Bill's Blog

BILL BLOG Monday, May 4, 2026   It’s the first Monday in the month of May, Star Wars Day, “May the 4 th Be with You.”   A little warmer in Nashville today, with a high of 79.   THE WEEKEND Friday, I made a trip to Shelbyville, Tennessee, about an hour and a half southeast of Nashville, for this event.   On Friday night, our group of songwriters gathered at Harmony Hills, a beautiful piece of property just outside Shelbyville owned by retired Marine Colonel Gary Carrada . Gary, who is a musician himself, now has a venue complete with a big recording studio.   (Pic)   And a room with a stage for “live” music events, like the one we had Friday night. Songwriter Dave Gibson got up and did his huge hit, “ Ships That Don’t Come In ,” a number one song for J oe Diffie , and it was great to have former American Idol Star “ Hunter Girl ” with us this trip, and she got up and did three songs. Then my buddy Steve Dean and I did a little duo ...

BILL BLOG Friday, May 1, 2026   Friday morning, it’s the first of May, and the weekend is on us. And I’m packed for a road trip today. More on that at the end of today’s Blog.   I am packing a jacket. The high today in Music City is just 64, and tomorrow the high will be just 63 with a low tomorrow night of 39. And I’m playing an OUTDOOR concert!   YESTERDAY A pretty uneventful day yesterday. Thursday was mostly about getting my “ducks in a row” for the trip this weekend. I’ve got 4 musical road trips between now and the early part of June. I’ll be in Marion, Heyworth, and Elmhurst, Illinois, between now and then, and also in Durham, North Carolina, in early June. All four of these trips are “writing with a veteran” trips.   As always, details on these 4 shows and others are available under the TOUR tab on my website here.     SONG OF THE DAY Today I’m picking out one of the first songs I ever wrote with my friend Brent Burns . By ...

BILL BLOG Thursday, April 30, 2026   It’s Thursday, and it’s already the last day of April. The end of the month has brought cooler temperatures. Today’s high in Nashville will be just 65 degrees, and this Saturday, the high will only be 59.   Saturday night I’ll be playing outdoors, so I’m packing a heavier jacket than normal at this time of year. More on that concert at the end of today’s Blog.   YESTERDAY I got some good news on multiple musical fronts yesterday.   First, my co-writer Tim Stafford let me know that he’s recording a song we wrote about an old farm tractor, like the ones we both saw growing up as kids. Tim is such a great artist & guitar player, and it’s the first song he’s recorded that the two of us wrote. Can’t wait to hear that. Here’s an example of Tim’s talent in this song " Wild West. "     Then my longtime friend Jerry Salley, who is currently producing a new album on our friend Kristy Cox, who has been...

BILL BLOG Wednesday, April 29, 2026   It’s the last Wednesday in April. The big storms have finally passed through here in Nashville. Today we expect some rain with a high of just 75. A come this Saturday? The high temperature will only be 60! I should not have put my jackets away.   YESTERDAY The bad weather let up around 9 AM or so yesterday, and the electric company got us restored with power within 4 hours or so. I did kind of fall in love with our solar panel generator, using it for the first time.   And the weather let up in plenty of time for me to make my songwriting appointment with Caroline Owens, so we got to sit down, catch up on her trip with her band to beautiful Durango, Colorado , for a bluegrass festival there. And she played the song I wrote with Andrea Pearson , “ Telluride, ” more than once. Durango is not that far from Telluride, so you can imagine that our song went over well with the bluegrass fans out there in Durango.   Car...

BILL BLOG Monday, April 27, 2026   Monday morning, and the last week of April is on us. All eyes will be on the weather late tonight as they are calling for bad weather, maybe even a tornado. Fun stuff.     80 degrees high today, and rain through Wednesday.   THE WEEKEND Fairly uneventful weekend until this showed up in our driveway.   Sigh. That means some of my weekend was spent with a pitchfork and shovel alongside my wife. I once again pitched the idea of just asphalting our lawn, and I heard “crickets” from her.   Other than that, it was a nice weekend to be out under the beautiful weather we’ve had lately.   A MILLION STREAMS It’s official now. The song “ More Country Than You” , the duet featuring Alex Miller and Emily Ann Roberts that I helped write, has now gone over a million streams. And it’s reached over 2.5 million on Spotify!     I had a pretty good start on this song the day the three of us ga...