Better Each Day Podcast Radio Show with Bruce Hilliard

Thank you for being here with me, Bruce Hilliard. I’m here all week, tip your waitresses and for all your painting needs? Welcome to my day gig. Please select a color from your favorite food groups. Raspberry red, avocado or Huskie purple , and how shiny you like your sheen. We have Charlie Sheen, Martin Sheen and even washingma sheen.

It's a DYI project for you alone, “do-yourself-it”, FYI.

Today’s guest just turned 18 on Monday May 9th 2022. She is Hungary born and Scotland raised beautiful young Hannyta. Her original debut song Wildflower reached #5 on the iTunes Pop Songs chart in South Africa. The video is Hannyta haunting. Here’s what Hannyta sounded like at 17

Thank you for being here with me, Bruce Hilliard, with guest Phil Tittle.

Phil Tittle is a singer-songwriter based out of Pensacola, Florida. His music has traces of blues, country, rock, and singer-songwriter influences that fit nicely into the Americana genre.

​Phil's first studio album, “All Over the Map” was released in 2019 under his band's name "Colt Weston" and he released "The Roadhouse Hymnals" the following year. Phil now regularly plays solo throughout the SE region under his given name. He released his first LP using his given name, appropriately titled, "The Truth in Me" in April 2021.

Thank you for being here with me, Bruce Hilliard, with a warm spring day and actually you don’t need to point out that you’re not “being here” with me. But in spirit with ears to listen and enjoy a few original songs. Many of the Better Each Day shows are musician interviews with the famous or the hopefuls.

I love em all but here’s some of the music listeners have been asking for and I’m happy to deliver in under a half hour or you get a free pizza or something of equal value. A true Kodak moment. A true selfie occasion with videos and images to attach and text. The Kodak moment of 2022.

And there’s nothing more valuable than a good relationship with another person. I was invited to a birthday party last Friday and it was a room of people I know and admire.

Sweetest Thing I’ve Ever Known: Have you ever had a time when you looked at a couple, or a situation or even a relationship of someone elses and said “That’s so cool, people getting together?” The people are cool but the relationship is beyond words. This song is about relationships. Two sisters. Relationships may be the sweetest most precious thing in the world. The ragamuffin troubadour in this lyric wants one but all he has in exchange is one song for the sweetest thing I’ve ever known.

My friend and incredible singer/songwriter (I taught him everything he knows) Dean Backholm and I will entertain you for about a half hour starting with Dean-O and his song Montreal.

Thank you for being here with me, Bruce Hilliard, and my guest, guitar man Greg Martin of the Kentucky Headhunters. As I'm looking out my studio window (the studio that’s my kitchen and bedroom too) I see a coyote. I live on the Harbour Pointe Golf Club’s ninth hole where sometimes I see people stopping off in the bushes to drain their veins but other than squirrels and Easter bunnies ya don’t get all that much wildlife.

For wildlife I turn to my day gig at the Home Depot paint department, where doers get more done. I heard a standup comic say: If you haven’t worked retail you haven’t really had a taste of it's a small world afterall.

One day at the paint department there was a guy that leaned over the counter and asked me what kind of paint would I recommend for a time machine. He specifically asked for fast drying paint to which I responded “Why not paint it in the past?” He agreed and asked what color I’d recommend. I suggested going into the future and checking out the trends. He agreed again and asked if I had any questions for him.

I told him I was a songwriter and was looking for ideas for lyrics. He said “look around and you’ll find them everywhere.” That night while cleaning up the department for the morning shift I noticed he left some color swatches on the counter.

Medallion, ginger, alabaster, pearl and ivory white, Xanadu and limousine leather and melody…all color names from the color name gods that gave me the idea for this song, Kaleidoscope Heart.

Our guest today is guitar wizard Greg Martin with some music from his band Kentucky Headhunters.

Thank you for being here with me, Bruce Hilliard, friend of those who want no friends and part-time dressmaker’s dummy. I’d like to thank DJ Richard Dee from Aberdeen radio for that tag and a shoutout to KOSW Ocean Shores for playing my show every Saturday morning.

We’re doing a couple of my darker songs, Pawn Shop Boulevard and Endless Rain followed by a country cover and a surprise. Don’t freak out, it’s not a new car. And I’m not depressed about my string of pitiful failures and I’m not going into a shame spiral . But for this set:

Pawn Shop Boulevard: It's about a broken man that's lost his wife and is desperate for someone to talk to as a friend. He has no money, no friends and no hope. He pawns his departed wife's wedding ring and spends his last penny on a lady of the night if only to "whisper in his ear, it's gonna be alright."

