BILL BLOG
Monday October 20, 2025
And a good Monday morning to you. I’m repacked here in Port St. Joe, and getting ready to make the trip over to Gulf Shores for MOTM, the big Parrot Head festival.
78 for a high here in Port St. Joe today, and about the same for Gulf Shores.
THE WEEKEND
Friday at noon, I had a songwriter show with Victoria Venier and young Brooks Huntley at the Blast on the Bay Songwriters Festival. Victoria is part of our “Hits and Grins” trio, and Brooks is someone we met for the first time. Originally from Austin, and now in Nashville.
We had a PACKED house and an incredible show at the Lookout Lounge. The owners there make sure that their venue is a true listening room, which makes for a great songwriter show, and we appreciate them for that. It’s our favorite venue to play here at the festival every year. That hour and a half show just flew by.
After our show, we grabbed lunch at the KrazyFish Grille. Two thumbs up. Great seafood. My grouper sandwich was off the hook good. Stop and eat if you’re ever nearby.
FRIDAY EVENING
I sat out front and watched three friends and co-writer play. Jerry Salley, Barry and Will Hutchens, father and son from North Carolina. The three of them and I played a show together once at the Bluebird Café in Nashville, where I really got to hear Barry and Will for the first time.
They played at the Scallop Republic, which sits right near the water with a great view from their deck.
It was great seeing and hearing the three of them do their thing.
Then I spent Friday evening watching the Seattle Mariners beat the Toronto Blue Jays to take that AL series to 3-2 in their favor, and then watched Dodger superstar Shohei Ohtani do the unthinkable. He hit 3 home runs, one OUT of Dodger Stadium, and he was the winning pitcher! If you’re a baseball fan like me, you know how ridiculous that is. And the Dodgers are now going back to the World Series. Incredible.
SATURDAY
Best location for a coffee stand at breakfast time ever.
A wonderful couple from Port St. Joe throws a free breakfast at their house right on the water every year for all the songwriters and staff from the festival. So nice of them to do that. And it gave all the writers a chance to hang and catch up. Pretty great way to start a Saturday in Florida.
EXTRA SHOW
I was to play one show Saturday, but was asked to fill in for a writer who had a family emergency and had to miss the 3 pm show at the Tap Root. It was an outdoor show under beautiful blue skies alongside Mutt Cooper and Donny Lowery. Donny has had some big artists who have recorded some of his songs, including Alabama, who recorded “Old Flame,” which Donny helped write. One of my all time favorite Alabama songs.
And Mutt Cooper, pictured in the middle, played a very clever song that talked about how you know Jesus is not from Alabama, because if he were, Jesus would have turned the water into “shine”. Very enjoyable songwriter round at Tap Root.
SATURDAY NIGHT
Wow. What a HUGE crowd there was at the Haughty Heron where I played my 7 pm show alongside Victoria Venier, Jerry Salley, and Dana Hunt Black.
The audience just made us feel so great as they were REALLY into the stories and the songs, and they let us know that with their consistent loud applause. A memorable evening for sure. Jerry had people crying with a song he performed that he wrote with me and Victoria titled “It Won’t Be Long”. Dana Hun had the crowd singing LOUDLY to her huge hit she helped write for , “Check Yes or No”. And Victoria and I broke out a new duet titled “That’d Be Alright With Me”.
It was an evening that once again reminded me how lucky I am to get to do…what I get to do.
SUNDAY
Yesterday, some rain & thunder rolled in, and it cancelled the first two songwriter rounds on the last day of the festival. But it stopped by 2 pm, and that was my slotted time to play, and the show went on. Again, just another great crowd at the Indian Pass Raw Bar, which has been the closing venue for all 15 years of the festival. And yes, if you like oysters, this is THE place. I had the stuffed shrimp myself…stuffed with crab. Delicious.
I was on stage with three songwriters I had never met before, and the other was Earl Bud Lee, who sat next to me. You probably know that little ditty he wrote for Garth Brooks, “Friends In Low Places.” And we closed our show with that song, and the crowd sang along loudly.
