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Hot Weather...Drinking Song...The Vatican

BILL BLOG

Thursday July 24, 2025

 

And…it will be Thursday all day today. And it will be a tad warm again. Today’s high in Music City will be a “toasty” 94.

 

YESTERDAY

It was a hot, lazy day for the most part around the Whyte House yesterday. I’m not sure what Death Valley feels like these days, but it felt like that kind of H O T. The kind that makes you feel badly for anyone working outdoors. Up on roofs, out on the asphalt with a work crew, ANYTHING outdoors. Whew.

 

The gym I go to, as I did yesterday, because of some free time, has a nice sauna. No need. I could just go sit out on the front steps and achieve the same thing.

 

Growing up playing music, I did a lot of shows outdoors in the sun. Never thought much about it then. No more. I was playing an outdoor show a few years ago, and the heat knocked me down and cancelled my show in mid-stream. Overheated…big time. It reminded me big time that I’m no longer 20 or 30 or 40. It certainly got my attention as I sat with a couple of paramedics as they pumped fluid into me.

 

These days, if there’s an outdoor venue that wants to book me, I try to make sure the event is in the Spring or  Fall.

 

August is right around the corner, bringing more heat, and the shows I have are all under AC.

 

August 1-2, I’m in Shiloh, Illinois, writing with veterans there for the third time. Now that I’m thinking about it, the Saturday night show on August 2 is under a pavilion. But there’s lots of shade.



 

August 12, I’m at the Listening Room Café in Nashville for a songwriter show.



 

August 15-16, I’m at the Gatlinburg Songwriters Festival in Gatlinburg, TN, at the Gatlinburg Inn.



 

August 18, I have two shows with Linda Davis and Lang Scott at Uncle Lenny’s Restaurant in Nashville.


Complete details for these shows and others are available on my website under the TOUR tab. 

 

 SONG OF THE DAY

Here’s a fun “drinking” song recorded by my East Coast friend Rob Bellamy, “If There Was No Alcohol,” that we wrote together online one day. Country stars are STILL recording lots of songs about beer, and honky tonks…and this is another one of those. 


 And this is a cool promotional VIDEO of my friend Rob doing his thing, and the song you hear playing through part of the video is another tune we wrote together called "Ghost Town". 

 

HEALTH NOTES

Clint Eastwood is 95. The actor has been a gym rat all of his life, does meditation, sometimes twice a day, and eats healthy. He favors a low-fat organic diet. Seems to have worked for Clint.

 

New research suggests that walking 7,000 steps per day can reduce the risk of several issues, including death from any cause. Cardiovascular disease (47%), cancer 6%, Type 2 diabetes (14%), dementia (38%), depression (22%), and falls (28%).

 

The U.S. is set to remove mercury from flu shots following RFK Jr. vaccine panel vote.

 

HERE’S YOUR SIGN



 

Sort of kinda makes biblical sense right? 

 

FARMERS

The Farmers’ Almanac is predicting a warmer-than-normal Fall to follow the sweltering summer we are experiencing right now. You might be lifting some warm pumpkins out of the patch come Halloween season.

 

I can’t remember seeing a Farmer’s Almanac in a long while. I grew up with them in Missouri. You’d find some as reading material in bathrooms back in the day. Those are pretty much gone…along with the Yellow Pages that were used for something other than reading out in the country.


 

 

HISTORY RETURNS

The old Ernest Record Tubb Store on Lower Broadway is returning after closing its shop in 2022. They raised the sign back up yesterday.



 

It was first opened in 1947. As a kid, I used to listen to Ernest Tubb and his guests singing as he had a show on WSM Radio that followed the Grand Ole Opry shows on the radio. And yes, they were singing from inside the record store. Iconic.



 

The new version will have a 3-story bar. There will be “live” entertainment, and yes, once again, the store will be selling vinyl records.



Everything old is new again.

 

UBER FEATURE

Uber is offering up a new feature that will allow women to ask for a female Uber driver. LA, Frisco, and Detroit will be the first cities where that option is available. Makes pretty good “safety” sense.

 

FUNNY

Old Man: “Even after 70 years, you still call your wife Darling, Honey, Luv. What’s the secret?

Other Old Man: “I forgot her name and I’m scared to ask her.”

 

MOST CROWDED

A leading travel publication says the most crowded tourist place in the world is the Vatican City in Rome. Yep. It was crowded when my wife Kathy and I were there several years ago.



I will say it’s worth fighting the large crowds just to be able to look up and see the Sistine Chapel ceiling, the David statue, and the other antiquities. At least it was for us.



 

TODAY’S HEADLINE

Man’s 174-mph Sneeze Blows Wife’s Hair Off!! (Gorilla Glue ladies…Gorilla Glue)

 

TODAY

I’m writing once again with bluegrass great Daryl Mosley. Daryl, who was born here in Tennessee, has written 18 #1 songs during his career, and he’s a 4-time Songwriter of the Year in bluegrass. One of his signature number one songs, and most popular, is “Ask The Blind Man”.



 

I’ll be trying to hold my own today.

 

TONIGHT

My friends Darin and Brooke Aldridge and their band are playing at the Station Inn. They’ve recorded several of my songs through the years, so I’ll be up late cheering them on as the show starts at 9 pm tonight. It’s always a treat to hear some of the songs you’ve written performed “live” by the acts that have recorded them. 


 

 

Have a great Thursday!

 

 

 

 

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