Hi Gang:
And welcome to our final newsletter of 2025. Sorry it’s a bit late, but with everything I had going on during the last week of November, this is not the only thing I’m running behind on!
The “biggie”, of course, was the actual 100th Birthday Celebration of the Grand Ole Opry on November 28th, exactly 100-years to the day that the show was first broadcast. What a thrill it was to stand on that stage and be the first singer to perform, singing my newly-written verse to “Will The Circle Be Unbroken” with the entire Opry cast on stage behind me. And then to share my song, “Thankful,” with the audience…and THEN for Vince Gill to ask me to recite the talking part on his version of “He Stopped Loving Her Today”….it was almost too much to take in all at once. I’ve already heard from lots of you telling me you were able to listen or watch the live video streaming and that’s great. We’ve got some pictures in our photo section later on.
The day before, I had gotten to be officially “thankful” for a life and career filled with a multitude of blessings as I celebrated Thanksgiving Day with over twenty friends and family members. We had “Turkey Day” at my house again this year, and I stuffed myself (what else is new?), watched a whole lot of football, and hugged on the kids and grandkids every chance I got. It was wonderful.
The following night, I managed to stay awake long enough to watch the Grand Ole Opry Christmas movie, in which I had a tiny part, on the Hallmark Channel. It was a cameo role at best, but then they deleted about half of what we recorded, so I hope you didn’t blink. If you did, you missed me. Welcome to show bidness!!
What else is going on? Well, by now you should be hearing Willie Nelson’s recording of the song I co-wrote with Bobby Tomberlin and Marv Green, “Christmas Love Song” as the radio stations begin leaning into their holiday playlists. There’s also a lyric video on the song you might enjoy. I hope these combine to help put you in the Christmas spirit.
Barbra Streisand’s album, “The Secret Of Life – Partners Volume Two,” which contains my and Steve Dorff’s song, “I Love Us,” sung by Barbra and Tim McGraw, is nominated for a Grammy Award in the category of Best Traditional Pop Album. She’s up against some pretty stiff competition, but our fingers are crossed. I’ve been nominated for six Grammys but never won one. Winning one would be nice.
I’m awfully proud and excited to tell you that my 17-year old granddaughter, Hallie, has been accepted into the student body at Belmont University here in Nashville, where she plans to major in songwriting inside their Music Business program. Can you imagine another Anderson writing songs? I’m not sure the world is ready for that!
Let me take this time to wish each and every one of you the merriest of Christmases and all things good and prosperous for 2026. My Opry spots this month will be December 13th and 20th, and if you can’t come see us in person, I hope you’ll at least be tuning us in. I love this time of year where I get to break out “Waffle House Christmas” and “HoHoHo We Was PoPoPo!” along with the more serious songs of the season.
Have a wonderful holiday….thanks for everything…and hopefully I’ll see you back here again next year!
Author: admincw