DAVE'S DIARY - 23/1/2023 - PREVIEW OF EPISODE 3 - SERIES 54
BILLY STRINGS HEADLINES NU COUNTRY TV
Michigan bluegrass star Billy Strings and his guitarist dad Terry headline N u Country TV at 9 pm on Saturday January 28.
Dual CMA Award winner Lainey Wilson and Michael Hardy, West Texan Wade Bowen and Oklahoma born Vince Gill boomerang to the show repeated Sunday at 4.30 am.
Connecticut singer-songwriter Nick Bosse debuts on Behind Bars on the program filmed and edited by our multi-talented lockdown producer-host Laith Graham.
Singing actor Andy Penkow, prolific Golden Guitarist James Blundell and rodeo rider-disc jockey Larry Cann also return.
Nu Country TV is a highlight of C 31 streaming list on Digital 44.
Further info - https://www.c31.org.au/
BIILLY STRINGS MUM AND DAD
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Dual Grammy winner Billy Strings, now 30, is joined by his guitarist dad Terry Barber and singer mother Debra on his Behind Bars return.
They reach back to Strings family music birth they illustrate with bluegrass traditional song Long Journey Home video.
It's on Billy's sixth album Me And Dad released in November with Nashville musicians - bassist Mike Bub, mandolinist Ron McCoury, banjo player Rob McCoury, fiddler Michael Cleveland, Jerry Douglas and Jason Carter.
The album features new versions of fourteen bluegrass and country classics they played together since Strings was a young child.
They include George Jones Life To Go and mother Debra singing on final track I Heard My Mother Weeping.
“As long as I can remember, I wanted to make a record with my dad,” Billy revealed.
“I've been burning up and down the highways the last 12 years, and as time slips away, you start thinking, ‘I need to make time.' It's been a bucket list thing for me, something I've been afraid I wouldn't find the time to do. And that scared me; not doing this record scared me. We've done these songs forever,” Strings says. “We get to the part where someone has to sing and we'll look at each other: ‘You or me?' We've been doing it since I was 3 years old.”
Further info - https://www.billystrings.com/
LAINEY WILSON AND MICHAEL HARDY TRUCKING TALE
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Mississippi man Michael Hardy and dual 2022 CMA Award winner Lainey Wilson open our show with their prison saga.
Hardy, 32, ended up behind bars when he delivered summary justice after rescuing Louisiana born Lainey's character who was bashed.
Lainey, now 30, won best female and best new artist CMA awards in November and released fourth album Bell Bottom Country in October.
She debuted on Nu Country in October with Georgian Cole Swindell in Never Say Never from Cole's fourth album Stereotype.
Wilson also wrote What Would Dolly Do for third album Saying What I'm Thinking.
Wait In The Truck is on Hardy's fourth album The Mockingbird And The Crow.
Hardy fronted Nu Country with videos Give Heaven Some Hell, One Beer, Where To Find Me and Sober You.
Hardy's local tours included CMC Rocks Queensland festivals and east coast capital cities.
Further info - http://hardyofficial.com/
Further Info - https://laineywilson.com/
WADE BOWEN AND VINCE GILL GUITARTISTRY
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West Texan Wade Bowen and Oklahoma born star Vince Gill showcase their guitars and a song on their Nu Country return.
Bowen, now 46, headed to the water with his trusty tool of trade as he featured a collage of heroes and peers.
Gill, now 65 and 22-time Grammy winner, added vocals.
Oklahoma born Vince, son of a late judge, toured here and fronted Nu Country with his ode to fellow Oklahoma raised legend Merle Haggard who died on April 6, 2016 - his 79th birthday.
Vince and pedal steel guitarist Paul Franklin had a captive audience in their live duet on Lost In A World Without Merle Haggard from Vince's 15th studio album Okie.
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Gill first toured Australia in the eighties with Byron Berline in Sundance and on his second tour duet partner of hotshot English guitarist Albert Lee.
A Guitar, A Singer And A Song is on Wade's 17th album Somewhere Between The Secret And The Truth.
Waco native Wade also released two records with fellow Texan Randy Rogers and hosted Wade's World web show with fellow Texans in the 2020 pandemic.
Wade and Randy fronted Nu Country with humorous Rhinestoned and Rodeo Clown videos.
The Texas Tech University graduate also appeared with Death, Dying & Devilled Eggs, Day Of The Dead, When Love Comes Around, Who I Am, Say Anything, When I Woke Up Today and a duet with Rogers for Standards on their joint album Hold My Beer , Volume 1.
Rogers keeps traditional country alive at his Cheatham Street Warehouse in San Marcos.
