DAVE'S DIARY - 3/9/08 - PREVIEW OF EPISODE 14 - SERIES 10
LARRY JON WILSON HEADLINES NU COUNTRY TV
Celebrated
but reclusive Georgian singer-songwriter Larry Jon Wilson headlines the
finale of the 10TH series of Nu Country TV this Saturday - September 6
- at 8.30 p m on C 31.
Wilson, 67, performs in a documentary to promote his return to recording
after a 30-year hiatus.
Revered American TV icon Andy Griffith also appears with chart topper
and hot shot guitarist Brad Paisley.
And Kentucky singer Sarah Johns makes her debut on the show repeated on
Thursday at 9.30 am.
Also making their debuts are Queensland country singer Shari Williams
and Sydney artist Danielle Blakey.
More familiar is veteran Oklahoma stone country singer and pianist Becky
Hobbs live at our special concert with fellow international artist Kacey
Jones from the Noise Bar at Railway Hotel, Brunswick.
We also preview Series #11 with a snippet of a video of When The Dust
Settles by the Prairie Oysters who supported Becky and Kacey at Bayleaf
Restaurant, Dandenong.
The popular Melbourne band is likely to perform at the long running Red
Hill country festival in January.
LARRY JON AND DAVE LOGGINS SONG
 |
Larry
Jon Wilson made a big impression on Australian fans when he was
one of the unsung heroes in the acclaimed Heartworn Highways
documentary. Wilson performs an organic version of Dave Loggins evocative hit Goodbye Eyes - a highlight of the Loggins compilation released by Australian record label Raven. |
We'll have
more songs from the Wilson docco during our summer season - Series 11.
CLICK HERE for a Larry
Jon Wilson feature from the Diary on August 27, 2008.
ANDY GRIFFITH AND BRAD PAISLEY
 |
Retro
country band BR5-49 eulogised former syndicated TV host Andy Griffith
in their humorous song Me' N Opie Down By The Duck Pond before
they toured here in 1998. But this time Griffith, 82, joins chart topping West Virginia born country star Brad Paisley in mall and beach locales in the video for new hit Waiting On A Woman from his latest album 5th Gear. Paisley, 35 and a hot guitarist, has had 10 #1 hits and sold 10 million albums in his decade long recording career. |
Griffith
first appears in a mall with Paisley who is waiting for a woman and frocks
up for a beach scene where he's the man still waiting for a woman.
The beach is on an island Andy owns near his home in North Carolina.
"One of my greatest achievements was meeting Andy Griffith,"
Brad revealed.
"Kim (Williams-Paisley Brad's actress wife) and me took my son Huck.
We flew over to the island on the Outer Banks of North Carolina where
Andy and his wife live - the prettiest spot on earth, pretty as Hawaii.
"We went down a week early so I could meet Andy and visit with him.
Course Andy wasn't really sure what a video was about until I described
its function. Andy and his wife both loved the song."
"Andy drove us around his property. It's just beautiful down there.
Afterwards we sat around the house and told stories. Andy still has the
Martin guitar that he played on The Andy Griffith Show. Matter of fact
Andy said he played that same guitar in the movie, A Face in the Crowd.
I can't believe I sat in his house on his sofa and played that same guitar
while Andy sang, 'You get a line and I'll get a pole, honey, You get a
line and I'll get a pole, babe, You get a line and I'll get a pole and
we'll go down to the crawdad hole, Honey, baby mine.'"
Griffith moved from Hollywood back home to North Carolina after his friend,
Don Knotts, aka Barney Fife, passed away.
CLICK HERE for a Paisley
CD Review from the Diary on January 8, 2008.
SARAH JOHNS
 |
Kentucky
singer-songwriter Sarah Johns exudes plentiful humour in the video
for her latest hit The One In The Middle. The video, set to a bouncing pop-country arrangement powered by a purposely comic harmony vocal groove, finds the a female protagonist pointedly breaking up with her guy after discovering him enjoying the company of what the lyrics refer to as "just a skank." The singer tells the fellow that she was ready to offer him the ring finger on her left hand. Instead, she's offering a different finger - "The one in the middle/The one that's a little bit longer," Johns sings in the chorus. That's not all, either, as she adds, "And I've got another one on my other hand/So I can say it even stronger." Sarah, 26, wrote all 11 songs on debut album Big Love in a Small Town. That small town is Pollard - with just 150 people - 90 minutes south of Lexington and reliant on tobacco farms. |
Toby Keith's manager T K Kimbrell discovered Johns performing in a bar - she has since toured with Keith and Texan troubadour George Strait.
