DAVE'S DIARY - 30/8/11 - PREVIEW OF EPISODE 13 - SERIES 16

NU COUNTRY TV SERIES FINALE - TAYLOR MAID

Taylor Swift headlines the finale of Series 16 of Nu Country TV this Saturday - September 3 - at 10.30 p m on C 31.

The young multi-millionaire singer returns here for her third tour in March.

Expatriate Texan Doug Bruce, Novocastrian Catherine Britt, Geelong born Adam Harvey and Fawkner fraulein Jasmine Rae return to the show.

Kansas raised star Martina McBride also debuts her latest video clip.

Tertiary students Tom Botterill and Nick Atkinson host the show edited by Mildura raised, Latrobe University student Tom Swinburn who has just completed his Bachelor of Media Studies.

We're indebted to Swinburn and award winning academic Ashley Hall who shared the editing duties on the series when Sapphire Coast editor Peter Staubli returned to academia.

SWIFT MEAN

Taylor Swift has used her video clips as a supreme marketing tool for her music and ascension to her acting career.

So it's no surprise that her video for recent hit Mean exploits the age-old theme of a damsel being tied to a railroad track.

And, of course, the vivacious vamp plays a banjo after being rescued in the nick of time.

It's a vast contrast to the fate of Haley Jones - the character she played in the Turn, Turn, Turn episode of the CSI TV series in 2009.

Swift, a teenager when she morphed into a corpse, in the Vegas version of the crime drama, fared better in Valentine's Day, One Night With You and the Myley Cyrus movie Hanna Montana.

The prolific writer also appeared in the Dish Nation and is set to be the animated voice of Audrey in The Lorax.

Her merchandise empire includes a Wonderstuck perfume line, greeting cards and much more.

Taylor debuted here in 2009 with Arkansas star Joe Nichols, Old Crow Medicine Show and Deanna Carter at the CMC Rocks The Snowys festival at Thredbo.

This year Taylor tours to promote third album Speak Now that sold more than a million copies before she turned 21.

With more than 20 million album sales in less than four years she long ago crossed to the mainstream media.

Click Here for a Speak Now review in the Diary on December 13, 2010.

TRUE BRITT BEHIND BARS

When Catherine Britt spent six years living in Nashville she lost more than a healthy share of airplay to Swift and gal pals Miranda Lambert and Kellie Pickler.

She also lost her fiddle player Caitlin Evans to Swift's touring band.

But all was not lost for Britt whose song Lucky Girl was also covered by Pickler.

Britt appears at the Americana festival in Nashville October 12-15 with expats The Greencards and revered artists Marshall Chapman, Elizabeth Cook, Kelly Willis, Connie Smith and some leading men.

That was after joining the 30th Gympie Muster last weekend that scored mainstream exposure on Nine Network Weekend breakfast shows.

The singer also toughened up her image with tattoos and graffiti as she strutted her stuff in the video for I Want You Back from her fourth ABC Music album.

Britt's walk on the wild side of a prison cell borrowed from the bravado of former convict country stars Merle Haggard and David Allan Coe.

Catherine, 25, is likely to perform in Victoria and on the national summer festival circuit in 2012.

She's promoting her self-titled disc produced by Bill Chambers and son in law Shane Nicholson at Sing-Sing Studio in Richmond that features 14 of her originals.

Catherine toured overseas with Alan Jackson and Brooks & Dunn in her Nashville sojourn.

Click Here for a Britt feature in the Diary on May 2, 2010.

DOUG BRUCE - HOME ON THE TEXAS RANGE

Expatriate Texan Doug Bruce shares more than a musical choice with ABC radio host and multi-instrumentalist Lucky Oceans.

Both moved to Australia from the Lone Star State after meeting their Australian brides.

Oceans left the legendary western swing band Asleep At The Wheel after meeting Christine Haddow born at Broad Arrow near Kalgoorlie at famed Exit Inn in Nashville in 1977.

She was working for the iconic producer and songwriter Cowboy Jack Clement, now 80, whose home and studio were recently destroyed in a fire.

Lucky quit the Grammy winning band in 1980 and moved to Fremantle despite an offer by fellow co-founder Ray Benson to stay and appear in the movie Roadie.

Bruce also met his Bendigo bride Jodie in Nashville while performing live and working sessions in the music mecca.

That was longer after his dad Dale toured here with fellow Texan swing maestro Red Steagall and his Coleman County Cowboys in 1979.

But the singer returned to the scene of the rhyme - his hometown Aubrey - to film part of his latest video for Coffey Road.

Bruce's evocative journey home features a collage of footage - old pick-up truck, barn, mailbox, home movies and a dog, aptly named Bones.

The video connects the past with his present digs at Bendigo - the song is the third single from his 2010 album A Good Place.

Doug filmed other popular videos at the Dederang Hotel near Wodonga in the Kiewa Valley and Dragon City Lanes bowling alley and Huha Club in Bendigo.

The singer, who worked in Texan band Cheyenne and with stone country singer Billy Yates, has returned to the U.S. for tours with his band The Tailgaters.

Doug is a frequent act on local festivals diverse as Gympie, Wandong, Red Hill and Whittlesea and also played in Norway with South Australian singer Sandra Humphries.

Further info - www.dougbruce.com.au

ADAM HARVEY - UNDERBELLY

When Adam Harvey filmed the video clip for his latest single near his NSW Central Coast home he had an eclectic cast.

The singer, born at Leopold near Geelong, lured bush poet Andy Prowst who appears in the latest Underbelly series set in Sydney in the Razor Wars of the thirties.

"We made the video for You Don't Know My Love up here at Long Jetty which is right next to Batteau Bay," Harvey, 36, and father of two sons, told Nu Country.

