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Home Again...Hamburger Day...Dollywood

BILL BLOG

Wednesday May 28, 2025

 

Wednesday morning, and I’m back home in Nashville. Sunshine with a high of just 79 here in Nashville today.

 

YESTERDAY

A long drive home from Pensacola from our Freedom Sings USA songwriters retreat with our veterans. 2 traffic jams with detours, and one last traffic jam as I was 5 miles away. So, a normal 7 to 8 hour drive took 9 to get home this time.

But we made it safe and sound with a bag full of great memories from the Memorial Day weekend, honoring those who gave so much.

And what a pleasure it was getting to write with my friend and Viet Nam veteran Larry Hudson who had quite the story to tell that we turned into a song.  




NEXT UP

Our next Freedom Sings USA weekend will be in the small town of Heyworth, Illinois June 18 and 19. We were there last year, and it seemed like the entire town showed up on the night all the writers performed those songs we wrote with their veterans. We are certainly looking forward to returning to Heyworth.

 

My veteran in Heyworth last year was Navy Corpsman Marc Rogers. His song is titled Armadillo. Here’s one verse of his song:

 

Patched up some wounds from bar fights

Of soldiers on shore leave

Delivered a child on the ground

Who lived to be healthy

Was up on Hauduc Hill

After it was overrun

They call me Armadillo

And I was luckier than some

 

I’m looking forward to seeing Marc there again this year.



 

SONG OF THE DAY

Since I just got back from the beach, here’s a beach song I wrote with Jesse Ritter in Pensacola, Florida, titled “My Favorite Color”. We wrote this one day in Jesse’s grandmother’s quaint cottage in Pensacola. This was born from an idea that Jesse had and the song does indeed have a lot of “color” in it.



 

HEALTH NOTES

Hawaii is seeing a worrying rate of “whooping cough”. As of May 15, there have been 108 cases. There were 84 cases in all of 2024.

 

That highly infectious new COVID strain from China that led to a massive spike in hospitalizations has now spread to the US.

 

The heat is so extreme in parts of California right now that health officials have warned folks there to stay out of the sun for 3 days.

 

HERE’S YOUR SIGN



 

I’d never really thought about that before. Which bible verse is that?

 

BURGER TIME

A reminder…it’s National Hamburger Day. You can get a free or highly discounted burger if you know where to go…or look. Try Burger King, Dairy Queen, or Wendy’s.

 

Best burger I’ve ever had?  That would be a Krekel Burger. You’ll only find this burger place in Decatur, Illinois, where I lived for 3 years. 


 

 

I became friends with the owner, Bill Krekel, who drove around in a chicken car for fun. Quite the guy.



And quite the burger. It’s still there, being run by his family as he passed years ago. If you are ever in the Soybean capital of the world, Decatur, Illinois…by all means, go get you a Krekel burger.



HE’S PACKING

A Baltimore rabbi pulled a gun on two thugs trying to steal his car. Yep, everybody is packing these days. Even folks in religious robes.

 

And then there are these Brazilian nuns beatboxing! The Catholics are getting it on, and getting down y’all!



 

CHINA MMA

China will host the world’s first-ever mechanical mixed martial arts tournament. Yep. To robots throwing down.  



 I thought we already had that?



 

FAVORITE THEME PARK

The Theme Park Association tells us that America’s favorite theme park right now is Dollywood. Disneyland came in #2. You’d think it might be Disney World or Universal Studios, but they chose something simpler, and certainly much cheaper.

 

I got to play music at Dollywood a couple of different years, and it is a very cool park… family-oriented with a lot of great music scattered around the park. Go if you get the chance.



 

HEADLINE OF THE DAY

A Seagull Stole My Dentures. (Keep your mouth closed at the beach Gramps)

 

TODAY

I’m writing with two talented artists who are also great songwriters today. Kristen Leigh Bearfield, who had a #1 song recently with a song we wrote together titled “Country Faith,” which we wrote with Tim McGraw’s talented guitar player, Bob Minner.


 

 

And our mutual friend Lauren Mascitti will be joining us as well.



 

Have a great Wednesday!

 


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