BILL BLOG
Monday January 5, 2025
And it’s the first Monday in the New Year. We will have a high of 64 degrees today in Music City, and we’ll be back in the 70s by this weekend. Balmy!
THE WEEKEND
Saturday, my wife and I attended a birthday party for a 3-year-old boy named “Bear” who is the son of my musical friends Dave Brainard & Jenny Tolman.
Dave and Jenny have a studio downstairs at their home where we gather to write songs. And little Bear has been joining us for a while, often pounding on the drums in perfect time...a the age of 3 and younger! No doubt, this kid will be playing music for a significant part of his life.
With that, we gave him a pair of drumsticks with his name imprinted on them…”Bear. His parents will thank me later…I think.
SUNDAY
At the last second, my friends Linda Davis and Lang Scott sent me a text inviting me to join them at the world-famous Station Inn.
Every Sunday, the Station Inn hosts a gospel music show featuring hit songwriter Larry Cordle and a great female vocalist named Val Storey.
Val and Larry were SO great, and the band was just awesome. They played some old standard hymns like “His Eye Is On The Sparrow”, and a hit song Larry Cordle wrote for Diamond Rio, “Mama, Don’t Forget To Pray For Me”. Both of those songs brought the house down.
After an intermission, they got Larry Strickland up, who was at our table. Larry was married to Naomi Judd, but before that, he sang some with Elvis, singing bass. And he showed off that bass voice when he got up and sang.
And then the piano player pretty much begged Linda to get up and sing something, so she took me and her husband, Lang, to the stage where we sang “This World Is Not My Home,” which we sing in most of our “Evening in the Round” shows. That was great fun.
So I had a fun Saturday and Sunday for sure.
ALWAYS GOOD TO SEE
This song “Telluride,” popping up on XM Radio on the Bluegrass Junction channel from my friend Caroline Owens that I wrote with Andrea Pearson.
They’ve been very good to our song about hitching a ride to that beautiful mountain town in Colorado. Thank you XM!
MORE GOOD MUSIC NEWS
Blue Collar Gospel, from Jerry Salley and the Oak Ridge Boys, was released well over a year ago. And it’s still on this Bluegrass Gospel chart, this week at #29.
I know, you have to squint to see that, but it’s there. I think the song might get airplay years from now as well. So blessed to be a writer on this one with Jerry & Rick Lang.
THE BOOK
Over the weekend, my wife Kathy received the “real deal” copy of her book “Subtle Frequency”. She was a little joyous, and I would be too. She had received one a couple of months ago, but she had caught some mistakes that needed to be corrected. But this one is correct, which means that her publisher, Indigo River, will be printing a lot of books right away. Awesome.
Remember, the book is available for preorder right now, online, anywhere you buy books, worldwide. The official release will be on February 3rd.
SONG OF THE DAY
I wrote “All That Cowboy Jazz” with Paul Bogart and Zach Runquist one day at Sony Music on Music Row. We were in the Bill Anderson songwriter room at Sony that day. Yep, they named one of their songwriter rooms after Bill Anderson. There’s a Kris Kristofferson room as well, and a few others.
I had this idea with me that day, and thought it could be a great western “swing” song for Paul. He and Zach loved the idea, and the words just spilled out that day over the great melody you hear that came from Zach, who plays almost every instrument.
The song became a single for Paul, and he and his crew put an awesome video of it together, which you’ll see when you listen to the song at the link above.
They shot the video in Oohlogah, Oklahoma, where Paul is from, and some of the scenes were shot inside the Iron Horse Saloon out there. The club loved the experience so much that they painted our song on their dance floor!
Hard to beat that if you’re a songwriter or a singer.
HEALTH NOTES
Scientists have invented new paper receipts free of cancer-like “forever chemicals”. It’s a safer alternative to the special paper used to print receipts, completely free of “forever chemicals” that have been blamed for certain cancers, hormone disruption, reproductive issues, metabolic disorders, and abnormal fetal development.
New research shows that dancing can help prevent 4 diseases. Dancing can lower the risk of dementia, provide therapeutic benefits for Parkinson’s and Rheumatoid Arthritis, and improve your health.
The UK is banning fast food and junk food advertising in an effort to lower obesity in children.
HERE’S YOUR SIGN
Nice to see they take their job SO seriously.
911 CALL
There’s a book that’s been out for a long time with a great title, “What’s The Number For 911?”
Every year, new wacky calls come into 911 operators. Here’s a few from last year.
“I can’t get this peanut butter jar open, and if I don’t get the peanut butter in the feeder, the squirrels will be mad.”
A 4-year-old girl called to ask the police to come arrest her Mom because she would not let her go outside and play in the rain.
“The neighbor has recorded me coughing and has been playing it back to me for 24 hours on high.”
LET’S ALL POLKA
Germany has been naming an “Instrument of the Year” for something like the past 15-20 years. This year, they have named the “accordion” as the winner. A few years ago, the Tuba won. Both are used big time in polkas.
I noticed that the French Horn, which I played in High School, has never won! There’s just not a lot of respect for ‘Das French Horn. I wanted to play trumpet, but the band teacher said he had too many of those, so I wound up blowing into a left-handed instrument with a spit valve. To this day, nobody has asked me to come up on any stage and blow on my French Horn. Sigh. Congrats to the accordion.
FUNNY BUT SAD KINDA
From the Babylon Bee and their funny fake headlines.
"A man didn’t check the news for one hour and missed the entirety of World War III.”
SELF-DRIVING
A new study predicts that self-driving cars are going to prevent more than a million injuries between this year and 2035. That would be a 3.6% reduction.
Of course, they have to convince a LOT of people to get into a self-driving car, but I digress.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
From Margaret Mead:
“Always remember that you are absolutely unique. Just like everyone else.”
TODAY
I’m back writing with the young “Kentucky Kowboy” Alex Miller this morning. Alex has been out on the road a lot playing for folks, so it will be good to sit and rhyme with him again today.
And our young friend and talented guitar player, Sonny French, will join us. He just got back from a two-week tour of Australia with his Mom and Dad and their “French Family Band”. It will be good to have him in the mix!
Have a good Monday.
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