DAVE'S DIARY - 18 JULY 2017 - PREVIEW OF EPISODE 2 - SERIES 33

SINGING ACTOR TRACE ADKINS HEADLINES NU COUNTRY TV

Trace Adkins and fellow singing actor and comedian Rodney Carrington headline Nu Country TV on Saturday July 22 at 9 pm on Channel 31/Digital 44.

North Carolina Presbyterian minister's son and frequent Australian tourist Jim Lauderdale joins the duo in Behind Bars with live footage from one of his Nashville TV concerts.

Texan Miranda Lambert returns to the program, hosted by Mid Pacific Bob Olson and repeated Sunday 1 am and Monday 8 am, with a song she penned with fellow Texans Jon Randall and Jack Ingram.

South Carolina star Lee Brice also returns to the show, filmed and edited by Laith Graham, with a video filmed after he first toured Australia .

Rowville singer-songwriter Rick Hart headed north to Coburg and Tallimba troubadour Fanny Lumsden revisits her family farm in the shadows of Mt Buffalo to perform their new videos.

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.

TRACE TREATS TEXAN RODNEY WITH TUNEFUL THERAPY IN BEHIND BARS

Trace Adkins performed in his two most recent movies with Rhodes Scholar and octogenarian singer song-writer-actor Kris Kristofferson.

But this week another singing Texan actor Rodney Carrington benefits from Trace's thespian therapy in their video for I Got My Game On.

Carrington, 48 and father of three, opens Behind Bars with Romantic Song To My Wife - replete with salient sting in the tail of the tawdry tale.

Adkins, 55 and father of five daughters, then delivers diagnoses to Carrington in his surgery as popular medic Dr Ben Dover for another ailment involving his failure in romance.

Thrice wed Trace's therapy enables Carrington to boomerang in his romantic revolution that turns shopping into a humorous home delivery.

I Got My Game On is on his 14th album American Man Greatest Hits Volume 2.

Trace is well qualified to give marital advice - his second wife Julie shot him in the lungs and heart in 1994.

He has also appeared in 24 movies and TV shows.

Trace starred with Texan Oscar winner Matthew McConaughey in The Lincoln Lawyer and appeared in Wyatt Earp's Revenge, An American Carol, Mom's Night Out, Deepwater Horizon & Stagecoach: The Texas Jack Story.

He and Kris, who first appeared together in Traded in 2016, are reunited in new western movie Hickok , about the infamous life of Wild Bill Hickok.

Adkins plays saloon owner Phil Poe and Kristofferson is cast as George Knox - mayor of Abilene Kansas.

Oscar-nominated Australian actor Luke Hemsworth stars in his first lead role as Hickok , the main lawman-gunslinger, and Bruce Dern plays Doc Rivers O'Rourke.

Hickok gave Kristofferson an opportunity to reunite with Adkins whose character Phil Poe - an influential saloon owner - puts a bounty on Hickok's head.

“In Traded I didn't have the chance to actually work with Trace - we filmed on different days,” Kristofferson revealed.

“So this was a great opportunity. He treats me like I am taller than he is, and he towers over me. He is larger than life and a very gifted artist.”

Hickok's July 7 release was a year after Kristofferson revealed he suffered from Lyme disease that decimated his memory and caused major health issues before his recovery.

“I am feeling pretty darn good, considering I am 81 and I am still able to do what I love,” Kristofferson explained.

“We started another Scandinavian and European concert tour in Sweden on June 13 and end in the Faroe Islands on July 15. I really can't complain, I feel very blessed.”

Hickok was a natural fit for Kris who has an affinity for old-school Westerns.

“I don't think I've ever turned down any Western, ever,” added Kristofferson who made his big acting debut in 1971.

Kris starred in many movies including A Star is Born, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, Blume in Love, Crisco Pike, Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, Blade and Planet of the Apes.

