ERIC CHURCH, BLAKE SHELTON AND BRAD PAISLEY
HEADLINE NU COUNTRY TV
Eric Church
Nouveau outlaw Eric Church returns to Nu Country TV with his latest hit video in Channel 31/Digital 44 on Saturday October 1 at 9.30 pm.
Voice judge and mentor Blake Shelton returns to the show with a double shot of his songs from 12th album If I'm Honest in Behind Bars, repeated Monday at 2.30 am.
And West Virginia born guitar Brad Paisley recruited his latest duet partner Demi Lovato to adorn his new video on the show filmed and edited by Laith Graham.
Expat South Londoner Mark Lucas and his Sydney band The Dead Setters debut and Rowville singer-songwriter Rick Hart name checks late singing actor Levon Helm in his return.
Nu Country TV is a highlight of C 31 streaming list on Digital 44.
NU COUNTRY TV HOST AND BENEFACTOR KACEY JONES RIP AT 66
Acclaimed singer-songwriter, comedienne, producer, Nu Country TV host and showcase headliner Kacey Jones has died at 66 on the first day of spring in Nashville.
In 2014 Kacey was diagnosed with Stage 3 colorectal cancer - instead of chemo, radiation and surgery she opted for alternative, holistic therapies.
She launched a Go-Fund-Me account to pay for these and entered hospice care early in August.
Despite chronic pain she was well enough in 2015 to compete on TV's America's Got Talent where she performed her timely parody Donald Trump's Hair - title track of her 2009 album - that we also featured on Nu Country TV .
Kacey and fellow singer-songwriter Becky Hobbs performed our showcase at the Noise Bar at the historic Railway Hotel , in Brunswick on February 1, 2008, with local artists the Bona Fide Travellers .
Their concert was featured on Nu Country TV just two years after she hosted our TV show from Austin, Texas, in 2006 while performing the annual Mickey Newbury festival with singing actor Waylon Payne.
NU COUNTRY TV SERIES #31 PREMIERE ON CHANNEL 31
SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 24
Nu Country TV Series #31 returns to Channel 31/Digital 44 for our premiere on Saturday September 24 in the prime time slot of 9.30 pm.
We preview the premiere this week with a feature on singing actor Dolly Parton's 43 rd album Pure & Simple that was #1 on debut on the prestigious Billboard charts.
Dolly's double CD of 12 new originals and 10 classic hits is her first chart-topping collection in 25 years - her last was Eagle When She Flies in 1991.
KINKY FRIEDMAN SPRING RETURN TOUR
NATIONAL PRESS CLUB DEBUT
Singing Texan crime novelist Kinky Friedman returns in October for his eighth Australian tour that debuts with an appearance at the National Press Club in Canberra.
The Kinkster, 71, is well qualified to front the Press Club.
Three attempts to win public office in Texas - including Lone Star State Governor - were not a political pleasure.
Friedman was returned to the private sector where he released his 13 th solo album The Loneliest Man I Ever Met on the eve of his 2015 Australian tour.
This time The Kinkster, patiently awaiting the movie on his colourful life that includes 30 novels including belated Detective In The Hard Boiled Computer, will settle for his animated Finding Memo Music Hall gig in St Kilda on Saturday October 8.
Kinky hits the Acland Street war zone after reaping what he sowed at the Harvester Moon on The Bellarine on Friday October 7.
DIERKS BENTLEY CANINE TRIBUTE ON NU COUNTRY TV SERIES #31
Dierks Bentley & Jake
Arizona born singing pilot Dierks Bentley returns to Nu Country TV Series #31 in spring with his 10 th album Black that includes a tribute to his faithful dog Jake who died recently at 15.
Jake has appeared in video clips for Bentley who has toured here twice - including a 2012 tour with Australian Of The Year Lee Kernaghan.
Expatriate Australasian superstar Keith Urban's appearance with John Mellencamp at the 49th CMA Awards in Nashville on November 4 last year was tinged with sadness.
It was just a month before his major musical influence - his father Robert - died on December 5 after a long battle with cancer while he was making his 10th album Ripcord .
The Urban patriarch, who died at Mountain Creek near Caloundra on Queensland's Sunshine Coast, moved to Australia from Whangarei in New Zealand with his wife Marienne and their two sons Shane and Keith and settled in Caboolture.
“My dad is the catalyst for me living in America,” revealed Urban, 48, who honoured his dad in new song Blue Ain't Your Colour.
< Keith & Bob Urban
Keith will perform the song from Ripcord when he headlines the Deni Ute Muster on September 30 and returns in December for a national tour with Carrie Underwood.
Expat South Londoner Mark Lucas & The Dead Setters return to Nu Country TV during Series #33 that returns to Channel 31/ Digital 44 in spring.
Lucas has release his seventh album The Continental Drift that features a hefty dose of social comment tunes about adoptive home city Sydney and way beyond.
BRANDY ON TOP SHELF FOR NU COUNTRY TV SERIES #31 IN SPRING
Brandy Clark
Prolific hit writer Brandy Clark will be one of the many major artists featured on Nu Country TV Series #31 during our spring season, starting in September.
