BILL BLOG
Wednesday April 23, 2025
Wednesday “Hump Day” be here. A pleasant day ahead with some sunshine and a high 75 in Music City today.
YESTERDAY
I made a trip to the grocery store to find out that egg prices have not dropped. Close to ten bucks for a carton of 18. I’m thinking about investing in chickens instead of Tesla these days.
LAST NIGHT
I went to the world-famous Station Inn and listened to the French Family Band who are just great.
The family, from Australia and New Zealand are now citizens of the United States and when they announced that it got a loud round of applause. As did every song they performed!
Last night they performed two songs that I wrote with Stuie French, the Dad in the group. His wife Camille sang our new song “Empty House” for the first time ever, and it got a standing ovation from the crowd! That’s as good as it gets for a songwriter these days.
The place was absolutely packed. Word is out on how good their show is. My friend Jimmy Fortune was there and we had a chance to catch up. And Alex Miller got up on stage as a guest and had the audience in the palm of his Kentucky hands.
This is a picture of me with Stuie on my left, Jimmy Fortune next to him, and the incredible keyboard-accordion player in the band, Jeff Taylor.
I could not have had more fun. Thank you to Stuie and the band for working up our songs!
GATLINBURG FESTIVAL
The schedule is out for this year’s songwriter’s festival in Gatlinburg that I’m proud to be part of. The festival is held at the historic Gatlinburg Inn on the main drag in Gatlinburg close to the Smoky Mt. State Park entrance.
This year I will be part of 3 songwriter shows.
Friday, August 15, I play a round with Jerry Salley, Victoria Venier, and Lauren Mascitti in the Davy Crockett Room.
Saturday, I play a 4 pm show with “Hits & Grins” alongside Steve Dean & Victoria Venier in the Davy Crockett Room.
Saturday night you’ll find me in the Pioneer Room right next to the fireplace singing songs alongside Bobby Tomberlin. Bobby is the host of this two-songwriter show every year, and this year he asked me to join him and help close out the festival.
For more information on this great festival in a beautiful location just click the LINK.
SONG OF THE DAY
I’m sharing the funny and TRUE story of how my friend Paul Bogart’s second baby Ace was born. He and his wife Tanya did not get to the hospital on time and the baby was delivered on the floorboard of the car on Highway 40 east Nashville, trying to get to the hospital in time.
When Paul told me that story, I KNEW we had to write that as a song. We wrote in a Jerry Reed kind of style. Paul recorded it, and it’s a really fun song to listen to. Keep in mind, every line in this song is true…just the way it happened. The song is titled “The Ballad of Exit 199”.
HEALTH NOTES
The FDA has named 8 harmful dyes that will soon be phased out of the US food supply.
Bird flu has forced 30 million chickens to be culled across nine states this year.
A report concludes that nearly half of Americans live in an area with a failing grade for air pollution, and the problem is only getting worse.
HERE’S YOUR SIGN
THROWING FISH
It’s that time of year when folks walk out on the sand at the Flora-Bama Lounge located on the Gulf in Perdido Key, Florida and try to throw a mullet as far as they can. I go down there a lot, but not once have I been tempted to go out and throw a fish. But a LOT of folks do.
The Mullet Toss record throw is 192 feet. Even celebrities show up and toss. The great QB from Alabama Kenny Stabler, was a regular back in the day.
You pay $20 bucks to enter and you get this dandy T-Shirt. If want to do something fishy…the event is coming up this weekend, April 25-27.
JOKE
Bought the wife a hamster skin coat last week. I took her to the fair, and it took me three hours to get her off the Ferris Wheel.
OPRY COOL
The Grand Ole Opry is 100 years old today. I may have to get one of these license plates that just became available for $37 a pop.
I grew up in Missouri listening to the Opry on 650 AM WSM. I never dreamed I’d wind up working at that radio station one day, or get to hang around the Opry some listening to friends and co-writers of mine perform.
And I would have never thought I’d help write a song called “Grand Ole Circle” that would be recorded by Darin and Brooke Aldridge that talks about that history, along with the great VIDEO they made of our song.
Long live the Opry.
WILLS
My friends Gerald Smith and Thom Shepherd wrote a funny song, “Where There’s A Will, There’s A Relative”. It still makes me laugh when I listen to it.
People do some strange things with their wills. Here's two examples.
A great-grandmother left most of her money to a local donkey sanctuary.
A family member confessed, “My grandfather saved his kidney stone so that he could leave it to my cousin. They never really got along”.
THEM AND US
Sarah Paulson, an actress in Hollywood, just sold her one-bedroom trailer in Malibu for 1.45 MILLION dollars. A trailer. Location, location, location.
TINY HOMES
With that in mind, going online and ordering a house on Amazon for under $20,000 might be a good investment.
There is seemingly NOTHING one can’t buy on Amazon.
HEADLINE OF THE DAY
Another headline gem from the folks at Babylon Bee.
China Retaliates Against Tariffs by Putting Worse Fortunes in Fortune Cookies.
TODAY
I’m writing with Brian White and Don Poythress today. Both can write anything, but both have had a lot of hits in the Christian Music world.
But Brian is also a writer on “Watching You” by Rodney Atkins, and Don wrote songs like “Chill” for Blake Shelton.
Brian and I have written quite a bit together, but it will be my first time writing with Don. Don had two of his songs recorded on the Grammy-winning “Love Remains” album from Hillary Scott & The Scott Family. And they recorded “Safe Haven,”whicht I helped wri,te on that same album. So we’ll have that in common when we gather this morning. Looking forward to it.
Have a great Wednesday!
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