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A #1 Song...More Freedom Sings USA...50-50

BILL BLOG

Friday September 20, 2024

 

Friday morning in Nashville getting ready for the weekend. And the heat has returned. Sunny and 93 here in Twang Town today.

 

YESTERDAY

I had a really fun and cool writing session with Steve Dean and Angus Gill at a house where my Aussie friend Angus is staying as for right now as he is making the move over here permanently. Angus already has a small studio in the part of a home he’s sharing and he played a “Loop”…a rhythm track that he was working with thinking it might be something we could find words for. And we surely did. Dark but very cool and the song talks about “running from the devil”. 


 

 

On top of playing several instruments, Angus is a talented producer and artist-writer himself. Here’s an example of his work from Australian artist T.C. Cassidy on a song the two of us wrote "Before I Turn Out The Lights". 




 And then you add hit songwriter Steve Dean to the mix and you’ve set yourself up for a chance to write a pretty good song. And I’m pretty sure we did just that yesterday. Fun day at the ole office.

 

GREAT NEWS

Just saw this great news this morning. “Blue Collar Gospel” by Jerry Salley & The Oak Ridge Boys just went to the #1 spot on the Bluegrass Today Gospel Chart...again! Written with my friends Jerry Salley & Rick Lang. Wow.


 


 

So nice to see the song get this kind of recognition. And I’ve mentioned it before but our little song here was the last song that the long time tenor singer for “The Oaks” sang on…as Joe Bonsall passed shortly after he was in studio singing his part with The Oak Ridge Boys. Congrats to all involved.



 

FREEDOM SINGS USA

Steve Dean is also a co-founder of Freedom Sings USA…the organization that pairs songwriters with veterans to write those veterans stories into songs. And at the conclusion of those retreats the songs are performed before a “live” audience as we did in Marion, Illinois a few weeks ago.



 

Our next Freedom Sings USA retreat will be this October 2 & 3 at the Coastal Arts Center in Orange, Beach Alabama. And yesterday Steve gave me 4 more retreats already locked in for 2025.

 

February 21 & 22 in Mountain Home, Arkansas.

 

June 17 & 18 we return to Heyworth, Illinois

 

August 1 & 2 we return to Shiloh, Illinois.

 

Sept 4, 5 & 6 a return to Marion, Illinois.


 

 

SONG OF THE DAY

Today I’m choosing a song from artist Jessie Ritter who lives in Pensacola with her husband and two young kids. For a couple of years Jessie and her husband would pack their van and tour and sing at KOA campgrounds. So I thought “there’s a song in that”. So I invited Steve Dean to join us one day and we wrote "Gone To See America" together that Jessie release as a single and then made this great VIDEO of the song.



 

Jesse plays music a lot on the Gulf Coast and hopefully I’ll be seeing her at this year’s Pensacola Songwriter’s Festival that she too is a part of in early October.



 

HEALTH NOTES

In just a few days you’ll be able to order free COVID tests from the government again. Available to order at COVIDtest.gov.

 

There’s a spike in whooping cough cases for teenagers who are unvaccinated right now.

 

Nutritionists say the healthiest fish to eat is salmon, followed by mackerel, sardines, rainbow trout and anchovies.

 

THIS OWNER IS MOTIVATED



 

NOT SELLING

38% of Baby Boomers own 38% of all the houses in America. And that many say they will never sell their house. (Perhaps they’ll change their mind when they know they’re ready to croak.)

 

BUYER BEWARE

All kinds of good deals on Amazon again. Might want to NOT buy a bed though as 138,000 of beds bought on Amazon have collapsed with use. And no…I don’t want to know what kind of use.

 

BIG ROLL

At a place appropriately called “Stuffy’s” located in Washington State you can order this bad boy.



 

Yep…that’s a 10-pound cinnamon roll!  The shop says about one of these gets ordered online every week. It will set you back 30 bucks.

 

And man…I do love a good cinnamon roll. When I was in college there was a little shop within walking distance of our dormitory that served big hot cinnamon rolls with a big square of butter melting on top. Gosh…now I want one this morning!

 

BET YOU DIDN’T KNOW

That Dolly Parton once drew a gun on a guy in New York who thought she was a prostitute. True story. It was Dolly once said, “It takes a lot of money to look this cheap”.

 

SMALL AFFORDABLE TOWNS

Realtor.com just listed 10 small towns that are affordable that they say people would love living in. Here’s the list.

 

10…Branson, Missouri. (Lake Taneycomo & Table Rock Lake are there…beautiful when you get off the strip)



 

9…Springfield, Illinois.

 

8…Sandusky, Ohio. (Up by Lake Erie near Cleveland)

 

7…Glen Falls, NY.

 

6…Atlantic City, NJ. (Confession…I’ve never once been to Jersey)

 

5…Baraboo, Wisconsin. (And you’ve got a danged circus museum there!)



 

4…Altoona, PA

 

3…Fairbanks, Alaska.

 

2…Kearney, Nebraska

 

And #1 is Great Falls Montana. (Except in the winter perhaps)



 

 

BASEBALL

If you read my blog…you already know what a big baseball fan I am. And last night Shohei Ohtani gave me yet another reason to stay in love with America’s game. In Miami the Los Angeles Dodger superstar stole 2 bases and hit 3 home runs that put him in the impossible to reach club of 50-50. 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases in one season! Unreal. If you missed it…if you’re a baseball fan at all…watch THIS ACCOMPLISHMENT.



 

FLYING ON IT’S OWN

There’s already technology available on commercial airlines that allow the plane to land itself. And now in Brazil this plane can do automatic take offs as well.



 

They say it’s safer as the plane will take off the very same way every single time. No variables.

 

Can’t wait until they have robotic airline attendants coming down the aisle to serve like this one did to our family at a restaurant in Frankfurt, Germany recently.



 

What did Dylan say?  The times they are indeed a changin’

 

NOT SOMETHING ONE SEES EVERYDAY

A Kangaroo hopped into a Kentucky Fried Chicken in Australia.



 

Word is that the Kangaroo paid for a three piece meal with an extra biscuit with money from her “purse”. (I’ll be here all night folks)

 

TODAY

I had a writing cancellation at the last second…so my weekend starts right now.

 

Have a great weekend!

 

 

 


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