BILL BLOG
Friday January 16, 2026
It’s Friday! Bring on the weekend. Our temperature gauge in Nashville will go back up to 51 today after being down in the low 30’s yesterday. A brief respite, and the upcoming weekend will be back down in the really cold digits again.
YESTERDAY
I drove out to Wil Nance’s mini-farm west of town, and for the first time, we wrote in the brand-new house he built that sits high on a hill overlooking MILES out the massive front windows of what looks like a huge log cabin. Earthy, and surely beautiful.
Wil has a little writing cabin down the hill that we normally gather to rhyme, but the cabin has no running water, and nobody wanted to use the great outdoors to…well…you know. Especially since British Columbia native Andrea Pearson was joining us. Pretty sure Andrea was grateful for that shrewd decision.
It was the first time the three of us wrote, and we surely had fun. Andrea talked about her “Mama” some, and then we all did. Wil’s “Mama” lives in the downstairs part of the new house. And I certainly loved my Mama as well.
So we wrote a song we titled “Good Mama” that speaks to what a great difference a “Good Mama” can make in a kid's or young person’s life.
Here’s a couple of the lines in the song, written from Andrea’s perspective. Her Mama is still with her and helping Andrea raise a couple of cute little girls.
She made me think I was better than I was
She called me out when I was wrong, and to this day, she still does
I loved writing this idea with Wil and Andrea, and certainly enjoyed the conversation around a big wooden table about all of our Mamas.
SONG OF THE DAY
Andrea is getting ready to go into the studio and record some songs. One of those will be a song the two of us wrote lately. Can't wait to share that.
For now, this is a song I wrote with Andrea and our buddy Josh Shilling, “God Never Made A Mountain,” that was recorded by Kristy Cox.
HEALTH NOTES
Concerning. South Carolina flu deaths have nearly tripled from the same time last year.
The new movie “Marty Supreme,” starring Timothy Chalamet as a ping pong player, has garnered a lot of attention and already won a couple of awards. Some experts are saying that table tennis can be a great way to stay agile, balanced, and social as you age. So get your paddles out.
The FDA has expanded its chocolate recall to 8 products now over salmonella fears.
HERE’S YOUR SIGN
I’ve been pretty faithful about doing that.
HATED FOODS
YouGov did some research and found out the most HATED food in America is liver. Liver is followed by anchovies and sardines on the hate list.
Growing up in Missouri, I watched my Dad eat liver. I convinced myself that I should eat it as well. And so I did. Don’t know what I was thinking. I do remember my Mom asking, “Are you alright?”
THEM AND US
The LA Dodgers just added another superstar player to their roster. Kyle Tucker. He will make 60 MILLION per year to add to the Dodgers’ already ultra-expensive payroll. $305.8 million dollars per year is their payroll number right now.
Yeah, I’d throw my hands up and yell “Hallelujah” if I were Kyle Tucker, too!
Meanwhile, the payroll for my team, the small-market Cincinnati Reds, is just $114.4 million.
There’s a reason the Dodgers can go 3 in a row as World Series champions, and my Reds? Not so much. Sigh. Even if the Reds ask me to play for them again, we don’t have a chance.
ALL ABOARD
A new Harry Potter Hogwarts Train Express is about to be unveiled at Universal Studios later this year. There’s not a lot of details yet, but here’s a VIDEO TEASE of what to expect.
Hopefully, they’ll let me take my cup of Butter Beer on board with me.
BIG OF THEM
Verizon users were without any kind of connection for a long while. What do the customers get for that inconvenience? A $20 credit. Not everybody thinks that’s fair.
BEARS
Gatlinburg has a lot of bears these days. Some of them just roam into town sometimes and make themselves at home. One bear has broken into a Glade’s Homemade Candies now for the FOURTH time.
Sweet tooth, I guess. Or maybe the bear broke into one of the moonshine stores first?
QUOTE OF THE DAY
Anonymous:
“He who lasts laugh didn’t get the joke”.
SPEAKING OF LAUGHTER
And that does happen. One of the funniest “gag” jokes I ever saw was at a comedy show I worked in Ohio many years ago. I opened for my VERY funny buddy, Heywood Banks, that night.
Heywood had them rolling on the floor. All but ONE guy sitting at the front row table (of course) with his four buddies. But this ONE guy wasn’t smiling, not laughing one bit. And Heywood noticed.
Finally, after telling a joke in front of this guy, with no response, Heywood walked to the back of the stage and grabbed a catcher’s mitt he had brought with him. He tossed it to the guy, and Heywood said, “Let me know if you catch the next one.” Still makes me laugh when I think about that moment.
Heywood writes a LOT of funny songs that are part of his act. This is one of them, “The One I Love". Check it out, but make sure you “catch” the joke.
TODAY
David Morris, a former Washington political correspondent, is back in town, and we will write today. David is also a signed writer at Billy Blue Publishing, as I am, and writes terrific bluegrass songs. We’ll tackle one of those today.
Have a great weekend!
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