FANCLUB

FROM BILL

Hi Gang:

And welcome to our first newsletter of the brand new year. Let’s hope this is the year when our world returns to some sense of normalcy and we can bid a final and not-so-fond farewell to the coronavirus. Or as comedian Jackie Mason used to say, “May this year be better than last year should have been.”

I had a great Christmas, and I hope you did as well. It didn’t feel a lot like Christmas this year with our Nashville temperatures in the seventies, but I managed to get into the holiday spirit just the same. I was helped by all the beautiful Christmas cards you sent my way along with the e-mails, tweets, and text messages. Thank you for every single one.

As usual, I spent Christmas Eve with my son, Jamey, and his family at their house. Covid kept us away from our usual in person Christmas Eve church service, but we streamed a service from Texas and focused on the Reason for the Season just the same. There were 13 of us sitting around the living room singing “Silent Night,” opening our gifts and enjoying our time together.

On Christmas Day, I gathered with my daughters, Jenni and Terri, at Jenni’s house and we did more of the same. That group is growing what with granddaughter, Rae, getting married in August and “significant others” beginning to move into the family circle as well. So far I’ll have to say my grandkids have all chosen well.

I had fun dusting off some of my Christmas songs at the Opry in December and hearing several of them pop up on the radio during the holidays. Many of you told me that you saw our “Waffle House Christmas” video again this year and that it continues to make you smile. Thank you…that’s why we made it.

I stayed home on New Years Eve and parked my body in front of the TV hoping to see my alma mater, the University of Georgia Bulldogs, advance to the finals of the college football playoffs. They didn’t disappoint me with a big win over Michigan. Now if we can just figure out a way to beat Alabama for the national championship on January 10th….something that’s a lot easier said than done.

As soon as the dust settles from the holidays, my team and I will be hard at work preparing some new audio and video materials for release in early 2022. I wish I could tell you everything that’s in the works, but some other folks want to be the ones to break the news. I will say this much: We’ve got some pretty cool things about to happen in the first quarter of this year. Just when I think things couldn’t get any better in my life and my career they do just that. I am so incredibly blessed.

Quite a few folks tell me they visited our As Far As I Can See exhibit at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum over the holidays, and everyone comments on what a great job the Hall did in putting it all together. I couldn’t agree more. If you plan to be in or around Nashville over the next 15-months, I sure hope you’ll stop by for a visit. I’m awfully proud of what they’ve done.

And speaking of The Hall of Fame, they will be sponsoring a songwriter’s showcase during the annual Tin Pan South festival this spring, and they have asked me to host it. Our night is tentatively planned for Friday April 1st at a location to be determined later. The lineup of songwriters who will be performing with me that night is not complete, but I do know that my friends and co-writers, Buddy Cannon and Bobby Tomberlin, will both be taking part. If you’re headed in our direction about that time of year, come spend that night with us. No telling what April Fool’s surprises we might spring on you!

A little sooner, on January 21st, I’ll be taping another guest appearance on Larry’s Country Diner. When I know the air dates I’ll let you know.

On the personal front, many of you continue to ask about my grandson, Gabe, and his ongoing battle with cancer. He joined in on our Christmas activities, but he tires easily and has to pace himself. He appreciates your prayers and your many cards and letters of encouragement. Thank you from him and all the family.

Here’s wishing you and yours a great 2022, and I hope you’ll continue to stay connected to us throughout the year. If you’ve got any country music lovin’ friends who don’t know about our free fan club and monthly newsletters, please pass the word along. The more the merrier!! And thanks for everything…..

LATEST NEWS

Bill Anderson: Live at the Hall Premiers Jan 18

Bill Anderson exhibit opens at the Country Music Hall of Fame

Iconic Bill | All Access

ASK BILL

ASK BILL!

1) For years I have heard songwriters, musicians, artists, and record producers make the statement, “The first time I heard that song I knew it was gonna be a big hit.” My question is what made you know? Was it the music, the singer, the lyrics, or something else?

Good question. First off, nobody “knows” that a song is or isn’t going to become a hit. Any anyone who tells you they “know” is lying. Only the public can decide whether or not a song is a hit. You can “feel” in your heart that a song has all the elements for success, but until that song is recorded and released and the listeners have a chance to “vote” on it, trust me, nobody knows. We’ve all guessed right and we’ve all guessed wrong…in both directions. Songs we felt sure were going to make it didn’t, and songs we didn’t think all that highly of in the beginning ended up making a lasting impression. Sometimes I think that uncertainty and that “game of chance” is a big part of what keeps us coming back and trying again.

2) I remember something I read one time about you and Jimmy Gateley co-writing “Bright Lights & Country Music” in the dressing room of the Horseshoe Tavern in Toronto, Canada, a place near and dear to every country fan visiting that city. Rather than try to find the back story on the internet, I thought I’d get it straight from the horse’s mouth. So could you please share it in your “Ask Bill” column?