Clark, 38, has just released her acclaimed third album Big Day In A Small Town with guest appearances by Texan troubadour Kacey Musgraves and multiple Grammy winner Chris Stapleton's singing spouse Morgane.
We will feature Brandy, Kacey and the Stapletons during our spring series.
HOW TO VIEW NU COUNTRY TV SERIES #30
ON YOUR COMPUTER OR PHONE
Dierks Bentley
Arizona singer-songwriter-pilot Dierks Bentley headlined Nu Country TV Series #30 finale on July 6 with North Carolina star Eric Church and Kentuckian Wynonna Judd's double shot of Biblical metaphors.
Former rodeo riders - Portland raised Shea Fisher and Oscar winning New Mexico refugee Ryan Bingham - also returned to the program filmed and edited by Laith Graham.
And Matt Cornell - member of Adam Brand's The Outlaws and son of a famous Sydney sixties rock band singer - debuts as a solo artist in a video filmed in Bingham's one time home of Austin, Texas.
Nu Country TV is a highlight of C 31 streaming list on Digital 44.
When Texan troubadour Guy Clark died of lymphatic cancer at 74 on May 17 his death was felt deeply in Newcastle and the hallowed halls of the Melbourne judiciary and top rating radio station 3AW.
Clark, famed as a mentor to younger peers, wrote a song with Catherine Britt in 2003 when she arrived in Nashville as an 18-year-old after cutting her debut EP here with Bill Chambers.
Britt, now 31, included Poor Man's Pride that also featured Jerry Salley as a co-writer on her 2006 album Too Far Gone produced by Keith Stegall and Chambers.
We featured the video for Poor Man's Pride on Nu Country TV Series #4 finale episode on October 1, 2005.
Guy's 1989 Australian tour was memorable as latter day 3AW breakfast hosts Ross Stevenson and John Burns became avid Clark fans then hosting Lawyers, Guns & Money on 3RRR-FM with Dennis Donohue.
So avid that Ross phoned in his review of Guy's Lancefield Winery concert to country show High In The Saddle on the Sabbath.
But it didn't stop there - the trio and fellow Clark buff Judge John Bowman - hosted a dinner for the singer, promoter Keith Glass and this writer at the famed Flower Drum restaurant in Melbourne CBD.
Clark was also interviewed by PBS-FM Acid Country host David Heard on his Cold Coffee Morning show on Nu Country FM at our Beer Can Hill studio in Northcote on his 1995 tour.
Grammy winning Georgian producer Dave Cobb is spearheading the return of nouveau country to its earthy roots with his Low Country Sound label.
His concept album Southern Family features a reborn posse headed by prolific award winner and chart topper - Kentucky Coalminer's son Chris Stapleton and singing spouse Morgane, Shooter Jennings, Zac Brown, Jamey Johnson, Brandy Clark, Jason Isbell, Miranda Lambert, Anderson East, Holly Williams and peers.
Cobb produced his 12 track album at the historic Nashville RCA A studio - also home to artists diverse as the late Waylon Jennings and Dolly Parton.
Three time Australian tourist Mary Chapin Carpenter also utilised Cobb's talents as producer of her 14th album The Things That We Are Made Of.
OCTOGENARIANS LORETTA LYNN AND SHOTGUN WILLIE
MAKE MUSIC TOGETHER
Loretta Lynn
Octogenarians Loretta Lynn and Shotgun Willie Nelson have released historic new autumnal albums to celebrate their roots and longevity.
Lynn's aptly titled album Full Circle was her highest Billboard Top 200 all genre debut at #19 and her 40th to make the Top 10 on the country charts.
Loretta, 84, is also joined by Willie, 83 on April 29, on a duet on the album finale song Lay Me Down.
Elvis Costello also adds his vocals to the Todd Snider-Loretta penned tune Everything It Takes recorded at John Carter Cash's Cash Cabin studio at Nashville suburb Hendersonville.
Willie also duetted with younger women Cyndi Lauper, 62, and Sheryl Crow, 54, on his album Summertime - Willie Nelson Sings Gershwin - that topped Billboard jazz charts on its debut.
MERLE HAGGARD - LONESOME FUGITIVE - DIED ON 79TH BIRTHDAY
When former Californian convict and country legend Merle Haggard toured here in 1996 it was manna from heaven for aspirant radio broadcaster Nu Country FM .
Haggard's current hit was Beer Can Hill so we had a perfect theme tune for our station adjacent to the rustic Peacock Inn watering hole on Rucker's Hill in inner northern Melbourne suburb Northcote.
Merle recorded personalised station IDS in an exclusive Nu Country FM interview before headlining an all-star concert at Myer Music Bowl .
Haggard performed with his veteran band The Strangers featuring Bonnie Owens - former singing spouse of both the late Buck Owens and Merle.