Adkins video sidekick Carrington appeared with fellow Texan Willie Nelson and Oklahoma star Toby Keith in their 2008 movie Beer For my Horses, has released seven albums and hosted his own TV sitcom.

He hails from Longview - same hometown as Oscar winning actor Matthew McConaughey and fellow country stars Miranda Lambert, also on this week's show, and Neal McCoy.

Carrington performed Crown Casino last year and lives in Bixby - a suburb of Tulsa , Oklahoma .

CLICK HERE for a Trace Adkins CD review in The Diary on July 6, 2009.

JIM LAUDERDALE RETURNS TO THE BIG TIME

Singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Jim Lauderdale is no stranger to the stage and screen in his 40 year career that included roles in George Strait movie Pure Country, Big Bad John, The Gun In Betty's Handbag, Transamerica and Country Strong with Tim McGraw and Sandra Bullock.

He also appeared in the Nashville TV series, True Blood , Jeremy Dylan documentary The King Of Broken Hearts and Peter Bogdanovich directed 1993 movie The Thing Called Love - the story of Nashville 's famed Bluebird Café.

That movie starred Joaquin Phoenix, Dermot Mulroney, Samantha Mathis and Sandra Bullock with cameos by Jim, Pam Tillis, K.T Oslin, Webb Wilder, Earl Poole Ball, Deborah Allen, Jo-El Sonnier, Vernon Oxford, Kevin Welch, Rosie Flores, James Intveld, Trisha Yearwood and Texans Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Dale Watson and Katy Moffatt.

Jim's Australian debut was at the Corner Hotel , Richmond , in 2002 with Canadians Fred Eaglesmith and Jason McCoy, Kim Richey and late Tasmanian troubadour Audrey Auld.

This week Jim, 60, performs This Is The Big Time live on Music City Roots TV in Nashville.

Lauderdale recorded 29 solo albums and others with partners diverse as Buddy Miller, Robert Hunter, Dr Ralph Stanley & The Clinch Mountain Boys and Donna The Buffalo .

His most recent are This Changes Everything in 2016 and London Southern in 2017.

CLICK HERE for a Jim Lauderdale feature in The Diary on December 14, 2006.

MIRANDA LAMBERT UNPLUGS A TIN MAN

Texan troubadour Miranda Lambert performs an unplugged bath-room cut of her song Tin Man written with fellow Texans Jon Randall and Jack Ingram.

She performed Tin Man live on the 2017 Academy of Country Music Awards but it was definitely not about former singing spouse Blake Shelton or new beau Easton Anderson.

Tin Man is on the 33-year-old's seventh album The Weight Of These Wings, certified platinum for one million sales.

Miranda has also made two albums with Ashley Monroe and Angaleena Presley as The Pistol Annies.

She also runs the Mutt Nation dog shelter and is executive producer of new movie Something's in the Water - a friendship comedy set in the South that follows the journey of five Southern women who challenge their men to a bass fishing contest.

Lambert, a prolific writer, also penned an original song for the movie that stars comedienne Grace Helbig and is co-written and directed by Trey Fanjoy.

Miranda has long been a keen canine rescuer despite some setbacks.

“My dogs have chewed a lot of interesting things. The only Louis Vuitton purse I ever owned was given to me, and it lost its handles really quickly,” Miranda confessed.

“If you are not a dog lover yet, you should become one. And I would say adopt, don't shop - love a shelter pet.”

CLICK HERE for a feature on The Weight Of These Wings in The Diary on March 20, 2017.

LEE BRICE CELEBRATES BOYS

South Carolina singer Lee Brice celebrates boys - his two sons - in his new video for Boy from his fourth album released two years after his Australian tour.

Brice delivered salient advice to his sons Takoda and Ryker Mobley for their life journey - not just fishing and sport depicted in his video.

Boy interweaves a story - not just about sons but as much about fathers.

It can even hit an emotional note with mothers.