Endless Rain I grew up in a timber town called Aberdeen Washington…or Warshington as some people call it. It's located at the foot of an admitted rain forest, a very wet forest that’s no longer in denial, and my little town gets about 80 plus inches of rain per year. In fact, much of Aberdeen’s existence is the result of rain. It’s forte: Fishing, logging, suicide, homelessness and rock bands.

Aberdonians make lame remarks about the weather but seldom do anything about having it replaced. When I meet people and tell them I’m from Aberdeen one of the most common responses, after the responder gets done apologizing for my struggle living in such a God forsaken impoverished ghetto, is “did you know Kurt Cobain?”

No, I knew his immediate and extended family, friends and teachers. The second half of the 70s, in the pre-ghetto era of Aberdeen, I was a big man on campus (BMOC) in the region in the form of a long haired lead guitar player. My band’s rehearsal house was about two blocks from Kurt’s childhood home. The neighborhood kids would hang out in front of the place to listen and see what was going on with these counter culture dudes.

Fast forward about three years. I’d made the decision to get out of the band business and become a TV meteorologist. That’s when I met a newly divorced Wendy Cobain, mother blue-eyed blond hair Kurt and daughter Kim. (This could go into Come As You Are.) She apparently thought the world of rock was always giddy and fun. And for me at the time it was but I saw a need to get a real job so I went back to WSU to study communications. That was the third to last time I left Aberdeen for the final time.

I heard Kurt got guitar lessons but in true rock fashion taught himself. He taught himself many things…some good, some bad. Sometimes experience is the best teacher.

I was sad when I heard Wendy quoted as saying Kurt was now a part of the 27 Club with Hendrix, Joplin, Morrison…he was 27 and gone. There is a long and distinguished list of musician icons that made it to age 27 and stopped dead. OD’d, crashes, poisonings…whatever ya got.

This song Endless Rain was written and recorded prior to Kurt's death in 1994. About a year prior. It was not so prophetic as intuitive. His death was tragic but not accidental. Stop me when you see a red flag. There were drugs, money, a baby, work obligations, and I say that I don’t have a gun. Being from Aberdeen I predicted the more popular hanging.

So here’s to “fighters fight and writers write and mothers sigh and sanctify a lullaby to a sleepy eye of a hurricane.” I wrote this as a stream of consciousness montage. In other words, my pen wrote it. I know plenty of people that were far more Kurt/Nirvana than me but this is my song. No approval required to venture into the abyss.

One of my workout buddies...

I’m Bruce Hilliard, born in Seattle and raised by wolves and gorillas in a small timber town called Aberdeen Washington. Not Aberdeen Scotland, Maryland, South Dakota or any of the others. The Aberdeen that’s best known for logging, fishing and mills. It has a huge correctional facility, more than their share of the homeless population and dead end thinking…and musicians.

There was and always will be music in River City. I’m hopelessly hopeful.

I became interested in the singer/songwriter entertainment industry before kindergarten. It was the musical fun in black and white on the Mickey Mouse Club TV show. You know, with Annette, Cubby and Darlene. Not the Britney Spears/Justin Timberlake era. Back in the 60s the number one goal for most of my friends was to either go to Disneyland or tell me about it…what an awesome time they had while they were there.

The Hilliards were never going to go to the happiest place on earth so when I was 10 I broke into my life savings and reallocated my Disneyland funds toward the purchase of an electric guitar. I learned Secret Agent Man, Gloria, blues, Led Zeppelin and how to make up my own songs.

I’ve written over 100 songs and would really like to share a few of them with you tonight.

Kerri is about a small town girl meeting a small town boy, on bicycles, on a sunny summer day and Kerri announcing to the world “someday I’ll marry that boy.” If it sounds like it could be a true story, it is. Well 50 years and 6 children later…Kerri and Bill are still a small town girl and a small town boy.

Sweetest Thing I’ve Ever Known Have you ever had a time when you looked at someone, or a situation or even a relationship of someone elses and said “That’s so cool and can I please have some?” This is about relationships. Relationships may be the sweetest most precious thing in the world. The troubadour in this lyric wants one but all he has in exchange is one song for the sweetest thing I’ve ever known.

Kaleidoscope Heart is my wonderful world of color song. I wrote it as a thank you for my photography and wardrobe. Most of the promotional photos you see are from the very photo session this song is about. I used color names from Home Depot paint for this “xanadu, limousine leather and melody” list of paint color names.

Roses and Strawberry Rain was inspired by a friend, now grown and a mother of two, that played with Little Ponies…the toy Little Ponies. I took the reign and made up a story about a little girl playing pretend with her hero and champion race horse, Strawberry Rain. Strawberry Rain wins the roses at the Kentucky Derby (or wherever little girls bet on horses).