But her introduction
to music was through her church.
"I was in church my whole life singing. Singing all the time. I led
praise and worship at a Pentecostal church until I was 21 in Lexington."
"The sound guy at church was saying 'Sarah you're really good. You
need to do something with it. I said 'okay'. I just kept on singing."
She did not get interested in secular music from her family.
"I couldn't really listen to anything. All I could listen to was
church music. That's the way it was. I just grew up in church so much,
and they didn't want to me listen to so-called secular music. I was sneaking
when I was mowing grass, I'd listen to Patsy Cline and Tammy Wynette.
I just loved it."
Johns continued singing, but left church singing for the bars in Lexington
where she went to the University of Kentucky.
She sang songs of Cline, Martina McBride, Lee Ann Womack and Allison Krauss.
"I knew that it wasn't going to fly. If the church people knew I
was singing at a bar, they'd say, "oh my God. She shouldn't be doing
that.'"
Her break came when Kimbrell hit the bar where Johns was singing.
"He said the atmosphere changed when I sang," she recalled.
"He said 'you need to move to Nashville. He said, 'I can't do this
here. Are you sure?' He said, 'I'm telling you right now you need to move
to Nashville'. In 28 days, I broke up with my boyfriend and moved to Nashville.
I was just about to graduate. I knew that I would never get this opportunity
again. This is your chance. You'd better do it, and I just left. I quit
college."
Joe Scaife, who worked with Gretchen Wilson and Montgomery Gentry, produced
Johns who had a big hand in direction of the CD from picking players to
the music.
"Just make sure there's fiddle and steel on it, and that's all I
care about," says Johns.
Further info - www.sarahjohns.com
BECKY HOBBS AND MAN IN BLACK
 |
Oklahoma
stone country singer-songwriter and pianist Becky Hobbs performs her
Johnny Cash eulogy There Will Never Be Another Man In Black
live at the Noise Bar at the Railway Hotel in Brunswick. The tune is from Becky's 2004 album Songs From The Road Of Life on her indie Beckaroo label. Hobbs and Californian born comedienne and country singer Kacey Jones played the Nu Country TV concert special during their debut Australian tour in January-February. < Photo by Kip Karpik |
Hobbs, born
in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, turned 58 in Tamworth, and impressed with a
vast variety of songs from Best Of The Beckaroo Part 1 and her
rich back catalogue.
Beckaroo features songs from her albums from 1988-2001 - All Keyed
Up, The Boots I Came To Town In, From Oklahoma With Love, Swedish Coffee
& American Sugar and Hottest Ex In Texas.
CLICK HERE for a Becky
Hobbs feature from the Diary on December 15, 2007.
CLICK HERE for their
Noise Bar review from our concert section.
CLICK HERE for our
exclusive on the road feature on Kacey and Becky from our Diary on February
11, 2008.
KACEY JONES CDS AND TEE SHIRTS TOO
Kacey Jones
has donated autographed copies of her acclaimed tribute CD to the late,
legendary Texan singer-songwriter Mickey Newbury to Nu Country.
Nu Country has featured the CD video clips San Francisco Mabel Joy
and Lie To Me Darlin' featuring Texan singer-songwriters Kris Kristofferson
and Waylon Payne.
The CD - released here in July - is one of many rewards for viewers to
become members or renew their much-appreciated memberships.
Kacey also autographed tee shirts and posters for Nu Country members.
For your $22 membership and postage you can take your pick of Kacey memorabilia.
We have limited supplies so please email us at music@nucountry.com.au
first.
