BILL BLOG
Monday May 22, 2023
Monday morning has rolled around with a promise of an 80 degree high here in Nashville today.
THE WEEKEND
Pretty lazy weekend for the most part at the Whyte House. Did a little song pitching, reached out about a couple of new shows in the future and last night my wife and I sat on the couch and watched the finale of American Idol. They had a LOT of talented kids this year and the show was very fun to watch.
It was anticlimactic to see Iam Tongi win. He captured America’s heart with his personality from the minute he auditioned.
One could argue that the second place winner Megan Danielle was the better singer and I would argue that the very best singer did not make it to the end and that would be We’ Ani. Small shades of the great Whitney Houston in that young lady and I could see Clive Davis signing her as he did Whitney along with several American Idols as he’s done in the past. But since America was doing the voting? It would have been a shock had Iam not won. It will be interesting to see where his career takes him.
Another Hawaiian, Don Ho for years held court in hotel performance room in Honolulu and packed the tourists in every night. My wife and I caught that show once when we were in Hawaii. At the very least, I would think Iam could do this too. We’ll see.
NURSES SONGWRITER RETREAT
Coming up June 1 and 2 I’m going to get to see the ducks take their walk at the Peabody Hotel in Memphis.
That’s because I’ll be on this songwriting retreat with Freedom Sings USA.
If you read this blog, you see several posts about the mission of Freedom Sings as they pair songwriters with veterans to help convert their stories into songs that are later recorded. The last session we did was with Veteran Nurses. And that album is out now.
But if you’d like to catch a very cool look at what goes on at these kinds of sessions check out this VIDEO that was filmed in Murfreesboro, Tennessee when we wrote with those nurses. Pretty cool.
HEALTH NOTES
A recent study out of China says we should avoid high-sodium foods and embrace a diet higher in potassium to help ward off dementia.
Also in China…another wave of COVID-19 is going through the country 65 million cases expected in a week by the end of June.
A concerning health note. The American Stroke Association reports strokes in ages 49 and younger has continued to increase over the last 30 years. And they’re not sure why as of right now.
HAPPY ANNIVERSARY
To my daughter and son in law Casey & Heather Peterson celebrating 5 years today in Germany where the now live, as Casey is stationed there with Army as a pilot. Seems like yesterday that we watched them say their wedding vows on the north coast of Ireland in an incredible destination wedding our little family made over there to the Emerald Isle. Wish we could be there with them to help celebrate.
THE VOICE
I somehow missed the news that Reba has been named to take Blake Shelton’s chair next season on “The Voice”. Good choice? I don’t know. Love Reba, but she’s nowhere in the neighborhood of the “funny” that Blake has been. And maybe NBC decided that there’s just no one available with the combined stature and funny that Blake brought to the show. Stay tuned.
SPEAKING OF FUNNY
The online publication Yardbarker listed what they consider to be the top 20 funniest country songs of all time.
Some of my favorites made the list.
Certainly the Shel Silverstein song “Boy Named Sue” that Johnny Cash recorded would have made my list as well.
“She Got The Goldmine”, and I Got The Shaft for Jerry Reed still makes me laugh.
“Thank God & Greyhound She’s Gone” from Roy Clark is a great choice.
“Mississippi Squirrel Revival” from Ray Stevens would be on most lists.
And I love their choice of this song that some may have forgotten. “You’re The Reason Our Kids Are Ugly” recorded by Loretta Lynn and Conway Twitty.
That song was first recorded by Delbert McClinton and my friend Kacey Jones who passed away a few years ago. Kacey was a funny funny woman and a great singer. We sat down and re-wrote the song “Kenny Rogers Face” that Brent Burns and I had co-written and it made it to her last funny album “Donald Trump’s Hair”.
QUIET MAIL
It’s going to get harder to hear the mail truck arriving when they drop off
your mail. The Postal Service just added 9,000 new electric vehicles to do that
job.
I’m looking for the Post Office to use Elmer Fudd to promote their new service. “Be vewy vewy quiet”.
WHAT A PICKLE WE’RE ABOUT TO BE IN
Word is that a lot of abandoned empty store fronts may be converted into Pickleball Courts in the future as that game has become a “thing”. Some empty stores may be the first. Bed Bath and Pickleball can’t be far behind.
E-MAIL HELL
What to do when you’re on vacation from work and you dread having a tsunami of e-mails when you get back to your desk. For me? I check them even on vacation so I won’t have to do that.
They took a poll of white collar workers on this subject with these results.
84% check their e-mails on vacation.
25% have skipped vacations completely so that they won’t have to worry about it.
34% shortened their vacations to get back sooner and check their e-mails.
Experts point out that if you check your e-mail on vacation you feel like you HAVE to start responding to them. There’s goes your beach time.
WHAT FELL INTO THE POOL?
That would be group of Water Buffaloes. It happened in England. A bunch of them destroyed a couple’s English garden and a few took a nosedive into their swimming pool. They had to fight with their insurance company to be compensated for the $31,000 of damage they caused by falling into the man made water hole. Imagine that phone all the insurance agent received. No wonder it took a while to get their claim approved.
HEADLINE OF THE DAY
Why Buying A Wife Doesn’t Work Out The Way You Think It Will. (Folks forget how high the tax bill is going to be…I guess)
TODAY
I’m back to writing this week and that starts this morning with a writing session with my Aussie buddy Katrina Burgoyne who’s been quietly working on a new project with a couple of our songs on it. Including this funny one “Wife Trial”.
Have a great Monday!
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