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Bluegrass Rhyming...Hall of Famers...Dipstick

BILL BLOG

Tuesday April 4, 2023


Tuesday morning has done rolled around. Temperature will hit 83 here today. Meanwhile more tornados are expected across a pretty good chunk of the country again. 80 mph winds in California and even my home state of Missouri. And South Dakota is expecting 2 feet of snow!

 

YESTERDAY

My writing appointment was with Jerry Salley yesterday. Jerry’s one of the busiest guys I know.  He’s performing, writing, AND running a record label. He makes my “busy” look pretty  lazy. Jerry has recently signed a new bluegrass artist to the label and he’s in the middle of producing songs to this act so our time yesterday was spent writing something we hope he might like enough to add to this recording session. A gospel grass song, and he records a fair amount of songs like that…so here’s hoping. Either way we had such a great time catching up and writing.

 


 

U-CONN

I did see a bit of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship. I didn’t watch a lot of it because it didn’t take much watching to see how much better a team that U-Conn was compared to their opponent San Diego State. Heck of a tournament with more upsets than any year I can remember. No #1 seeded team in the Final Four…a first. Once those guys were eliminated it became pretty clear that U-Conn was the team to beat, and nobody did.

 

HOF

Congrats to Patty Loveless, Tanya Tucker and the great songwriter Bob McDill who will be the latest inductees into the Country Music Hall of Fame. All SO deserving. It’s always a tough decision I’m sure deciding who to put in. We can all name names of others we think should be in, but for sure all three of these deserve it.

 

So happy for Patty. Such a fan of her singing through the years. I was blessed to host a national coast to coast broadcast on the radio one night with Patty to help promote a new bluegrass album she was releasing. We got to spend time on her bus before the show and laughed and I got to know her away from the stage a little. Just real and genuine with that great plaintive Kentucky voice she owns.

 

Tanya Tucker has deserved to be in for years. I can still remember being on the radio when I was a kid with the record Delta Dawn broke and all of us had our mouths drop open when we found out she was just 13 years of age. Fast forward a lot of years later and I’m doing a “live” radio show for WSM-FM here in Nashville on stage at the Wild Horse Saloon. One of my guests that morning was Tanya, who snuck up without me seeing her and planted a big smooch on my cheek…leaving a very noticeable red lipstick mark.

 

And Bob McDill?  What songwriter is not a fan of his work?  Amanda, Gone Country, Good Ole Boys Like Me, Don’t Close Your Eyes and on and on and on.

 

A pretty super class going into the Hall.


 

 

A BENEFIT

My buddy and co-writer Gerald Smith has been in the hospital a bunch recently and piled up some big hospital bills as you can imagine. The Commodore Grille is going to be the site of a benefit to help raise some money for Gerald on the last day of this month April 30. A bunch of songwriters are going to perform including me at 6 pm that evening alongside my friend JanelleArthur of American Idol fame. 


 

 

We will kick off an evening that will feature a lot of songwriters performing and trying to help out. The Commodore Grille is located inside the Holiday Inn on West End here in Nashville. So, if you happen to be in town, come out and hear some great songwriters and help out the cause for our friend Gerald if you would. 


 

 

HEALTH NOTES

I saw a headline this morning that asks, “Is Tofu Good For You”? The answer is pretty much yes. The American Heart Association likes it for healthier hearts. It’s an alternative to meat for protein. Just keep in mind it do not compare to the flavor of a steak!

 

We’ve made advances curing cancer for sure. Now comes word that they may be able to detect cancer with a saliva test which would be quicker and easier.

 

FDA authorities just approved the first at-home test for both the flu and COVID-19 made by Lucira.

 

UP…AGAIN

Notice that gas is soaring upwards again? OPEC is bumping prices and they’re now predicting gas will jump up to over 4 dollars a gallon soon…again. Geez. It’s hard to find the good news in that BUT…it does mean I’ll get to start singing “The Dipstick Song" ong again that always draws big laughs when gas prices jump. Painful laughs, but laughing, nonetheless.

 

NYC HIGH

New York City just approved 99 MORE marijuana stores. So there’s no reason you can’t get higher than the skyscrapers when you visit NYC. Dude.

 

MOVIES

I never see a movie without watching the Trailer first. They can be deceptive every now and then. I watched the Bezos movie on Prime recently after watching the Trailer thinking it looked interesting. Wrong.

 

But more times than not it’s a good indicator. And right now this TRAILER makes me want to see the new movie “Air” that’s out in theaters today starring buddies Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. It’s the story of how Nike became Nike, and how getting Michael Jordan on board turned out to be a very good thing.

 

JOKE

Really funny observation about plastic surgery from the late comedienne Joan Rivers who said, “She had enough plastic surgery so that when she crosses her legs, her mouth snapped open.”

 

TODAY

I’m in the recording studio today with Josh Shilling and Andrea Pearson. Andrea is going to lay down her vocal for a song we finished a couple of weeks ago. Josh has already recorded a great version to pitch to male artists, now Andrea will give us a version we can pitch to female artists. And I just get to stand there and try to look pretty.


 

 

Have a great Tuesday!

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