BILL BLOG
Monday January 20, 2024
And a good Monday morning to you from North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Getting ready to jump on a plane to fly back home to cold Nashville on what is going to be quite the Monday as it’s inauguration day, Martin Luther King holiday, and the College Football Championship is on tonight between Ohio State and Notre Dame.
THE WEEKEND
Friday morning our “Evening in the Round” trio with Linda Davis, Lang Scott and myself boarded a Southwest Bird and flew into Norfolk in an hour and a half. On time…nonstop…best way to go.
There we grabbed a rental car and drove 80 miles to Kill Devils Hill, North Carolina in a hotel that sits right on the Atlantic ocean and bedded down for the night after a delicious seafood dinner at Mama Kwans.
But the rental car experience was pretty interesting in itself. Lang wound up with a new Grand Cherokee Jeep and could not figure out how to start the danged car. So I get the attendant who came around and informed us that it was a hybrid. You can’t hear those things until the gas motor kicks in. Our family had a Prius so I knew that…but we did not know that they were giving us a hybrid. So that was fun.
Then…we hear an ethereal music sound coming from the jeep…very weird. And we could not figure it out until we googled it to find out that the new hybrids…like the Jeep we were in emits that sound so folks can hear the car when it’s in hybrid mode. That’s been added since we owned our Prius. So…we got a free education on new hybrids this trip.
SATURDAY
My sister Vickie drove up from Newport News to spend the day and take in our show Saturday evening at First Flight High School in Kill Devils Hill so that was a wonderful bonus for this trip. She’s lived out east for a long while now and I don’t get to see her or any of my siblings very often so it was a treat to see her and catch up on things.
The show itself was truly awesome. Big crowd and they and the management and staff could not have treated us nicer. This show was actually moved twice…once because of COVID so it was nice to finally get to come to the OBX…Outer Banks and play in their High School Theater that’s almost directly across the spot where old Orville and Wilbur took that first short flight for mankind. In fact, we passed their memorial on the way to the show.
These shows with Lang and Linda are always great…and the time flies when we are on stage together.
We did have this happen. While singing Linda’s piano stool collapsed and she went sprawling while singing her song. And just like the pro she is she jumped up grabbed the microphone and finished the song to a loud ovation. And then of course, once we knew she was fine, we had fun with that incident the rest of the night.
So I’ll always remember Kill Devils Hill as the place man took his first flight, and the place where Linda took a tumble.
SUNDAY
We left our ocean view rooms early Sunday morning to make the trip down to North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina to play at the Greg Rowles Legacy theatre. One of those theatres that runs shows almost every night of the week…sometimes twice or three shows daily to keep up with tourist demand.
We did about a 50 minute show opening for our Grand Ole Opry star friends Darin and Brooke Aldridge. One of the highlights of our set Sunday evening was having “Voice” contestant Gail Bliss who was on team “Snoop Dog” this past season get up and sing “Does He Love You” with Linda. Gail sings in a show in Myrtle Beach and has been long time friends with Linda so it was a nice moment watching the two of them tear up that iconic hit that Linda sang with Reba.
And after our show I snuck out front and listened to my friends Darin and Brooke and their great bluegrass band just tear it up. And they did three songs that I’m a writer on including this song “Where You’ll Find Me” that they told me backstage last night is going to be a single release later this year. Can’t wait for that!
And at the end of their show Linda, Lang and myself joined them and the band and closed out the show with “I’ll Fly Away”.
So yea…pretty great way to end the road trip to the Carolinas.
NEXT SHOW
Will be at the Bluebird Café in Nashville on January 28 with my good friend Brent Burns who gets to play at the “Bird” for the first time ever in his long career. He’ll join me and my “Hits & Grins” partners Steve Dean & Victoria Venier in what will surely be a memorable evening. Every show at the Bluebird sells out and they go on sale Tuesday morning. Go to their website if you want to have any chance of scoring a ticket. They go very quickly.
CHART NEWS
Happy to see the song “Country Faith” by Kristen Leigh Bearfield featuring gospel great Karen Peck debuted at #6 this week on the Singing News Bluegrass Chart. I wrote this with Kristen and Tim McGraw’s guitar player-songwriter Bob Minner last year. Nice to see it debut so high!
AND THERE’S MORE
On top of that great news I found out that THREE albums that I have songs on were on the “Album of the Year” Mountain Bluegrass Chart from radio host David Pugh.
The Kristy Cox Album “Let It Burn” is #1 and I have 3 songs on that including “God Never Made A Mountain.”
And at #2 is “Blue Collar Gospel” that I have 2 songs on including the title track sung by Jerry Salley and the Oak Ridge Boys…the last song Joe Bonsall…the tenor singer for the Oaks sang on before he passed.
And the Darin and Brooke Aldridge album “Talk of The Town is #8 for the year that I have 3 songs on including “Wildflower Too”.
Wow…simply wow. thank you David Pugh for loving these albums. Feeling very blessed today.
SONG OF THE DAY
So it makes sense to make "Some Things Don't Go Together" the song of the day as it's on the #1 Album of the Year on that chart. Check it out HERE. Thank you to my co-writers on this song Wil Nance and Lisa Shaffer.
HEALTH NOTES
Unsweetened coffee has now been linked to a reduced risk of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
And some science folks say that drinking more green tea each day cuts the risk of dementia brain lesions.
A study finds ‘significant’ link between fluoride exposure and kid’s IQs.
HERE’S YOUR SIGN
We saw this sign on the way to Kill Devils Hill this past Friday.
I’ve had jerky. I know jerky. I just didn’t know jerky was an “experience”.
CALIFORNIA
One celebrity realtor in California is predicting that
over 70% of the Palisades residents will not return after the massive wildfire
that claimed so many homes and some lives as well. Hard to imagine.
NO TIK NO TOK
I don’t use or even watch a lot of TikTok but some experts are predicting TikTok withdrawal for many of its 170 million users when it shut down and was then restored. But there was this sign when it did shut down that made me chuckle.
LYRIC SHEET
Here in Nashville they sold Bob Dylan’s handwritten lyric sheet of his song “Mr. Tambourine Man” for $508,000. Wow. I’d bet the movie about him that’s in theaters now “A Complete Unknown” didn’t hurt the price point.
I’m betting when I put up my handwritten lyric for my song “I’ll Join The Amish” that it doesn’t bring nearly as much. But I hope I’m wrong.
HEADLINE OF THE DAY
Wife Makes Husband Pay Her A Monthly $200 ‘Woman Tax’
Because Females Have A Harder Time. (I'm not going to argue that point with my wife. There's a reason we've been married a long time. If you want to make your marriage last a long time guys practice saying this, "You're right, I'm wrong, I'm sorry.")
TODAY
Flying back home to Music City where it’s too danged cold today where the high is just 23 with a low of 8 above tonight. Yikes. It will be warm on my couch where I’ll be watching Notre Dame play Ohio State for the College Football Championship tonight.
Have a great Monday!
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