In 1984, the CDB was hard at work on its next release, ‘Honky Tonk Ave.’ The album was loosely based on a short story that dad wrote in his short story collection “The Devil Went Down to Georgia: Stories by Charlie Daniels” which would be released the next year.

The idea was to tie in the story and the album into something along the lines of Willie Nelson’s ‘Redheaded Stranger’ album, where the songs tell a bigger story.

February 2, 1985

Volunteer Jam XI was the last one at Nashville’s Municipal Auditorium, it was a 9-hour spectacle of amazing music and surprises, but what VolJam XI is probably best remembered for is the blizzard that hit the city of Nashville making it impossible for some to actually make it to the show.

Dad said on stage, “I know you went through a hell of a lot to get here because this is the biggest snowstorm I’ve ever seen in Tennessee!”

It’s hard to believe that we’re just a few weeks away from the one-year anniversary of dad’s “changing addresses” – thank you, my spiritual big brother, Bill Wolfenbarger, for the use of that term.

It’s been a doozy of a year, dealing with the aftermath of losing dad, the lingering effects of the pandemic and how that has impacted what we’ve been trying to do business-wise, and the “sadiversaries” that have popped up over the last 11 months.

This upcoming “sadiversary” is the precursor to the biggest one of all, the first Father’s Day without dad in my life, then the one-year anniversary is just around the corner.