BILL BLOG
Monday March 25, 2024
Monday morning has rolled around. That eclipse thing has done come and gone and we have a high of 65 with sun here today in Music City.
THE WEEKEND
Mine started Friday morning writing with my Aussie friend Angus Gill for the first time since he moved here to the United States. We celebrated that a bit and caught up before we wrote a fun up-tempo bluegrass barn-burning kind of a song. Angus is a producer as well as a singer and multi-instrument young man and he’s going to do really well here in the states. The two of us have had several of our co-writes recorded by Australian country artists, and now we hope we’ll add some American artists in the future.
Billy Blue Publishing was full of songwriters Friday morning including Mike Richards, Rick Lang, and Kristy Cox.…all of whom I’ve written songs with.
Kristy Cox has a great new album coming out on May 31 complete with a “live” performance by Kristy and her band at the World Famous Station Inn on May 31. I’ll be there for that as Kristy has recorded three songs on this album that I helped write. She played me the “rough” recordings Friday morning privately and they were all terrific. But the one which was written about my second Mom and former band manager Dean Raymer that my friend and co-writer Jimmy Fortune sang harmony on brought me to tears. And I found out that the song could be the title track for the album. I think that song has the chance to move a lot of folks when they hear it and I can’t wait to share it in the near future.
MARCH MADNESS
After that it was a lazy weekend watching a lot of March Madness which is now down to the Sweet 16. All of the #1 seeded teams have survived so far. I have a couple of teams I can root for. Tennessee and Marquette. Got to root for the state team, and when I was in Wisconsin I attended several Marquette basketball games back when they were the Marquette Warriors before the PC era found them changing their names to the Golden Eagles.
I have one great Warrior story. Our family had just moved to Wisconsin to take the morning radio job there at WMIL Radio. The house we bought sat on a golf course. Over the backyard fence there was a green which meant I got a lot of free golf balls in the yard. Then the players would tee up on the next green with their backs to our house and tee off. Beautiful golf course…the Brookfield Country Club.
And it had some prestigious members. And I saw one standing on the green a few days after we moved in. I looked twice and sure enough there was the legendary now late Marquette coach Al McGuire who took one of his teams to a national championship. Not sure if any of those golf balls in my yard were his or not…but it was cool seeing Mr. McGuire in our backyard.
HEALTH NOTES
A huge study confirms that Viagra cuts Alzheimer’s risk by over 50%...they say.
An expert says if you’re allergic to stuff the one thing you should never plant is a fern. Apparently they make your allergies worse.
There’s a new blood test that is showing high accuracy for detecting colorectal cancer.
THOUGHT OF THE DAY
From the droll comedian Steven Wright….”Eagles may soar, but weasels don’t get sucked into engines.”
HOLD ON TO YOUR COMIC BOOKS
I never really got into comic books for some reason. Maybe I should have as a pristine issue of Action Comics #1, the first comic book to feature Superman is going up for auction. It’s expected to fetch 5.3 million dollars.
Yep. I should have collected comics instead of those beanie babies that fill up a giant plastic tub upstairs.
GOOD ADVICE
A well know guitar player in rock n’ roll circles advises parents to NOT buy their kid an expensive guitar to start with. If they learn to play they’ll appreciate the better guitar when it’s time to buy one. And if they give up on the guitar as many do…you’ve saved money.
I’d say split the difference. If your kid shows real interest there are plenty of great guitars for under 400 even 300…maybe less online that you can buy. Epiphones and Takamine’s are great guitars at a great value. If you get too cheap a guitar they’re harder to play.
I learned a few chords on a Sears Silvertone that my Mom bought from the old Sears & Roebuck catalog back in the day for no more than $20 bucks I’d suspect. Though she was musical…she played piano…she gave up on that guitar. I could see why. Those strings way off the neck of that thing hurt and would bloody your fingers as you learned to play. It made me appreciate that Gibson Hummingbird I bought later a WHOLE lot more.
THEM AND US
Jerry Seinfeld just cashed in on his syndication and streaming rights for the Seinfeld show to the tune of over 500 million dollars. That just made the funny guy a BILLIONAIRE. Wow. So the “show about nothing”…sure made him a lot of “something”.
SPEAKING OF FUNNY
This will make you smile and miss Robin Williams. They found an old blooper of him and Elmo when Robin was a guest on Sesame Street. Watch this.
WHAT’S PETE THINKING?
Yep…I wonder what Pete Rose is thinking?
For my money…Pete should be in the Hall of Fame. The Ohtani story of gambling is going to grow as he has a press conference today to give his side of the accusation charges against his interpreter.
HEADLINE OF THE DAY
Iowa Witch Burns Stranger’s Porch After No On Opens The Door. (time to go “Oz” and drop a house on her)
TODAY
I was to write with Jeff Dayton today who played guitar for Glen Campbell for years all over the world but he had to cancel. So I figured I’d have the day off. But then last night my Kentucky buddy Alex Miller of American Idol fame texted and wanted to know if I had the morning open to write as he’s in town. That worked out pretty nicely.
This brand new Alex Miller album will be out April 12 and has a song on it that I wrote with Alex and our friend Josh Shilling. Can’t wait to share that in a few weeks.
Have a great Monday!
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