DAVE'S DIARY - 28/12/2015 - PREVIEW OF EPISODE 5 - SERIES 29

DON HENLEY HEADLINES NU COUNTRY TV 2016 PREMIERE

Eagles co-founder Don Henley headlines our 2016 Nu Country TV premiere on Saturday January 2 on Channel 31/ Digital 44 at 9.30 pm with his new video clip that revisits his Texas roots.

Fellow Texan Shakey Graves and recent Aussie tourist Sam Outlaw also appear on the show repeated Monday 2.30 pm, Wednesday 7.30 am and Thursday 3 am.

Kentuckian J.D. Shelburne debuts Behind Bars on the program hosted by Mid Pacific Bob Olson and filmed and edited by Laith Graham.

Victorian Lachlan Bryan returns in a dual role with his band The Wildes and as co-writer and as director of Nundle singer-songwriter John K's new song and video.

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

EAGLES IN CASS COUNTY

Texan Don Henley first toured here in the seventies and played Festival Hall with acclaimed west coast band The Eagles.

This week he returns to hometown Linden and tells us about fifth solo album Cass County and songs featured in this series.

Co-produced with Stan Lynch, former drummer with Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers , the 16 song deluxe disc includes revamped Billy Sherrill-penned classic Too Far Gone with harmonists Jamey Johnson and Alison Krauss and Jesse Lee Kincaid's She Sang Hymns Out of Tune.

There are also several new originals written with Lynch, including first single Take a Picture of This - saga of a failing relationship.

Henley , now 68, released new divorce fuelled single Words Can Break Your Heart , featuring Georgian Trisha Yearwood, in November.

Trisha also joins Henley on Praying For Rain - sibling of another agrarian song Train In The Distance .

Henley duets with Merle Haggard on Cost Of Living and kicks off with Tift Merritt's Bramble Rose with Miranda Lambert and Mick Jagger.

Don joins Dolly Parton on Louvin Brothers tune When I Stop Dreaming, revives Jesse Winchester's Brand New Tennessee Waltz and teams with Martina McBride on That Old Flame.

Vince Gill duets with Henley on No, Thank You with harmonies by Lucinda Williams and Ashley Monroe.

Henley lives with his wife and three teenage children near Dallas but his retreat is a 200-acre farm outside Linden.

"Every time I go back there, I have a lot of mixed emotions. I see the things that I love about the place, but I also see the things that drove me away from it,” Henley says of his Cass County roots.

“So it's an ongoing conundrum. It's a paradox. I'm both attracted and repelled by it. I think small towns are a microcosm for America . That's how I feel about my country. I love my country. I'm loyal to my country. I want to help my country, but my country also really disappoints me and makes me angry and frustrated sometimes.

Henley 's last solo album was Inside Job in 2000 - he won six Grammys with the Eagles whose Long Road Out Of Eden came out in 2007.

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

SAM OUTLAW - JESUS TAKES THE WHEEL AND DRIVES HIM TO A BAR

Don Henley features a “Jesus Saves” church sign in his video but didn't mention his chauffeurial services.

So Californian Sam Outlaw chose the passenger seat in his live video for Jesus Take The Wheel And Drive Me To A Bar from Ry Cooder produced debut album Angeleno.

Outlaw, 33, had different transportation on his 2015 Australian tour that included quaint Meeniyan Town Hall , Out On The Weekend festival at Williamstown and Northcote Social Club.

The singer, born Sam Morgan in South Dakota , borrowed his mother's maiden name Outlaw for his music career and moved with his Christian family to California at the age of 10.

Sam had a successful advertising career until his 30th birthday when "an existential crisis moment" led him to music.

He self-released an EP in 2014 and played Stagecoach Festival in California and the Americana Festival in Nashville.

“The music I play, I call SoCal country ,” says Outlaw who has toured with Kentucky born singing actor Dwight Yoakam and Texan Clint Black.

His album's 12 tracks include Who Do You Think You Are? I'm Not Jealous, Love Her For A While, Ghost Town , Old Fashioned and Friends Don't Let Friends Drink And Fall in Love .

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

SHAKEY GRAVES DEARLY DEPARTED

Texan singing actor Shakey Graves proved smoking, shooting, fire lighting and bike riding were hazardous when he hooked up with Denver singer-song-writer Esme Patterson on his humorous video for Dearly Departed .

It's on the Americana award winner's third album - And The War Came .

Former Austin mayor Lee Leffingwell declared February 2 as Shakey Graves Day during his 2012 tenure.

It will be celebrated for the fourth time on the eve of Shakey's Australian tour in April.

Shakey, 28, likens song-writing to "bug-catching, or painting a picture."

He cites hometown Austin as his biggest impetus - that's where he coined the Shakey Graves moniker in 2007 after returning from acting stints in Los Angeles .

It was at Old Settler's Music Festival after he and his friends jokingly gave each other Indian guide names over a campfire.

After an inspired night of playing music, he decided to keep the name.

His credits include family-friendly Spy Kids and cult-classic TV drama Friday Night Lights .

Shakey grew up in the Austin theatre community; his mother is an actress and playwright and his father road-managed Jaston Williams and Joe Sears's Greater Tuna plays set in fictional Texas town Tuna.

