BILL BLOG
Monday September 18, 2023
Monday morning has rolled in along with a road trip to Indy today. 78 comfortable degrees for a high today.
Meanwhile hurricane Lee has mostly come and gone except for some flooding but out in the Atlantic another powerful one named Nigel is forming. That time of year.
THE WEEKEND
Well, it started with a writing session with my friend Thomm Jutz in his home studio that he built himself. Great place to write songs. Thomm is not only a great writer and guitar player, but he’s the fastest of all the folks I write songs with. And I’m pretty fast myself. SO…I brought a verse and a chorus and we quickly added two more verses and recorded that. Then Thomm says, “wanna write another”? He had a great title so we wrote that as well with a particular artist in mind to pitch it to. So we had a two for one day Friday morning.
In fact, we were done so early that it gave me time to take a little two mile walk around a nearby lake on a perfect blue sky sunny day. So yea, Friday did not suck.
FRIDAY NIGHT
I spent a couple of hours with Linda Davis and Lang Scott rehearsing our 15 minute showcase presentation that we will be performing later today and once again tomorrow in Indianapolis for a room full of buyers looking to book acts for their 2024 season. I think all three of us feel good about it…and now we hope the folks we’re going to play to will think the same.
SCOTT SOUTHWORTH REVIEW
I’ve got a couple of songs on the new Scott Southworth CD that was just released last week. Scott is getting some nice reviews on the CD and this review in Saving Country Music even points out one of the songs we wrote together “Everything I Never Knew”. Always nice to see someone praise one of your musical babies.
BECKY DENTON
My friend in Missouri and her husband-drummer-piano player Will Denton did a wonderful Facebook “Live” premier of her new 4 song EP on Friday evening playing each song off the EP and talking about it. Great fun. And I love how the two of them love the song on the CD that Becky and I wrote “Houdini”. They did a terrific job of producing this song. If you’ve not heard it yet…check it out at the link above.
HEALTH NOTES
One expert says that we can lower our blood pressure with meditation and by doing acts of kindness.
One cosmetic surgeon says wearing high heels daily can lead not only to bunions, hammer toes and ankle sprains, but they can also putt stress and pain on the back. (That would fit into a song I recorded “ThingsThat Don’t Suck About Being A Guy”.)
The FDA now tells us that Dayquil will not unstuff your nose because it’s key ingredient phenylephrine is basically a placebo and does nothing to cure that. On top of that it can make you light-headed, or queasy, or give you a headache and possibly a rapid heartbeat.
HANK
Yesterday would have been the 100th birthday for Hank Williams. Still considered by many to be the best country songwriter ever. One of the first songs I ever learned to play and sing was “Cheating Heart” by Hank.
I’m really proud to have written a “Hank” type song titled “Looking For Audrey” along with Bobby Tomberlin and Linda Davis. The song that Bobby recorded on one of his album is about his ghost showing up every night in the same bar asking, “Has anyone seen Audrey”? Audrey of course was his wife. They had a rocky relationship…finally divorced…but most felt like Hank always loved Audrey to his dying day.
Audrey Williams once owned a cabin in Gatlinburg that she stayed in often along with her son Hank Jr. It’s still there today and folks rent it out. Inside the cabin you’ll find Hank memorabilia. And on one of the wall is the lyric sheet in a frame of our song alongside a picture of Audrey that the family requested after they heard Bobby Tomberlin sing it once. I’ve been to the cabin…sang in the cabin…and saw our plaque hanging on the wall. Linda, Bobby, and my autograph are on it. Pretty special to say the least. So here’s to Hanks memory today…and to my friend Bobby Tomberlin for making that happen.
CELEBRATE!
It’s National Cheeseburger Day! A lot of burgers are offering up really cheap mouthwatering burgers today. Hard to think about Cheeseburger Day without thinking about Jimmy Buffett’s fun song “Cheeseburger In Paradise”. I heard him say in an interview once that he gave a little pub in some little pub on Cabbage Key Island (just off of Florida) permission to name their place after his song on the condition that he gets free burgers and drinks anytime he’s there. A handshake deal and the place still stands.
SPEAKING OF CELEBRATING
Oktoberfest officially kicked off in Germany. My daughter Heather and son in
law Casey I’m sure will be witnessing some of this first hand as they live in
Germany. And it will kick off here in the states in a couple of weeks with
folks sticking their thumbs under their armpits and doing the chicken dance.
All of that makes me think back to the Rhine River Cruise I was on with my friend Brent Burns where we visited several German cities and tried the beer.
And tried more of the beer.
Seems like a good time to share this polka song I helped write for Lynn Marie that she plays almost every night with her polka band “Celebrate”.
14 BOOMTOWNS
According to those folks who know about towns booming…there are 14 cities exploding…growing and about to become boomtowns. They are:
Huntsville, Alabama, Albany, New York, Detroit, San Antonio, Columbus, Ohio, Kansas City, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Atlanta (thought that one had already “boomed” long ago) Charleston, Duluth, Minnesota, Portland, Maine, and Tulsa.
OLDER ADVICE
I read an article this morning where some advice was given to younger folks. Advice that older folks wish they would have paid attention to. There were the normal nuggets of how short life is and to enjoy it. And that it’s okay to turn your phone off for some quiet time.
And there was a wide variety given. Like, “It’s okay to decide the dream you had at 15 is no longer you”. To the more pointed, “Take care of your knees and back”. Can I get an amen?
TODAY
I’m jumping on the road with Linda Davis and Lang Scott for a two day showcase in Indianapolis before a bunch of folks from the Midwest who are booking acts for their theaters next year. We’re hoping to pick up some of those dates to add to our calendar by doing two showcases for the buyers at this private event in Indy where I used to work for a couple of years at WFMS Indianapolis. So, I’m looking forward to being back in the Circle City!
Have a great Monday!
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