Bugs, Sweat And Tears

Happy Birthday, America ... One of the year's big days for downtown Nashville. One of the country's biggest fireworks shows and always a good concert that precedes them. This year Sheryl Crow will play for the thousands.

While Garth is playing Vegas and Willie has a picnic in Austin ... While Kenny is storming Heinz Field Pittsburgh ... Blake is at Summerfest and Keith is in New Hampshire ... the people of West Virginia will be trying to pull their lives together. Most of the counties in the state were victims of raging water. Small towns were washed away, 23 have died and not all the bodies have been discovered. The birthplace of Little Jimmy Dickens and Brad Paisley is in a mess. The bugs and the smells post-flood are known all too well by the people of Nashville. 2010 the great flood that killed musical treasures of Vince Gill, Brad Paisley ... and even the Opry was badly damaged. It took time, sweat and some tears to get over that disaster.

The Paisley family home in the far Western part of the state was not damaged but everyone in the state knows someone who was.

Hopefully the Country Music Association will step up with their charity arm and help out the schools who have lost all their musical instruments ... Maybe the Opry folks, too, and dedicate the gift to the memory of Little Jimmy. How nice would that be?

A GoFundMe account is up and running. Brad Paisley kicked it off with $100,000 and it is rolling toward its goal of $1 million. Flood recovery takes time and hard work. They have plenty of people to work; they just need help with the money. There are always needs and this need is great. Fellow Americans on the 4th of July becoming Mountaineers for a little while in spirit.

Now we are on the downhill part of the year ... Chris Young is finishing his Christmas album and the outdoor concert season is in full bloom. It will end in the California desert in October with that Geezer-Palooza show featuring McCartney, The Stones, The Who and others.

Labor Day Country music festival in Panama City will put the cork in the Summer. From British Columbia to Ohio and the Jersey Shore to George, Washington, the millions are hitting the bank and Country music is in the gold mining time of the year.

King Garth will take the mound at Yankee Stadium later this week for those big shows. He is planning for special things and these shows will be historic...

This month Chris Stapleton will open for Guns n Roses at Nashville's Nissan Stadium. That should be an interesting crowd.

Business news from Apple getting a lot of attention on Music Row ... Their possible takeover of Tidal is getting some buzz. The other Apple story even more. The infrared camera that could be disabled by another light emitting device making dream come true for many artists and movie studios. The bosses could equip concert halls and movie houses with equipment that could jam or disable the cameras and recording devices.

The fans are quite into recording things and making selfies ... Right now I would not want to be the first music act to disable the concertgoers' cellphone cameras. It may be a good thing but getting the horse back in the barn may not be without some controversy and ill will.

Apple not having an ear plug jack in its new phone may be very unpopular too. We Apple folks are loyal to the brand. They better do some consumer research before they jump but it may already be too late.

And who will be the first to swallow a big old bug while singing at the amphitheater concert? Now we have Zika to worry about with the gators, snakes, bears and mountain lions ... Fires in the West, Flooding in the East and a naked man terrorizing Times Square demanding to speak to Donald Trump ... Happy Birthday, America!