at 9.30 pm on Channel 31/Digital 44.
Expat Gippsland singer-songwriter Gord Bamford returns to the show hosted by Mid-Pacific Bob Olson and repeated Wednesday at 11.30 pm.
Texan Maren Morris and fellow prolific award winners Zac Brown Band also return on our program filmed and edited by our multi-talented lockdown producer Laith Graham.
Ringwood raised singer-songwriter Sunset Stranger and Townsville born Sammy White appear as we celebrate the legacy of Waylon Jennings and the Highwaymen as they honour Texas town Luckenbach.
Nu Country TV is a highlight of C 31 streaming list on Digital 44.
Further info - https://www.c31.org.au/
CHURCH WITH A VIEW
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North Carolina outlaw Eric Church followed his 2020 CMA Awards entertainer of the year award by performing the national anthem with Jazmine Sullivan at the recent Super Bowl game in Florida.
Eric, 43, made the most of isolation by filming a flood of home studio videos with his Church Choir band.
This week he proves his aim and eyes are clear with his Through My Ray-Bans video from triple album collection Heart & Soul released next month.
“I have three albums coming out in April. They came out of my 28 days in the mountains of North Carolina , where the songs were recorded and written. The collection is entitled Heart & Soul,” Church revealed.
Eric explored a month-long creative process in this 24-song collection that features an elite list of songwriters who joined secluded marathon writing and recording sessions.
“I've always been intrigued when a song is born in a writer room - there is a magic that happens there,” Church explained.
“I wanted to put that in the studio form. So, every day, we would write a song in the morning and we would record the song that night. Doing it that way allowed for the songwriters to get involved in the studio process and the musicians to be involved in the creative process. You felt a little bit like you were secretly doing something that was special, and you knew it. You started going, ‘hmm, wait 'til the world finds out about this.'”
Producer Jay Joyce, backing vocalist Joanna Cotten and his Church Choir band joined some of Nashville 's most talented studio musicians on the albums.
“It's been a long 10 months. With the power of music and love for each other, we will get through this, we will gather again soon. I cannot wait to play this music for you live.”
CLICK HERE for a Church feature in The Diary on December 10, 2018.
CLICK HERE to win a Church CD on our Membership page.
GORD BAMFORD DIAMONDS IN A WHISKEY GLASS
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Expat Gippsland singer Gord Bamford boosted his international career after he left Traralgon at the age of five with his singer mum Marilyn and sister Twila for the wilds of Alberta in Canada.
The bard, now 44, returned home for tours after his Canadian career took off.
He played 20th Deni Ute Muster in 2018 with seven time Grammy winner Carrie Underwood, CMC Rocks Queensland and Village Green, Mulgrave, with Kevin Bennett.
“I have been looking forward to getting back to Oz since I left,” Gord revealed.
“The industry and the country music fans have treated me so well and I believe it's a hidden gem of a market for country music. It is a great atmosphere and I just feel blessed to be able to come to the place I was born, play my music and reconnect with my father and family.”
This week Gord changed his liquid diet as he supped and sipped after a damsel peddled off in his Diamonds In A Whiskey Glass video from his 10 th album.
Further info - www.gordbamford.com
MAREN MORRIS SUPPORTS BLACK LIVES MATTER
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Prolific CMA award winning Texan Maren Morris returns to church this week in Behind Bars.
Morris, aged 30, won three major 2020 CMA Awards.
Maren wed singing spouse Ryan Hurd, now 34, on March 24, 2018 after they met while writing singing actor McGraw's hit Last Turn Home.
They are parents of their son Hayes who was born in March and guested in her social comment video Better Than We Found It that also features Black Lives Matters victims and asylum seekers in Nashville.
The song, penned with J.P. Saxe, follows her sixth album Girl.
Maren and Ryan co-wrote two songs All My Favourite People that features Brothers Osborne and Great Ones for Girl.
Morris is also in the Highwomen quartet with Brandi Carlile, Amanda Shires and Natalie Hemby who appeared on Nu Country with Redesigning Women.
Morris won a 2016 Grammy for My Church and fronted Nu Country with the Girl title track she wrote with Melbourne born LA singer-songwriter Sarah Aarons.
She also collaborated with Aarons on huge hit The Middle and Common featuring Carlile.
Morris released three indie discs before her two latest albums on which she wrote all 25 songs.
CLICK HERE for a Morris CD review in The Diary on June 18, 2016.
