Bill's Blog

BILL BLOG Friday September 12, 2025   Friday morning is here with a weekend coming up. Up to 89 degrees here in Nashville today, mid-90s this weekend.   YESTERDAY Something a little different writing-wise yesterday. My writing appointment was with Brady Seals and Lauren Mascitti . Both of them can sing almost anything, and often do. Brady, who made his name with groups like Little Texas and Hot Apple Pie, has also released several solo albums. He’s on the road these days singing the songs of the late Tom Petty in a Petty Tribute Band , and also is half of the duo Seals & Crofts 2 with Lua Crofts , Daughter of Dash Crofts .  I was blessed to have Seals & Crofts 2 record " Runnin' To The Sun " that I wrote with Brady.      And Brady is related to Jim Seals , Dan Seals , and the Hall of Fame writer Troy Seals . So…he really can do anything musically. So, Brady says he’s playing around with recording a blues album, s...

BILL BLOG Thursday September 11, 2025    And a good Thursday morning to you. It's warm today in Music City…and then it’s getting warmer. Today's high is 88, but we’ll be back in the 90s for the rest of the week.   Let us not forget that today is 9/11. A day when time froze still for most of us. A day when most of us remember where we were, and what we were doing when the planes hit the towers. I was on air for a very long day, covering the event on WSM-FM Radio from about 5 AM to 8 pm that night.      Trying to make some kind of sense of it all. Talking with listeners, many of whom were crying, playing patriotic music, and doing my best to keep up with the story. May we never forget.      YESTERDAY I started on a new “timely” song, about stuff going on in the news these days, with my producer-label head-songwriter friend Jerry Salley . An idea I mentioned to him a week ago, and he asked that I hold that idea for h...

BILL BLOG Wednesday September 10, 2025 Another Hump Day coming at us…it’s Wednesday. We’ll reach an 86-degree high today, followed by several days up in the 90s. So Fall is not quite here yet.   YESTERDAY I was with my New Hampshire friend, Rick Lang , yesterday, who is in town recording and writing songs all week. He told me how great our song sounded, that they laid the tracks down on Monday with Jerry Salley producing.   Some stellar musicians were used, and bluegrass great Greg Blake has been chosen to sing our song that will be on an album full of Rick Lang-written or co-written songs, just like Rick’s Blue Collar Gospel album that holds the title track I wrote with Rick and Jerry that’s up for this year’s Bluegrass Gospel Song of the Year .   This new album will be full of commercial bluegrass songs, as opposed to Rick’s first two albums, which were bluegrass-gospel albums.    So I got to hear all about that recording session, and ...

BILL BLOG Tuesday September 9, 2025   Tuesday morning it is. Sunny with a high of 83 on tap for Nashville today…comfortable.   YESTERDAY I wound up sitting in on a writing appointment at the last second with my friend Wil Nance and Angus Gill out at Wil’s little writing cabin. It’s been a while since I sat with co-writers and came up with nothing. It does happen, and that happened yesterday. It was great company to be in, but nobody seemed to have an idea worth writing…so we didn’t.   So if y’all have a good idea for a song, you should have sent it to us yesterday!   IN STUDIO However, while I was sitting in that writing session that wasn’t going anywhere, I got a text from producer Jerry Salley telling me that he was recording a song of mine for the new Rick Lang project.   That’s a song Rick and I wrote sometime last year, and it’s great to see it being added to this great new album that he and Jerry are working on....

BILL BLOG Monday September 8, 2025    Monday morning, and I’m back home in Nashville. A little cooler in Nashville today, with a high of just 79 before it gets hot again by mid-week.   Meanwhile, all eyes are on Hurricane Kiko, which could hit Hawaii today. “Massive Waves” is not a great forecast.   THE WEEKEND Friday morning in Marion, Illinois, I was up early and had breakfast with some of my extended family. Stacy Raymer and her granddaughter, Sid , used me to set up and surprise Stacy’s Dad, Dodge Raymer . They were staying in the same hotel as I was, as they were in town to see the Crystal Gayle show just down the road, and I was there for Freedom Sings USA. Dodge did not know he would be seeing me at breakfast. Quite the surprise. It was surely great getting to see them for a bit.   VETERANS Then at 10 AM, I sat down with 71-year-old Vietnam veteran Calvin Scott, who was part of an artillery unit in Vietnam. ...