California For the young and hopeful, LA is the promised land. Once there was this young beautiful girl that let it be known that she was moving to California, broke everything off with her boyfriend who is pretending not to care…or does he?

I’m Going Home was a song I wrote while remembering the days when I had a couple bucks in my pocket and a half a tank of gas, a hot sunny day on an ocean road and a crappy radio that sounded like a million bucks when it played the good songs.

Hey hey hello from Better Each Day Land in my newly adopted hometown Mukilteo WA.

The highly anticipated debut album from Riot Act, Closer To The Flame, is sure to please fans of the late 70s and early 80s era of Riot as well as fans of classic hard rock everywhere.

There are bonus recordings featuring the final ever recordings of their original guitarist Lou Kouvaris, who tragically passed away of Covid 19 in early 2020. The deluxe double album set will be released April 1 on Global Rock Records.

Riot Act features former Riot guitarist Rick Ventura, talented lead vocalist Don Chaffin, Paul Ranieri on bass and Claudio Galinski on drums. Our guest Rick Ventura was a member of the classic lineup of Riot Act from 1979-1984. Some bands are formed by record labels, some are the result of advertisements and a dare, and some just happen.

Hello from Mukilteo and hey it’s great to be back home where it’s warm. My buddy Paul from Aberdeen asked me to take a road trip to Helena Montana and I just returned to the warmest place I’ve ever known. My apartment on a St. Patrick’s green golf course.

Bruce “The Snow Blower” Hilliard here and not since my winters at WSU have I witnessed cold like Montana cold…four below…bitter fricken fracken cold and in March! I packed lightly and don’t actually own skiing or North Pole exploration gear.

Instead I resorted to layers. Lots of layers. I borrowed shoes about five sizes larger than mine from Paul’s brother-in-law and local artist Scott. I also wore Scott’s down coat, again, way large…cuz I'm a little guy. I looked like Ralphie’s little brother in the Christmas Story movie.

There are still plenty of Trump signs and I think even Donald would complain that it was too cold to vote. The warmth of the people more than made up for it. The topic of Russia attacking Ukraine came up a few times.

I co-wrote a song called Snow Angel with a beautiful friend Victoria who currently lives in Germany. She is originally from Russia and is super sweet. She also sings, plays flute and piano on this. If you’re listening Victoria Lye, here’s to your health, here's to snow angels everywhere. Imagine being alone in a log cabin in the mountains of Montana on this one.

I was invited to a community potluck gathering at the local Helena fire department. There were about 30 plus refrigerator resilient residents there. We had probably 30 yumfull dishes too. But, I came with no dish, just a song. It was worthy of this song, Sweetest Thing I’ve Ever Known.

I played mostly covers. It was a great audience. The kids danced like children of the night and clearly copied some of my spider monkey dance moves. A very Montana looking rancher introduced himself as Bruce Anfinson. He owns and operates a ranch slash restaurant slash horse drawn sleigh and wagon rides slash music venue. Bruce, like most good Bruces, is a musician, singer/songwriter and sings the songs of the land.

I hope to have him on the show soon.

Hello my little belly buttons and welcome to the Better Each Day podcast with me, Bruce Hilliard, the best looking face you’ll ever hear. This is the podcast where musicians talk about their music and backstories. But due to the influx of comments and suggestions for more tales with tunes and not so many interviews with top notch celebrity rock stars, here’s a story about the 60s and 70s dance scene in small town America, Aberdeen and Hoquiam Washington.

But this could be anywhere there are boys, girls and rock’n’roll. It started with lame school dances, followed by the necktie ones where the girl asks the boy and without warning she does something weird with her hair and you’re forced to have your picture taken with them.

There I was, in the prime of my teenage hormonal train wreck, checking out the girls' bums…I was known in medical circles as the gluteus to their maximus. Now, this coming from a dude that was too shy to ask anyone to dance. I used to go to these events solely to see the band.

We all were heading into those formative teenage years and joining the rest of the teenage “cloud”...teenage cloud, the place where knowledge and pertinent information is stored, in the teenage brain. The brain, according to modern science, through magnetic resonance imaging, has determined that it won't be fully functional until the little zit factories are 25. So, it turns out that most people get married before their brains are fully developed…makes sense.

According to what I’ve read, after the dramatic growth spurts of your childhood and teenage years, by the age of 25 your brain has hit peak performance.

So there you are, surrounded by hundreds of young girls with 86 billion neurons telling you “let us dance like children of the night.” The brain uses over 20% of a human’s caloric intake per day. That part we had covered with the calories of about a half triple cheeseburger. Not a challenge for a teen.

