DAVE'S DIARY - 22/1/08 - PREVIEW OF EPISODE 8 - SERIES 9
SHOOTER JENNINGS AND WAYLON PAYNE - SONS OF GUNS
Shooter Jennings
and Waylon Payne have plenty in common - they won cameo roles in Johnny
Cash movie Walk The Line.
And they're both sons of country music legends and appear on Nu Country
TV this Saturday - January 19 - at 8 p m on C 31.
Shooter is the son of singer Jessi Colter and the late Texan outlaw star-actor
Waylon Jennings who died at 64 on February 13, 2002.
Jennings played his dad as a young man and Payne was cast as Jerry Lee
Lewis in the movie that also featured Shelby Lynne as Johnny Cash's mother.
Payne, named after Waylon Jennings, is the son of Willie Nelson's long
time guitarist Jody Payne and late country star Sammi Smith who died at
61 on February 12, 2005.
Waylon appears with touring comedienne and country singer Kacey Jones
on a video for her new single Lie To Me Darlin'.
Kacey and Becky Hobbs headline our Nu Country TV live concert at The Noise
Bar at the Railway Hotel, Brunswick, on Friday February 1.
Shooter and his band perform a video for his version of the Mark Knopfler
song Walk Of Life from his third album The Wolf.
Also returning to Nu Country is another Texan - Miranda Lambert - with
her new hit Famous In A Small Town.
Queensland singer-songwriter Nik Phillips also performs a locale song
- My Town.
Californian surfing cowboy Gary Allan ignites Nu Country with new single
Watching Airplanes from his seventh album Living Hard.
Allan, 40, is promoting his album on his fourth Australian tour with Corb
Lund in Queensland after the CMC Rocks the Snowy Mountains Country &
Roots Festival at Thredbo on March 14 and 15.
Melbourne country combo Snowy Townsend's Bona Fide Travellers, who support
Kacey and Becky, also perform a live song from our Christmas Party at
Hotel Kew.
The quintet performs Good Time Charlie's Got The Blues - the classic
hit penned by Danny O'Keefe who toured here in 2005.
CLICK HERE for full details of the Kacey
Jones-Becky Hobbs-Bona Fide Travellers concert at The Noise Bar.
SHOOTER JENNINGS
|
Shooter Jennings
and actress partner Drea De Matteo - star of The Sopranos and Joey
- recently became parents.
Shooter and Drea welcomed a baby girl - Alabama Gypsy Rose - on November
28 in New York.
Jennings, now 28, hosts his music show Electric Rodeo on Sirius Satellite
radio in the U.S., and also gave birth to his third album The Wolf
on Universal.
The singer is promoting it by performing the title track on the U.S. TV
variety shows David Letterman and Jay Leno on January 23.
Shooter and his hot band perform their version of Mark Knopfler's Walk
Of Life in a bizarre video shot in a supermarket on Nu Country TV.
The singer has also appeared on top rating Nine Network show CSI.
"They
were looking for a scene at a country bar, and they needed a band,"
Shooter revealed.
"Right now, I'm looking hard to find avenues outside of country radio.
I wish the radio would embrace me and a couple of other people. I wish
their heads weren't so far up their own with it. I'm so in love with country
music and the history, and I want to keep it alive and pumping and bring
it to the kids and do good for country. But country radio thinks we're
not their market, or that they need an older audience."
CLICK HERE for a Shooter
Jennings CD Review from the Diary.
WAYLON PAYNE AND KACEY JONES
 |
Internationally
acclaimed comedienne and singer-songwriter Kacey Jones didn't have
to look far for a duet partner for her new video Lie To Me Darlin'
that premieres on Nu Country this week. Jones chose Waylon Payne who was knocked out by Kris Kristofferson in her video for the title track of her Mickey Newbury tribute disc San Francisco Mabel Joy. Payne performed with Kacey at the 2006 Mickey Newbury festival in Austin, Texas, and at the Willie Nelson July 3 and 4 picnics. New Mexico singer-songwriter Stacey Dean Campbell, who toured here with Texan troubadour Hugh Moffatt in the nineties, directed both videos. |
Waylon released
his solo debut album The Drifter on Universal in 2004.
