BILL BLOG
Friday August 22, 2025
Here comes the weekend. It’s Friday! 81 for a high today in Nashville, so a little cooler. And that’s welcome.
Meanwhile, Erin is ashore on the East Coast at a CAT 2. Flooding is the main issue with the Outer Banks of North Carolina, getting the worst of it. 80-foot waves might scare some of us…but not those who like to surf.
Yep…just a guy out having fun with Erin.
Some weather folks are describing the storm as “historical” as the storm was 500 miles wide. Wow. Considering it was once a Cat 5 hurricane so it surely could have been worse.
ISSUES
I’m without internet and cable this morning…still! That’s because yesterday afternoon, a “too-tall” truck came down our road and snapped all the cable that was draped across the road up fairly high. My wife and I saw workers work all afternoon, into the night. We got word it would be fixed by 10:30 last night, but I woke up this morning and…nothing.
So, I get to do what every customer loves to do…TRY to talk to someone in customer service. Sigh. I finally did…in broken English, and I don’t know if I really know anything more after talking to her. Thank God for a “Hot Spot” on my phone. It’s been a pretty frustrating experience to say the least.
The experience reminds me once again why I hate being so dependent on Wifi and cable.
Many have pulled the plug on cable…I’m sure we should as well. But the streaming services, just like cable, keep jacking their rates up as well. Apple just announced a 30% jump in its price. So there’s that.
YESTERDAY
I wrote yesterday morning with my Maryland friend, Rick Lang, who had a bluegrass-gospel song idea started that we completed together. Something that we wrote specifically to be recorded by a female group with harmony. Rick is working on a couple of unique projects right now, so he’s co-writing a lot, working towards having enough songs for those in-the-future albums.
He shared some great news with me. A bluegrass tune we wrote together a couple of years ago is going to be recorded by a big name in the bluegrass world shortly. That’s a pretty good way to start any day, hearing news like that. Can’t wait.
There are not a lot of writers who have had as many cuts as Rick has had in the bluegrass-gospel world, and I’m happy to have written some of those with him. Including this one that's up for "Best Gospel Bluegrass Recording" next month at the IBMA Awards.
PARROT HEADS
I also spent some time putting together a video of me promoting this year’s big Parrot Head gathering in Gulf Shores called MOTM. (Meeting of the Minds). 4 big days on the beach, and I’ll be one of the co-emcees again for this year’s big event, as well as playing 3 or 4 shows. Registration is open right now.
SONG OF THE DAY
Today’s song is “Good Thing Going,” which I wrote with Paul Bogart and Steve Dean, and was recorded by Jake Madlock out in Arizona. Several years ago, I had the pleasure of performing on the Grand Canyon Railway as it rolled to the south rim of the Grand Canyon every day and then returned.
Along the way, 4 or 5 entertainers stroll through the train singing songs and entertaining those riding on that train. That’s where I met Jake, who’s been one of those long-time entertainers…still is to my knowledge.
I did back-to-back years on the train, and Jake and I became good friends. A few years back, he reached out to me looking for songs to put on an album that he sells sometimes while singing on the train, and he liked “Good Thing Going”. Glad he did.
FYI…if you ever get a chance to take that train from Williams, Arizona, to the Grand Canyon, do so. It’s pretty spectacular.
HEALTH NOTES
Two people are dead after consuming eating food from a food truck in Italy. Botulism is to blame. A doctor in the US says, “I’ve seen occasional reports from overseas involving street vendors, but here, there’s no solid evidence that food trucks are riskier than restaurants.”
A new study claims that not drinking enough water floods your body with harmful stress hormones.
CT scans are increasing. With that, some scientists are concerned that low doses of ionizing radiation could increase cancer risk.
HERE’S YOUR SIGN
Amen!
COACH VRABEL
Mike Vrabel is the new head coach for New England after being released by our Titans. I was a fan of his no-nonsense approach to life and football. Still am. I may be a bigger fan now after he went off about people who parked in handicapped spaces at this Starbucks. He says he wishes he could “slash their tires”. Amen.
Which reminds me of a great joke my comedian-author-Arizona hiker friend Roger Naylor used in his stand-up comedy act back when he was doing that. Rogers says, “I see a bumper sticker on a car that says, ‘I’d Rather Be Hiking. So, I slashed his tires. You’re welcome.”
SPEAKING OF SPORTS
Yesterday, MLB insider Jeff Passan said that he believes that Nashville is almost a “shoo-in” to get a Major League Baseball team when the league expands. Come on with it! Heck, we already have renderings for the stadium!
NOT A SURPRISE
Cracker Barrel’s stock plunged after a new CEO changed their iconic logo.
To this mundane image.
Because of that new CEOs decision, the company has already lost 100 million dollars in value. For the life of me, I have zero idea what someone is thinking when they do something like this. And it’s not like they didn’t have an example of what not to do with an iconic brand. All they had to do was take a look at Budweiser and the fallout from their controversial ad. I’ll bet these are gone as well.
I'm a frustrated Cracker Barrel lover. So much so that I wrote this new song that goes something like this.
CRACKER AND BARREL
Verse
Next thing you know they’ll get rid of those rockers
And those golf tee games that I love to play
And I’ll bet those red and black giant checkers
Like their old logo soon will go away
Chorus
What the hell have you done to my Cracker Barrel?
Lord, it don’t make a lick of sense to me
They say it’s going woke, I say it’s going broke
Gonna have to find me another place to eat
FREE MUSIC
To show you how unregulated our music business can be, Luke Bryan revealed that his big hit “Country Girl Shake It For Me” was being illegally downloaded by as many as 20 million times per week. Wow. And considering how little one stream makes? Luke may have missed out on 50 bucks.
BORING
The publication, Finance-Buzz-Money, listed its most boring cities to live in. Here’s the Top 5.
5…Memphis
4…Sioux Falls, South Dakota
3…Corpus Christi, Texas
2…Wichita, Kansas
And the MOST BORING city in their estimation? Jacksonville, Florida.
Not enough restaurants and entertainment places, according to them. I’ve been to Jacksonville more than once. I did not find it boring. Pro football and beaches? Go figure.
THEM AND US
CEOs at America’s 100 largest low-wage employers are now paid 632 times as much as the average worker. (get a suit and a power tie kids)
HEADLINE OF THE DAY
Carnival Cruise Ship Brawl Breaks Out Over Chicken Tenders. (Some folks are WAY too serious about their chicken)
TODAY
I’m off to write with friends Wil Nance and Angus Gill today. First time putting this rhyming threesome together. Should be fun.
Have a great weekend!
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