DAVE'S DIARY - 10/1/2022 - PREVIEW OF EPISODE 7 - SERIES 50
CHARLEY CROCKETT HEADLINES NU COUNTRY TV
Texan singer-songwriter Charley Crockett headlines Nu Country TV on Saturday January 15 at 9.30 pm.
Fort Worth quintet Flatline Road debut on the show repeated Wednesday at 11.30 pm.
Fellow Texans Wade Bowen and Randy Rogers boomerang to Behind Bars in our program filmed and edited by our multi-talented lockdown producer Laith Graham.
Oklahoma born Jason Boland & The Stragglers also return to the show featuring the debut of two New Zealand artists Steven Jaymes and Sue Dyson with bird songs.
Nu Country TV is a highlight of C 31 streaming list on Digital 44.
Further info - https://www.c31.org.au/
CROCKETT WORLD JOURNEY
 |
Charley Crockett headlines Nu Country with a video showcased in Times Square in New York on Viacom CBS video billboard on release last year.
Round This World was second single from Crockett's 10 th album Music City USA , released September 17 on his Son of Davy label through Thirty Tigers.
“I first started up on the banjo as a street player when the guitar I was playing got snapped in half outside a folk club in Greenwich village years back,” Crockett, now 38, revealed.
“Somebody felt bad about it and gave me a kind of throwaway banjo and I messed with it for about four months before I got another guitar. Since then I've always kept one with me. I've written a lot of songs on banjo even if they eventually get recorded on guitar. The instrument makes a sound to me that just feels like a person's voice. Now, I don't have a license to play to be honest with you but that don't stop me from making noise. Round This World just sort of came to me travelling down the highway one day. I started playing it with the band at the end of our shows almost immediately. It doesn't sound like anything else on this album. If you listen close, you'll notice it's a song from the grave. Those are some of my favorites to sing.”
Crockett expanded on his music.
“I like to think of my sound as Gulf & Western, like something you'd hear out of southeast Texas recording studios or southern Louisiana,” Crockett explained. “Soul and Country R&B from the deep south is a whole lot of who I am. I hope it shows. The place where I'm from which is a place rarely seen. I love the shrimp boats in Port Isabel especially. The lyrics tell the story plain and simple and everybody knows what it's like to have to leave a loved one on the road of life hoping you make it back somehow. I've made a lot of videos with Bobby Cochran and I'm proud of them all but this one to me is my favorite. I think the message in the song shows through on film in a powerful way. It knocked me out when I saw it. I don't know. We just got lucky.”
Further info - http://www.charleycrockett.com/
FLATLINE ROAD FLYING HIGH
 |
Fort Worth quintet Flatline Road act out a dream like trip on their debut.
The band began playing indoors before they dodged sports cars, bikes and low flying planes invading their stage in a paddock.
Their vibrant video is a fast moving vehicle for the Texas red dirt band formed by Don Mills and Gary Dacus.
Their first gig was a sold-out David Allan Coe show in 2018.
Mills whisky-soaked vocals are propelled by slick guitarists Pete Franco and Shawn Fitzgerald, bassist Chadwick Stiles and drummer Garrett Miller.
What's Your Story is the title track of their debut EP.
Further info - https://flatlineroad.com/
RANDY ROGERS AND WADE BOWEN
 |
Texans Randy Rogers and Wade Bowen reveal how they got hooked on country music on their Behind Bars return.
They didn't have to leave their mobile home with an old record player.
Wade, now 44, hails from Waco in West Texas and Randy, also 44, is from Cleburne and has released 14 albums.
The duo previously appeared on Nu Country with their humorous Rodeo Clown duet video.
Randy keeps traditional country alive at his Cheatham Street Warehouse in San Marcos.
He bought the venue that staged live country since 1974, including one of Randy's albums in 2000, from the family of late singer-songwriter Kent Finlay in 2015
Cheatham Street Warehouse hosted songwriters open mic night every Wednesday for more than 40 years.
Guest artists included Randy, Hal Ketchum, James McMurtry, Willie Nelson, Guy Clark, Billy Joe Shaver, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Ernest Tubb, Townes Van Zandt, Todd Snider, Terri Hendrix, Bruce Robison, Tish Hinojosa, Adam Carroll, Walt Wilkins, Will and Charlie Sexton.
“We grew up on fiddle and steel in Texas ,” Randy explained.
“We learned to play guitar from Willie Nelson records. It's part of the fabric of who we were. You can't take that out. That's been the music from day one with this band.”
