DAVE'S DIARY - 1 JUNE 2015 - PREVIEW OF EPISODE 1 - SERIES 27
TOBY, RACHEL & BILLY FROM THE BOTTLE TO THE BIBLE
Oklahoma superstar Toby Keith, Indiana singer Rachel Timberlake and Virginia coalminer's son Billy Payne headline the Nu Country TV series 27 premiere with a trilogy of drinking songs on Saturday June 6 at 10.30 pm on Channel 31, Digital 44.
The trio explore humour and redemption in their videos on a show repeated Monday 5.30 am and 2.30 pm, Wednesday 7.30 am and Thursday 2.30 am.
Texan Eric Paslay also returns to the program filmed and edited by Laith Graham.
Singing South Carolina actor Josh Turner keeps the roots country flame burning and Georgian Erica Sunshine Lee debuts with the Novocastrian Viper Creek Band.
Nu Country TV is a highlight of C 31 streaming list on Digital 44.
Just follow this link on your computer or mobile phone - http://www.c31.org.au/program/view/program/nu-country-tv
KEITH CELEBRATES DRUNK AMERICANS
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Singing actor Toby Keith, 54 and father of three, gets animated with a bunch of drinking mates in his video for Drunk Americans - sequel to his 19th album Drinks After Work that he promoted on his 2014 Australian tour. Shotgun Willie Nelson - duet partner from his movie Beer For My Horses - heads the cast that includes Floridian singing sailor, pilot and occasional Aussie touring partner Jimmy Buffett. |
Toby and Jimmy released a liquid video for Too Drunk To Karaoke from Buffett's 2013 album Songs From St. Somewhere.
President Barack Obama also joins late slave freedom pioneer Abraham Lincoln, Michael Jackson, Santa, Jesus and Elvis Presley in colourful cameos.
With delicious irony the song's writers are aptly named dual Grammy nominee-singer-songwriter Brandy Clark and singer-actress Pam Tillis's second spouse Bob DiPiero.
DiPiero, wed to Florida born Tillis from 1991-1998, appeared live on Nu Country FM at Beer Can Hill on his Aussie visit.
That was after two tours by Pam - 57 and daughter of prolific singer-songwriter Mel Tillis.
Mel, father of six, joins Shotgun Willie Nelson in the performing saddle at the ripe young age of 82.
Absent from the video is Toby's singer daughter Krystal Keith whose recent baby was his third grandchild.
Krystal and husband Andrew Sandubrae have been married since 2010 - Toby's oldest daughter Shelley has two children.
She made her Grand Ole Opry debut last July and opened up for her dad on his Shut Up and Hold On Tour with rapper Colt Ford.
Her most recent CD was Whiskey & Lace in 2013.
CLICK HERE for a Toby feature in The Diary on January 18, 2014.
CLICK HERE for our membership page to win two Toby CDS.
RACHEL TIMBERLAKE SPREADS HER WHISKEY BENT WINGS
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Indiana singing school teacher Rachel Timberlake had good reason to record booze warning tune Whiskey Bent Wings with her video.
Rachel and her band were heading home from a show in Savannah, Georgia in late 2013, when they were involved in a horrific accident with a drunk driver.
No lives were lost but it forced the band off the road for months as they recovered from injuries and worked to replace their equipment.
The accident helped them refocus and provided inspiration for the American Made album.
“After we recovered, we had time to reflect on the situation, and it was obvious to us that there was a greater plan for all of us,” Rachel revealed.
Ironically, they finished recording the new album exactly one year to the week after the accident.
Rachel was a collegiate basketball player before injuries ended her athletic endeavours and she turned to teaching.
"I've really enjoyed teaching. It's been a stable, though certainly demanding job, but it's helped me professionally and personally,” she explained.
“When the children in my class have heard about me singing, they've been very supportive. While music is something I feel ready for and a challenge that excites me, I'm not just going to toss aside teaching and overlook what it's done for me."
Rachel resisted the temptation to relocate to Nashville.
"We had a great life and were happy prior to music," Timberlake recalled.
"We tried to start a family of our own without success and my perspective on life drastically changed. I grew up planning my adult life as far as school, marriage, a home and a family. But one day I woke up and realised that I was not in control, and couldn't plan every detail of my life. I realised that you must trust that God's plan is right and follow his lead even though it may not be what you want at the time. Through that I have found a new passion, entertaining through music. When I get on stage it is an adrenaline rush like no other and I love going on the road and putting on high energy shows. If that path someday brings me to Nashville, then I'll be thrilled and happy to come."
Further info - http://www.racheltimberlake.com/
BILLY PAYNE SWAPS BOTTLE FOR A BIBLE
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Virginia coalminer's son Billy Payne - an ex-member of the late Waylon Jennings famed Waylors - swaps his bottle for a bible in his drinking conversion video in Behind Bars . Payne, not to be mistaken with the Little Feat keyboard player and one time producer of chart topping Shipwreck Coast band Goanna , ascends from a bar stool to a church pew with a front seat view Bottle To the Bible was poured from the pen of his manager - former Waylor Jerry Bridges. Payne drove a roll call of honky tonk heroes in his previous video for his song Gypsy from his fifth CD Genuine Leather after he debuted on our show in 2013 with a tribute to late outlaw country king boss Waylon Jennings. Payne learned guitar at 12 and records and works with The Waylors. |
He has released several albums, utilising the production and musical skills of Waylon's band and producers.
During 1991 he joined Country Tradition and Bandolero before forming his own band Sidewinder.
