DAVE'S DIARY - 26 /11/06 - PREVIEW EPISODE 1 - SERIES 7
TROY CASSAR-DALEY HOSTS NU COUNTRY TV RETURN
 |
ARIA
award winning singer-songwriter Troy Cassar-Daley hosts the premiere
of Series #7 of Nu Country TV this Saturday December 16 at 9.30 p
m on C 31. The singer took time off from his extensive touring, including a Tallangatta drought relief concert on Saturday December 9, to elaborate on his admiration for some of his favourite country artists. Fellow Nu Country host Heather Rutherford also interviewed Troy about his triumphs and life on the road. The series will also be shown on C 31 in Adelaide at 5.30 p m on Sundays. Cassar-Daley started 2006 by winning four Tamworth Golden Guitars, appeared as a regular guest on Seven Network show It Takes Two and also Denton on the ABC. |
He also won the prestigious CMAA Entertainer of the Year Award after touring the U.S. with Tommy Emmanuel.
Troy was
also featured in a special on Pay TV channel CMC and appeared at Gympie
Muster with Shane Howard.
Shane also joins fellow river devotee Troy in a sparkling live performance
from Port Fairy folk festival on Nu Country this week.
And equally importantly Troy has donated a brace of autographed copies
of his huge selling sixth album Brighter Day to keen viewers who join
Nu Country or renew their membership.
CLICK HERE to learn how to win
a Troy CD by becoming a Nu Country member.
CLICK HERE for
a Troy feature from the Diary on January 30, 2006.
CLICK HERE for a
Shane Howard feature from the Diary on September 10, 2004.
BILLY JOE SHAVER LIVES FOREVER
 |
Troy
talks about his admiration for veteran Texan country singing and actor
Billy Joe Shaver. Cassar-Daley met Shaver, now 67, on an Australian tour with Willie Nelson and the late Waylon Jennings in 1994. Shaver later toured Australia on one artery in 2002 with singing Texan crime novelist Kinky Friedman. < photo by Carol Taylor |
The singer
had a quadruple heart by-pass on his return to Texas, wed his second wife,
released an autobiography and became spiritual adviser to Friedman in
his headline grabbing bid to become Governor of Texas.
Shaver performs a new version of his classic song Live Forever
with Big & Rich from his 18th album The Real Deal.
Billy Joe
wrote the song with his late son Eddy and performed it at the funeral
of first wife Brenda, whom he wed three times.
CLICK HERE for a Shaver
feature from the Diary on March 24, 2004.
BIG & RICH
 |
Superstar
duo Big & Rich also perform a video clip of their evocative Vietnam
War song 8TH Of November. The duo featured Rhodes Scholar and singing actor Kris Kristofferson on its version of the song on second album Comin To Your City. John Rich, former Lonestar singer and Texan Pentecostal preacher's son, formed Big & Rich with Big Kenny Alphin after becoming hit writers as part of the MusikMafia in Nashville. |
8th of November
was inspired by a Vietnam veteran that Big Kenny Alphin met in a Deadwood,
South Dakota bar.
Niles Harris, one of just four of the 173rd Airborne Brigade to survive
a 1965 ambush by more than 1,200 Viet Cong, also gave Kenny his hat.
CLICK HERE for a Big &
Rich review from the Diary on July 18, 2006.
GRETCHEN WILSON PARODIES CALIFORNIA GIRLS
 |
Redneck
Woman Gretchen Wilson has been one of John Rich's many songwriting
partners since she left the small Illinois town of Pocahontas for
Nashville. Her first album Here For The Party has sold a mammoth five million and led to her second album All Jacked Up. She co-produced the disc and wrote seven of the 13 songs before releasing her frank autobiography I'll Tell You What A Redneck Woman Is in November. Wilson, 33, now lives on a 70-acre farm just outside of Nashville with her daughter and partner. She was born when her mother was 16, and her father had moved out of her life by the time Wilson was 2. |
CLICK
HERE for a Gretchen Wilson CD live review from the Diary on April 5, 2005.
CLICK
HERE for a Gretchen Wilson Undressed DVD review in the Diary.
MERLE HAGGARD GOOD TIMES NOT OVER
 |
Host
Troy has a good reason for remembering veteran Californian outlaw
Merle Haggard - Gretchen's duet partner on Politically Uncorrect. Troy opened for Haggard, 69, on his 1996 Australian tour in 1996 - one of many highlights was his Myer Music Bowl concert in Melbourne. And, of course, introducing his mum Irene to the former convict and five times wed star who released his second duets disc Kicking Out the Footlights Again with fellow legend George Jones. In 1982, Haggard and Jones, now 75, joined forces to release A Taste Of Yesterday's Wine. They reunited again during recording sessions in mid-August for 14 songs. |
There are
five Haggard songs done by The Possum, five Jones identified-songs sung
by The Hag and four duets.
Jones broke his right wrist on Friday October 20 in a fall at his producer's
studio in Nashville.
Troy chose
Haggard classic Are The Good Times Really Over for the Video Vault
on Nu Country TV.
CLICK HERE
for a Merle Haggard CD Review from the Diary