BILL BLOG
Friday April 14, 2023
Friday morning with a road trip ahead to Illinois with Freedom Sings USA this morning. 79 for a high in Shiloh Illinois today which is where I’m going.
YESTERDAY
I had nothing big on the calendar. Wound up tweaking a song with Brady Seals that we’ve been working awhile. That’s always time well spent. To this day, the song that has climbed the highest for me on the big boy country chart was the song “Been There, Drunk That” that we wrote together and was a single for Brady accompanied by this very fun video. So yea, time well spent.
And I spent some time packing my bag for the road trip to Shiloh, Illinois today. Over the past few years I’ve added a guitar or two to my collection so one of my packing deliberations is, and that is which guitar do I bring? A pleasant dilemma always. My friend and co-writer got a vintage Gibson guitar for Christmas this year from his son with a note that said, “this is not a fly guitar”. Every musician, songwriter, guitar player gets that. There are some guitars that they refuse to fly with for fear that it could get damaged by the airlines. They’re supposed to let you stow the guitar onboard but every now and then there’s not room and they want you to check it.
I had a (for me) impassioned discussion with a flight attendant who wanted me to give my guitar to a baggage guy outside because they had no space. After telling her as nicely as I could that was not going to work for me, she finally took my guitar and strapped it in an empty FIRST-CLASS seat. And I flew coach!
The one time I lost that kind of argument, I gave an Ovation guitar to a baggage guy and asked him to be careful with it and told him why I was asking. When I got to my destination and picked it up, the hard-shell case had been punctured. The guitar was okay, but lesson learned. Some guitars of mine now will never fly like my friend’s new guitar.
LUKE COMBS HONKY TONK
Well, we are about to add yet another celebrity honkytonk in Nashville. The Wild Horse Saloon that’s been a staple here for years down on 2nd Avenue, owned by the Opryland folks is going to change into “Hurricane” a song by Luke Combs. I’ve done several radio shows on the stage of the Wild Horse and it used to be one of those “go to” places for tourists, especially those that wanted to line dance or learn to line dance on their big wood dance floor. But the competition has changed the landscape and now the tourists seem to choose honkytonk bars that has a stars name on it…and there are many. The Opryland group has had huge success with "Ole Red" with Blake Shelton’s name on it. So I know they’re hoping for the same results with Luke Combs name on another one of their properties.
FYI…Don Goodman who co-wrote “Ole Red” will be with me today and tomorrow in Shiloh, Illinois for our veterans songwriter retreat, and he usually gets up and sings that song at some point.
The new Luke Combs place will feature a two-story concert hall that will seat up to 1,500 and will also have a sports bar with legalized betting, and a songwriters room as well for songwriter shows. Should be a big hit with the tourists.
HEALTH NOTES
MIT scientists say they have unlocked a major dementia breakthrough in a battle to reverse the effects of Alzheimer’s. They’ve found a new enzyme that they say is working. Wouldn’t that be great?
Also, other experts claim that not enough people wear hearing aids, and if they did so it also might help reduce dementia.
That time of year almost when the skeeters come out and we start slapping and spraying on stuff. For good reason. Mosquitos according to the WHO kill 750,000 people worldwide each year from illnesses.
TAX
Just a couple more days and our tax returns have to be in. Fun stuff huh? Someone once said that a fool and his money are soon parted. The rest of us wait until income tax time. Hard to disagree.
NEW YORK NEW YORK
Yesterday I mentioned over 10,000 New Yorkers left for Florida in the first 3 months of the year. Taxes, rats, crime, traffic…you name it.
Well today they tell us that the MEDIAN monthly rent in New York just broke another record. It will cost you on average $4,150 per month to rent in the Big Apple. And yesterday they broke a heat record as the temperature hit 90 in early April. So one has to make almost 50 grand per year just to pay their rent. Man, Florida is going to get REALLY crowded.
MEANWHILE IN ITALY
The government there is getting serious about stupid tourists who come over and vandalize monuments and or cultural attractions. If they catch you doing that now the fine is $65,000. My wife and I toured Italy a few years ago. I agree with the Italian government. If you deface monuments like the one my wife is posing in front of here…the fine should hurt your pocketbook.
MAN JOKE
American psychologists have isolated two fundamental reasons why men frequent bars.
1 They don’t have a woman.
2 They have a woman
TODAY
Time to roll to Shiloh, Illinois. Songwriters Wil Nance and Wood Newton are going to jump in the car and make the 5-hour drive over with me where we will join our songwriter buddies Steve Dean & Don Goodman. Later this evening we’ll have a meet and greet with the veterans that we’ll be writing with and about on Saturday morning and then Saturday evening at 5 pm we’ll do a concert outdoors at the golf course there in Shiloh that will include the songs we write with these veterans. The concert is open to the public…bring a lawn chair with ya.
Have a great weekend!
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