BILL BLOG
Monday, March 16, 2026
Monday morning, start of a new week.
A lot is coming up. St. Patrick’s Day tomorrow, just a few days away from “Opening Day” for baseball, and I have a show this Saturday night with my friend Lauren Mascitti and a full band.
LAST NIGHT
It was tornado watches and warnings, and my wife and I got up and into our “safe place” and waited for that storm system to pass over us, and it did. There were some power outages in Nashville, but we got lucky this time, and ours stayed on… a blessing. We had some heavy rain with it, and that’s brought in cooler temperatures. Today’s high will only be 37, and the low tonight will be 23 degrees. That will last through tomorrow, then start warming up again.
THE WEEKEND
Friday morning, I wrote a new song with two talented artists-musicians, Addie Levy
And Ella Hennessee.
It was our second time writing as a trio, and a really cool song came out of the process. Addie and Ella both play several instruments. Fiddle, guitar, mandolin, and I don’t know what else. But it was fun to see and hear Addie play a few fiddle licks to go with the new song, and then hand the fiddle over to Ella to try her hand at it while Addie picked the guitar back up.
Too much talent in one room, and then, there was me!
LUNCH
After our writing session, I went to lunch with my buddies Alex Miller, who was next door writing a song with the North Carolina Father and Son that I know, Barry and Will Hutchens, whom I have also written with a few times, and have done a couple of songwriter shows with them as well, both at the Bluebird Café.
Will announced at lunch that he and his wife are waiting for baby 3 to arrive soon. Congrats to both of them!
It was fun catching up with them as we watched some of the SEC basketball action that took place in Nashville over the weekend on the big screens at a local sports bar. The pizza wasn’t bad either!
SATURDAY NIGHT SHOW
What a great time our “Hits & Grins” trio had Saturday evening out at Starstruck Farms playing inside the Grand Ole Barn.
Starstruck Farms is Reba’s old place that has been converted into an entertainment venue, but there’s a restaurant on the property, overnight rentals, and much more on Reba’s old property now. In fact, the old horse barn stables have been converted into hotel-like rooms.
We had a great crowd, and in fact, some old friends of the trio surprised us and showed up. That would be Gary and Lana Hunt from Fort Smith, Arkansas. The trio has played twice at their beautiful home, where they hold house concerts now and then.
It’s been a while since we've seen them. The last time we played at their beautiful house, their grandchild was wearing this.
When I asked how old he was, the answer was 6 years old! The baby has outgrown the bib.
They were in town to root on their Arkansas Razorbacks, who beat Vanderbilt for the SEC Championship yesterday. So they had a really great trip to Nashville.
Steve Dean, Victoria Venier, and I want to say “thank you” to Jay and the staff for having us again. We had a great time.
NEW SHOW DATES
I’ve added a couple of North Carolina shows to my calendar, both with Linda Davis & Lang Scott.
Saturday, November 14, at The Clayton Center in Clayton, North Carolina. An 8 pm show.
Sunday, November 15, we’ll be at the Davis Theatre in Concord, North Carolina, for a 4 pm show.
More details on these two shows and others in the TOUR section on my website.
SONG OF THE DAY
Yesterday, my friend and #1 hit songwriter Brian White sent me this picture by text, with a note that said, “Church Bells!”
This is the song I wrote with Rick Lang that landed on his Blue Collar Gospel album, sung by the great bluegrass singer Danny Paisley. It’s always a good thing for a songwriter when Sirius-XM is playing one of your songs. So today’s song is indeed, “Church Bells A-ringin’”.
HEALTH NOTES
UK research is showing that teens with a higher consumption of sugary drinks were found to have about a 34% greater risk of having an anxiety disorder compared to those who drank less.
Surgery can now be done miles away from a patient. A remote robot removed cancer 1,500 miles away recently. Doctors at the London Clinic remotely guided a robotic system to remove a man’s prostate cancer from that far away.
Bedbugs are spreading, especially in the South. Texas, Florida, Georgia, and Tennessee have all been hit with them. Budget-friendly hotel rooms, the rooms kids hang out in on Spring Break, are some of the culprits. Check your bags when you get home, say officials.
HERE’S YOUR SIGN
And don’t you know that my friend Brent Burns and I wrote a song about that very thing that Brent recorded. Check it out HERE.
EXPENSIVE GUITAR
Jim Irsay, the former owner of the Indianapolis Colts who passed away recently, was an avid collector of Rock N Roll memorabilia. Truly an unreal collection he amassed.
One of his guitars went up for auction over the weekend. It was the guitar that David Gilmour of Pink Floyd played on stage and in the studio, a black Stratocaster, well used, as you can see in this picture.
It sold for a record amount. $14.5 MILLION for the guitar. Wow.
Overall, his collection of memorabilia sold for a staggering $ 93 million.
THE OSCARS
I didn’t watch any of it last night, but I will put up some highlights this morning. The big winners were the movie “Sinners,” which had a record 16 wins last night, and the movie stars Michael B. Jordan, who won the “Best Actor” trophy.
“One Battle After Another” won for Best Picture of the year.
And actress Jessie Buckley took home the Oscar for Best Actress for her role in “Hamnet”.
And once again, I realize I haven’t seen a single movie nominated for Best Picture.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
From Bertrand Russell:
“I would never die for my beliefs because I might be wrong.”
TODAY
I’m writing for the first time with two young musical brothers, Spencer and Connor Hatcher, and my longtime friend Brady Seals will also join in.
Spencer, the older of the two, is an artist being developed by a major country label here in town. He sings great traditional country songs, and I’m excited to create something with him and this group today.
You can check out his singing HERE.
Have a great Monday!
Comments
Post a Comment