ZAC BROWN ROAD ODE
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Prolific Grammy winning Georgian Zac Brown and his hot band return to Behind Bars with a live version of song to a daughter from the lost highway.
The Man Who Loves You The Most follows their 10th album.
Zac, 42, has toured here several times - former Melbourne Storm stars Billy Slater and Cooper Cronk were guests at their 2017 Melbourne concerts
CLICK HERE for a Zac CD feature on June 19, 2017.
SUNSET STRANGER FINDS BEES AND CHOOKS
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Ringwood born teacher Sunset Stranger is best known to his students at St Kilda Park Primary School as arts teacher Stephen Stanisic.
The prolific Thornbury singer-songwriter also recorded as Eddy Nuardo and the quartet Honeymoon Bridge and wrote and recorded music for short films and theatre productions.
But Stanisic is now promoting his Sunset Stranger music.
He recruited bees, chooks, cattle, rabbits, frogs and a cat as he became animated to support asylum seekers in his new video What Your Loving Means To Me from latest album Your Hometown.
Sunset Stranger wrote all 10 songs on his album that he is promoting with gigs in Bright, Beechworth and Ovens on March 20 and 21.
He wrote Searching For Gold about former gold mining town Fiery Creek near Lake Bolac in western Victoria with fellow Honeymoon Bridge vocalists Helena Plazza and Steph Brett.
The singer also sourced 60 Mile Yonder on a 2007 trip his uncle's farm in County Monaghan , Ireland - “the same old farmhouse my mother grew up in before emigrating to Australia in the 1980's.”
CLICK HERE for our Sunset Stranger CD feature in The Diary.
SAMMY WHITE SONG FOR A GRANNY
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Townsville born Tamworth Starmaker winner Sammy White followed her music dreams to Tamworth and Newcastle before writing and performing in Nashville.
Sammy, aged 23, was 41st Tamworth Starmaker winner.
White wrote Home Feels Like You about her late grandmother for debut album Undone.
“For me, country music is all about story-telling, and this is my story song,” Sammy revealed.
"I wrote this one with Jarred Taylor, using real stories from my time growing up on Nan and Pop's hobby farm. Poppy is still one of my favourite people. When I'm home I spend a lot of time giving him a hand with his many projects. Unfortunately, Nan passed in 2017. She was my number one fan and biggest supporter. Today, her paintings still coat the walls of our family home, making it feel that little bit less empty".
She debuted on Nu Country with her Drowning My Sorrows video directed by Mornington Peninsula singer-songwriter Lachlan Bryan and Damian Cafarella.
Sammy visited the annual CMA Fest in Nashville .
“It was so big,” Sammy revealed.
“It was part of my 21st birthday present to go over there. We went for the festival. I organised a couple of co-writes while I was over there. I ended up doing three gigs while I was in town and a recording session as well, three original tracks.
“The songs that I recorded, one of them I actually wrote while I was in Nashville and recorded it the following week. It was a really quick turnaround for me. The other two I wrote last year, so I've been sitting on them for a little while. One of them is about Townsville, about growing up here and the places and things that I've seen, and the other two are about relationships and boys, because when you're 21 that's just what you write about. You might as well turn a bad experience into something useful.”
Further info - https://www.sammywhitemusic.com.au/
WAYLON AND HIGHWAYMEN IN LUCKENBACH , TEXAS
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te outlaw country star Waylon Jennings and his Highwaymen honoured Texas town Luckenbach in their show return.
The hit is on one of their discs you can win by joining Nu Country TV or renewing your membership.
They are among albums by Waylon, Willie, George Jones, Merle Haggard and Highwaymen donated by country historian Barbara Dowling who died at 77 on December 11, 2020.
She co-hosted Long In The Saddle in our Nu Country FM era.
The pioneer Australian and Victorian country music awards judge was admired for rising above losing her sight as a young woman and pursuing country music passion with regular trips to Waylon's birthplace in Littlefield, West Texas.
Waylon died at 64 on February 13, 2002 and survived by singing spouse Jessi, now 77, and son Shooter, 41.
WIN KEITH URBAN CDS ALSO
We have expatriate Australasian superstar Keith Urban's chart topping 12th album The Speed Of Now - Part 1.
Also BR5-49 CD Big Backyard Beat Show and Billy Ray Cyrus's historic 1992 album Some Gave All that features his Achy Breaky Heart hit.
Join Watling & Bates as members and win their 13 track CD Small Town Tales.
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, Eric Church, Kip Moore and late larrikin legend A.P. Johnson.
CLICK HERE for our Membership Page for details.