He wrote 10 of the 11 songs on the disc produced by Texan country singer-songwriter
Keith Gattis.
Payne, named after Waylon Jennings, is the son of Willie Nelson's long
time guitarist Jody Payne and late country star Sammi Smith who died at
61 on February 12, 2005.
Payne and Sammi earlier made a guest appearance on the Grand Ole Opry
where she was feted in 1970 after she cut Help Me Make It Through The
Night.
Her version of the Kristofferson tune sold two million copies and was
voted the CMA single of the year in 1971.
It also reached #8 on the pop charts and won a Grammy for Smith and Kris.
Ironically, her small indie record label, Mega, had been formed as a tax
write-off and the last thing the owner wanted was a hit record.
Smith said in an 1981 interview that the song ''definitely brought me
prestige and no small amount of satisfaction. And it's paid for a few
meals.''
She had earlier recorded He's Everywhere - a tune that reached
#25 for Mega.
Payne inherited his parents' musical genetics - he wrote for and performed
on Texan star Pat Green's seventh album Wave On Wave.
Payne and Green co-wrote the satirical song Elvis and Sing Till
I Stop Crying, replete with Roger Miller and Mickey Newbury name checks,
on Green's disc.
Waylon was also cast in Crazy - an independent feature film inspired
by the life of legendary guitarist Hank Garland.
CLICK HERE for a new
feature on Kacey Jones.
CLICK HERE for a Kacey
Jones interview from The Diary on September 10, 2006.
GARY ALLAN VIDEO FOR TOUR
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Surfing
California born cowboy Gary Allan returns to Australia for his fourth
tour to promote his aptly named big selling seventh Universal album
Living Hard. Allan, 40, performs an evocative video for his ruptured romance hit single Watching Airplanes on Nu Country. Allan has been living hard since the suicide of his third wife Angela in 2004. "I became the ambassador to suicide," says Allan who tours Queensland in March with former Canadian rodeo rider Corb Lund. Allan recently finished a joint U.S. tour with expatriate Australasian country superstar Keith Urban who also performs here in March. |
Gary and
fellow U.S. chart toppers Sugarland and Taylor Swift play the CMC Rocks
The Snowy Country & Roots Music Festival at Thredbo on March 14 and
15.
Latter-day Texan Patty Griffin, Catherine Britt, John Butler, Adam Harvey,
Steve Forde, The McClymonts and others are also on the Snowy show.
Allan expects his Australian sojourn to be far more peaceful than a spring
post album release fracas at a Nashville bar.
He was with a group of six who were celebrating a friend's birthday.
The star was enjoying cocktails when two men attempted to take over the
area Gary occupied.
According to witnesses, Gary politely asked the two men to move to another
area, and one of the men began screaming obscenities at Gary and his date,
aesthetician Justina Crosslin.
Gary asked the men to back off, and one threw a punch at him.
Allan ducked and landed a right swing to his face.
The restaurant's staff removed the two men, and Gary and his party remained.
CLICK HERE for a
Gary Allan interview from the Diary on October 23, 2005.
CLICK HERE for a previous
Gary Allan feature in the Diary on October 27, 2004.
MIRANDA LAMBERT FAMOUS IN A SMALL TOWN
 |
Texan
fireball Miranda Lambert returns to Nu Country with her reality rooted
video for Famous In A Small Town from her third album Crazy
Ex-Girlfriend. Lambert, 24 and daughter of a former Dallas undercover narcotics cop, wrote the song about her hometown - Lindale - population 4,000 - and 80 miles east of Dallas. It was there that Lambert launched her career when her dad changed professions to private detective. |
Miranda has also become famous in her hometown for a new line of wine marketed by her family.
Miranda's
mother Beverly says the Red 55 Winery is attracting tourists to the town.
