Bill's Blog

BILL BLOG Thursday, September 3, 2026   Good morning from Ruidoso, New Mexico. 89 for a high today in the mountains, but tonight’s low is a comfortable 65 with zero humidity. I see why a lot of folks choose to live here.   YESTERDAY I caught an early flight from Nashville to Austin, then on to El Paso, where Buddy Hyatt and I rented a car and drove to beautiful Ruidoso, New Mexico.        Buddy is a great piano player and will be the bandleader for the first half of our “Evening in the Round” show tonight at the Spencer Theater in nearby Alto. And I found out during our layover in Austin that Buddy loves Salt Lick BBQ , and after tasting it, so do I.  Buddy has had quite the musical career. He’s played on tons of hit records; he’s currently the band leader for the bluegrass duo Dailey & Vincent , which means that he’s playing my song “ Moonshines on the Still ” a LOT- the song that I wrote with Laura Leigh Jones .    ...

BILL BLOG Wednesday, September 2, 2026   Wednesday morning, and I have a flight to El Paso this morning. More on that at the end of the Blog today.   HOT in Nashville with a high of 98. But, in New Mexico, where I’m headed today, the high is just 79. Looking forward to that.   YESTERDAY I wrote with Caroline Owens , the great young bluegrass artist on Billy Blue Records. I’m fortunate to get to write with her quite a bit, and even more fortunate that the song “ Telluride ” that I wrote with Andrea Pearson went to #1 on the charts for her.   We only had a couple hours as I had an appointment to get to, but we managed to crank out a heartbreaking song that we both think is pretty good. Time will tell as always.   Andrea’s complete album is scheduled for release in late October, and that album will have “Telluride” on it…in hard copy. Can’t wait to get mine!     SONG OF THE DAY I’m going to choose the new Kristy Cox single ag...

BILL BLOG Tuesday, September 1, 2026   Tuesday morning, and we say goodbye to August. It’s the first day of September, with August-like temperatures. It will be a toasty 97 degrees in Nashville today.   And with that, most of us are looking for cooler temperatures and the turning of the leaves. Those in the know say upstate New York and New England will have the best Fall colors this year.   YESTERDAY I had no writing appointment yesterday, so I used the time to rehearse songs for the two upcoming shows this week out west with Linda Davis and Lang Scott . Thursday night in Alto, New Mexico, and then Friday night in Midland, Texas.   STILL ON THE CHART I took a snapshot of the Bluegrass Today Chart yesterday.     Sitting there in the #8 slot is the song “ Moonshines on the Still ” from Dailey & Vincent that Laura Leigh Jones and I wrote. I’m not even sure how many weeks the song has been on the chart, but a lot. It’s been numb...

BILL BLOG Monday August 31, 2026   It’s not only Monday morning, but it’s also the last day of August. How is that possible? And though Fall is around the corner and football games have started, it’s still H O T. We’re expecting a 95-degree high in Nashville today, 100 on Thursday, with the heat index around 105.   Thank goodness, I’m going to be in the mountains of Ruidoso, New Mexico on Thursday, where the high is only 80 and the low that evening will be just 58 degrees! More on that at the end of today’s Blog.       THE WEEKEND Last Friday morning I was at my publishing company rhyming with both Angus Gill and Victoria Venier. First time with this particular trio.   Angus, the Australian, brought a great bluegrass idea. While he was in Australia, he recorded an entire Bluegrass album that included “ Scrapbook ,” written about his late grandmother who passed a few years ago from Alzheimer's. He truly honored her, as that song that I...