He recorded debut disc No Limit On Love in Nashville in 2000 and second CD Back To The Simple Life in 2005, Country Till I Die and Spirit of An Outlaw.
Payne co-wrote all songs on the latter with his producer-manager Jerry Bridges and recorded another project with The Waylors - Carter Robertson, Jeff Hale, Kevin Madill and Reggie Young
Further info - https://www.facebook.com/billypaynecountry
ERIC PASLAY FRIDAY NIGHT
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Abilene hit writer Eric Paslay, just 32, returns with his first #5 smash hit Friday Night - also cut by prolific Grammy winning Georgian March tourists Lady Antebellum.
Paslay showcases a Nashville travelogue in a candy red rag top in his video with a vast cast including Big Kenny who also toured here in March with Big & Rich .
It followed another hit Song About You .
It's from Eric's 700 song catalogue that includes She Don't Love You (She's Just Lonely) - third single from his self-titled debut album and written by Paslay and Jennifer Wayne but originally intended for someone else.
“We initially were trying to write a song for George Strait, because he had just announced that he was doing the Cowboy Rides Away Tour,” Paslay revealed.
“And Jen Wayne's grandfather is John Wayne, so she knows a lot about cowboys. So we were trying to just write that song, and we didn't quite have it.
“And in the midst, like songwriters do, of writing a song, just cutting up and small talk and this and that, and I think I said, you know, ‘She don't love you,' or she said, ‘She don't love you,' and I said, ‘Yeah, she's just lonely.' Just kind of joking around or something. Forty-five minutes later, we had written She Don't Love You .”
Although Paslay co-wrote Eli Young's Even if It Breaks Your Heart , Jake Owen's Barefoot Blue Jean Night and Love and Theft's Angel Eyes he had plenty of spares from his deep catalogue.
He co-wrote all 11 tunes including Country Side Of Heaven featuring Little Big Town and forgiveness fired Less Than Whole with Big Kenny Alphin.
At 6 ft. 6 in the old currency he towers above peers on stage but shares propensity for hook heavy love songs like Pontiac driven entrée Keep On Fallin , the black dress belle in Never Really Wanted and seasonal romance in Here Comes Love .
Further info - http://www.ericpaslay.com/
JOSH TURNER LAYS LOW
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South Carolina star and actor Josh Turner, now 37, has long kept the flame of true country burning He performs in his video for Lay Low from his eighth album, released this year. Josh was cast as George Beverly Shea in 2008 Billy Graham movie - The Early Years . He previously fulfilled his desire to procreate in his previous video on Nu Country for Find Me A Baby from his seventh album Punching Bag . Josh and wife Jennifer have created three children on their South Carolina farm. Turner also has a log cabin where he can retreat and write songs to feed their babies. |
Josh lost beloved bloodhound Moses - an extra in videos - aged 6 on September 24, 2010
CLICK HERE for a Turner CD review from the Diary on December 11, 2007
ERICA SUNSHINE LEE SAVED ON NEWCASTLE BEACH
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Georgia born Nashville singer Erica Sunshine Lee is joined by the Novocastrian Viper Creek Band in her video You Saved Me from fifth album The South Will Rise Again .
Erica proved no bridge was too hard to cross when the surf was up while filming the video on a beach at Newcastle during her 2015 Aussie tour.
She performed in Tamworth and duets with Viper Creek guitarist Damien Bagley who inspired the song.
“I asked him what got on his nerves about his wife and he replied, ‘Nothing, she's an absolute angel and she saved me,'” Erica revealed.
“We wrote about their relationship, how they met, the struggle with him partying and living a different lifestyle and how that all turned around after they met. It is truly a beautiful love story!”
Erica's humour emerges on an album featuring all originals - All My Bucks Go To Starbucks and How ‘Bout Them Dawgs are a salient signpost .
Entrée Girls Night Out, Georgia For This and Everyone Loves A Country, Girl are complimented by Train Wreck and The South Will Rise Again title track.
Former Greencards fiddler Eamon McLaughlin spices up guitar driven Georgia For This .
“I was hanging out in Nashville with my friend Joe Denim and we were discussing what I experienced while living in California,” Erica revealed of the song's source.
“I told him how people in California tend to watch what they eat and how I love food too much to sit around and eat salad, how I would rather eat steak or fried catfish. I mentioned that California diets consist of tofu and avocado and he said, ‘Tofu and avocado don't make a meal.' I told him how I missed going out to the lake catfish fishing, eating fried chicken, frog giggin', tires spinning in that Georgia day, muddying up my Chevrolet. He loved it and the rest (of the song) flowed out in about an hour.
“When we finished writing the song at my home in Nashville, we went across the street to Elm Hill Marina, to Pirate's Cove and we celebrated with fried catfish, french-fries and sweet tea. My favourite song Georgia For This was born!”
Further info - http://www.ericasunshinelee.com/
HOW TO KEEP NU COUNTRY ON AIR
We need your support as we celebrate the 27th series of Nu Country TV.
Australian record companies and artists have joined forces to ensure our survival.
We have new CDS by major artists you can win by becoming a Nu Country TV member or renewing your membership.
They include singing actors Willie Nelson and Tim McGraw, Voice judge Blake Shelton, Ashley Monroe, Brad Paisley, Gary Allan, Toby Keith, Dierks Bentley, Eric Church, Chris Young, Charley Pride, Slim Dusty, Rosanne Cash and more.
We also have DVDS by Lady Antebellum.
CLICK HERE for our Membership Page for full details.