"I got a bunch of good friends together.

Beccy Cole has cameo dressed as a bloke. It was a great day. She looks like Harry Butler or the Crocodile man or something in her khaki outfit. I have the original Conway Twitty vinyl version of the song. I have over 50 Conway albums. We named our son Conway after the great man. I always thought it was a great song. But it was never one of his big hits. Our Conway missed out on this video.

He was in the last few. He had his nose out of joint - he missed because the kids were all at school that day when we shot it. He was not too happy. Mike Carr and his wife and another mate Dave Prowst, who is a bush poet, were in it. He's just won a role in the new Underbelly series. I doubt I will be able to get him again for free. He plays a typical husband - some thing happens in the backyard and there's a shoot-out."

You Don't Know My Love is from Harvey's seventh album Falling Into Place.

Harvey and Grafton-born fellow multiple Golden Guitarist Troy Cassar-Daley tour the east coast in spring to promote their music, go fishing and maybe catch Adam's team Geelong play in the finals.

CLICK HERE for a Harvey feature in the Diary on July 5, 2011

JASMINE RAE FAKES IT

Fawkner singer Jasmine Rae returns with the video for new single Faking It.

Rae's character spurns the advances of a tattooed guitar playing Romeo armed with flowers in the song from her second album Listen Here.

She recorded her album in Nashville with former Saltbush pedal steel guitarist Mark Moffatt.

Jasmine, 23 and daughter of a mechanic, recently performed a duet with
Arkansas born Joe Nichols on I'll Try Anything.

They played CMC Rocks The Hunter in March and Joe returned in May for an east coast tour including a concert with Jasmine at the historic Forum in Melbourne CBD.

CLICK HERE for a Jasmine interview in the Diary on March 5, 2011.

MARTINA MCBRIDE - TEENAGE DAUGHTERS

Martina McBride proved history repeats with her teenage daughters in the video for the song of the same name.

Delaney, Emma and Ava emulated Trace Adkins' offspring by appearing in the clip from her album 11.

Martina wrote the song with the Warren Brothers who toured here with singing actor Tim McGraw in his band The Dancehall Doctors.

They also performed at Prahran night club IDS - later Continental Café - in the nineties.

That was the same decade McBride did a low-key gig in the Melbourne CBD.

Aptly Martina's Republic album will be released on October 11.

McBride, 45 and mother of three, also has her own Blackbird wine line from the famed Napa Valley north of San Francisco.

Martina and sound engineer husband John, whom she wed on May 15, 1988, operate Blackbird recording studio in Music City.

McBride's career began in family band The Shiffters in hometown Sharon, population 250.

She has written new music she hopes to land in an upcoming film and produced her disc with Byron Gallimore.

Gallimore is studio supremo for McGraw and singing spouse Faith Hill, who return in March, and Jo Dee Messina who also toured here in the nineties.

It includes her song I'm Gonna Love You Through It - a song about a young mother with breast cancer.

McBride is the songwriter on six of the 11 tracks.

She also performed a duet with Georgian superstar and March tourist Alan Jackson on Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man on Coal Miner's Daughter: A Tribute to Loretta Lynn.

CLICK HERE for a Martina McBride feature in the Diary on July 31, 2007.


JACKSON AND LAMBERT PRIZES FOR TOURS

There's great news for fans of Georgian born superstar Alan Jackson and quadruple CMA Award winning Texan star Miranda Lambert.

We have the duo's latest CDS as prizes for viewers who renew Nu Country TV memberships or become members.

Sony-BMG promotions chief Emma Smith also gave us Miranda's new DVD - Revolution: Live By Candlelight.

Alan's 34 Number Ones features his biggest hits including his duet with Zac Brown Band - As She's Walking Away.

The bonus tracks also include his cut of the late June Carter Cash-Merle Kilgore written Johnny Cash hit Ring Of Fire and rare track Look At Me.

Emma also donated the newly wed Miranda's huge selling 4th CD Revolution.

And as a bonus there is Miranda's new DVD featuring rare acoustic performances of six songs White Liar, The House That Built Me, Love Song, Heart Like Mine, Love Is Looking At You and Rolling Stones country classic Dead Flowers.

Jackson played Rod Laver Arena on Friday March 4 before headlining CMC Rocks The Hunter on March 5 and 6.

WIN KEITH URBAN CDS ALSO

Expatriate Australasian superstar Keith Urban returned for a triumphant tour with chart-topping mates Lady Antebellum in April.

And Keith's long time record company EMI-Capitol has great news for Nu Country TV viewers.

Promotions ace Bianca O'Neill donated autographed copies of his huge selling ninth album Get Closer.

She has also donated new compilation The Very Best Of Slim Dusty and CMAA Winners - 2011.

All you have to do to win Jackson, Lambert, Urban and Dusty CDS or the Lambert DVD is become a member of Nu Country or renew membership.

It costs just $20.

Please send a cheque or money order made out to Nu Country Music to us at P O Box 625 - Northcote - 3070.

We also now have electronic banking for membership payment and renewal.

But email us first at music@nucountry.com.au as stocks are limited.

Other prizes on offer include -
Taylor Swift - 2ND CD Fearless.
Tim McGraw Southern Voice Tour CD with 11-bonus video clips.
Dierks Bentley - Feel The Fire.
Felicity - Landing Lights
Slim Dusty Sittin' On 80 Boxed Set
The Very Best Of Slim Dusty
Steve Forde - Guns & Guitars
Catherine Britt - Little Wildflowers.
Mike Brady - Country To Country.
CMAA Winners 2011 and other compilation CDS.

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