DAVE'S DIARY - 29 MAY 2017 - PREVIEW OF EPISODE 18 - SERIES 32

NU COUNTRY TV HOST LEE KERNAGHAN RETURNS AS HEADLINER

Former Australian Of The Year and Nu Country TV host Lee Kernaghan returns as show headliner Saturday June 3 at 9 pm on Channel 31/Digital 44.

Kernaghan's 2012 Australian tour partner Dierks Bentley and Georgian Cole Swindell also guest on the program repeated Sunday 1 am and Monday 8 am.

Reverend Billy C Wirtz performs a humorous health homily on erectile malfunction Behind Bars on the show hosted by Mid Pacific Bob Olson and filmed and edited by Laith Graham.

Californian Jon Pardi compliments the good Reverend with his heartache on the dance floor.

Hunter Valley raised singer-songwriter Kirsty Lee Akers and Louisiana singer Kim Carson explore the perils of drinking in their new video clips.

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/series/487

Viewers can access new and previous Nu Country TV shows at the same link.

LEE CELEBRATES OUTBACK CLUB REUNION

Corryong born Australian country music king Lee Kernaghan celebrates his 25 th Boys From The Bush anniversary with his live Outback Club Reunion video clip .

Lee, 53 and father of two sons, headlined the Powercorp Country Music Festival at Yarra Park before emulating singing Perth crime novelist Dave Warner by performing at half-time in the Essendon-Geelong game at the MCG.

Kernaghan and fellow country star Kasey Chambers are high profile Carlton supporters and are preferred options for an AFL Grand final performance.

Sadly his recent MCG performance did not impact on Geelong players Stevie Motlop and Rhys Stanley - renowned country music fans.

They were pre-occupied with dealing with injuries in the Cats half time recovery session before returning to the playing field and defeat by Essendon.

CLICK HERE for the Powercorp country festival review in our Concert Section.

CLICK HERE for a previous interview with Lee in the Diary on January 16, 2013.

COLE SWINDELL AND DIERKS BENTLEY FLATLINERS

Georgian Cole Swindell and Arizona native Dierks Bentley return to the show with their new duet Flatliner from Cole's second album You Should Be Here.

Swindell's album title was inspired by his late father Bill's mentoring as he developed his singing and writing hits for major stars.

Bill died at 65 on September 2, 2013 on the eve of the release of the self-titled debut album by Cole who turns 34 on June 30.

Phoenix born Bentley, now 41, toured Australia with Lee Kernaghan in March 2012 - their sold out St Kilda Palais concert attracted former St Kilda captain Nick Riewoldt and high flying Carlton forward Andrew Walker and team-mate David Ellard.

CLICK HERE for a Swindell CD feature in The Diary on July 25, 2016.

CLICK HERE for a Bentley feature in The Diary on July 25, 2016.

REVEREND BILLY C WIRTZ SUFFERS PIANIST ENVY LIVE

Floridian comedic cleric Reverend Billy C Wirtz performs a self-deprecatory libido challenged homily live in his Behind Bars debut.

The former wrestling commentator sings of his painful pianist envy in What I Used To Do All Night from his sixth album Unchained Maladies.

The 63-year-old South Carolina born bon vivant bought his mail order ministry ordination for the princely sum of $3.

Although he sings of his erectile shortcoming he can't blame it on his genetics - his father worked for the United States Atomic Energy Commission.

Billy was a popular artist during our Nu Country FM radio era at Beer Can Hill in Northcote and Harley House at the Paris, Texas, end of Collins St.

His 14 albums date back to 1989 debut disc Deep Fried & Sanctified and include Pianist Envy, Salvation Through Polyester, Backslider's Tractor Pull, A Turn For the Wirtz: Confessions of a Hillbilly Love God, Songs of Faith and Inflammation, Rev Elation and Sermon from Bethlehem.

The towering, tattooed troubadour stands 6 foot 5 inches and was born in aptly named Aiken, South Carolina.

He has a degree in nursing but mastered in satire with songs diverse as Right Wing Round-Up, A Pinhead Will Survive, The King Gets A Day Job, Margarita Hell, Mama Was A Deadhead, Daddy Was A Sensitive Man, Freeway To Stairbird, The Woman On Page 63 and Conspiracy Boogie .

He also released compilations Full Circle , Best Of The Wirtz - 18 Years On The Road With A 77 inch Pianist - and The Platinum Collection Vol. 2 Preachers, Wrestlers, & A Couple Cross Dressers.

His bands included The Polyester Prophets.

Further info - http://revbillycwirtz.com/

JON PARDI SUFFERS HEARTACHE ON THE DANCE FLOOR

California singer Jon Pardi's bodily problems paled in comparison to those of the good Reverend.

Pardi, 31, performs his video for Heartache On The Dance Floor from his second album California Sunrise.

The singer previously appeared on Nu Country with his songs Dirt On My Boots, Head Over Boots and Back On The Back Roads.

He also visited the Whiskey Bent Saloon in Nashville to film another video for What I Can't Put Down.

