DAVE'S DIARY - 2/12/2019 - PREVIEW OF EPISODE 2 - SERIES 42

BLAKE SHELTON HEADLINES NU COUNTRY TV

Oklahoma singer-songwriter and Voice judge and mentor Blake Shelton and fellow singing actor Trace Adkins headline Nu Country TV on Saturday December 7 at 9.30 pm on Channel 31/ Digital 44.

Texan singer-songwriter Holly Tucker - one of Blake's 2013 Voice team - returns to the show, repeated Monday at 7.30 am.

Fellow Texan singing rancher George Strait and Winton farmer Alli Ryan appear in Behind Bars on the program filmed and edited by Laith Graham.

Wangaratta born, latter day Nashville singer-songwriter Jade Gibson and expat Kiwi Matt Joe Gow continue our bush theme.

Nu Country TV is a highlight of C 31 streaming list on Digital 44.

Further info - https://www.c31.org.au/

BLAKE AND TRACE FULLY LOADED

Twin towers Blake Shelton and not so little mate Trace Adkins join forces in their latest appearance on our show.

They perform a vibrant video for Hell Right on Blake's 14th album Fully Loaded: God's Country, is released on December 13 for Christmas.

Blake, 43, courted Gwen Stefani after divorcing Miranda Lambert and Louisiana man Trace, now 57, is father of five daughters.

They raised a little hell with a vast cast of good old boys and gal pals at a Friday night party and rodeo romp that ended like a Deni Ute Muster or CMC festival.

Adkins has appeared in 24 movies and telemovies and released 12 studio albums and other compilation discs.

His movies include The Lincoln Lawyer, Hickock, Traded or Stagecoach: The Texas Jack Story, Trailer Park Of Terror, An American Carol, Bennett's War and The Virginian.

CLICK HERE for a Blake feature in The Diary on June 11, 2018.

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

HOLLY TUCKER COUNTRY VOICE GRADUATE

Texan belle Holly Tucker is no relation to fellow Lone Star State legend Tanya Tucker but was a member of Blake Shelton's Voice team in 2013.

Holly, 26, performs Country Music Won't Let Me on her third album Steel.

She exhibited a footwear fetish in her Dallas On Your Boots video on Nu Country TV on December 16, 2017.

Holly hails from Lorena in Waco - birthplace of Grammy winning recent tourist, author, comedian and banjo ace Steve Martin.

Another frequent Australian tourist Billy Joe Shaver, now aged 80, hangs his hat in Waco when not on the road or Willie Nelson picnics.

Lorena is also the locale of Papa Joe's saloon.

That's where thrice wed Billy Joe shot a man in the cheek for stirring his whiskey with a knife.

Former choir girl Holly would have turned the other cheek - she grew up singing in church and playing fairs and festivals around Texas.

At 14 she recorded debut CD album It's About Time, sang on demos in Nashville and cut a second CD at 17.

Holly graduated Baylor University in Waco with a Communications degree in 2015.

She was selected in 2012 for a student-run record label, recorded original 3-song EP Something To Be Said , turned all four chairs on The Voice on Blake's team and made over 15 trips to Nashville to record, co-write and perform.

Holly has opened for peers diverse as Tracy Byrd, Willie Nelson, Neal McCoy, Linda Davis, Clint Black, Oak Ridge Boys , Stoney LaRue, Parker McCollum, Ray Johnston and Hudson Moore,

Her international visits included Uganda where she was first American country music artist to appear in support of the only country music radio voice in Africa .

“I may be young but I know who I am and what I stand for, especially when it comes to creating country music,” Tucker says.

“I'm real and it's important that my music is too.”

Holly is the youngest of three children of Johnny and Cheryl Tucker, founders of the eighties Christian band, Revised Edition .

Further info - http://hollytucker.com/

GEORGE STRAIT LIVE BEHIND BARS

Texan singing rancher George Strait returns to Behind Bars as he celebrates different bars in his latest video.

Strait, 67, boosted his liquidity with his own brand of Codigo whiskey, replete with its own song and video, and many hits in his lucrative career that began on the family ranch in Poteet.

George may have suffered drought on his farms but eases the pain by headlining his own tours.

He performs his live video for Every Little Honky Tonk Bar from his huge selling 30th album Honky Tonk Time Machine.

His Friday night long weekend celebration is on his 27th #1 album, released, in April.

