Monday morning back home in Nashville. And now we’re into the month of May already. Mother’s Day is just 6 days away. No pressure kids.

 

THE WEEKEND

Well, we just had so much fun with our “Hits & Grins” show in Kendallville, Indiana Thursday night, home of a Windmill Museum that we did drive by and grabbed a couple of pictures that are now up on “Hits & Grins” Facebook page. We got back to Nashville about 4 pm Friday, but I went straight to an urgent care to try and get some help for this nasty cold I’ve had for more than a week. The Doctor I saw told me that she had not had one COVID case in several days now but was seeing a lot of flu cases. If it ain’t one sickness, it’s another huh? I had neither of those which was great, but man this cold  knocked me on my you know what for sure.

 

Remember the old hit “I’ve Been Everywhere”?  I want to rewrite that into “I’ve Taken Everything”. Mucinex, Day Quil, Night Quil, Flonase, Z-Pak, Prednisone, Ricolah, Vitamin C, honey, green tea…” Yea, I’ve Taken Everything”. Look for the record soon wherever cold medicine is sold.  

 

BARN DOOR

Alex Miller’s first official CD "Miller Time"  is out on Billy Blue Records now worldwide. Grab you a copy if you like real traditional no doubt country music stuff. Alex lit up American Idol, even got Luke Bryan to sing the Haggard hit “Big City” with him during his audition. And I was blessed to have Alex release the song I wrote with my friends Paul Bogart and Dan Wilson, “Don’t Let the Barn Door Hit Ya” as his first single, along with this very fun video that also features “Miss Kentucky.” The whole album is great and I’m proud to be a small part of this one.

 

Alex is a what you see is exactly what he is kind of young man. And it’s impossible not to fall in love and root for him. Congrats Alex!

 

NAOMI

Like everyone else I was shocked to hear the news that Naomi Judd has passed. What a horrible thing mental illness. And it happened on the eve of the Judd’s Hall of Fame induction which just makes it sadder in my mind. Because of radio I had the pleasure of being around her and Wynonna a few times. Introduced them as a duo on stage, introduced Wynonna as a solo artist once on the stage of the Ryman Auditorium. I will tell you that when I think of Naomi, I think how FUN she was when I was around her or interviewed her for anything she may have been promoting at the time. And you would have look far and wide to find any girl country singer who was not influenced by their music. Their songs will be sung forever. We’re going to learn a lot more about mental illness, of which she talked about candidly more than once, and even in a book she wrote. And that’s not a bad thing. And we’ve all been reminded that life can be tragically short again. Don’t take a day for granted for tomorrow is not promised. RIP Naomi and thank you for your music and so many fun memories.

 

THE HOF

The Hall of Fame Medallion ceremony was held at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum yesterday. Naomi, Pete Drake, and Ray Charles were all inducted posthumously. I wish every inductee could be “alive” to accept those medallions. Wynonna and Ashley tearfully accepted the Judd’s medallion together and Wynonna vowed to keep singing.

 

Eddie Bayers the great drummer who’s played on too many hits to count was inducted too. I’ve used him on a project or two of mine through the years too. Unreal talent.

 

Ray Charles, you know about. Why in the COUNTRY Hall of Fame? His album “Modern Country Sounds” is still one of the most iconic country albums ever released with great songs like this one.

 

And Pete Drake? Pete was a steel guitar player on many many sessions, and he learned how to make his steel guitar talk. That’s right. And here’s the proof.

 

Congrats to all the new inductees.

 

VIRUS NOTES

They had a surge of COVID cases at the big outdoor Coachella Music Festival in southern California this weekend. I think a lot of us feel safer attending outdoor events like this. But with the new variant out there some experts are saying that even the vaccines aren’t effective is helping against BA-2 which is what most of the festival goers contracted.

 

Yet another new medical study suggests that having COVID could increase our chances of getting diabetes type one.

 

And in New York a plastic surgeon made a staffer with COVID and ask her to fake her test. The employee is suing.

 

PARENTING

One mother tweeted recently that parenting is, “begging for a night away from the kids, and then spending all that away time talking about your kids.”

 

TOP BEACHES

A Travel online magazine just listed their top 10 beaches in the world. Not one US beach made the list. Not one beach in Europe made the list either.

 

Their Top 5 picks were:

 

Eagle Beach in Aruba

 

Quarta Praia beach in Brazil

 

Turquoise Beach in Australia

 

Vanderos Beach just outside of Havana, Cuba

 

And their #1 pick was:

Grace Bay Beach in the Turks & Caicos

 

Everybody has their favorite beach, and not many lists agree with each other. Gulf Shores Beach in Alabama is my go-to beach place and in my opinion is nice because of the BIG beaches they have. In fact, the city logo is “Small Town, Big Beach”. Brent Burns and I wrote that into a beach song that he recorded.

 

After that, of beaches I’ve seen. Waikiki ain’t bad because you’re in Hawaii. Hello! Same for the sand we once sat on in Maui.

 

And St. Johns “Trunk Bay” where the snorkeling is unreal is gorgeous too and that beach landed at #6 of their favorites. What’s your favorite beach?

 

GREAT BAR NAME

In Portland they just opened a Sports Bar dedicated to women’s sports. So when you go to order your brew on tap, all the TV’s will be playing women’s sports only. What’s the name of the place? The Sports Bra.  Cool.

 

I can see a spinoff for the guys called Sports Jock. Should get a lot of “support” I would think, just like the women’s new sports bar.

 

CAUSE AND EFFECT

The price of gas went through the roof last year. Exxon Mobil reportedly doubled their profit to 5.48 BILLION from last year. Price of gas almost doubles, so do the profits. I have GOT to start digging for oil in my backyard!

 

HEADLINE OF THE DAY

Woman Rescued After Falling in Toilet Trying To Get Her Phone. (Wonder if she then made the 911 call herself)

 

TODAY

I am feeling a little better this morning finally as some of the meds are kicking in. Hallelujah! I did cancel my writing appointment though today to take one more day of resting as the week ahead gets busy with a couple more writing sessions tomorrow and Wednesday, and then a road trip to Texas on Thursday with Linda Davis & Lang Scott as our “Evening in the Round” show will play in Arlington Friday night, followed by a return to the Music City Theater in Linden, Texas on Saturday night. Starting to look forward to it now that I feel a little better.

 

Have a great Monday!