SHARI WILLIAMS SUNNY
 |
North
Queensland chanteuse Shari Williams performs a video for her new
single - Out Of Here from her debut album Sunny. She began performing at just three years of age with Jazz/modern ballet and tap & loved it! |
Shari learned
piano, guitar, flute, saxophone, recorder, kazoo and even bagpipes.
"Then puberty came along and it was more like fantasia," Shari
revealed.
"You know the hippo in the tutu rather than the delicate fairy say
no more!'
Not long after, Shari left school she studied nursing and sang in a popular
Sydney corporate band Don't Ask.
They played hotels and functions including Backyard Blitz, SBS, Sydney
University Law Society Balls and Manly Rugby Union parties
Further info - www.shariwilliams.com.au
DANIELLE BLAKEY DRIVING SONG
 |
Sydney
singer-songwriter Danielle Blakey performs a video for her Driving
Song. Blakey's music is a hybrid of country, pop and jazz. She has toured Europe and the US, playing North Sea Jazz Festival in the Netherlands Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland and Monterey Jazz Festival in California. Danielle also cut Anybody Listening, penned by Peter Northcote and Marty Irwin that appeared on US television show Smallville. She is now working on her album of original material produced and co-written with Peter Northcote, for release later this year. |
"I started
singing at around the age of nine, when I realised I was just to unco
for ballet," Danielle revealed.
"In ballet I found out that there was this little singing studio
below the ballet school I went inside to take a look. After five minutes
of being there I was hooked. I started singing and acting classes in a
group of similar age kids and at the end of the year we would put on concerts
and plays. It was great training ground as there was no pressure and we
were just there to have fun. After a few years of being involved with
that, one of the teachers started to recommend I take my singing to the
next level, so I began to enter into the shopping centre talent quests,
eisteddfods, winning some and losing some but gaining experience, learning
to perform and developing my stage craft. I can remember that during the
final year HSC exams instead of studying I was out many of the nights
before exams going to rehearsals, gigs, and doing recordings. I definitely
knew I wasn't going to uni by then. I'm now playing with a couple of bands
- Harry Sutherland Quartet - and my own band."
Further info - http://www.myspace.com/danielleblakey
WIN ADAM BRAND CD-DVD PRIZES
We have more
good tidings for viewers wanting to join Nu Country TV and keep us on
air in Victoria, Queensland, South Australia and New Zealand.
Major independent label Compass Brothers has donated autographed copies
of Adam Brand's seventh disc Blame It On Eve for viewers who become
Nu Country members or renew their membership.
The CD has a bonus DVD of the making of the album and the video clip of
Get On Down The Road that we aired on our show.
Adam also did an exclusive interview with Nu Country TV that we have broken
up into two episodes during Series #10.
We have limited supplies of Adam's big selling CD-DVD so please email
us first at music@nucountry.com.au
so we can allocate your reward.
CLICK HERE for the Adam Brand
interview from the Diary on March 3, 2008.
WIN CATHERINE BRITT AND MELINDA SCHNEIDER DISCS
We also have
the latest CDS by Aussie stars Melinda Schneider and Catherine Britt as
a reward for new members and renewing members.
Melinda hosted an episode of Nu Country and has donated copies of her
fifth CD Be Yourself.
And Catherine and her record company ABC-Warner provided autographed copies
of her third CD Little Wildflower.
We have limited supplies of Melinda and Catherine's big selling CDs so
please email us first at music@nucountry.com.au
so we can allocate your reward.
WILLIE NELSON BOOK PRIZES
We also celebrated
Shotgun Willie Nelson's 75th birthday on April 30 with a special giveaway
of his collectors' book.
We have limited stock of Willie Nelson - The Collected Writings Of
A Living Legend - The Facts Of Life And Other Dirty Jokes.
The book, featuring yarns, jokes and Willie song lyrics, is a new addition
to our prize treasure trove.
It's available for viewers wanting to become members or current members
wishing to renew membership.
Please email us at music@nucountry.com.au
for a chance to win a copy of this book with your membership.
We also have autographed copies of Mike Brady's new album Country To
Country and others by Troy Cassar-Daley, Tania Kernaghan and Arizona
singer Billy Wyatt.
CLICK HERE for our Membership Page.