DOLLY PARTON HEADLINES NU COUNTRY TV
Singer-songwriter-actor Dolly Parton headlines Nu Country TV at 9.30 pm on Saturday June 29.
Missouri minstrel Rhonda Vincent – one of Parton’s many duet partners – boomerangs to our program repeated Monday at 3 am.
Georgian Zac Brown Band , North Carolina singer-songwriter Eric Church and his duet partner Joanna Cotten, seven time Grammy winner Randy Travis and Adelaide singing park ranger Matt Ward also appear on our show filmed and produced by Laith Graham.
This series is dedicated to late Nu Country TV host and treasurer Mid-Pacific Bob Olson and Vice President Rod Browne.
Further info – https://www.c31.org.au/
DOLLY HONOURS TOM PETTY
Dolly Parton, now 78, took a trip back in time to trace her dual journeys with Florida born late legend Tom Petty.
She performs Southern Accents – originally on 1978 Tom Petty and the Heart Breakers album.
Tom died at 66 on October 2, 2017, from an accidental drug overdose the day after the Petty and Heart Breakers 40 th anniversary tour.
Petty was a member of Mudcrutch and the Travelling Wilburys and sold more than 80 million albums in his career that began in 1976.
The Rock n Roll hall of fame member had cameos in 1978 movie FM and 1997 film The Postman directed by and starring Kevin Costner as Bridge City Mayor.
In 2002 he appeared on The Simpsons in the episode How I Spent My Strummer Vacation with Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Lenny Kravitz, Elvis Costello and Brian Setzer and the voice of Elroy Lucky Kleinschmidt in animated comedy series King of the Hill from 2004-2009.
Dolly’s version of Southern Accents is on Petty Country: A Country Music Celebration of Tom Petty.
She recently released an album Run, Rose, Run that shares its name with a best-selling book she wrote with author James Patterson and features Ben Haggard and Joe Nichols as guests.
It preceded her Rockstar album featuring artists diverse as Chris Stapleton, John Fogerty and Ringo Starr on November 2023 via her Butterfly Records.
She released another new book Behind the Seams: My Life in Rhinestones on October 17, 2023.
Her new picture book about her god-dog Billy the Kid Makes It Big is about her dog who barks to beats of country music and dreams of being a country music star in Nashville.
Parton teamed with Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams for her sequel of her Dolly’s Strawberry Pretzel Pie ice cream to promote her album on Butterfly.
She also released Dolly Parton’s Baking Collection that includes her Southern Style Coconut Flavored Cake Mix, Southern Style Banana Flavored Cake Mix, Creamy Buttercream Frosting, Chocolate Buttercream Frosting and a collectible tea towel and spatula.
RHONDA VINCENT PLEASES
Grammy winning Missouri minstrel and bluegrass belle Rhonda Vincent returns to our show this week with her Please Mister Please video from her 20th album that follows her Music Is What I See album.
She also cut the single Please with Dolly Parton.
Rhonda, 61, and Christian Davis honoured the late Bill Monroe in a previous Nu Country seasonal singalong Rosine, I Cry video from Davis ‘s debut solo disc The Big Picture.
Davis spent five years as bass singer guitarist with Dailey & Vincent before going solo.
Darrin Vincent and Jamie Dailey recorded with Darrin’s sister Rhonda in her 40 year career.
Rhonda, 58, won her first Grammy in 2018 after releasing 18 albums.
She joined late Georgian singer-songwriter Daryle Singletary in live Daryle double shots in Behind Bars on May 12, 2018.
Rhonda and Daryle performed Above And Beyond at The Factory in Nashville in July, 2017, just six months before Singletary died at 46 on February 12, 2018.
CLICK HERE for a Rhonda Vincent feature from the Diary on April 20, 2004.
CLICK HERE for a Vincent CD review on September 25, 2006.
ZAC BROWN BAND TIE UP
Georgian Zac Brown Band open our show on a trip to the ocean and bays on their latest live video.
Tie Up is on their 11th album out this year.
Triple Grammy winner Zac, now 45 and father of five, formed his band in 2000 and won a diverse collection of AFL and rugby stars including Billy Slater at concerts on his three tours here.
His band fronted our show with Same Boat and The Someone That I Used To Know on their 10th album Comeback released after their pre-pandemic Australian tours.
Brown had good reason to celebrate – he survived a personal bout with COVID-19 in September that halted their U.S. tour.
“The Comeback celebrates our collective resilience as a community,” Brown revealed.
CLICK HERE for a Zac Brown feature in The Diary on June 19, 2017.
ERIC IN CHURCH OF HIS CHOICE
North Carolina star Eric Church and Memphis belle Joanna Cotten return to our show with their timely biblical message in their Love Me Like Jesus video.
Church, 47, is an avid marijuana advocate and has his own Chiefs diner bar in Nashville.