“The hyper-dramatic gay theatre world was the backdrop for my childhood,” Graves recalled.

Shakey was acting in commercials by the time he was five and at sixteen dropped out of school to head off for Los Angeles .

He mostly found rejection but landed roles back home when he returned to visit - including “the Swede” - his recurring character on Friday Night Lights .

In between auditions he practiced guitar and tried his hand at writing songs.

“Music kept reminding me how much emotion I didn't have an outlet for,” says Shakey.

“ Los Angeles can tear down your confidence, leave you sad and confused, and I didn't have anywhere to put that. You can find catharsis from acting, but reading other people's lines, playing out other people's lives, makes it a terrible place for therapy.”

Graves , born Alejandro Rose-Garcia, plays Byron Bay Blues festival March 24-28 before his Hamer Hall debut on Tuesday March 29.

He is promoting his colourful catalogue that began with debut disc Roll The Bones.

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

J D SHELBURNE REVISITS KENTUCKY HOMETOWN

Kentuckian J D Shelburne visited Taylorsville in his video for Hometown - title track of his debut album.

Shelburne grew up on a tobacco farm in Taylorsville - a tiny town southeast of the Ohio River near Louisville.

At 19 he found a guitar after the death of his grandmother and began learning to play and sing on his own.

He played the famed 2015 Kentucky Derby long after singing for tips at college bars and focusing on graduating from the University of Kentucky .

Shelburne, now 28, grew up on a potent hybrid of honky-tonk, gospel, singer/songwriters, modern country and rock & roll.

JD won recognition in Country Weekly Magazine , Music Entertainment Magazine, Kentucky Monthly , numerous radio/TV cameos and two appearances at the Grand Ole Opry with Steve Wariner and a USO Troop Tour at Camp Shelby .

His debut video Farmboy gained him thousands of fans on TNN Top Ten Countdown on Heartland TV .

Shelburne has also opened for Montgomery Gentry , Chris Young, Clay Walker, Jamey Johnson, Kellie Pickler, Aaron Tippin, Miranda Lambert, Easton Corbin, Craig Campbell, Love & Theft, Trailer Choir , Josh Kelley, Johnny Lee, Cowboy Troy, Mark Wills, Josh Gracin, Bryan White, Jeffrey Steele, Trent Tomlinson, Sam Bush, Gloriana , Colbie Caillat, Kentucky Headhunters , Steve Wariner, Joey & Rory, Adam Gregory, Daryl Worley, Joe Nichols, Crystal Shawanda, Jeremy McComb, David Frizzell, John Michael Montgomery, Shannon Lawson, Halfway to Hazard and Juice Newton.

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

JOHN K CELEBRATES HISTORIC ROMANCE

Nundle singer-songwriter and sheep farmer John K Krsulja celebrates rebirth of a 40 year old romance in his video for In A Heartbeat.

The video was filmed at a railway station and house in Werris Creek.

Sydney singer-songwriter Katie Brianna joins John K in their evocative delivery of a true love story that began in Narrabri.

In a Heartbeat tells of indigenous woman Aunty Joy Reid who met and fell in love at 17 with Daryl Wilson

They reunited 40 years later at Maitland railway station and are still together.

John K wrote the song on his DAG Sheep Station at his 2013 songwriter retreat with Katie, Kerrie Garside, Luke O'Shea and video director Lachlan Bryan.

In A Heartbeat is on his album Travelling , produced by Karl Broadie.

CLICK HERE for a John K CD review in The Diary on November 23.

LACHLAN BRYAN & THE WILDES

Mornington Peninsula raised singer-songwriter Lachlan Bryan and his band The Wildes head north across the Yarra in their new video for Afraid Of The Light.

Claudine Marie and Wildes bassist Shaun Ryan tested the Yarra water, a bath and boudoir in Richmond .

There were no choppy waters or chop sticks and neck tattoos to distract them in the steamy video.

Afraid of the Dark is on the band's second album The Mountain , released in September.

Rod McCormack produced Bryan 's debut album at his Music Cellar studio on the NSW Central Coast .

It featured a duet with Kasey Chambers, lap steel by her dad - Poppa Bill - and Novocastrian Catherine Britt and Kaylah Anne on backing vocals.

CLICK HERE for a Bryan CD review in the Diary on February 19, 2012.

HOW TO KEEP NU COUNTRY ON AIR

We need your support as we celebrate the 29th series of Nu Country TV.

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

We're pleased to announce Sony has given us the latest CD and DVD by Georgian star Jason Aldean on the eve of his debut Australian tour in March.

They also donated Angels And Alcohol - the 20th album by fellow Georgian superstar Alan Jackson - and Adam Harvey's 12th album Harvey's Bar - The Backyard Sessions .

Also 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, Tim McGraw and Toby Keith, Voice judge Blake Shelton, Ashley Monroe, Brad Paisley, Carrie Underwood, Gary Allan, Dierks Bentley, Eric Church, Charley Pride and more.

We also have a Lady Antebellum DVD.

CLICK HERE for our Membership Page for full details.

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