The concert attracted an enthusiastic audience but touring costs - including hiring an extra smoking carriage on the train to Adelaide - were no financial pleasure for promoter Wally Bishop who also toured Texan Red Steagall and the Coleman County Cowboys here in the late seventies.
Sadly, 20 years down the Lost Highway, Merle fulfilled his own prediction when he died on his 79 th birthday on April 6 at his Lake Shasta family ranch near Redding in Palo Cedro, California.
We have frequently featured video clips by Merle and duet partner Shotgun Willie Nelson, who turns 83 on April 29, on Nu Country TV.
We'll run another Merle tribute when Nu Country TV returns to Channel 31/ Digital 44 in winter.
DOUG BRUCE AND KEV BLOODY WILSON
HONOUR LATE TEXAN BUDDY
Expatriate Texan Doug Bruce enlisted country comic Kev Bloody Wilson to act in the video for The Tears to honour his late uncle Buddy Bruce.
Doug filmed the clip for the first single from his sixth album Unsung - A Tribute To The Songs of Buddy Bruce at The Tin Shed at the Toolleen Hotel between Heathcote and Echuca in the northern Victorian wine belt.
He honoured his uncle Buddy, a prolific Texan songwriter who died of cancer in his early sixties, with the album recorded at his Shoo Fly studio at Heathcote.
Buddy, unlike Doug's bassist dad Dale who performed with the late Johnny Duncan and toured here in the seventies with Red Steagall & The Coleman County Cowboys , never made it to Australia.
But Doug emulated fellow expat Texan ABC-TV-radio host Lucky Oceans by moving to Australia with wives they met in Nashville.
Doug met Jodie Doyle in Nashville in 2005 and they moved to Heathcote in the historic gold mining district near Bendigo.
Bruce's video for The Tears will feature in Series #30 of Nu Country TV in winter.
LEGENDARY SINGER-SONGWRITER STEVE YOUNG DIES AT 73
Iconic Georgian born singer-songwriter Steve Young has died at 73 after a long stay in a Nashville hospital after a severe fall on October 23.
Young, who toured Australia five times, also survived a drive-by shooting by bandits at 17 near a Port Arthur bayside bordello in Texas when a steel-jacket bullet tore through his chest and severed an artery behind his heart.
The singer-songwriter wrote The Eagles huge hit Seven Bridges Road , Waylon Jennings 1973 Lonesome, On'ry and Mean
1979 album title track and Hank Williams Jr hits Long Way To Hollywood and Montgomery In The Rain.
Young was discovered by Cowboy Jack Clement at 17 and recorded an album with his band Stoned Country in 1967 before cutting his solo debut Rock, Salt & Nails in 1968 with James Burton, Gram Parsons, Tim Hardin and members of the Byrds and Flying Burrito Brothers.
The singer made his first Australian tour in 1989 after being interviewed for 3RRR-FM country show High In the Saddle in Nashville in 1988.
Young's debut Australian tour included a pit-stop on the Shipwreck Coast at Warrnambool before a gig at the quaintly named Camp Hotel in historic gold mining city Ballarat.
JASON ALDEAN AND FLORIDA GEORGIA LINE
MELBOURNE CONCERT REVIEW
WIN JASON'S CD AND DVD
Georgian star Jason Aldean and Florida Georgia Line performed to an enthusiastic capacity crowd at Margaret Court Arena on Tuesday March 8 before headlining CMC Rocks Queensland in Ipswich.
The visitors delivered an energetic 32 song concert to fans enjoying relief inside the arena from the autumnal heat that reached up to 40 degrees in parts of Victoria.
Aldean and Florida Georgia Line later performed Ipswich with Lee Brice, Brantley Gilbert, Kip Moore, Tyler Farr, Blackjack Billy , Kelsea Ballerini, Chase Rice, Cadillac Three , Drake White and The Big Fire , The Hillbenders and Canadians Road Hammers and Tim Hicks.
To celebrate Aldean's Australian debut tour we have a special giveaway of his sixth album Old Boots, New Dirt and his live concert DVD Night Train To Georgia .
DEAD LIVERS BASSIST MICHAEL SCHACK LIVER TRANSPLANT
Dead Livers bassist and Nu Country TV 42 nd Willie Nelson July 4 picnic diarist Michael Schack is recovering after being the second member of the veteran outlaw band to have a successful liver transplant.
Schack, 65, was released from the Austin Hospital in March just before another of his bands Lost In Suburbia performed his Dead Livers song Star Of The West at the 40th Port Fairy Folk Festival.
The song, a tribute to the band's musical soirees at the famed Port Fairy Hotel once owned by former Collingwood football star Ronnie Wearmouth, is on the Dead Livers debut CD Greatest Misses .
“Ironically I'm the second member of The Dead Livers to have a liver transplant,” Schack revealed as pedal steel guitarist Brendan Mitchell celebrated 16 years with his new liver that he received on the eve of the band's release of its second CD Reaching To The Western Sky.
Mitchell wrote the band's epic Ballad Of A Dead Liver , also on their Greatest Misses CD.