Cotton describes herself as a funkabilly singer and has two solo albums and was a long-time member of Church’s choir until her second Covid bout.
Love Me Like Jesus follows Church’s 10th album – triple disc Heart And Soul.
Eric and Joanna previously fronted our show with Heart On Fire Heart And Soul.
Church followed his 2020 CMA entertainer of year award performing the national anthem with Jazmine Sullivan at the Super Bowl game in Florida.
Eric filmed a flood of home studio videos with his Church Choir during iso.
“They came out of my 28 days in the mountains of North Carolina where the songs were recorded and written. The collection is entitled Heart & Soul ,” Church revealed.
Eric’s 24-song collection features major songwriters in marathon writing and recording sessions.
He also fronted our show with Willie Nelson tribute Me And Paul , Through My Ray-Bans, Never Break Heart, Bible And A 44, Record Year, Some Of It, Just Like Jesus Does, Lightning, Crazy Land, Doing Life With Me, Hearts On Fire, Cold One, Bad Mother Trucker, A Man Who Was Gonna Die Young, Stick That in Your Country Song, Like Jesus Does, Are You Ready For The Country, Homeboy, Talladega, Springsteen, Hell of A View and Lynyrd Skynyrd Jones.
CLICK HERE for a Church CD feature in the Diary on December 10, 2018.
RANDY TRAVIS RETURNS
Fellow North Carolina born seven time Grammy winner and singing actor Randy Travis returns to our show after surviving major health dramas including aphasia after a stroke and heart attack in 2013.
Randy, now 65 and born Randy Traywick, starred in several movies including Black Dog, Young Guns, Frank and Jesse and Maverick.
Randy’s recovery included travelling to hometown Marshville to view a Randy Travis mural by Scott Nurkin of Mural Shop and Randy Travis Music Festival appearance.
His new video Where That Came From follows more than 25 albums including Storms of Life (35th Anniversary Deluxe Edition) in 2021 with three new songs Ain’t No Use, Carrying Fire and The Wall.
“I love the timeless lyrics and the traditional country instruments, like steel guitar, banjo, piano, fiddle,” Travis revealed.
“It was music I believed in, that told a story I wanted to share. We were fortunate to have a large catalogue of songs to choose from that were more traditional. At the time, people and radio really weren’t playing this kind of music. Most people were recording more of an urban cowboy sound, so I got to choose from the best of the best, cream of the crop. It was exciting for all of us to get back to our roots.”
Randy’s resurrection includes gospel and Christian albums and new live studio video after his Country Music Hall of Fame induction in 2016.
Further info – https://www.randytravis.com/
MATT WARD COMES HOME SAFE
Adelaide singer-songwriter and park ranger Matt Ward toured and recorded in Texas when not protecting wildlife in his day job.
Matt, now 47, works way out west and north in environmental science and land management when not singing for his supper.
This week he performs Come Home Safe from his third album The Long Way Home.
Ward teamed with Texan Bonnie Montgomery on previous Nu Country video Old Ground from second album If I Was In Dallas Tonight recorded in Wimberley in Texas hill country and Sydney.
Matt also showcased Better Man video – his song for bushfire and drought victims – from debut album Heartland .
Ward’s cross-cultural exchange included trips to West Texas deserts and Austin concerts and fuelled videos Terlingua and Take Me Home with his Rising Sons band.
CLICK HERE for a Matt Ward interview in The Diary on February 21, 2022.
WIN WAYLON, GEORGE JONES AND MERLE HAGGARD
Help us celebrate being Nu Country TV members and win albums by late Waylon Jennings, Merle Haggard, George Jones and Highwaymen by becoming a Nu Country member or renewing your membership.
George, Waylon, Merle and Willie Nelson were among country historian Barbara Dowling’s favourite Texans.
The Waylon, Highwaymen , Merle and George discs were donated by Barbara who died at 77 in December, 2020.
She co-hosted Long In The Saddle in our Nu Country FM era and was pioneer Australian and Victorian country music awards judge.
Barbara was admired for rising above losing her sight as a young woman and her country passion with annual trips to Waylon’s birthplace in Littlefield, West Texas.
Waylon died at 64 on February 13, 2002, and is survived by singing spouse Jessi, now 80, and son Shooter, 44.
WIN KEITH URBAN CDS ALSO
We have expatriate Australasian superstar Keith Urban’s chart topping 12th album The Speed Of Now – Part 1.
Also BR5-49 CD Big Backyard Beat Show and Billy Ray Cyrus’s historic 1992 album Some Gave All featuring Achy Breaky Heart .
We have other CDS by major artists you can win by becoming a Nu Country TV member or renewing memberships.
They include Brad Paisley, Eric Church, Kip Moore, Carrie Underwood and late larrikin legend A.P. Johnson.
