DAVE'S
DIARY - 26 DECEMBER 2006 - PREVIEW EPISODE 3 -
SERIES 7
JEFF BATES AND BILLY JOE SHAVER HEADLINE NU COUNTRY
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Mississippi
singer-songwriter Jeff Bates, Texan icon Billy Joe Shaver and Tennessee
superstar Kenny Chesney headline Nu Country TV this Saturday - December
30 - at 9.30 p m on C 31. Bates, 43, and a four times wed former convict, sings tailor penned tune One Second Chance - title track of his second album. |
The life
of the singer, a reformed speed addict, reads like a page torn from the
country music template.
Bates, an adoptee and hell raising singer, was raised in the backwoods
of Mississippi with eight other siblings.
Click here for a Bates
feature from the Diary.
BILLY JOE SHAVER RETURN
 Photo by Carol Taylor |
Texan
troubadour Billy Joe Shaver performs his tune Freedom's Child
on the eve of his fourth Australian tour. Shaver, now 67, toured here on one artery in 2002 with singing Texan crime novelist Kinky Friedman. 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. |
CLICK HERE for a Shaver feature from the Diary on March 24, 2004.
KENNY CHESNEY RETURNS
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Tennessee
superstar Kenny Chesney, the biggest grossing country-touring artist
of the decade, performs a video of his hit You Save Me from
huge selling ninth album The Road And The Radio. The singer has sold 25 million albums in a career that started in Luttrell - the same hometown of the late Chet Atkins. Chesney, 38, is coy about courting femme fatales in his video - You Save Me vamp Vane Millon was also the female lead in his clip for When The Sun Goes Down. But he split with former fiancé Mandy Weals - a swimsuit model - after she appeared in the video for How Forever Feels. |
"I'll
never do that again!" Chesney confessed tongue in cheek.
"It's a curse, the kiss of death, to put your girlfriend in a video.
We broke up, and two days later I had to sing that song on the CMAs and
that video was behind me. I didn't like that performance very well. Don't
ever put your girlfriend in a video."
Well, at least that didn't happen with former actress wife and Oscar-winner
Renee Zellweger.
Chesney has bounced back after a 128 day marriage to Zellweger.
Renee declared the relationship "the biggest personal mistake of
my life."
The actress stunned fans and the media when she wed Chesney on the island
of St. John in the Caribbean's Virgin Islands on May 9, 2005, after a
whirlwind four-month courtship.
Click Here for a Chesney
story from the Diary on April 7. 2004
ALY COOK DEBUT
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New
Zealand singer Aly Cook debuts with a video clip of her single Country
Storm - a tune penned on the net with David Erik from Cincinatti.
The video was shot in various locations including Hollywood & Nashville and tells the story of Aly's journey. It was produced by 2005 NZ Kodak Video Knack Award winner Paul Sparkes. RIAA Gold Record credited writer/producer Chip Martin recorded the audio version of the song in his Nashville studio. Cook's diverse music has featured in NZ TV Sitcoms Love Bites and Shortland Street. She previously released the self-penned I Wonder that stayed in the NZ Top 40 airplay chart for several weeks and was nominated for the 2005 APRA NZ Country Song of the Year. Aly appeared in London last year and returns to Europe in July, 2007, for a Norway tour. Further info - http://www.alycook.com/home.cfm |
CRAKAJAK WORK HARD
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Macedon Ranges
band Crakajak celebrates a decade on the local scene with a video of What's
Wrong With A Little Hard Work from compilation disc Ten.
The CD/DVD pack includes 14 new original songs, eight bonus tracks and
six music video clips.
Crakajak also created Balls in Bush - a documentary about the B
& S Ball culture in Australia.
The documentary features Aussie legend Kevin Bloody Wilson whose albums
feature expatriate American pedal steel guitarist Lucky Oceans of Asleep
At The Wheel fame.
Also on this album are two tracks featuring former Little River Band guitarist
David Briggs.
Briggs penned Don't Give in to Loneliness with prolific Skyhooks
hit writer and latter day lawyer Greg Macainsh.
Further info - www.crakajak.com
LESLIE AVRIL - BLONDE AT RED HILL
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Celebrate
chanteuse Leslie Avril, a colleague of Macainsh and one of the headliners
at the Red Hill festival on Sunday January 7, also returns. The former Nu Country DJ performs the Chris Wall classic Trashy Woman - once a hit for Confederate Railroad. Leslie has recorded three solo albums on labels diverse as Larrikin and ABC. She has performed with international artists diverse as Joe Sun, Billy Joe Shaver, Ozark Mountain Daredevils. |
Click
Here for a Leslie Avril story from the Diary on June 14, 2004.
Further Info - www.leslieavril.com
TROY CASSAR-DALEY CD PRIZES
ARIA award
winning singer Troy Cassar-Daley appeared at one of Leslie's CD launches
at Central Club in Richmond.
You can win an autographed copy of Troy's big selling sixth album Brighter
Day by becoming a member of Nu Country TV.
CLICK HERE to learn how to win
Troy's CD.