“I'm very disappointed I'm not playing at Port Fairy but you can't have everything,” Schack joked about the festival he has played many times near his home in the Koroit satellite suburb Yarpturk.
The veteran musician and librarian is now in post-operative rehab in Melbourne.
CHASE RICE IGNITES CMC ROCKS QUEENSLAND AT IPSWICH
Chase Rice
Florida born, North Carolina raised country singer-songwriter Chase Rice is one of the headliners at CMC Rocks Queensland at Ipswich from March 11-13.
Rice, 29, is touring here to promote his third album Ignite The Night , his latest single Whisper and sports clothing apparel.
The singer shares the bill with Georgian star Jason Aldean, Lee Brice, Brantley Gilbert, Kip Moore, Kelsea Ballerini, Florida Georgia Line and other major artists.
Jason and Florida Georgia Line also play Margaret Court Arena in Melbourne - Tuesday March 8.
Rice co-wrote Florida Georgia Line's breakthrough hit Cruise with band member Brian Kelley with whom he also wrote three of his own chart songs.
NU COUNTRY TV THREE MONTH HIATUS
WHILE EDITOR LAITH GRAHAM ENJOYS PARENTHOOD
Expatriate South Australian bluegrass singer-songwriters Kristy Cox and Travis List headlined the Nu Country TV Series #29 finale Saturday February 27.
The duo were joined by fellow Australian roots country artists - Hunter Valley singer Kirsty Lee Akers and Broome export Ruby Boots.
Florida Georgia Line , Texan Kyle Park, Pittsburgh family band The Stickers and Floridian bluegrass family quintet Trinity River Band also appeared.
We are taking a three month hiatus from Channel 31/ Digital 44 while editor-co-producer Laith Graham soaks up precious time with his newborn son Kai.
We return in June but you can still see Nu Country TV streaming on Channel 31-Digital 44.
Just follow this link on your computer or mobile phone -
CATHERINE BRITT PREDICTED CHRIS STAPLETON
SUCCESS FIVE YEARS AGO
Catherine Britt
Newcastle singer-songwriter Catherine Britt predicted the success of former bluegrass icon and latter day treble CMA Awards winner and Billboard chart colossus Chris Stapleton five years ago.
She and Stapleton co-wrote their song Lonely - a highlight of her self-titled 2010 album that featured three collaborations with Tennessean Ashley Monroe.
“They were one of the great new bluegrass bands, they were just starting up when I was over there," revealed Britt, recovering from breast cancer surgery, who turns 31 on New Year's Eve
"Chris is one of the most talented singers. Oh my God, he's got this really cool graded voice. It was so great to work with him - the times we did. It's sad he left the band. I guess he will go on and do other things as he's an incredible songwriter. We wrote this song and hung out together and wrote many songs."
Oklahoma singing actress Carrie Underwood has released her acclaimed fifth album Storyteller after appearing on Australian TV in the movie Soul Surfer .
Carrie, 32, and Nashville Predators hockey star husband Mike Fisher, recently became parents of a son Isaiah.
The singer, who hosted the CMA Awards with Brad Paisley, sang about motherhood on Storyteller .
Carrie played St Kilda Palais in June, 2012, and also sings of domestic violence victims delivering fatal summary justice, nouveau outlaws fleeing to Mexico and triumphs of assertive women.
AUDREY AULD MEZERA FOUGHT FINAL BATTLE IN CALIFORNIA
Audrey Auld Mezera
Tasmania 's best known country music export Audrey Auld-Mezera died at the age of 51 on August 9 from cancer in her adoptive Californian home town.
The revered singer-songwriter, a frequent guest on Nu Country FM in our radio era and Nu Country TV , moved from Nashville to Stinson Beach in 2014 after being diagnosed with a melanoma.
Auld and husband Mez chose the beach so she could spend her final days in one of her favourite locales.
For several years Auld conducted song-writing workshops with inmates at San Quentin State Prison as part of her involvement with the non-profit organization Bread and Roses.
Before she left Nashville for California , she recorded her final album, Hey Warden , released earlier this year.
It was a collection of eight songs that Auld wrote with inmates and released through her own label, Reckless Records .
She also filmed one last video I Am Not What I Have Done - a song whose title came from an inmate's letter.
Audrey released eleven albums and three EPs on her Reckless Records label and recorded with musicians diverse as Bill Chambers, Kieran Kane, Fred Eaglesmith, Mary Gauthier, Dale Watson, Kasey Chambers and Carrie Rodriguez.
Her songs appeared on the FX TV shows Justified, Longmire, NCIS: New Orleans and The Good Guys .
Texas country singer Sunny Sweeney recorded her satirical tune Next Big Nothing.
Former Flying Circus and Grand Junction guitarist and singer-songwriter Doug Rowe also died suddenly of a heart attack in Bathurst at the age of 69.
The expat New Zealander and one time Sydney Morning Herald cadet journalist, first scored chart success here with Flying Circus in the late sixties with Hayride , La-La and Run, Run, Run.
Flying Circus - Doug Rowe (second from left)
The band released five albums here and in Canada where Rowe, Sam See and other members lived between Australian forays including the 1973 Sunbury pop festival.
