BILL BLOG
Monday October 7, 2024
Monday morning back home in Nashville from the Gulf Coast. It will be Fall like here today with sun and 75 for a high.
Meanwhile, all eyes on Florida today with hurricane Milton coming ashore on the heels of Helene which has now taken 227 lives at last count. Disney World is set to close shop for 2 days and maybe more depending on the damage. And with it being a projected Cat 3 they’re saying it could be Florida’s biggest evacuation since 2017. And even worse is the fact that there are 3 more disturbances out in the Atlantic. Geez. Stay safe Florida.
THE WEEKEND
Quite the weekend. After writing with Colonel Larry Perino who served 25 years and was part of that Blackhawk Down fight it was time to move further down the beach.
So Friday morning I drove 40 miles down the beach to Pensacola for the Pensacola Songwriters Festival.
I played this festival maybe 20 years or so ago when it first started so it was great to be back.
I had two shows Friday night. The first was at a Holiday Inn Beach Resort under a Tiki Bar outdoors with a stage view of the ocean.
Not bad work if you can get it.
My show at 6pm was with Jeff Silvey who just THIS SONG of his recorded by George Strait.
And Earl Bud Lee who’s had a bunch of his songs recorded by major folks like “Friends in Low Places” by Garth and this song that I love by Blake Shelton “Who Are You When I’m Not Looking”.
It rained the entire time…but the outdoor Tiki Bar had a roof, and we had a great crowd which made for a very first fun show.
8 PM
Then I moved about 2 miles down the beach road in Pensacola to the Native Cafe for a second show with the legendary Larry Cordle who’s hits include "Highway 40 Blues" for Ricky Skaggs, "Murder On Music Row" for Alan Jackson and George Strait and many others. What a pleasure to sit next to him and hear his stories and songs. And to say we laughed a lot Friday night would be a huge mis- understatement. Just a pleasure to be in his company.
SATURDAY NIGHT
And then Saturday evening I got to play one more show with Larry and bluegrass legend Ronnie Bowman also joined us at the Casino Beach and Grille.
Ronnie is an award winning bluegrass artist himself, but the songs he’s written have been recorded not only by bluegrass hit acts, but he’s had more than one of his songs recorded by Chris Stapleton. One of those being the song of the year for the ACM’s “Nobody To Blame”.
Our stage was set up so that that we had the ocean to our back.
And then Larry and Ronnie just sang one hit after another…and then I tried to make them laugh.
I was blessed to be part of that for sure. After mentioning that my first radio job was in Bowling Green, Missouri a family yelled out they were from there as well. What?! For real. What are the odds? They now live in Columbia, Tennessee as they moved there from Missouri because they have a talented daughter, a Senior in High School who wants to be in music. She’s already a heck of a harmonica player. So her parents moved her closer to Music City. It was great meeting them Saturday night. Keep your eyes open for Kiersi Joli.
SUNDAY
Then early Sunday morning it was a 7 hour drive back to Nashville. I came home again with a bag full of memories, and I made some new friends that I’m pretty sure I’ll wind up writing song with somewhere down the road. Thank you to Reneda Cross and the staff and volunteers who worked so hard to make this festival come to life. Thanks so much for letting me be part of it.
NEXT SHOW?
That would be Friday October 18 at the beautiful Performance Center in Effingham, Illinois with Linda Davis, Lang Scott and our “Evening in the Round Show”. Complete info on this show is available by hitting this LINK. Showtime is 7 pm…and it’s close enough to Missouri that I’m hoping to see some friends and family in the audience. C’mon!
SONG OF THE DAY
I’m choosing the song “I’m Going Under” that I wrote with Karen Taylor Good. Karen wrote a big hit for Patty Loveless titled “How Can I Help You Say Goodbye” so I chose her to help me write this idea that was inspired by Rylee Jean…Linda Davis and Lang Scott’s youngest daughter. And there’s a story.
When Rylee decided to be baptized one day many years ago she called her sister Hillary Scott of Lady A who was in New York and asked if she would be home on a certain date? When Hillary said “yes” and asked “why”…Rylee responded by saying, “Well…I’m going under!”.
Songwriters don’t miss things like that. And another odd thing. I took the idea to Karen Taylor who I did not know was Jewish until after we’d written this song. I love this song. Linda included it on one of her albums…but this is Karen Taylor’s VERSION of it.
ARMAGEDDON
I think there’s been a few signs of it lately. Hurricanes, political stuff, multiple celebrity deaths. But the real sign to me that the world is ending came Saturday when Vanderbilt beat Alabama!
HEALTH NOTES
Hospitals are worried about a possible IV shortage after hurricane Helene shut down a key North Carolina facility.
There’s word of a new lung cancer treatment that could be 40% more effective. That would be a great thing.
New research suggests from a study with some patients that the participants who ate one egg a day were less likely to have dementia than those who ate one weekly or less.
HERE’S YOU SIGN
THEM AND US
Mark Zuckerberg…the Facebook guy is now worth 200 BILLION dollars. And he’s only the second-richest person in the world. #1 would be. That would be Elon Musk.
Shocking to know that neither one of them are songwriters.
TRAVEL DESTINATIONS
The folks at AMEX just listed their Top 10 New Travel Destinations for folks right now. Two of the 10 are here in the United States.
Moab, Utah with those beautiful arches.
And Sun Valley, Idaho for the ski buffs.
THE JETSONS
Flying cars are now being sold and flown-drive in the United States.
And almost anyone can fly-drive one of these bad boys with just a little training. I flew a para-plane once with a parachute on the back, and all I had to do was watch a 30 minute video and I was airborne. Exhilarating for sure.
Commuting through traffic is going to get easier it looks like.
HEADLINE OF THE DAY
They Went Skinny Dippin’ In Yosemite And That’s When They Knew They Were Meant To Be.
Or for some folks I'm guessing..."not meant to be".
TODAY
A day off to recuperate from being on the road and catching up on that list of “catch up” stuff that always awaits me when I get home.
Have a great Monday!
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