DAVE'S DIARY - 8 JUNE 2015 - PREVIEW OF EPISODE 2 - SERIES 27

KIRSTY HOLLERS WITH GUITAR SLINGING MARSHALL ON NU COUNTRY TV

Hunter Valley singer-songwriter Kirsty Lee Akers and South Carolina born guitar slinger actress Marshall Chapman headline Nu Country TV Saturday June 13 at 10.30 pm on Channel 31/ Digital 44.

Hotshot West Virginian guitarist Brad Paisley also whips up a perfect storm on a show repeated Monday 5.30 am and 2.30 pm, Wednesday 7.30 am and Thursday 2.30 am.

Prolific former Steel Drivers guitarist and singer songwriter Chris Stapleton and singing spouse Morgane consummate their vocal nuptials in our live Behind Bars concert.

Texan Kevin Fowler introduces new duet partner Amy Rankin on the program filmed and edited by Laith Graham.

Nu Country TV is a highlight of C 31 streaming list on Digital 44.

Just follow this link on your computer or mobile phone - http://www.c31.org.au/program/view/program/nu-country-tv

KIRSTY SPOOFS HOW TO GET FAMOUS

Hunter Valley singer-songwriter Kirsty Lee Akers developed a strong suit in satire long before she opened for Texan Hayes Carll on his Australian tour.

This week she parodies the music industry in her humorous video for That's How You Get Famous from third album Naked.

Akers delves into the nefarious activities of local and international pop peers who shell out as they sell out on that infamous Hollyweird casting couch.

She previously appeared in a graphic video for another satire Dirty Farmer's Daughter - one of seven songs she wrote with fellow Hunter Valley singer-songwriter Melody Pool.

The singer, now 27, parodied procreation proclivities of an agrarian from days of yore who forced the victim to give up her child for adoption.

That song is a distant descendant of John Prine tune Unwed Fathers , once cut by the late Tammy Wynette.

Kirsty won Tamworth Starmaker and a Golden Guitar as a teenager but took a 12-month hiatus after rejection by a Nashville label.

She visited Nashville and performed at Sounds Australia , the Americana Festival and famed Bluebird Café again and had song writing sessions with Jim Lauderdale, Robert Ellis Orrall, Kim Richey, Jerry Salley and Lee Groves.

She also worked with producer Trey Bruce - son of late tunesmiths Ed and Patsy Bruce who toured here in the seventies after writing Waylon & Willie hit Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys .

CLICK HERE for a Kirsty feature in our Diary on August 23, 2011.

CLICK HERE for a Hayes Carll-Kirsty Northcote Social Club concert review on August 25, 2012.

MARSHALL CHAPMAN – MOVIES AND MUSIC

South Carolina born guitar slinger and actress-author Marshall Chapman returns with her dynamic delivery of I Don't Want Nobody from her 13th album Blaze of Glory.

The singer, a staple on Nu Country FM in our radio era, was a major inspiration for Eltham egret and Liquid Lunch host Leslie Avril at Beer Can Hill .

Marshall, 66, played Gwyneth Paltrow's road manager in Country Strong that also starred Tim McGraw who joined George Clooney in his latest movie Tomorrowland.

She also played the blues-singing mother of drifter-gambler Ryan Reynolds in Mississippi Grind.

And in Love Song she was cast as mother of the groom - Ryan Eggold. Rosanna Arquette plays the bride's mum.

Marshall's books include Goodbye Little Rock & Roller and They Came To Nashville .

The daughter of a cotton mill owner was smitten by music after attending an Elvis Presley concert in 1957.

She was educated at the Salem Academy in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and graduated from Vanderbilt University in Nashville in 1967.

She embarked upon music in the 1970s with her songs recorded by Conway Twitty, Joe Cocker, Jimmy Buffett, Emmylou Harris, Wynonna, Jessi Colter, John Hiatt, Dion, Olivia Newton-John, Irma Thomas, and Ronnie Milsap.

Her song Betty's Bein' Bad was a No. 1 hit for Sawyer Brown .

In 1998 Marshall and Matraca Berg contributed 14 songs to Good Ol' Girls - a country musical based on the stories of Lee Smith and Jill McCorkle.

Further info - http://www.tallgirl.com/

BRAD PAISLEY IN PERFECT STORM

West Virginia born Brad Paisley recruited high profile actor late Andy Griffith and recently deceased Grand Ole Opry legend Little Jimmy Dickens for some videos.

But this time he and his hot band take centre stage in his video for Perfect Storm from his 10 th album Moonshine In The Trunk, released here last August.

There's no sign of Twiggy - the surfing squirrel who appeared in previous film clip River Bank .

Brad, now 42, has expanded into acting but not as much as spouse Kimberly Williams-Paisley whom he wed in 2003.

Twiggy the water skiing and surfing squirrel escaped claws of bald eagles nesting near filming on a 150 acre Alabama lake.

Paisley guest starred in South Park episode Cartman Finds Love and appeared in the first two seasons of ABC music-drama series, Nashville .

He also guested in season 11 episode of Two and a Half Men with wife Kimberly and this year appeared on the series Repeat After Me.

Brad launched River Bank on Jimmy Kimmel Live with fellow Rising Star reality TV show cast mates Kesha, Ludacris, and Josh Groban.

He enlisted Kimmel to share the cover art with fans as the host drank moonshine straight from a mason jar.