Rowe started his own recording studio in Toronto before he returned and joined Sydney band Grand Junction who won 1982 Golden Guitar with Married Women .
Grand Junction beat Melbourne outlaw band The Dead Livers in the Tamworth Starmaker final more than a decade before they both opened for Leon Russell and The Amazing Rhythm Aces at St Kilda Palais in 2000.
Doug later released solo albums - Havannah Street Blues and Hometown Lights - with Rob Breese and was a member of The Woodpickers with Broderick Smith.
We have great news to warm up your winter - thanks to Sony Music country promotions chief Gary English.
You can win Georgian superstar Alan Jackson's huge selling 20th album Angels And Alcohol that debuted at #1 on Billboard charts in July.
Jackson , 56, and originally managed by expat Australasian promoter and publisher Barry Coburn, won a huge following on his two Australian tour for Rob Potts and Michael Chugg.
The singer wrote seven of the songs on his new album that is rooted in the traditional honky tonk sounds of the south with a nod to bluegrass.
They included his latest hit Jim And Jack And Hank from a disc that also name-checks Tom Sawyer and famed Beat generation novelist Jack Kerouac.
Jackson recorded the album with Texas born fellow singer-songwriter Keith Stegall - his long-time producer, also instrumental in the careers of John Anderson, Zac Brown Band, Clay Walker and the late George Jones.
Little Liver Band with David Dawson - photo by Kip Karpik
The cream of Melbourne' outlaw country music pioneers celebrated a “premature” 20th anniversary of the premature death of former Queensland rodeo rider, opal miner, singing roadie and solo singer-songwriter A.P. Johnson at the Rainbow Hotel, Fitzroy, on Saturday
July 11.
The all day tribute concert - a highlight of the City Of Yarra's Leaps And Bounds festival - was graphically captured on film by former Nu Country FM treasurer and photographer to the stars - Kip Karpik.
We also have an in-depth review of the concert that also features humorous anecdotes from another Johnson record - his police interview after being accused of attempted robbery of the nearby Gypsy Bar with a $3.40 water pistol.
As a special reward for Nu Country TV fans we reduced the price of the Karpik illustrated A.P. Johnson's Greatest Hits And Ex-Misses CD for the joyous occasion.
David Allen Coe at Willie Nelson July 4 picnic - photo by Michael Schack
Dead Livers bassist Michael Schack flew home from his coverage of the 42 nd Willie Nelson July 4 picnic in Austin for us to perform with his Little Liver Band at the A.P. Johnson tribute show.
Schack took his law student son Will - named after the Octogenarian Willie Nelson - on his musical odyssey that also included poetic pit-stops in Dallas, San Francisco and Hollyweird.
His colourful collage of photos and humorous recollection of his travels also features equine transportation hints and traveller advice from Picnic Host - singing Texan crime novelist and one time Nu Country TV interviewee Kinky Friedman.
Alabama born belle Emmylou Harris and her long-time Texan partner in rhyme Rodney Crowell wowed fans in their stellar St Kilda Palais concert to a capacity crowd of musicians and music lovers.
Our sharp shooting web mistress Anne Sydenham photographed the duo and their hot band during their scorching 25 song two hour winter concert.
Dead Livers and Lost In Suburbia bassist Michael Schack also photographed Sandringham born Baptist preacher's daughter and singer-songwriter Harmony James in her support role.
South Australian outback raised singer-songwriter Kasey Chambers introduced Gippsland touring partner Harry Hookey to a large audience in their joint double bill at the Forum in Melbourne on May-day.
Chambers made it a family affair by bringing along multi-instrumentalist father - Poppa Bill, now 64.
And Hookey expanded the filial theme by working in his band with brothers Jack and Teddy - but not third sibling Sam whom he joined the week before in Lyon near gay Paris .
Chambers, 38 and mother of three, was promoting seventh solo album Bittersweet and former lawyer and Cowarr colt Hookey, 27, showcased debut solo disc Misdiagnosed .
Chart topping duo Big & Rich , Cowboy Troy and Tennessean Chris Young invaded Melbourne for a memorable mid-week concert at 170 Russell St , nee The Billboard on the eve of their return to CMC Rocks Queensland in Ipswich .
It was a cosmic collision of country, rap, dub and scratch music in the cavernous clip that also hosted Taylor Swift in 2009 before she became a superstar after CMC Rocks The Snowys at Thredbo.
< photo by Carol Taylor
Big & Rich were joined on stage by giant Texan African American rural rapper Cowboy Troy and an even bigger dancer in a kilt and tee shirt emblazoned with one of their hits Save A Horse, Ride A Cowboy .
THE KINKSTER'S RETURN TO CARAVAN CLUB & OAKLEIGH POKIES
Kinky Friedman live at Caravan Music Club - photo by John "Kip" Karpik
Singing Texan crime novelist Kinky Friedman performed to capacity crowds at the Caravan Club in Oakleigh on the Australia Day weekend during his hit and run invasions of local pokies palace The LeighOak Club.