For some reason, at that age it’s not only okay among peers to be socially awkward but drunk and or stoned was not uncommon at parties or dances. In fact worthy of weird respect.

One of my formal tolo “girls ask boy” dates was Bumajean Scleavage, she put the “ugh” in ugly. She was so ugly she had, and this was something we said in high school, marks on her body from people touching her with ten foot poles. She was so ugly her mother had to breastfeed her through straw.

Bumajean and I dropped a party before the dance, well a quick get together at one of her buddy’s up in Bel Air aka snob hill. We weren’t there for more than 20 minutes when we headed across town in my mom’s yellow submarine mobile to the dance.

In true fashion, we never danced but not because of me. She spewed in my mom’s car. On the floor, down the door inside and down the window, and of course all over her.

It appeared to be a vintage Boones Farm or Annie Green Springs fortified wine. Her formal doo was smashed up, her masquara was bordering racoon. Once I got used to the smell I asked her “Well, Buma. Should we get our picture taken now?

I found this paragraph on a website called Pacific Northwest Bands. It says:

I was about 16. I had just played at the Harborena with my high school band. I was driving my girlfriend's Mustang and I backed into the brown Ford LTD Hoquiam Police car parked in front.

Being young and dumb and I think somewhat high, I drove away at a brisk rate, thinking no one had witnessed it. I was arrested in Aberdeen about 15 minutes later (Duh!) and spent one of many nights in a juvenile hall.

My dad was thrilled, as was my girlfriend’s dad. I had to work off the community damages to the dented door…$225. I acquired a new nickname that I can’t...

Hello and welcome to the Better Each Day podcast with me, Bruce Andrew Hilliard. Andrew came from my grandpa Andy Hilliard. He could chew Copenhagen all day without spitting, put horseradish on everything and drank Listerine.

Last week I was invited to a 90th birthday party for a man that was a second dad to me. He was actually my best buddy’s dad, the guy I ran with from first grade into high school and beyond. And when things weren’t good for me at home, I was over at their house bugging them, a family of Mom, Dad and four sons…like they needed a fifth sugar infused spider monkey running around their house. They introduced me to going to sporting events and family activities and many many sleepovers.

Not that there was a warzone at the Hilliard’s place but there was a whole different vibe with my lifelong friends on Hoo Humper Hill. The names have been changed to protect the innocent so for now, we’re talking Hoo Humper family as per advice from the Better Each Day legal department.

There was almost a guarantee there would be fun and learning about the things I wouldn’t have without my second family. There was even a Hoo Humper song that Mom Scooter would sing if your ears were shiny.

I never asked where the song came from but I know it's the same place that manufactures fun.

So, here’s to Bob, his wife Scooter and remaining sons Jim, Steve and Dale. My buddy, Eddie Hoo Humper, who introduced me to this family in 1962 passed away two years ago last August. That served to make things even tighter with the Hoo Humper family.

There are other relatives and friends that fit into this equation but this is the main lineup. They still stand tall in the community and still welcome my sorry ass over for some lovin’.

These are the things that inspire songs about coming home. I wrote and recorded this one Sweetest Thing I’ve Ever Known just last week.

The Hoo Humpers, for some reason, took me, the neighbor kid in. It was Man From Uncle, blacklight posters and football in the mud. Jimi Hendrix, the Doors and "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da", which is Nigerian for "life goes on".

I was born in Seattle but Aberdeen will always be my hometown. When I tell people where I’m from, Aberdeen, they hang their heads in sorrow and ask who to make the check out to. To an outsider, it looks like a drive through Walmartian Beach. Despite its perpetual yard sale outward appearance as you drive through the main drag on the way to the beach, it has its upscale non-ghetto looking neighborhoods.

That’s where we lived, played and I still look forward to driving down Think Of Me Hill into the old timbertown. But to get there from where I currently flourish up north, you need to drive through Tacoma. The city with the fifty year I-5 improvement. There’s about three miles of I-5 that cut through Tacoma that, no exaggeration, has been under construction at least since I’ve been driving, yes, fifty years, non-stop and they still don't have it quite right.

There must be at least one highway to heaven worker that can retire and say “I succeeded in congesting traffic through Tacoma for a half century.” They have a special award and lifetime supply of Tacoma aroma…another story.

But it’s the ocean beach I used to, and still do, love. Ocean Shores. It’s where I got my start in radio, at 91.3 KOSW, the sound of the shores.

Birthday Boy Bob Hoo Humper shared some compelling stories as a retired heater repairman. He knews where everyone hid their booze. Including my mom. And, he says he knew about all the times we snuck out during our sleepovers but no way…we were f’ing ninjas. He didn’t know where we stashed our booze.

Saturday nights meant party on and rock out at the local roller skating rink the...