He bought the venue that staged live country since 1974, including one of Randy's albums in 2000, from the family of late singer-songwriter Kent Finlay in 2015.
Cheatham Street Warehouse hosted songwriters open mic night every Wednesday for more than 40 years.
Guests included Randy, Hal Ketchum, James McMurtry, Willie Nelson, Guy Clark, Billy Joe Shaver, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Ernest Tubb, Townes Van Zandt, Todd Snider, Terri Hendrix, Bruce Robison, Tish Hinojosa, Adam Carroll, Walt Wilkins, Will and Charlie Sexton.
Further info - http://wadebowen.com
CLICK HERE for a Vince Gill feature in The Diary on August 2, 2005.
NICK BOSSE HONOURS HIS HEROES
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Connecticut singer-songwriter Nick Bosse debuts with live homages to his country heroes.
The Connecticut singer songwriter hankers for the return of true country - music created by the late Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, George Jones, Merle Haggard, Marty Robbins and other pioneers.
What Happened To Country is on Nick's latest album and has had over 800,000 streams since its release in January 2021.
Nick hails from North Stonington and is backed by his cool country band from Connecticut and Rhode Island - The Northern Roots .
Further info - https://nickbosse.com/
ANDY PENKOW GHOSTLY GUMS
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Sydney singing actor Andy Penkow pays tribute to flood, fires and drought ravaged farmers in his return.
Andy, 38, has appeared in many movies and TV shows.
He revamped Ghostly Gums Walking Away for his 14 song fourth album Loves, Lies and Dirty Dishes that is nominated for Bush Ballad of the Year at the 2023 Golden Guitar Awards.
“I was given these amazing lyrics from Kath Stewart and I wanted to pay tribute to the traditional style in which they were written,” Andy told Nu Country.
“I composed 2 versions of the song. This version was produced by Lindsay Waddington who I thought of right away. I wanted a producer that understood bush ballads.
Chatting with Lindsay about how inspired I was after watching “Slim and I asked Lindsay how Slim would approach a song like this. It was a tribute to a legend. It was written for the farmers who have struggled and are still struggling. They are the backbone of this great nation. And we often forget that.”
Andy fronted Nu Country with 1993, How Many Times, Protected Love, Wildflowers, Drowning In The Whiskey and Before I Go.
Penkow was living on the coast when he joined SBS choir and appeared in Mel Gibson 2000 TV movie Three Stooges, the Deck Dog's movie, Deadly Woman and Sunday Night in 2017.
Further info - www.andypenkow.com
LARRY CANN AND JAMES BLUNDELL ON THIS ROAD
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Queensland singing rodeo rider and disc jockey Larry Cann and 10-time Golden Guitarist-ARIA winner James Blundell return.
Cann and Blundell, now 58, hit the rodeo and road and rounded up sheep, cattle and songs as they revived James 1992 hit This Road from Larry's third album The Road, Family and Home.
The Chinchilla melon farm born singer-songwriter and father of three was inspired by suffering of farmers in the bush and beyond on his Nu Country debut with pathos primed video Country Cries .
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Kingaroy singer-songwriter Larry's music supports Drought Angels rural relief charity foundation.
It's on his album produced by expat Australian Michael Flanders in Nashville and features Larry's joyous entrée Country Cool - one of four Cann originals.
It also includes Some Kind Of Cowboy he penned with Allan Caswell.
Larry's rodeo work as competitor-ring announcer takes him overseas and fuelled 15 years of radio programming and marketing.
Further info - https://www.n1m.com/larrycann
CLICK HERE for a Blundell feature in the Diary on February 1, 2005.
WIN WAYLON, GEORGE JONES AND MERLE HAGGARD
Help us celebrate being Nu Country TV members and win albums by late Waylon Jennings, Merle Haggard, George Jones and Highwaymen by becoming a Nu Country member or renewing your membership.
George, Waylon, Merle and Willie Nelson were among country historian Barbara Dowling's favourite Texans.
The Waylon, Highwaymen , Merle and George discs were donated by Barbara who died at 77 in December, 2020.
She co-hosted Long In The Saddle in our Nu Country FM era and was pioneer Australian and Victorian country music awards judge.
Barbara was admired for rising above losing her sight as a young woman and country passion with annual trips to Waylon's birthplace in Littlefield, West Texas.
Waylon died at 64 on February 13, 2002, and is survived by singing spouse Jessi, now 79, and son Shooter, 43.
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 featuring Achy Breaky Heart.
We have other CDS by major artists you can win by becoming a Nu Country TV member or renewing memberships.
They include Brad Paisley, Eric Church, Kip Moore and late larrikin legend A.P. Johnson.
CLICK HERE for our Membership Page for details.