BILL BLOG
Monday November 4, 2024
Monday morning be here…ready or not. And the clocks have fallen back. This week I’ll be making a trip to Gulf Shores for the Frank Brown Songwriters Festival…so my eyes are on the tropical storm Rafael forming out in the Caribbean that could reach the Emerald Coast. Hopefully not.
THE WEEKEND
Friday morning I was in a writing room with Byron Hill who has a long line of credits and hits to his name. It was the second time the two of us sat down to rhyme together. Byron is from North Carolina originally so he loves bluegrass, and has had several cuts in that genre, though he may be best known for his mainstream hits for George Strait, George Jones, Gary Alan, Alabama, Ray Charles and on and on. He’s in the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame for crying out loud.
Both of us have had our songs recorded by our friends Darin & Brooke Aldridge so we have that connection. And the song idea Byron brought in Friday morning… verse and a chorus is something that fits the kind of music they love. So we wrote the song towards them. Whether they like it or not remains to be seen…but the song turned out great.
It’s just a pleasure working creatively with nice folks like Byron who’s so good at what he does. Blessed to be in the room with folks like him.
SONG OF THE DAY
Today's song selection is "In Memphis" that I wrote with my "Hits & Grins" partners Victoria Venier and Steve Dean. And there's an interesting story behind it.
The three of us were on our way to Little Rock for a show when we got stuck in traffic in Memphis with a view of the world's largest Bass Pro Store-Hotel-Pyramid out our right window...and a view of downtown Memphis out our left window.
Bored, Victoria suggested we write a song. So in the back seat, Steve pulls out Victoria's "Gandolin" (six string version of a mandolin) and the song "In Memphis" comes pouring out. Victoria liked it so much she wanted to do the song THAT NIGHT. What? I was not in favor...but got over-ruled and it got quite the reception.
So...our little trio recorded the song on one of our albums, and then TnT Duo featuring Victoria and her friend Tabitah Fair recorded a big time version of complete with horns.
And then I pitched it to Jeannie Kendall...formerly of the hit duo "The Kendalls" and she recorded on a new album with Carl Acuff Jr. How bout that? Three cuts on song written in a traffic jam.
CHART ACTION
It was a great feeling after seeing two songs I helped write showing up this week on the CVM Bluegrass Gospel Chart.
At #16 is “Church Bells-A-Ringin” from award winning bluegrass vocalist Danny Paisley featuring Barry Abernathy, Bradley Walker and Ben James on background vocals written with Rick Lang that you can find on the Blue Collar Gospel CD.
And in at #17 is “Never Too Lost” from Troy Engle that the two of us wrote that’s on his current album “Back Home”.
AND…
On this week’s Mountain Bluegrass Gospel Chart from David Pugh in at #6 is “God Never Made A Mountain” that I wrote with Andrea Pearson and Josh Shilling that Kristy Cox recorded.
And at #7 is “Country Faith” from Kristen Leigh Bearfield featuring award winning gospel singer Karen Peck that I wrote with Kristen and Bob Minner.
Blessed to have so many songs on the chart and getting played so much right now.
BELIZE
It’s not a done deal yet, but it’s looking more and more like I’ll be making a Parrot Head trip to the island of Belize for a week at the first of February 2025. It’s 85 and sunny at that time of year in Belize so I’m all for it. If it finalizes…all the details will go up with info on how you can join me and several friends on an island trip with several shows built in for those that go along. Fingers crossed!
HEALTH NOTES
A gastroenterologist from California claims that the healthiest alcohol to drink comes from the agave plant. Think tequila. Tequila is non-digestible and doesn’t raise blood pressure as much as other alcohols. And it’s gluten free.
The clocks fell back over the weekend and experts confirm that it can change the mood of some. Less sunlight…darker moods.
Some doctors are now warning that smoking and vaping can have detrimental effects on fertility.
THIS IS PRETTY TRUE
My friend Billy Dean twisted Jim Carrey's quote a bit by saying “behind every successful songwriter there’s an astonished mother in law.”
VOTING DAY TOMORROW
Yep. And if you show your voting sticker you can get a free Krispy Kreme donut or a free shake a Johnny Rockets. So we’ve got that going for us.
That reminds me of this “voting” joke.
A man says, “Two years ago,, my brother ran for Congress.” And his friend asked, “What does he do now”? And the man replies, “Nothing. He got elected.”
GUINNESS
Man…there’s a Guinness Record for everything. A new one was passed out to a guy who walked barefooted from LA to New York. It took him 260 days and that was good enough to break the old record. At first when I read the headline I was worried about anyone’s mental health who would do such a thing.
And then you find out he was a veteran…suffered mental health issues…and made the walk to raise awareness of mental health. And then you think, God bless any human being who would do such a thing.
BEST PLACES TO LIVE
Stacker just released the best places to live in each state. Their results are based on cost of living,, schools, etc. I’m a sucker for these “list” kinds of things…and had to check out the best places in each state I’ve lived in.
Illinois…Bannockburn…population 1,315.
Indiana…Carmel. (Our family lived in Geist for 2 years…right next to Carmel. Great area)
Missouri…Clayton. It’s a suburb of St. Louis…in my home state.
Ohio…Shaker Heights a suburb of Cleveland.
Tennessee…Brentwood. Upscale…LOTS of folks live there.
Wisconsin…Kohler. A world class golf course “Whistling Straits” is there where several major golf championships have been played. And it’s certainly the TOUGHEST course I ever played on.
HEADLINE OF THE DAY
Spiderman On Rollerblades Opens Fire At Man On Bronx Street. (I’m not sure which is weirder. The fact that the Dutch man is dressed as Spiderman…or the fact that he’s carrying a gun on rollerblades)
TODAY
I’m back writing with Thomm Jutz today who’s one of my favorite folks to sit and create with. Such a great guitar player and lyricist. Thomm, originally from Germany loves to dig into history and write about it as well…as do I. In fact he has this great new song out “Wall Dogs” with our mutual friend and co-writer Tim Stafford that puts a light on some of the talented wall painters and the history of that in this great VIDEO you can check out if you’d like.
Have a great Monday!
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