It's a song about life and the passage of time and depicts new perspectives on an old theme.

Brice, 38, and then pregnant wife Sara, also in the video, now have a daughter Trulee Nanette.

Boy was penned by Nicolle Galyon and Jon Nite who also co-wrote Keith Urban and Miranda Lambert duet We Were Us .

It's the first album Lee has released since 2016 disc A Little More Love - his duet with label mate Jerrod Niemann.

His 2012 album Hard 2 Love was certified Gold and contained 2013 CMA Song of the Year, I Drive Your Truck .

Lee released third album I Don't Dance in 2014.

CLICK HERE for a Lee Brice interview in The Diary on May 30, 2010.

RICK HART – FROM ROWVILLE TO COBURG

Rick Hart drove northwest from Rowville to Coburg to bare his heartbreak in his live performance video.

Fellow musician Michael Carpenter filmed To The Grave in a house on the mean streets of Coburg near the old Pentridge prison.

The song is on Rick's debut album Let Me In .

Rick filmed his previous video for Driver Alone en route to Flinders beach.

In an earlier appearance on Nu Country he filmed Hummingbirds at Olinda in the Dandenong Ranges.

And Spiral - title track of his debut EP - was filmed on the historic streets of Carlton and Fitzroy with landmarks such as a small post office in Carlton and alleys off Nicholson and Brunswick Streets in Fitzroy.

He also showcased clever use of a Levon Helm metaphor in his Levon video.

Helm, late singing-drummer for the famed Bob Dylan discovery The Band also played Loretta Lynn's dad in the Coal-Miner's Daughter movie.

Further info - www.rickhartmusic.com

FANNY LUMSDEN TRIES TALLIMBA TOTEM TENNIS

 

Tallimba troubadour Fanny Lumsden returns to her family farm near Mt Buffalo for a popular family game.

The Golden Guitarist's family and friends played Totem Tennis in the bush - not on Margaret's court.

It was inspired by Fanny's granny's 90th birthday.

“I suppose it's a little about expectations and pressure people put on themselves, and how heading out to the backyard and hitting a ball on a string, can be a real leveller,” Fanny revealed.

“I got the idea for the song when we were at a big family gathering for my grandma's 90th and my sister and cousins were out the back with a beer, battling it out on the totem tennis.”

The video, set on the farm near Tallimba, population 150, features many of the local community exuding nostalgia and charm.

“I absolutely love working with director Anna Phillips and Sam Brumby, they really connect with our aesthetic and are dead set legends to work with,” Fanny added.

“We want to shout out to the Tallimba community for all getting involved and sweating it out with us in the 40 degree heat and also to Meg Hardie (my auntie) for being such an amazing accidental producer!”

It's the fourth video she filmed outside her home town from debut album Small Town Big Shot .

Fanny, now 30, and musician brother Tom head her Thrill Seekers band on their Country Halls tours to promote her album, produced by Matt Fell.

They also help raise funds for community halls, foster local talent and run workshops.

“We completed our third country hall tour in the Riverina last year where we played in the small towns of Tooma, Rand, Jugiong, Weethalle and Grong Grong,” says Fanny who grew up on the family's sheep and cropping farm.

“The idea for country hall tours started three years ago when there were bad floods and many halls were damaged.

“We teamed up with Blaze Aid - an organisation that helps rural communities during natural disasters - and did some shows in these towns to raise money to repair the halls.

“Aside from the farm there's a real passion for music in my family and everyone sings or plays a musical instrument, so I was constantly involved in music, whether it was in the lounge room or out camping.”

When Fanny studied rural science at the University of New England she got serious about song-writing.

“I think because my degree was science and factual focused it made me more creative in my writing.”

Fanny's second album Real Class Act is out on September 22.

Further info - http://www.fannylumsden.net/

HOW TO KEEP NU COUNTRY ON AIR

We need your support as we celebrate Nu Country TV's 33rd 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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