BILL BLOG
Thursday July 31, 2025
And here it is…the last day of July already. Another hot summer day as we roll into August. A high of 95 in Nashville today.
YESTERDAY
I wrote with my long-time friend Jerry Salley, the head of Billy Blue Records and Billy Blue Publishing, the company I write songs for. I was the first songwriter Jerry signed to the publishing company…7 years ago already. Time do fly.
Because Jerry wears so many hats and has so many responsibilities, we don’t get to write together as much as we’d both like to. But now, the two of us are trying to make sure we write at least every couple of weeks together. And it gives us a chance to catch up and talk about the business side of the bluegrass industry. And we did just that, plus we got a new bluegrass song written to add to our catalogs.
Just to try and show you a bit of Jerry’s talent, last year he took an old gospel song that Dolly Parton had recorded years ago. Jerry was working on a project that turned into the gospel album “Country Faith,” which includes several different musical artists singing old hymns.
And Dolly gave him permission to use her recording and make it new again. It’s the old hymn,” In The Sweet Bye and Bye”, and it went on to win a Dove Award in the gospel category. Click the link and listen to it, and you’ll hear Jerry and our friends Larry Cordle and Carl Jackson singing the harmony parts on the chorus with Dolly, which makes this recording so special.
I certainly enjoyed the creative time with Jerry yesterday.
SONG OF THE DAY
This is a song Jerry and I wrote together with artist Kristy Cox, which Kristy recorded titled “Dirt Road”. I had this idea the day we wrote it about unplugging from the crazy world, and building a house down a dirt road to live a simpler life, and just turn the world off. Kristy sang the heck out it in the studio and now performs it regularly in her shows as she travels the world.
HEALTH NOTES
The watermelon diet has gone viral, and many are jumping on the trend for weight loss by fasting and eating nothing but watermelon for days. A doctor warns that it’s a good tool for weight loss, but it can backfire on your health by not providing the nutrients the body needs for the long haul. It’s mostly water and sugar.
Researchers are claiming that too much sleep is worse for your sleep than a lack of sleep. Their study reveals that those sleeping for fewer than seven hours were 14 per cent more likely to die from any cause than those getting the optimal seven to eight hours of sleep.
Who knew? A man’s hearts average 7 years older than chronological age, while women’s hearts are 4 years older.
HERE’S YOUR SIGN
Do we get to see a picture of the person we’re paying to sit on?
LOTS OF CAFFEINE
Coffee shops in the East and Midwest are jumping on the “bucket of coffee” trend. Yep. You can order up a bucket of coffee, or iced coffee, or whatever comes with coffee, and you can order a danged bucket of it!
Complete with a carrying handle. One coffee company claims they are already selling 1,000 buckets per week. Who’s buying them? I’d say look for really jittery people. Odds are….
NAKED GUN
The remake of the Naked Gun movie series which stars Liam Neeson and Pamela Anderson, is getting big-time rave reviews from a lot of critics. Some are calling it the funniest comedy movie in years. (Wonder if Liam’s character is carrying a whoopee cushion with him like Leslie Nielsen did in the original role?)
Liam Neeson and Pamela Anderson are now a couple in real life after shooting the movie together. Or is that just another Naked Gun movie joke they’re pulling on us?
It’s been a bit since we’ve had a movie in theaters that features one joke after another, like Blazing Saddles or several Mel Brooks movies. I’ll be laughing at this remake, I’m sure.
A MUSIC STORY
Somehow, I’d never heard this story before, until I read about it this morning in an article. Earl Bud Lee is a songwriter in Nashville (with whom I did a songwriter round with recently in Pensacola) who co-wrote the smash hit “Friends In Low Places” for Garth Brooks, along with fellow songwriter DeWayne Blackwell. Earl had a round of drinks and whatever else at a bar and could not pay his tab, which had piled up. So he showed that hit to a few publishers in town, and three of them gave Earl Bud Lee $400 each for the publishing rights to that song. And Earl paid his bar tab with hit.
A couple of years later, Garth recorded the song, and Earl figures he lost maybe 20 million dollars because of giving away his publishing rights. Wow. The good news is, he held onto his songwriter’s rights and still made a ton of money. But not as much as he would have.
So the lesson I learned from that is that I won’t pile up a bar tab that I can’t pay for, and I won’t give away my publishing rights to any drinking song I write.
LIBRARIES
CNBC Travel named the Most Beautiful Libraries in the world. #1 being the Library of Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, that you’ve seen in a few movies like “Harry Potter”.
They listed a library my wife and I visited in Admont, Austria, a couple of years ago when we were overseas to see our daughter and son-in-law. I don’t go into a lot of libraries…but this one is breathtakingly beautiful.
The library even has a hidden door amongst it shelves that the tour guide was happy to show us. Worth a stop if you’re ever near Salzburg, Austria.
HELLO DOLLY
Dollywood has just been named one of America’s best employers for women by Forbes. More awards for Dolly.
I still think someone has missed the comedy boat by not selling bumper stickers that read “Dollywood or Bust”. (There’s a “Naked Gun” type movie joke for you.)
GOOD TRAVEL NEWS
Allegiant Airlines will offer a non-stop flight in November from Nashville to Gulf Shores, Alabama, where I go a lot. Woo Hoo! Normally, it’s a 7-hour drive to my favorite beach spot. This will give me another option.
I’m going to be there twice before the end of the year.
I’ll be there October 22-26, emceeing and performing at this year’s “Meeting of the Minds”, the largest gathering of Parrot Heads and Trop Music every year.
Then I’ll be there again at the Frank Brown Songwriters Festival from November 7-11.
TODAY’S HEADLINE
Minnesota Man Allegedly Murders Neighbor He Suspected Of Being An Alien. (Sound like a scene that might be in the new "Naked Gun" movie.)
TODAY
I’ll be rhyming with my talented friend Lauren Mascitti again today. Lauren is just coming off hosting a Trop Rock party herself that I was part of recently here in town, where she held an EP release party for her new Tropical CD “Out of the Blue”. Maybe we’ll write another beach song today…we’ll see.
Have a great Thursday!
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