Strait co-wrote eight songs on the disc that he is promoting with selected gigs in his home state and Las Vegas during spring.

Sadly, he has never made it to Australia despite expressing a desire to tour her in a 1983 interview I did with him on his tour bus at the Aqua Festival in Austin.

CLICK HERE for that interview in The Diary on November 16, 2011.

ALLI RYAN DROUGHT BREAKER IN WINTON

Winton farmer and singer-songwriter Alli Ryan debuts in Behind Bars with a timely drought song.

Her farm is in northern NSW near Tamworth .

It should not be confused with the Victorian town of the same name famous for car racing or the Queensland city - locale of annual Way Out West Festival that featured artists diverse as Texan Lukas Nelson, Georgian Kip Moore, Lee Brice and Charlie Worsham.

Alli, mother of three, helped keep dingoes from her door as a teenager by singing bush ballads with peers including Jim Haynes.

She filmed I Still Choose This Life in March on her family farm and released the video in June with proceeds to Rotary drought relief.

Alli stopped performing while raising her three children on the farm but indulged her passion for writing music and poetry.

But this year while watching her family and many other farming families struggle through one of the worst droughts in history, she felt the time was right.

Alli wrote I Still Choose This Life - the touching story of farmers' love for the land - and released it in March.

She felt the song needed to be heard and through music she could share the story of our farmers.

With many other songs scribbled in her songbook Alli plans to share more of her stories about life on the land.

Further info - https://www.facebook.com/pg/Alli-Ryan-2308131606137769/posts/

JADE GIBSON STARTS AGAIN IN NASHVILLE

Wangaratta born Jade Gibson began singing at 14 in her north east Victorian hometown Wangaratta.

She grew up singing, dancing and performing in high school productions but after 400 gigs in the bush and beyond she headed north to chase success in music mecca Nashville .

“I love being involved in the storytelling of country music and there is nothing like a banjo or fiddle to really get you up and dance,” Jade revealed.

Jade, now 21, completed a music business course at Belmont University in Music City and sang for her supper at famed Nashville venues Tootsies, Belcourt Taps and Honky Tonk Central.

This week she debuts on Nu Country with her video for Start Again that she wrote in September last year with Taylor Foley.

It's an autobiographical track about a personal relationship - a post break-up tearjerker, expressing a desperate feeling of not wanting to move on and instead feeling a spark, wanting to start again.

It's on her EP that follows The Great Unknown.

And her most memorable embryonic gig.

“It was September 2016 in Jerilderie and I'd just turned 18,” Jade recalled of the B & S Ball .

“It was the first large crowd I'd played in front of who loved country music just like me and they treated me like family. I now call my B & S supporters my B & S Family as I play so many in Victoria and New South Wales ”.

Jade tour with artists diverse as Travis Collins, The Wolfe Brothers and Christie Lamb - she plays Barooga Sports Club on December 14.

Further info - https://www.jadegibson.com.au/

MATT JOE GOW HEADS FOR THE HILLS

Expat Kiwi and Age newspaper Music Victoria country music artist of the year winner Matt Joe Gow keeps our bush theme alive with his revamp of a 1985 Kate Bush hit.

He cut Running Up That Hill with long time guitarist Andrew Pollock at his Woodshed studio in Heidelberg

It follows Matt's third album Break, Rattle & Roll that featured the Regan Wood directed video for Gambling Man.

Regan also directed the video for Running Up That Hill for Gow, now 41, at Warrandyte State Park near where The Teskey Brothers wrote songs and filmed videos.

The Teskeys used the Yarra at Warrandyte as a scenic locale for a video clip for Hold Me from second album Run Home Slow and Louisa from previous album Half Mile Harvest .

CLICK HERE for a Matt Joe Gow interview in The Diary on September 26, 2018.

HOW TO KEEP NU COUNTRY ON AIR

We need your support in Nu Country TV's 42nd series with Australian record companies and artists teaming to ensure our survival.

You can join Watling & Bates as members and win their 13 track CD Small Town Tales.

Also Kip Moore's third album Slowheart, thanks to EMI promotions chief Dave Parker.

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

They include Brad Paisley, Carrie Underwood, Gary Allan, Dierks Bentley, Eric Church and late larrikin legend A.P. Johnson.

CLICK HERE for our Membership Page for details.

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