Skip to main content

Freedom Sings In Illinois...New Beer Song...Halloween

BILL BLOG

Friday September 6, 2024

 

And good morning from Marion, Illinois where today’s high will be a comfortable 84 degrees with sun.




 

YESTERDAY

I made about a 3 hour drive from Nashville to Marion, Illinois…population 18,000 so nestled in southern Illinois. I’m here for a three day songwriter retreat with Freedom Sings USA.



 

Last night our group of songwriters were treated to dinner by our great hosts here and then we played a songwriters round show in a beautiful old church.



 

Everything about the evening was great. The Mayor came and spoke, veterans and their families came and some of those will be the veterans that we write with here today in Marion.



 

Saturday evening in downtown Marion we’ll play an outdoors concert where all the songs written will be performed alongside the veterans that we’ve written with to honor them.




 The weather is going to be great…maybe even light jacket weather evening Saturday with a high in the 70’s that day with a low of 46 Saturday night. It is free and open to the public and you can tell from the passion and the hard work that the organizers have put in that this could really be a memorable evening. Come if you can.



 

A good first day that ended with a cold one while watching some of the Kansas City Chiefs-Baltimore Ravens football game with our group.




 

SONG OF THE DAY

Today I’m choosing the song “Never Been In Love” by Lauren Mascitti the former American Idol star. I wrote this song with Lauren…an idea that I’d had in my book for a while, and the two of us sat down and wrote it with another friend Wil Nance. Lauren recorded it on her first album “God Made A Woman” that was mentioned as one of the best “new” country albums that came out that year. Thank you Lauren for recording it



 

SPEAKING OF SONGS

Check out a little bit of “If It Ain’t One Beer” from Brady Seals, a song the two of us wrote several years ago that Brady just released along with several other songs we co-wrote through the years. This one is just plain fun to listen to and Brady just got it to a major country artist. Here’s hoping that we might get lucky and that the artist might fall in love with it as much as we love this song.


The album full of those songs on Brady's website



 

HEALTH NOTES

Researchers are now saying that exposure to bright outside lights at night could increase you odds of developing Alzheimer’s disease more than other risk factors, especially for young people.

 

UK researchers claim that hypertonic saline nasal drops can shorten a kid’s cold by two days and reduce the risk of family members getting sick too.

 

17 million US adults could be getting bad blood pressure reads at home because of at-home kits that aren’t fitted correctly. This info from John Hopkins University saying the biggest culprit are cuffs that don’t fit correctly.

 

TWEET FROM A DAD

This is a great weekend to clean out the garage, according to my wife and other people who won’t be cleaning the garage.” File that one under the dreaded Honey-Do list.

 

DANCE-NO TWERK

In Nashville we actually have a Christian Nightclub where you can go and worship AND dance if you’d like. However, they will not allow any twerking. Pretty sure “twerking” falls under the old “Thou Shalt Not” list.

 

HALLOWEEN

Halloween has become such a HUGE holiday that folks are already buying their costumes. Hottest costumes for 2024 will include Glinda from the Wizard of Oz, Beetlejuice, and a Ghostbusters costume to name a few. Me? I’m not a Halloween guy. Takes a lot to get me into a costume…a lot.



 

And not everyone should even try and costume up for Halloween.


 

Just saying.

 

HEADLINE OF THE DAY

13-Foot Python Relocated To Zoo After Owner Admits It Was Getting To Big To Handle. Ya think?  That’s something you never hear from a gerbil owner.

 

TODAY
I’m off to write with a veteran this morning. Always a great experience. Back home on Sunday in time for the first full Sunday of NFL football. And if last night’s Chiefs-Ravens game is an example of what’s to come? It’s going to be an exciting year of football.



 

Have a great weekend!


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Freedom Sings USA Event...A Gold Star Mom...An Old Friend Surprise

BILL BLOG Monday September 9, 2024 Monday morning and I’m back home in Nashville from Marion, Illinois. Sunshine and a high of 84 today here in Music City.       THE WEEKEND Thursday I made the three hour trip up to Marion, Illinois for our Freedom Sings USA songwriter retreat with songwriters Bobby Tomberlin , Steve Dean , Irene Kelley, and Don Goodman.   Marion is in southern Illinois…beautiful town and the folks who organized the event were so kind and passionate about honoring their veterans. Friday night they had a “meet and greet” in a beautiful old church where we had a great dinner and then played a show for all of those who attended. The Mayor, the organizers and the veterans.   Each songwriter met the veteran they were going to write with that night. This is mine. His name is Art Fager .   More on Art in a second.   FRIDAY Friday morning we gathered in yet another church for early breakfast and then each songwriter sat down wit

Songwriter Trio...Celine In French...Flip Phones Again

BILL BLOG Wednesday July 24, 2024   It’s “Hump Day” Wednesday y’all. 82 will be the high in Nashville today with a chance of some rain again.   YESTERDAY I had the pleasure of sitting with and writing with two very talented ladies Lauren Mascitti and Kristen Leigh Bearfield . The three of us have had a little luck having some songs we’ve written together get recorded so we were trying to write another one that someone will love enough to record. And I think we may have done that.   Both girls are REALLY busy. Lauren just recorded a new duet with young Kenny Haas, and artist from Chicago called “ Drive Me Crazy ” that’s so good.     And Kristen is on a plane to Norway this weekend for a two and a half week tour over there with our mutual friend Kinsey Rose . Kristen was recently named the TV host of “ Faith, Country and Bluegrass ” which will be a TV series out soon. She and I and Tim McGraw’s guitar player Bob Minner wrote the theme song for the TV s

Funny Song...Music Luncheon...Gladiator

BILL BLOG Friday July 26, 2024   Friday morning…rolling into a late July weekend. 82 for the high in Twang Town today with a little rain in the mix.   YESTERDAY I had a very full Wednesday that started with writing a new funny song with young Ethan Phillips who walked into the writing room and said something in conversation that led us to writing what he said about women being compared to a volcano. We may have had WAY too much fun writing that thought. And it could very well turn out to be a song I put on my set list from time to time when I’m out performing.   LUNCH We finished up in time for me to run down south of Nashville to have lunch with my friends Linda Davis & Lang Scott and our mutual friends Richard & Donna Lynch who run a wonderful venue in Waynesville, Ohio, just north of Cincinnati called the “Keep It Country Farm”.   Linda, Lang and myself did a show for them last year and had the best time. They turned part of their f