The name comes from her daughter's first truck - a red 1955 Chevy - and
includes Kerosene, also named after her 2005 breakthrough hit.
There's also a blush wine called Electric Pink, named for one of
the singer's guitars.
Lambert's latest single came out on January 15 when the family's two newest
wines were launched - Gunpowder & Lead, and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
- also Lambert songs.
The Lamberts teamed with Lou Viney Vineyards of Winnsboro to offer the
wine.
Miranda, named in many best albums of the year lists, won't be a victim
of the grip of the grape.
When not touring or home in Texas she lives on an Oklahoma farm with her
singing sweetheart - fellow country star Blake Shelton.
CLICK HERE for a Miranda
feature from the Diary on May 5, 2007.
NIK PHILLIPS - MY TOWN
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Southport
born Nik Phillips may not be as famous in his hometown as Miranda
but he played to five million Chinese during his first tour there
in 2006. Phillips' sixth album Songs For The Fourth Floor has since been released in China. Former Queensland Premier Peter Beattie said it was first time an Australian act had been signed by a Chinese record label and the deal would open the door for future Queensland talent. |
"Nik's
debut performance at Guangdong International Tourism and Cultural Festival
in November last year was an undeniable hit and made quite an impression
on China's entertainment elite," Mr Beattie said at the time.
"Pacific Audio and Video Company is China's equivalent of Sony Music
and is a subsidiary of Radio Guangdong, which broadcasts across the whole
of mainland China - it doesn't get much bigger than that!
"PAV is confident that Nik's album will appeal to China's middle-class
college student market."
Phillips followed Geelong born Adam Harvey - a multiple Golden Guitar
finalist - onto the Chinese market.
"I can remember when Brisbane was thought of as a place you had to
leave to succeed," Phillips says.
"But, when I was in China I was surprised by how interested the Chinese
people were in Australian music and culture. It's an exciting meeting
ground!"
This week Nik performs a video for his song My Town - nominated
for both best new talent and video in the 36th Golden Guitars in Tamworth
- on Nu Country.
More info - www.nikphillips.com.au
SNOWY TOWNSEND BONA FIDE TRAVELLERS
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Snowy
Townsend's Bona Fide Travellers won an avid following when they appeared
at the Nu Country Christmas Party at Hotel Kew on Sunday December
15. It also landed them the support role on the Becky Hobbs-Kacey Jones live concert at The Noise Bar at the Railway Hotel, Brunswick, on Friday February 1. This week Snowy and his travellers debut on Nu Country TV. The quintet performs Good Time Charlie's Got The Blues - the classic hit penned by Danny O'Keefe who toured here in 2005. O'Keefe, born in Spokane and raised in Wenatchee, Washington, performed solo at Basement Discs, Troubadour Festival and Corner Hotel, Richmond, on his low key visit. |
CLICK HERE for Bona Fide Travellers story from the Diary on November 22, 2007.
TAMWORTH TRAIN SPONSOR
Nu Country
has a new sponsor for Series #9 - The Tamworth Country Music Country Train
that leaves Geelong and Southern Cross stations at dawn on January 19
for the NSW country music capital.
Headlining are Oklahoma raised stone country legend Becky Hobbs and Nashville
comedienne, producer and singer-songwriter Kacey Jones.
We have new video clips by Becky and vintage footage of by Jones who hosted
Nu Country TV from an Austin motel room during the Mickey Newbury festival
in June of 2006.
Kacey recorded the Newbury tribute disc San Francisco Mabel Joy
- the video clip, directed by New Mexico country star Stacy Dean Campbell,
features singing actors Kris Kristofferson and Waylon Payne.
We reprised it in Series #9.
Kacey and Becky sing for their supper on the train - cool home for passengers
during the hot Tamworth festival.
Nashville singer Julie Taylor performs on the train with local artists
including Grant Luhrs, Connie Anderson, J R Williams, Ian Muir, Rick Bartlett,
Hank Sasaki, June Harrison and Bec Hance.
Full details - www.tamworthcountrymusictrain.com.au