The Kinkster , 70, and Tel Aviv tour manager Zoe broke the bank when they won more than $4,000 on the machines.
An armed security van was sent from the city with cash for Friedman and his frau when the club did not have the loot on site.
The big win was sharp contrast to his loss when he was returned to the private sector after running for Texas Agricultural Commissioner in the 2014 Lone Star State election.
Kinky promised to legalise marijuana as a cash crop for medicinal purposes - a campaign that suffered a similar fate to his run for JP at Kerrville in 1986 and Texas Governor in 2006.
The defeat freed Friedman up to finish new novel The Detective In The Hard Boiled Computer, now at the printers, but not on sale for his Journey In Time tour.
Instead the Kinkster, who runs the Utopia animal shelter on his Echo Hill ranch in the Texan hill country, toured to promote three recording relics, now available on CD.
“But anyway, politics' loss has been literature's gain, and I'm back to writing again for the first time in about eight years,” the legend revealed after autographing previous book Heroes of A Texas Childhood for ABC-TV comedian Brian Dawe.
The other weekend loser was The Kinkster's favourite photographer Kip Karpik who was separated from his wallet at the Caravan Club on Friday night but reunited with it the next morning - the Jewish Sabbath - on the mean streets of Brunswick.
Texan Miranda Lambert debuted at #1 on the all genre Billboard Top 200 chart with her sixth album Platinum.
We have an exclusive feature on the Pistol Annies creator in our Diary this week as she surrenders her chart top to Jack White who produced Van Lear Rose - the 2004 album by Loretta Lynn who is still performing at the ripe young age of 82.
Lambert and Missouri born star Sheryl Crow honoured Kentucky born Loretta by performing with her on her video and song for her 2010 tribute disc.
Coal Miner's Daughter: A Tribute to Loretta Lynn also featured Kid Rock, Reba McEntire, Alan Jackson, Gretchen Wilson, The White Stripes , Martina McBride, Paramore , Steve Earle and Faith Hill.
Sissy Spacek played Loretta, Tommy Lee Jones was cast as her late husband Mooney, Beverly D'Angelo portrayed Patsy Cline and the late Levon Helm portrayed her father Ted in 1980 movie Coal Miner's Daughter , based on her 1976 autobiography.
We also have features on other female icons Crow, Carlene Carter, Sydney chanteuse Christie Lamb and diverse male peers in our Diary.
TOBY
KEITH-KELLIE PICKLER-ELI YOUNG BAND CONCERT REVIEW
Oklahoma
superstar Toby Keith headlined a Rod Laver Arena concert featuring
North Carolina star Kellie Pickler and the Eli Young Band from
Denton, Texas.
The multi-millionaire singer-songwriter, I Love This Bar restaurant
chain owner and Mezcal Tequila merchandiser welcomed Australian
servicemen and women to his packed concert after headlining
the seventh CMC Rocks The Hunter festival.
Dancing With The Stars winner Kellie and Eli Young Band performed
to promote latest albums The Woman I Am and 10,000
Towns.
The gig by Redneck Woman Gretchen Wilson and Novocastrian Morgan
Evans was transferred from the St Kilda Palais to the even more
historic Forum in the shadows of Federation Square and The Duke
Of Wellington where drinkers can have an ale with the whale
- Brian Roberts.
It may be a few long seasons since The Whale pulled on the boots
for Richmond and South Melbourne but his legend looms large
in the Flinders St watering hole.
But Gretchen, 40, and Evans, 28, sampled an ale from James Boag
& Son in Van Diemen's Land at the Forum.
Oklahoma
superstar Toby Keith is making his debut Australian tour in
March and we have his 19th CD Drinks After Work for new
members and renewing members.
Universal Music promotions chief Jordan Wiggins has provided
copies of the huge selling disc to help promote the multi-millionaire's
tour.
Keith, 53, and father of three including singer daughter Krystal,
headlines the 7th CMC Rocks The Hunter festival from March 14-16.
He also plays Rod Laver Arena with Kellie Pickler and the Texan
Eli Young Band on March 19.
Drinks
After Work is dedicated to Keith's late bass player-bandleader
Chuck Goff, who died in a Cleveland County car accident in February,
and features the emotional anthem Chuckie's Gone.
It was déjà vu - on March 24, 2001 (Keith's 17th
wedding anniversary), his father was killed in a car accident
on Interstate 35.
That event and the September 11 attacks in 2001 prompted Keith
to write Courtesy of the Red, White, & Blue - a song
about his father's patriotism and faith in the United States.
Chuckie's Gone leads off with lyrics about his fellow
Oklahoman Chuck not being around for the spring tornadoes that
defined so much of 2013 for multi-millionaire Keith and his
home state.
You can win Drinks After Work by becoming a Nu Country
TV member or renewing your membership.
KINKY
FRIEDMAN BI-POLAR TOUR
CARAVAN CLUB CONCERT REVIEW
Kinky
Friedman live at Caravan Music Club 28/11/13 - photo by Kip
Karpik
Singing
Texan crime novelist Kinky Friedman performed two Melbourne
concerts on his 10th Australian tour in November.
