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Irish Pub Writing...French Family Band...Weird Sculptures

BILL BLOG

Wednesday October 30, 2024

 

The last Hump Day of October is here. It’s Halloween Eve. And it will be 82 with sunshine today in Music City.

 

YESTERDAY

I wrote with Sean "Turk" McNamrara the owner of McNamara’s Irish Pub & Restaurant in Nashville yesterday and I invited Alex Miller to join us. That turned out to be a VERY fun pairing.



 

Sean is a talented songwriter-musician as well as the owner of the greatest Irish restaurant in Music City. The food AND the Guinness are hard to beat.



 

Alex got lost trying to find the place yesterday and arrived 15 minutes late and was upset with himself for joining our little party a tad late. However, he more than made up for that with the song idea he had titled “I’m Lost”. And we turned that into a terrific gospel-bluegrass tune. We recorded over the equipment that Sean has set up in his upstairs room called “Turks” (his nickname) where he hosts songwriter nights once a month and then he treated Alex and me to dinner. His wife came by who’s from northern Ireland up where we married my daughter Heather and her husband Casey a few years ago. So that conversation was a wonderful bonus to the day.



 

Just a really fun day with Sean and Alex yesterday.



 

LAST NIGHT

I got out and heard some great music from the French Family Band last night at an absolutely PACKED Station Inn in downtown Nashville. The French Family Band is from Australia originally and recently I started writing with the Father of the group Stuie who is a GREAT guitarist as is his son Sonny. And his wife Camille is just a terrific singer. I had not heard them “live” before and now I know what all the fuss is about them. They’re terrific.



 

My friend Alex Miller showed up late and they got him up to sing a couple of tunes, and the great LeRoy Parnell also joined the family band with his guitar and that was cool. He even sang one of his great hits “The Rock”.



 

I just enjoyed every bit of them last night and love the twin-guitar work between the Father Stuie and his talented son Sonny.

 

SONG OF THE DAY

Today I’m choosing a Troy Engle song that we wrote together that’s titled “Never TooLost” that was a #1 song for Troy on the bluegrass-gospel charts off his highly acclaimed his “Back Home” album that’s doing so well. We wrote the title track as well.


 

 In fact, the publication Bluegrass Today just wrote this great ARTICLE about Troy’s album. Congrats Troy.

 

THE JEANS SONG

I got home with this new CD from my buddy Donny Brewer that includes a funny song we wrote “The Jeans Song” that features Texan and Trop Rocker Stoney Gable. As you can see the album is titled “Winnebago Tapes 2” as Donny recorded a lot of the songs on this album in his Winnebago that he and his wife Michelle travel the country in playing Trop Rock shows. Amazing sound…and Donny plays almost every instrument on this album. He’s a writer on every song, and he of course sings them…many with guest artists. Good stuff…and happy to be part of it.



 

HEALTH NOTES

The health degree that makes the most money?  Medical doctorate. It takes 4 years to get the degree but the median annual income is $227,180 per year.

 

Experts say that apple cider is good for you but you should not overconsume it.

 

A woman lived to be 97 and she loved both beer and ice cream. Suddenly I feel better about myself.

 

 

BARE BONE HALLOWEEN MECHANICS



 

Wonder if they can rotate the tires while they’re at it?

 

AMAZON NEWS

Now Amazon Prime is getting ready to launch “live” news. Brian Williams will provide “live” election night coverage and soon you can go to Prime for daily or nightly “live” news.

 

Me? I’m waiting for TikTok to have “live” news because the newscast will be really short.

 

WEIRD SCULPTURE
In New Zealand they are taking this down.



 

I’m guessing that sculpture may have been inspired by the phrase “talk to the hand?”  Not sure.

 

Of course New Zealand does own the market for weird sculptures.



 

And then there’s this one.



 

But…we can’t make too much fun of any other city having weird sculptures because we have this one here in Nashville located at the entrance to Music Row.



 

They call the danged thing “Musica”…but for the life of me I don’t see anyone playing a guitar, fiddle or banjo.

 

NATIONAL CANDY CORN DAY

That would be today. Do they let the kids out of school? Someone went to a lot of trouble to show how we eat our candy corn.



 

I eat the little white part off first…how about you?

 

HEADLINE OF THE DAY

I Can’t Take It Anymore. Woman Who Married Herself Considers Divorce After 24 Hours.” (Hopefully she had an ironclad prenup.)

 

TODAY
I’m writing with young Trop Rocker Kirstie Kraus who’s song “Tide Down” was named the Trop Rock Song of the Year at the awards show I was a presenter at just last weekend. It’s a duet she recorded with another Trop Rocker named Mark Mulch. Looking forward to seeing what we can come up with today.



 

Have a great Wednesday!

 


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