Paisley released his book Diary of a Player: How My Musical Heroes Made a Guitar Man Out of Me in 2011 and performs with expat superstar Keith Urban and plans to tour here in 2015.

Brad and Kimberley plan to bring their sons - 8-year-old Huck and 6-year-old Jasper - here on tour with them.

CLICK HERE for a Paisley feature in the Diary on April 22, 2013.

CLICK HERE for our Membership page to win his 2013 album Wheelhouse.

CHRIS STAPLETON LIVE IN BEHIND BARS

Former Steel Drivers guitarist Chris Stapleton performs two of his favourite songs live with singing spouse Morgane in Behind Bars.

The Kentucky coalminer's son performs the title track of his debut solo album Traveller - released at the ripe young age of 47.

They also revive Bob McDill penned country classic Amanda on the famed Grand Ole Opry.

It was a huge hit for Texans Don Williams and Waylon Jennings who toured here at the peak of their careers.

Chris has written #1 hits for Texan George Strait, Kenny Chesney and Darius Rucker

He also landed songs in the movies Cars 2 and Valentine's Day.

Stapleton, now 37, made his name with The Steel Drivers while writing hits for artists diverse as Josh Turner and Luke Bryan.

Traveller was recorded at the historic RCA Studio A, The Castle and Blackbird Studio - it was produced by Dave Cobb and recorded by Vance Powell.

He revamped Dean Dillon and Linda Hargrove's Tennessee Whiskey and Don Sampson's Was It 26 alongside 12 originals including Sometimes I Cry.

Stapleton's five No. 1 hits as a songwriter including five-week No. 1 Never Wanted Nothing More by Kenny Chesney, George Strait's Love's Gonna Make it Alright and Luke Bryan‘s Drink A Beer that Stapleton performed with Lady Antebellum at CMT Artists of Year show.

He has penned over 170 songs recorded by Adele, Tim McGraw, Brad Paisley and Dierks Bentley notable co-writers Vince Gill, Peter Frampton and Sheryl Crow.

Stapleton has shared stages with Gill, Alison Krauss, Marty Stuart, Emmylou Harris and more.

As lead vocalist for The Steel Drivers Stapleton earned three Grammy nominations including Best Bluegrass Album and International Bluegrass Music Association Emerging Artist of the Year.

He's also won eight ASCAP Awards and joined Little Big Town on their Pain Killer tour in March and The Outsiders tour with Eric Church in May.

Further info - http://www.chrisstapleton.com/

KEVIN FOWLER AND AMY RANKIN

Amarillo born Kevin Fowler and Amy Rankin of the legendary Rankin Twins perform in the video for Before Somebody Gets Hurt from Kevin's eighth album How Country Are Ya ?

Fowler, 48 and father of three daughters, is a prolific writer .

He recorded Don't Touch My Willie about his hero - singing actor Shotgun Willie Nelson who turned 82 on April 30.

That song was inspired by Willie's occasional drug busts - a sardonic sibling to Santa Got Busted By The Border Patrol with a cameo by Asleep At The Wheel singer Ray Benson.

Kevin also has a propensity for booze songs The Lord Loves a Drinking Man, Beer Season, Long Neckin' (Makes for Short Memories), Drinking Days, Ain't Drinking No More, Beer Money, All The Tequila in Tijuana and Beer, Bait & Ammo.

Louisiana gubernatorial candidate Sammy Kershaw and fellow Texans George Jones and Mark Chesnutt recorded the latter song - title track of his 2000 album.

Chesnutt also cut The Lord Loves A Drinking Man.

Fowler could feel jinxed - his last three labels closed shortly after releasing his albums.

In 2010 when Kevin signed with Disney subsidiary Lyric Street Records he was on a roll but eight weeks after release of his single Pound Sign they folded.

Fowler broke the streak after signing to Colt Ford's label - Average Joe's Entertainment .

He and Colt collaborated on Ford hit Hip Hop In A Honky Tonk for 2010 Ford album Chicken & Biscuits .

Fowler also wrote Long Line Of Losers for Montgomery Gentry and recorded a duet with The Possum - Me and the Boys - on a previous album.

Fowler sources songs driving his pickup at his ranch near Junction - he calls these songs "presents from the song gods."

"Those seem to be the best ones," he said of songs including Cheaper To Keep Her .

He also penned Ain't Dead Yet and Now You're Talkin' with frequent Aussie tourist David Lee Murphy.

Others include I Pulled a Hank Last Night - a strong drinking-man's anthem - and Honky Tonk Junkie, a clever tribute to genre icons.

"I'm almost a heavy-metal fan," said Fowler, who joined hard rocking Dangerous Toys in the early 1990s before founding Southern rockers Thunderfoot and returning to country in the late 1990s.

Further info - www.kevinfowler.com

HOW TO KEEP NU COUNTRY ON AIR

We need your support as we celebrate the 27th series of Nu Country TV.

Australian record companies and artists have joined forces to ensure our survival.

We have new CDS by major artists you can win by becoming a Nu Country TV member or renewing your membership.

They include singing actors Willie Nelson and Tim McGraw, Voice judge Blake Shelton, Ashley Monroe, Brad Paisley, Gary Allan, Toby Keith, Dierks Bentley, Eric Church, Chris Young, Charley Pride, Slim Dusty, Rosanne Cash and more.

We also have DVDS by Lady Antebellum.

CLICK HERE for our Membership Page for full details.

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