This time The Kinkster left 2011 touring partner Van Dyke Parks
at home and performed solo.
Our photographer to the stars and former Nu Country FM treasurer
Kip Karpik was stage side at The Toff In The Town at Curtin
House.
And our TV show producer David Dawson was lured from his sick
bed by the Kinkster, now 69 and holding, to analyse his new
jokes at the user friendly Caravan Club in Oakleigh.
ALAN
JACKSON - SARA EVANS MELBOURNE CONCERT REVIEW
Georgian
superstar Alan Jackson and latter day Alabama touring partner
Sara Evans performed a marathon concert at Rod Laver Arena in
Melbourne as the capital city finale of their Australian tour.
The duo, supported by Novocastrian Morgan Evans, performed to
a near capacity crowd.
Jackson, 54, released his first bluegrass album on the eve of
his second Australian tour but did not showcase any of his new
originals in his 25 song set.
But we will have videos of two of his bluegrass originals -
Blue Ridge Mountain Song and Blacktop - in Series
#21 of Nu Country TV over summer.
Evans, 42, released a tour souvenir 24 track double CD - Stronger
and Greatest Hits - and debuted latest single Slow Me
Down from an album to be released in 2014.
She also promoted one of her favourite charities World Vision
during her set.
TOBY
KEITH 2014 AUSTRALIAN TOUR
CAPITAL CITY DATES
WIN HIS CD HOPE ON THE ROCKS
Oklahoma
country star Toby Keith makes his debut Australian tour when
he headlines the 2014 CMC Rocks The Hunter festival in NSW from
March 14-16.
Former Mississippi boxing champion Paul Thorn and Texan Eli
Young Band are also to return here and join Keith, 51 and father
of singer Krystal, at the three day festival.
U.S. Dancing With The Stars winner Kellie Pickler, duet partner
of Melbourne singer Jasmine Rae, also plays the festival that
features return of U.S. artists Love & Theft and Craig Campbell.
Keith,
Pickler and the Eli Young Band also play concerts in Brisbane
and Sydney before ending the tour at Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne
on Wednesday March 19.
Tickets
go on sale Friday October 4 for all capital city concerts.
Other acts announced for CMC Rocks The Hunter include expatriate
Australian bluegrass trio The Greencards, Aussie country king
Lee Kernaghan, The Flood, Morgan Evans, Adam Eckersley Band,
Luke O'Shea, Kaylens Rain and New Zealand singer Jody Direen.
You
can win a copy of Toby's 18th CD Hope On The Rocks
by becoming a member of Nu Country TV or renewing your membership
before our 21st series in December.
CELEBRATE AND WIN 40 YEARS OF CHARLEY PRIDE DOUBLE CD
When
Charley Pride released his first single The Snakes Crawl
At Night in 1965 it went to radio with no accompanying
photo.
It scored major airplay and in 1967 Pride became only the
second African American to appear on the Grand Ol Opry.
Charley's song launched his career celebrated on his 17th
Australian tour in November with a 40 song double CD 40
Years Of Pride on Sony Music.
It includes his first single and 39 other classics that began
with debut #1 hit - All I Have to Offer You (Is Me).
The
album also includes Kiss An Angel Good Morning - a
million-selling hit that helped Pride win CMA Entertainer
of the Year in 1971 and Top Male Vocalist in 1971 and 1972.
Other memorable Pride standards included are Is Anybody
Goin' To San Antone, Mississippi Cotton Picking Delta Town,
Roll On Mississippi, I'm So Afraid of Losing You Again, Someone
Loves You Honey, When I Stop Leaving I'll Be Gone, Does My
Ring Hurt Your Finger, Burgers and Fries and You're
So Good When You're Bad.
You can help us return to Channel 31 for our 21st series over
the summer festival season by becoming a member of Nu Country
TV or renewing your membership.
Singing
actor Shotgun Willie Nelson celebrated his 80th birthday by
donating proceeds from a star studded concert to the Fire Fighters
and Emergency Services volunteers who perished in the West fertiliser
plant explosion.
Funds go to the fire department at West - five miles from neighbouring
town Abbott where Willie and elder sister-pianist Bobbie were
raised more than 80 years ago.
Willie's record company Sony has extended his generosity to
Nu Country TV that returns to air on
C 31 from June-September for our 20th Series.
You
can help keep Nu Country TV on air by becoming members - we
will reward you with a copy of Willie's acclaimed 61st studio
album Let's Face The Music And Dance.
Willie
and survivors of his Family Band released the album on the
eve of his 80th birthday - April 30.
Loyal members can also win the CD and other prizes - including
DVDS - by renewing your memberships.
We also have video clips by Willie and other artists that
we will feature in our winter series.
If
you miss Nu Country TV live on C 31 Saturday 10.30 pm or Monday
2.30 pm and midnight and Thursday at midnight there is another
way to see the show at your leisure.
