BILL BLOG
Monday September 2, 2024
Monday morning and we’ve rolled into the first week of September and the unofficial end to summer. And…it’s Labor Day! 85 for a high here in Nashville.
THE WEEKEND
Our “Hits & Grins” trio with me, Steve Dean & Victoria Venier had a wonderful Saturday evening playing in the “Grand Ole Barn” at Starstruck Farm in Lebanon, Tennessee. Jay Wilfong bought the old Reba McEntire property in 2019 and has converted it into a wonderful entertainment venue.
We had a great crowd in front of us…and all of them were well fed as these are dinner shows.
I always appreciate owners who insist that their music venue are true listening room as this one is.
We played over 90 minutes and just had the best time.
At one point Steve Dean had Victoria Venier sing his #1 song that Reba recorded “Walk On”. That was appropriate as we were singing at Reba’s old farm. Thank you Ginny Foley for capturing THIS VIDEO of that performance.
It had been a bit since the trio had played, and it looks like we could be playing this venue a lot more often in the future as they want us back on a regular basis. We’ll see what we can work out and let you know.
My thanks to Jay the owner, who also ran our sound and all the help that made this such a memorable evening for all of us. Can’t wait to come back.
FOOTBALL
Oh yea…watched a lot of college football on Saturday. I’ve lived long enough now in the south to have gotten hooked on SEC football, College Gameday, and the culture that is SEC football. And on Saturday a bunch of teams I root for won. Tennessee, Missouri, and of all things Vanderbilt pulled an upset over Virginia Tech. So my Saturdays are spoken for now.
MERSCHMAN
A couple of years ago my friend Becky Denton, myself, and her talented musical husband Will Denton wrote a jingle for the Merschman Seed Company in Iowa. The song is titled “Plant A Little Seed.” They loved it, and they now use if for all their commercials. Very cool. On Sunday Becky and Will were headed home to northern Missouri from the Carolinas where they had been a few days as Will had a show in Asheville with a Tom Petty Tribute band that he plays drums for. The two of them topped and gave me this bad boy.
I’ll be wearing that during some of my stage shows for sure. Thank you Becky and Will!
And
here’s a VIDEO of Becky singing that song that got me this new hat while wearing her own Merschman ballcap. This song will be part of a new EP that Becky will be recording soon.
CHART
And it was great to see “God Never Made A Mountain” from Kristy Cox land at #4 on this chart over the weekend that I wrote with my friends Josh Shilling and Andrea Pearson. Again, it’s pretty amazing to see this song landing on some charts because it’s not been released as a single. Those radio stations and online stations that are spinning it somehow found it on Kristy’s new album “Let It Burn” and have decided to play it. Thank you to all of those folks!
SONG OF THE DAY
Today
I’ve chosen a song titled “The Scrapbook” that my Australian friend Angus Gill
wrote with me and released as a single that did well and won some awards down
under. Angus Grandmother was everything to him. She kept every clipping and put
it in a scrapbook. Late in her life she struggled with Alzheimer’s and
dementia…and this song covers all of that territory. I’m glad he chose me to
write the song with him. If you hit the link above you can watch the video and see the actual scrapbook we wrote about.
HEALTH NOTES
A new study shows that people taking the obesity drug Wegovy were not protected from being infected with COVID. But in a large trial, their death rates were markedly lower for reasons unknown.
Health experts say there a 4 types of food to avoid if you have high blood pressure. Salty foods, alcohol, sugary & fatty foods, and coffee.
Updated COVID vaccines should be available next week according to those in the know.
SPELL CHECK
Uh…to the guy in charge of the sign…you had ONE job.
CARS
Consumer Reports just listed 12 cars consumers will regret buying. Jeep, Nissan, and Volkswagen all had multiple entries on the list. And the Ford F-150 Hybrid also made THIS LIST. Just so ya know.
GROCERIES
Hard not to notice how much grocery prices have increased. I keep hearing Ray Stevens
say, “Don’t look Ethel!” Good advice because of sticker shock for sure.
According to the Grocery Price Index folks the 5 states with the biggest grocery price increases are Alabama, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Hawaii, and the biggest increase is in Vermont where groceries jumped 3.1% over the year.
What’s the good news? “The great thing about inflation is if you spend the same on groceries, the bags are lighter and easier to carry home.”
WHO KNEW? TATTOO
That’s not hair…it’s a tattoo. And it’s an option for folks who have lost theirs. The cost ranges from $1,800 to $4000 depending upon how many tattoos one needs to make it look like you have hair up there.
Me…I’m waiting for someone to sponsor the top of my head. Thinking maybe the AFLAC duck would look good on my dome.
TODAY
I’ll be online writing with my buddy Tim Stafford over in Knoxville and we’ll
get to celebrate the fact that an up and coming young bluegrass band named
Pythagoras just recorded a song we wrote titled “Old Gray Stone”. I’ve blogged
about Tim’s many talents before from being a singer, an author, a teacher, a
member of the noted Bluegrass Band “Blue Highway” and more. And not the least
of his talents is the fact that he’s great guitar player. Here’s an EXAMPLE of
that.
Have a great Monday!
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