Pardi grew up in Dixon but ignited his career at Butte Junior College in Chico where he started Northern Comfort and moved to Nashville on February 23, 2008, with his dog, PA system and $7,000 savings.

He used a credit card to pay for lifeguard training to earn money until he landed a publishing deal 18 months later.

Two early collaborations Write You a Song and Fighting The Fool landed him his contract.

Further info - http://www.jonpardi.com/welcome.html

KIRSTY LEE AKERS SOBER

Hunter Valley singer-songwriter Kirsty Lee Akers kicks off our drinking double shot with some salient advice to a whiskey warrior.

Wake Me Up When You Are Sober is on her fourth album Burn Baby Burn .

It follows another popular video for the prolific songwriter - Ain't That Kinda Girl .

Kirsty, now 29, increased her following south of the Murray Dixon line when she toured Victoria with Texan troubadour Hayes Carll in 2012.

Her album also includes I Will written for husband Jesse Anderson whom she wed at Pokolbin near the former CMC Rocks The Hunter festival site in the winery belt on April 4, 2014.

“I never wrote a song about him before even though we've been together 11 years,” Akers revealed of her love ballad about her husband whom she met two decades ago in kindergarten and dated from high school.

“I thought it was about time.”

Akers explored eternal love and explained their choice of wedding date.

“Four is my lucky number and we had also been engaged for four years, so this seemed like the obvious date for us,” Akers said at the time.

Kirsty and Jesse commute between Nashville - where she writes and performs with diverse peers - and their Hunter Valley home.

“Jesse has been with me through it all and he fits right in in Nashville,” Akers confessed.

“He's very down to earth and he doesn't like the spotlight, which is great for me because he keeps me grounded. I don't think I could be with another musician.”

Jesse has been with Akers since she released her first EP at 16, debut album The Little Things in 2007 and became only act to win the trifecta - Toyota Star Maker, Telstra Road to Discovery and a Golden Guitar .

CLICK HERE for a Kirsty Lee feature in The Diary on June 4, 2016.

KIM CARSON - ACTING SINGLE DRINKING DOUBLES

Louisiana legend Kim Carson sings of how whiskey is a mood modifier in her love life in the second snifter in our drinking double shot.

The Oklahoma born former DJ filmed I Only Like You When I'm Drinking live in Germany on one of her many tours in her 20 year career.

Carson survived Hurricane Katrina when the floods took everything but her guitar, boots and Levis.

Earlier she lost her fiancé and love of her life in a 2000 jet-ski accident and soon afterwards fought off a gunman at her home.

"I didn't care if they sent me to see him but I wasn't going to lose anything else. I just felt I had lost enough so I refused to give my money, my gig bag, my guitar," Carson revealed.

The perpetrator said he was going to kill her.

"Over what? Something you can't use and I need to make a living. No."

Carson says the bandit got frustrated and "either he tried to pull the trigger and angels jammed the gun, or he put on a big show like he was going to do it and I stared him down. Anyway, he left."

The singer was raised in Canyon, Texas near Amarillo and splits her time between Houston, Texas and New Orleans.

After Hurricane Katrina , she moved to Texas to form the band Buffalo Speedway , and eventually moved back to rebuild her house in New Orleans in 2008

Her 10 th album has the apt title Enough Heart Left To Break .

“I describe our music as renegade honky-tonk”, Carson explained.

“It's straight up Texas honky tonk with a dash of Louisiana spice. The music on country radio today really isn't country. It's slick and sounds like pop music. We play the raw twang sounds of the Texas roadhouses and honky-tonks. The renegade part comes from the energy and outlaw attitude of artists like Waylon Jennings or David Alan Coe.”

Carson owes her music roots to her family.

“Music has always been part of me,” Carson revealed.

“I really think I need it like sunshine. I had another career and my grandmother said she had always hoped I'd be a singer. I sang around the house when I was about three years old then I got shy and never sang in front of anyone but I played piano and oboe.

“When my grandma died I decided to give singing a try. In 1993 I started singing with a friend's band.

“Around 1994 my granddad called me and said he'd had a dream that I had written a song and it was a good song. He told me to try to write one. I wrote Where's A Jukebox ? I began playing guitar soon after so I could continue to write.”

What about romance and companionship?

“I'm not married, no children but I have a very nice dog named Bob that adopted me ten years ago,” says Carson who works with her bands including The Real Deal and The Casualties .

“Bob goes everywhere with me except Europe.”

Further info - www.KimCarson.com

HOW TO KEEP NU COUNTRY ON AIR

We need your support as we celebrate Nu Country TV's 32 nd series with Australian record companies and artists teaming to ensure our survival.

We have Kasey Chambers 11th CD Dragonfly and Blake Shelton's 12th CD If I'm Honest from Karen Black and Tony Midolo at Warner Music.

We also have other CDS by major artists you can win by becoming a Nu Country TV member or renewing membership.

They include singing actor Tim McGraw, Ashley Monroe, Brad Paisley, Carrie Underwood, Gary Allan, Dierks Bentley, Eric Church and more.

CLICK HERE for our Membership Page for full details.

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