Visit the Channel 31 programs web page and Click on the Nu Country
logo and follow the link to Catch-Up TV.
You
can also follow Nu Country TV on Facebook - courtesy of gig guide
collator Annie Christophers and our loyal public officer Denise
Kuhl.
They will post photos of their overseas festival tours and local
concerts they attend.
You can interact live with them at Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/NuCountryTV
The
Nu Country TV show has been added to the C 31 streaming list.
Nu Country TV also returned to C 31 - Digital 44 - in South Australia
on Thursday October 11.
The far-reaching Adelaide station screens Series #18 at 9.30 pm
each Thursday.
OUR
THANKS - HOW TO WIN TIM MCGRAW CDS
Thanks
to all our new members and renewing members who supported
us with our free Tim McGraw and Faith Hill tickets.
Promoters Chugg Entertainment and Rob Potts Entertainment
Edge gave us special ticket packages - each worth more than
$400 - as sponsors of our TV show.
This was the first time the two singing actors-superstars
played concerts together including Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne
and CMC Rocks The Hunter Festival.
Meanwhile we still have Tim's acclaimed 11th album Emotional
Traffic for new members and renewing members.
We
have even more exciting news - Dierks Bentley's seventh album
Home on the eve of his second Australian tour.
EMI promotions ace Bianca O'Neill gave us Dierks huge selling
album prizes shortly before it debuted at #1 on Billboard
on its U.S. release
The album features the Bentley hits Am I The Only One,
Gonna Die Young and his duet with Karen Fairchild of Little
Big Town on When You Gonna Come Around.
Bentley
wrote the title song with Brett Beavers and Dan Wilson about
the shooting of Congresswoman Gabriel Giffords by a mass murderer
in their home state Arizona.
U.S.
President Barack Obama has also adopted Home - featuring
expat Adelaide guitarist Jedd Hughes - as a personal song
in his new campaign.
Bentley, 36, arrived in Nashville at 19 and had big hits before
releasing his acclaimed bluegrass album Up On The Ridge.
All you have to do to win Home is become a member of
Nu Country TV or renew your membership.
EMI Records Promotions ace Bianca O'Neill has donated copies of the hot albums by North Carolina young gun Eric Church.
Eric, 37, topped the all genre Billboard Top 200 on debut with his third album Chief and 5th album The Outsiders that we feature in Series #25 of Nu Country TV .
You can help Nu Country TV survive and triumph on C 31 and win the Chief CD as a token of our appreciation
Nu
Country TV beams into Phillip Island, West Gippsland, Geelong &
the Surf Coast, Bellarine Peninsula, north to Mt Macedon and east
to the Dandenongs.
We're
also featured on C 31 in South Australia - home state of expatriate
Greencards multi-instrumentalist Kym Warner and Nashville recording
artist Jedd Hughes.
Golden
Guitar winner Beccy Cole, Jake Nickolai and 2000 Star Maker winner
Cat Southern also earned their stripes in home state South Australia.
This
means 750,000 viewers plus for videos, interviews and live gig footage
weekly.
Please
send your video clips in mini-DV or DVD-R format to Nu Country -
45 Ferndale Rd, Glen Iris 3146
We'll
keep you up to date on country music through our concert reviews,
features in our Diary and tours in TonkGirl's Gig Guide.
The
ABC has added Dig Country to its on-line jazz and roots radio
stations.
Adelaide bluegrass and roots country expert Richard Porteous
and peers have created a joyous sound that is reminiscent
of Nu Country FM in its halcyon days.
Midweek
Country INRFM 96.5FM Wednesday between 7pm & 9pm.
The presenters alternate each week, they are Mike Pealing
& John Worth. Now
streaming live
COLIN
WEIDNER
Texas Time Travellin North West FM Glenroy 98.9 Saturday
6 p m - 8 p m
FRANK MCHUGH
That's Country
North West FM Glenroy 98.9 Sunday
12pm - 3 p m
IAN
EDWARDS
playing a mix of Oz, US, Bluegrass Western swing & everything
in between, on the Double Clutchin Weasel Show On 88.6FM
Wednesday night
@ 10.00PM - 12.00pm
GEELONG
COUNTRY 89.3 FM - 24 hours non-stop country
Stereo
974 FM - Bob Taylor 9 am - 6 pm week days. Truck Stop Country Rod Boyd - midnight to dawn. Now
streaming live
BIG
PETE WINDLE FRIDAY
3MDR 97.1FM
9.30 pm to midnight
[full on country] Now streaming live
5
Foot High And Rising with Myles O'Neil Shaw PBS - 106.7
FM - Monday 1-3 p m.
3RPP
Mornington Peninsula Radio
Monday 7-9pm Country Mix with Ken Brown
Saturday 7-9pm Kool Country
Barbara Kuhl
Tuesday & Thursday Breakfast 6-9am Wild Western Swing and Wicked Wacky Country - Steve Burley
Sunday 4am-7am BJs Country Music John Burrows
WELCOME TO NU COUNTRY TV 
