DAVE'S DIARY - 25 FEBRUARY 2006 - PREVIEW EPISODE 7 - SERIES 5

BILLY WYATT HOSTS NU COUNTRY TV


Billy Wyatt at Nu Country Christmas Party 2005

Arizona country singer Billy Wyatt hosts Nu Country TV this Tuesday - February 28 - from the spiritual home of the Fitzroy Football Club.

The show screens on C 31 at 9 p m and is repeated at 3.30 pm on Friday and Sunday at 2 am.
Producer Sofie B filmed Billy in the grandstand of the Brunswick Street oval where Lions fans roared for their idols in their halcyon era in the VFL.

So it's fitting that Billy, who headlined the Nu Country Christmas party at the nearby Hotel Kew, was also interviewed in the battlers' bastion.

Wyatt, 55, included fellow Christmas party guests Ruckus in the episode that reaches back to the heart and soul of country music.

Billy performs Working Man's Girl - his eulogy to singing spouse Kathy who runs he family trucking business in Apache Junction.

Nu Country technician and Dead Livers guitarist Rodger Delfos fronted Wyatt's hot band Delfos Country and plans to perform with Wyatt when he returns here.

Billy is also interviewed about his long career in the Wild West city made famous in the Billy Bob Thornton movie Bad Santa.

Wyatt chose stone country pioneer George Jones - the Rolls Royce of vocalists - and Grammy nominee and fellow pure country Texan troubadour Lee Ann Womack for this episode.

And he also features veteran Nu Country FM DJS Mid Pacific Bob Olson, Nipper Mack and Colin Weidner.

Bob returns with his popular cooking segment and Nipper and Colin filmed roots country singer Chris Wall at a Texas country festival.

CLICK HERE for a Wyatt feature from the Diary on October 30, 2005.

GEORGE JONES DEBUT

Texan legend George Jones should be the next country hero to be honoured in a Hollywood movie.

Jones, 74, has been to hell and back in a colourful career that inspired several books including his autobiography I Lived To See It All.

He was featured in Stand By Your Man - the movie about Tammy Wynette, third of his four wives.

The Possum had a flood of hits, including award-winning duets with Tammy, in his chart reign.

But despite an impersonator trying to con 3UZ into thinking he was Jones in the 80's the singer has never toured here.

< George Jones

Jones may only be heard on classic country radio in the new millenium but released two major recent duets and hits albums to showcase one of the greatest voices of all time in country.

He performs his vintage hit You Couldn't Get The Picture for us.

CLICK HERE for a Jones story from the Diary.

LEE ANN WOMACK

Fellow Texan stone country singer Lee Ann Womack was rewarded for her return to stone country with a Grammy and three CMA Awards.

Womack, 39 and mother of two, won her CMA awards for her seventh album There's More Where That Came From (MCA.)

It featured classic country - the roots of the most under represented music genre here in the unlucky radio country.

She scored best album for There's More Where That Came From, best single I May Hate Myself in the Morning and musical event with George Strait, for Good News, Bad News).

The singer performs a video for acclaimed tune Twenty Years And Two Husbands Ago.

CLICK HERE for a Womack story from the Diary on March 28, 2005.

CHRIS WALL - FROM TEXAS WITH LOVE

Rodeo cowboy Chris Wall won lavish airplay on Nu Country FM in its fiery reign from 1994-2001.

Wall's hard-edged roots country was a popular ingredient of shows hosted by Nipper Mack and Colin Weidner.

So the intrepid duo hunted Wall down on a search and destroy mission of Texas and found him at fellow singer Tommy Alverson's annual festival in 2005.

So the lads filmed an interview and live footage of Wall and peers including Steve Young, The Derailers and many more.

Another former Nu Country DJ Leslie Avril also recorded Wall song Trashy Women - a hit for Confederate Railroad - on her third album Cowboy In My Bed.

Weidner, like Avril, suffered for his art - the bearded bard emulated mentor Billy Joe Shaver and had quadruple heart by-pass surgery after his return home.

Colin interviews Wall on this week's show featuring exclusive live festival footage of the singer's new unreleased song We're All In This Together.

Wall is backed by Brad Davis - 10-year veteran of the band of singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Marty Stuart who toured here with Johnny Cash and Cowboy Jack Clement in 1981.

Marty, one of Cash's many musical sons-in-law when wed to Cindy Cash, is now the fourth husband of former Cash duet partner Connie Smith, 17 years his senior.

Meanwhile cameraman Nipper Mack, no relation to the man in black, performs local honky tonks with Very Handsome Men and Stinky Taylor and a world weary Weidner hosts Texas Time Travellin' show on North West FM - 98.9 - on Mondays at 4 p m.

CLICK HERE for a story about Chris Wall from the Diary

MID PACIFIC BOB

Fellow Nu Country DJ and celebrity chef Mid Pacific Bob Olson was busy in the kitchen whipping up new recipes over our long hot summer.

The popular Northcote High School Mathematics lecturer and Nu Country treasurer made sure everything added up for a delicious egg plant dish.

CLICK HERE for more of Mid-Pacific Bob's mouthwatering country recipes.

RUCKUS

Bob was also in attendance when the riveting Ruckus band entertained guests at the 11th Nu Country Christmas party at Hotel Kew with Wyatt and Six Foot Under.

Ruckus violinist Marsela Koldova also played in Wyatt's band during his Australian tour.

The band performs a live version of its original song Pick Yourself Up from its new seven track CD.

Ruckus honed its craft in towns diverse as Tamworth, Tenterfield, Terang and beyond.

It was also one of the headliners of 17th Bunyip Country Music Festival on February 26 with Adam Harvey, Breakers and Cedar Creek.

Cedar Creek features Dave Tyne, his son Clint and brother Mike who played in the Sydney production of The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas.

Dave Tyne also fronted RCA band Grand Junction who opened in Melbourne with the Dead Livers for the Amazing Rhythm Aces and Leon Russell & The Newgrass Revival on their 1980 tour.

Further info - visit www.ruckus.net.au

NATALIE HOWARD

Queensland singer Natalie Howard also performs a video clip of her song You Never Knew Me.

Award winning Australian filmmaker Ross Wood filmed it in rustic Tennessee town Cornersville.

It features fiddler Deann Whalen from Keith Urban video clip But For The Grace of God, drummer Bryan Pruitt from Bobby Pinson's band and Kentucky born Nashville hit songwriter James Dean Hicks.

The Redcliffe born chanteuse is celebrating making the finals of 2006 International Songwriting competition with two originals - The Long Night and I Don't Want To Love Like That.

Natalie wrote The Long Night with Nashville hit writers Terry McBride of McBride & The Ride fame and Tommy Lee.

I Don't Want to Live Like That has also just been released as Natalie's debut single in the US.

Natalie performed that song with Hicks - one of many collaborators and duet partners.

The singer commutes between her Gold Coast home and Nashville where she is now on a writing sojourn before the finals in March.

Howard has won hefty ABC and community radio airplay for those songs on debut indie album Yesterday's Make-up.

Natalie has a also released a new radio single Is It Just Me - penned with singer Rob Crosby and Craig Carp.

CLICK HERE for a Natalie Howard feature from the Diary on July 5, 2005.

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