Gatlinburg Schedule...Dad's...Mo Mo Interview

BILL BLOG

Thursday August 17, 2023

 

Thursday morning in Nashville and it’s packing day for a trip to Gatlinburg. It’s just 63 this morning in Nashville but we’ll get up to 86 for a high today.

 

YESTERDAY

Kind of a lazy day for a Wednesday. Did a little solo songwriting and I did get my schedule for this year’s Gatlinburg Songwriters Festival that runs tomorrow through Saturday at the Gatlinburg Inn which you’ll find on the main drag just before you enter Smoky Mountain National Park.

 

 

Friday I play at 6 pm with “Hits & Grins” with Steve Dean and Victoria Venier.

 

 

Saturday morning I teach a songwriter class with Jerry Salley and Victoria Venier.

 

Saturday at 3 pm I play a second show with American Idol star Janelle Arthur, Brian White, and his wife Karyn Williams a big Contemporary Christian artist.

 

This is a much smaller festival this year by design, so it will be fun to participate and see how it goes. All the events are at the Gatlinburg Inn.

 

 

LOUD LOUD MUSIC

The tourists in Nashville get plenty of that as they stroll up and down Lower Broadway and all the honkytonks. Things MAY get a little quieter on the street side as a judge now says that all the speakers in all the bars must be turned inwards and not pointed out the windows and doors in an attempt (I guess) to draw more people in to their particular bar.

 

This happened after police complained they could not hear communications nor (get this) gun shots in some cases. Wow.

 

Some musicians and some bars are complaining, but the judge is not likely to change his mind. 

 

 

HEALTH NOTES

Concerning. Cancer rates among younger people, especially young women is on the rise. Gastrointestinal, endocrine and breast cancers climbing at the fastest rates.

 

Elizabeth Francis lives in Texas and is 114 years old. Her keys to long life? She never eats out. Cooks at home. And she says to just “love everybody”.

 

Silver Sneakers, the YMCA Seniors program listed their top 5 exercises to lose belly fat. They are:

Spine twist, Standing Mountain Climber, Double Step Reach and Push, Side Lunge with Diagonal Reach and Rotational Squat plus Low Jack. (This may be my problem. I don’t know what ANY of those are. But…this machine doesn’t seem to be working for me for some reason.)

 

SPEAKING OF EXERCISE

There’s an App device…NeuroNation that exercises your brain for $40 a year. Focus, memory, and brain health are the targets of the app. Not a bad idea to keep the brain engaged, especially as we get older. But I’m saving myself 40 bucks by using this to keep my brain engaged for now.

 

ROBOTS

There’s pretty much a conference for EVERYTHING. Might be cool to attend this robot conference going on in Beijing China right now. Check out some of this robotic stuff.

BRITNEY

Britney Spears is getting a divorce. Her first statement about it is…”I’m buying a horse”. Of course finding a horse that will agree to a prenup like her soon to be ex signed may be a challenge but we’ll see.

 

DAD

Jimmy Fallon ask his Tonight Show viewers to send him some funny Dad stories. Here’s one.

 

Asked my dad if he knew who Taylor Swift was…he said I don’t care who HE is.

 

Yep…good ole Dad’s.  

 

VOTE FOR THIS

I’m not political…but I do endorse the creativity of this campaign. And I'm sure a lot of my Parrot Head friends will endorse this campaign as well.

 

TODAY
I’m writing with my talented and now esteemed bluegrass buddy Tim Stafford over in Knoxville today. Tim was just named the “Artist In Residence” at ETSU Eastern Tennessee State University where he attended the bluegrass program there. And he’ll be teaching. Pretty cool. And I think in the future I may be hooking up with some of Tim’s students online.

So I ‘m going to treat him with more respect this morning and bring an apple to our co-writing session.

 

 

TV TIME

And then I’m doing a Zoom interviews with a reporter for the PBS TV station early this afternoon to talk about “Mo Mo” the Missouri Monster…the Big Foot people swear they saw roaming the hills of Louisiana, Missouri some 50 years ago. They’re interviewing me to talk about the song I recorded “Mo Mo” all those years ago that came from a poem KPCR station owner Paul Salois and morning guy Joe Lewis wrote that I turned into a song and they want to know what I remember about all of that. Amazing. That should be fun.

 

 

Hopefully I’ll be able to find out how you can watch the interview and I’ll pass that along when I do find out.

 

 

And then it’s time to pack for the trip to Gatlinburg.

 

Have a great Thursday!