BILL BLOG
Thursday March 9, 2023
Thursday morning in Music City with a road trip to Pigeon Forge coming up early this afternoon. Cloudy and 62 for our trip over there today.
YESTERDAY
I sat down on Music Row with Emily Ann Roberts for the first time in a long while yesterday. We first wrote when she was 16, right before she did “The Voice” and took 2nd place one season on Blake Shelton’s team. Now all grown up and married and writing and singing and traveling and living the dream.
I took a chorus idea to her I thought she might like, and she did, but she also had something else on her heart. She’s been married for two years now and like me she’s noticed a LOT of girl songs and entire albums devoted to divorce and breaking up and leaving. If you follow my Facebook posts you’d would have seen a post a few days ago where I compared that to the “Bro-Country” movement we endured in country music when an overwhelming amount of songs about good ole boys and trucks and rednecks took over the charts. So I called what a lot of today’s country female artists today as “Bro-Kup Country”. That made her laugh, and pretty soon we were writing about that and channeling some of the thoughts of the Tammy Wynette classic “Stand By Your Man” which has always been a bit controversial with the feminist folks. And then Emily just sang the heck out of it.
It's the kind of song that if it got played today would garner a lot of talk. Good and bad. And that’s not particularly a bad thing I’ve come to learn. ANY talk is better than no talk. So, we’ll see what happens with the song. Either way it was a very fun writing session on the Row.
LAST NIGHT
I wound up in a Zoom call with my Australian friend KatrinaBurgoyne who wanted to tweak a very fun rockin’ tune we wrote a few weeks ago. The song is titled “Stones” (I’ll let you guess which kind we’re singing about) and she wanted to tweak it just a bit because she’s going into the studio to record it along with one other song that we wrote that’s also very fun “WifeTrial”. And she and her producer are going to try and get them into a Shania Twain kind of feel which is more than cool with me. I can’t wait to hear these after they’re recorded. Thank you Kat.
FREEDOM SINGS TRIPS
I’m proud to be part of Freedom Sings USA the organization that pairs songwriters with our veterans. We write the veteran’s very personal and often heroic stories into songs and then perform them at a “live” concert to honor those veterans.
I’m happy to see more folks are reaching out to the organization wanting to do these special retreats. And if you’re interested in how all that works you can reach out the organization at freedomsingsusa.org.
We have 4 of these retreats on the books for this year, and I’ll be a part of all four of these along with several other songwriters.
March 20 & 21 in Murfreesboro, TN
April 14 & 15 in Shiloh, Illinois
June 2 & 3 in Memphis, TN
June 22-24 in Montrose, Colorado
HEALTH NOTES
The US says it’s going to relax COVID restrictions for travelers coming here from China starting tomorrow…Friday.
A new report reveals that allergy season is getting longer. Not good news for those who have to put up with runny nose, puffy eyes, and sneezing
More eyedrops are being recalled. The FDA just recalled two more brand names because of health risks.
TOY STORY
Toy manufacturers are lowering the price on some toys and adding old favorite toys back into their line of toy products again. Why? Sales are down and they blame it on inflation. If you don’t buy any toys you might save enough to be able to afford a half carton of eggs. Maybe.
I’m checking the price on Red Rider BB guns and Pick Up Sticks right now. (You can hurt your eyes with either of them)
DO WE WANT THIS?
Hershey’s is going to roll out plant-based bars, and Reese’s is going to have plant-based Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. So if I convert and eat plant-based burgers and candy does that make me a vegetarian?
WHEN YOU’RE RICH
What do you do with all that money if you win the lotto? Well the folks who won that BILLION-dollar lottery just spent 25 million dollars on a California mansion. I don’t know why but it makes me hear the Beverly Hillbilly’s theme song in my ears.
MEANWHILE
This is funny “tweet” from someone who did not win a billion bucks in a lottery drawing. “I would like to think money wouldn’t change me. But I won $5 on a scratch-off lottery ticket and immediately bought brand name aluminum foil”.
TODAY
I’m off to go pick up Steve Dean and we’ll make the trip over to Dollywood. We’ll bed down tonight and then tomorrow and Saturday we’ll do 3 shows at the Palace Theater in the park with our “Hits & Grins” partner Victoria Venier who is hosting several weeks of songwriters playing their songs and telling their stories for the 50th Anniversary Celebration of Dolly’s “I Will Always Love You” smash. Tomorrow we play for an exclusive VIP gathering so that should be interesting. Wonder if Dolly will be a VIP?
Have a great Thursday!
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