Texas Tech University graduate Bowen appeared on Nu Country with Death, Dying & Devilled Eggs, Day Of The Dead, Who I Am, Say Anything, When I Woke Up Today and duet with Rogers for Standards on their joint album Hold My Beer, Volume 1.
Rogers also appeared with Crazy People and I'll Never Get Over You .
Rhinestoned is on Wade's 13th album Best Of.
Further info - http://www.randyrogersband.com/
Further info - http://wadebowen.com
JASON BOLAND & THE STRAGGLERS
 |
Oklahoma born and latter day Texans Jason Boland & the Stragglers return live in the studio with The Light Saw Me - title track of Jason's 14th album.
His concept disc was produced by Shooter Jennings - son of late outlaw legend Waylon.
Boland found fame in his home state with his Stillwater Stragglers before moving to Texas.
He appeared on Nu Country with Somewhere Down In Texas for Asleep At The Wheel band leader Ray Benson's TV show Texas Music Scene in our Behind Bars segment.
Boland was born in Harrah , Oklahoma and raised in nearby Stillwater - launch pad for Garth Brooks.
CLICK HERE for a Jason Boland feature in The Diary on August 29, 2007.
SUE DYSON BIRD ON THE WIND
 |
Kiwi country chanteuse Sue Dyson drives her Ute to the country in her debut.
Sue was born in Wairarapa , New Zealand, and her family roots stretch back to Barraba in New South Wales.
Sue and her band were as free as the birds in Bird On The Wind - title track of her new EP.
Bird On The Wind tells a tale of inner desires to be free of responsibilities that weigh people down, feeling the envy of a bird and its ability to fly away at will.
The song was penned by expat Kiwi Reece Kirk and produced by Simon Johnson at his Hillbilly Hut studio on the NSW Central Coast with Brad Bergen on drums and guitar and mandolinist-fiddler Luke Moller.
Auckland based Kirk wrote Crystal Gayle's 1983 #1 hit Our Love Is On The Fault Line.
Further info - https://www.sue-dyson.com/
STEVEN JAYMES BIRD ON A WIRE
 |
Fellow Kiwi Steven Jaymes, who records in Australia and America , continues our bird theme.
He performs live with a Bird On A Wire that he wrote for his late grandmother.
Steven filmed at his grandmother's grave and nearby paddocks in remote Hyde in Central Otago, New Zealand.
Bird On A Wire is on his sixth album Hemingway's Cats.
Jaymes moved to Australia at 18 and lived in Brisbane and fronted Nu Country with Going Back To Mexico from fifth album Things Get Better.
The multi-instrumentalist writes about his travels to Spain, Japan, Mexico, Cuba and way beyond.
The son of a rural builder and shearer started his career as a drummer in the family band in New Zealand.
That was in an era when he toiled as barn and fence builder and tractor driver.
Further info - https://www.stevenjaymes.com/about
WIN WAYLON, GEORGE JONES AND MERLE HAGGARD
Stay tuned and help us celebrate being Nu Country TV members and win albums by the late Waylon Jennings, Merle Haggard, George Jones and Highwaymen by becoming a Nu Country member or renewing your membership.
George, Waylon, Merle and Willie Nelson were among country historian Barbara Dowling's favourite Texans.
The Waylon, Highwaymen , Merle and George discs were donated by Barbara who died at 77 in December, 2020.
She co-hosted Long In The Saddle in our Nu Country FM era and was pioneer Australian and Victorian country music awards judge.
Barbara was admired for rising above losing her sight as a young woman and her country passion with annual trips to Waylon's birthplace in Littlefield, West Texas.
Waylon died at 64 on February 13, 2002, and is survived by singing spouse Jessi, now 78, and son Shooter, 42.
WIN KEITH URBAN CDS ALSO
We have expatriate Australasian superstar Keith Urban's chart topping 12th album The Speed Of Now - Part 1.
Also BR5-49 CD Big Backyard Beat Show and Billy Ray Cyrus's historic 1992 album Some Gave All that features Achy Breaky Heart .
Join Watling & Bates as members and win their 13 track CD Small Town Tales.
We have other CDS by major artists you can win by becoming a Nu Country TV member or renewing your membership.
They include Brad Paisley, Carrie Underwood, Eric Church, Kip Moore, late larrikin legend A.P. Johnson and more.
Name an artist and we'll find one of their CDS as your reward.
CLICK HERE for our Membership Page for details.