So now I’m Mr. Ed?? Long story short, we were working the Horseshoe for a week in the mid-sixties, performing a show every night plus a matinee on Saturday. A fan who lived a couple of hundred miles away sent me a letter saying she would be at the Saturday evening show because, as she put it, “I like soft lights with my country music.” I showed the letter to Jimmy Gateley, we changed “soft lights” to “bright lights,” and wrote the song in the open doorway of the dressing room between shows…before several dozen fans who were waiting patiently for autographs. Only song I’ve ever written in front of an audience!

3) I’ve been to a lot of your shows and always enjoyed them, but I have always wondered what those box looking things are at the front of the stage. Are they footlights? Or do they amplify the instruments? Or block out feedback? Sorry, but I’ve never been around musicians and such and always wondered what they are.

I think you are probably referring to the monitor speakers. Back before my band and I began using in-ear monitors, we heard our own voices, the background voices, and the unamplified instruments through these speakers. We don’t use them much anymore.

Question Of The Month: How long was it between your drinking champagne out of a Dixie Cup to your crushing one for running out of wine?

Jo in Virginia sent this fun question, and it shows that she’s been listening closely to the lyrics of some of my songs. I guess the answer is that it was as long as the time between Mary Lou Turner and I recording “That’s What Made Me Love You” in 1975 and Sharon Vaughn and I writing “When A Man Can’t Get A Woman Off His Mind” in 1997. If my math is correct, that would have been a period of twenty-two years.

Quickies: What year did you do “Ride Off In The Sunset?” I recorded that song in 1978. My recording was used as the theme song for a TV series called Six Gun Heroes on PBS for several years. After 60-years of writing songs how do you avoid repeating something you’ve already done? Sometimes I don’t, and I catch myself “stealing from me.” It’s almost impossible to not repeat parts of a melody I’ve already written or a lyrical idea that I’ve visited before. I stay on guard and at least try to “borrow” from songs that weren’t hits! If someone wanted to record one of your songs what is the procedure they would go through? The record company would have to obtain a recording license from the publisher of the song. Did you ever find out Double S’s name? Yes, it was Sadie Sweathog. She played shortstop on a softball squad. And if you believe that, you are as silly and stupid as I am!

Sorry, I just had to throw that last one in there. Thanks for all your questions (including that one), and I hope you’ll keep them coming here in the New Year. Write me anytime at askbill@billanderson.com and tell me what’s on your mind. If your question is chosen as our Question Of The Month you’ll receive an item of your choice from our online store completely free of charge. Stay curious, and we’ll see you back here again in February.

LATEST PHOTOS

For Christmas, my granddaughters, Hallie and Sophie, stitched together two blankets representing two of my favorite sports teams, the Atlanta Braves and the Tennessee Titans. Thanks to their ingenuity and thoughtfulness, I can hunker down and watch the games in comfort this winter. The second picture here was taken inside the late Hank Snow’s famous Rainbow Ranch at a Christmas party hosted by my friend and fellow songwriter, Bobby Tomberlin. It was a fun gathering, and a great way to start off the holiday season. Below is a picture of me doing something I truly love…pickin’ and grinnin’ and singing my songs. This was taken at the Country Music Hall of Fame’s Ford Theater during the opening weekend of my exhibit there. It was a weekend I won’t soon forget.

LATEST JOURNAL

July 17th was quite a night as you’re about to see.

It started when backstage guard, Jim Schuermerhorn, greeted me and pointed me toward what seemed like hundreds of flowers sent to me from fans and friends all over the country. Thanks to fan club members Kris Larabee, Judy Hamilton, and Amy Hudson for making the backstage area look so pretty. I “stopped and smelled the roses” and headed to my dressing room. We had an onstage rehearsal for our musical part of the night’s show.

I had promised our club members in attendance that I’d spend some special time with them before the festivities got underway, and I did. Mark Wills hosted a Q&A session, and then they whisked me back to the Opry House for interviews and more interviews. Meantime, the Opry staff was setting up a montage of old photographs and delicious food for the guests who would be arriving backstage to dine and watch the show on a big screen TV. It was a memorable night on stage, capped off by several standing ovations and Vince Gill presenting me with a beautiful, engraved pocket watch.

It was fun seeing so many old friends and new ones at the reception when the show was over. In these pictures you can see me smiling and visiting with my singing partner of many years, Mary Lou Turner; my new friend, Dennis Quaid, as we compared our silver boots; newcomer Stephanie Quayle who sang “Once A Day” on the non-televised portion of the Opry; my son, Jamey, granddaughter Hallie and grandson Blake; David Anderson (no kin), who presented me with a very special and unique portrait that he had drawn; my former booking agent, Carrie Moore Reid, and her twin sister and my songwriting co-hort, Debbie Moore; my three children, Terri, Jenni, and Jamey; and my friends Wendie and Mike Grauer who flew in from Phoenix, Arizona. Mike is the pawn shop owner who found my old Grammer guitar in his shop a few years back. There were many others, but we simply don’t have the space to print all the pictures.

But what an incredible evening and what fantastic memories. Each of you was a part of it in some way…even if you only listened to me on the Opry once or twice over my sixty-years on the show. Thanks for all you have meant to me and all the Opry has meant to me for such a large portion of my life. There are no words to express my gratitude.

I’m already starting to plan for the next sixty!!