A perfect way to wrap up the show, and my 13th festival appearance here in Port St. Joe. Can’t wait til next year.
SOME GREAT NEWS!
When I called home Friday evening, my wife, Kathy, informed me that she had gone to the mailbox and pulled out a package that she threw in the passenger seat as she was on the way somewhere. Then curiosity got the better of her, and when she stopped, she opened it up to find a copy of the book she had written!!!!
Both of us felt bad that I was not home to celebrate that amazing moment with her. She’s worked so hard, and so long on this idea she had that has now turned into a book that she can hold!
I simply could not be prouder of my wife. It’s her first book ever, and I know I’m biased, but it’s SO good.
She has to read it again from cover to cover to check for any mistakes, but after that, the book will go to print, and she’ll be able to share it with everyone who wants one. We’ll let you know when. But congratulations to my wife and new author, Kathy Morgan Whyte!
THE ROAD TV SHOW
Did you watch the new “Road” TV show last night? I missed it too, because I have no TV where I’m staying. So, I missed seeing my talented young friend Jenny Tolman singing part of a song we wrote with her husband Dave Brainard, last night. I’ve got it taped back home, thank goodness. But I’m getting some congratulatory texts from some folks who did see and hear it last night. She sang a bit of “I Know Some Cowboys”.
But I did find it on YouTube this morning. So check out my friend Jenny singing our song right HERE on CBS last night. And, you'll get to see Jenny and Dave's little boy "Bear" beating on the drums, as he often does when we write together. Too cute for the room
The day the three of us wrote that song was right after Jenny had toured and fallen in love with Texas and the cowboy culture…so it was her idea. I’m just glad she invited me to help write the song you heard on CBS last night. That’s a pretty good moment for a songwriter. Go Jenny!
SONG OF THE DAY
Let’s make it “I Know Some Cowboys” that Jenny sang last night. They only allowed her to sing a part of it, but by clicking on the link, you can listen to the entire song.
HEALTH NOTES
The popular birth control pill Depo-Provera has been linked to possible slow-growing of brain tumors, according to a new study. And Pfizer, the manufacturer, is now facing hundreds of lawsuits.
The journal “Intelligence” published a report that says, “overall psychological functioning peaks between the ages of 55 and 60, and that it doesn’t decline until around 65, and then the decline gets steeper after the age of 75.
A new study claims that indoor cycling is more effective for hip pain than walking.
HERE’S YOUR SIGN
Well, there’s that!
BAD LUCK-LUCKY
We found out that one of the winners of that huge 1.78 BILLION dollar Powerball jackpot wound up splitting that pot with one other lucky person. The amazing part of this story is that the winner has revealed he picked one of the numbers by mistake! It was split by a group who usually picked numbers at random, but this time they chose meaningful numbers for each one of them. And it worked!
Proof that some things are just meant to be.
SCARY CAR WASH
At least one car wash has really gotten into Halloween already.
Yep, your car gets cleaned, but you might have to clean your pants after the experience. Uh, I think I’ll stick with the regular wash, thank you.
BACON
Man, you can do some amazing things with bacon, and who doesn’t love bacon? At the Texas State Fair you can “cotton candy-bacon on a danged stick!”
18 bucks. Keep a defibrillator handy.
POLITICAL OBSERVATION
Over the weekend, the headline at foxnews.com was “thousands protest in the No Kings protest. Fox, of course, leans right. At the same time, huffingtonpost.com, which leans liberal, printed “millions protest in the No Kings rallies.
One can only surmise that the left and the right are using different calculators.
TODAY’S QUOTE
Since I’m going to be with thousands of Parrot Heads this week, today’s quote is from their King…Jimmy Buffett.
“I’d rather die while I’m living than live than live while I’m dead”.
TODAY
I’m making a 4-hour trip over to Gulf Shores, Alabama, where I’ll be all week for MOTM…”Meeting of the Minds” where I will be a co-emcee, and I’ll be playing 5 shows.
The first one this evening with my friend Brent Burns at Lulu’s. Show time is 4 pm this evening.
Have a great Monday!
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