A Songwriters' Weekend

It's now been a year since I arrived in Nashville. The time has sure flown. This past weekend I attended two events which further proved to me why I love it here so much.

First was the writer's night at Christ Lutheran Church in Nashville. Like the one I attended back in October, it was a warm, casual atmosphere with some great singer/songwriters, each who had something special and unique to bring to the table that evening. Randi Perkins, who's been one of my past featured songwriters, hosted this one again and did a song at the beginning and in the middle of the evening's sets (accompanied by Box Tops founding member Gary Talley on guitar, Randi's son Clark on bass and Rolli Mains on keyboards). Randi is working on a new recording which he hopes to have available in the next few months. I was excited about the first song he did, "Army of Angels", about seeing ourselves from other people's point of view...he assured me he's recording that one. I'm also excited about Randi as a performer. He did an accompanying slide show to his song "North Dakota Farm Boy" which was so warm and personal--it had pictures of him playing over the years and lovely slides containing some of the song lyrics. Randi's passion for his music shows when he plays...and he's a great guy. I think people are going to relate to him.

Other featured songwriters were Ellen Olhsson aka "Tuff Ditties" who I knew from Doak's 3rd Sundays. She also has a thriving career in the Second Life virtual environment as "Trulie Telling". Ellen effectively mixed her serious songs ("Tara Sleeps") and fun songs (the very entertaining "Boy Crazy" and one of my favorites, "He Cleans Up Good"), quickly becoming an audience favorite.

Red-headed Annie Mosher, wearing a very cool pair of green rain boots, has a sweet light voice and personality. I liked her song about things that make rhythm, at the end tying in a baby's heartbeat--she's expecting her second child.

Kathy Hussey writes very strong songs from a character perspective and has powerfully exquisite voice. My favorite of hers was "Cherry Jingles", which was a perfect illustration of how a voice and song perfectly enhance each other...it was hauntingly beautiful. Kathy hosts a unique sort of writers round on Sunday at Willhagens. I may stop by in the future to check that out.

This past Sunday was the 5th anniversary of Doak Turner's 3rd Sunday songwriter gatherings. Doak is solicting comments and memories of the past 5 years of get-togethers to include on his Nashville Muse website. Well Doak, you can quote me here. I have absolutely no doubt that 3rd Sunday was largely responsible for me to have been able to fit in to this community as a support person for singer/songwriters as quickly as I did. I am very grateful to folks like Doak and Kat Speer for making me feel so welcome, and to all the singer/songwriters who understand where I come from and "get it". The friendships I've made and the atmosphere created is a welcome oasis and a cherished blessing.

These fine folks showed the very same hospitality for two musical friends of mine from Austin, IN, Teresa Banda and Karen Meiers, who were in town for some studio work and networking. I of course strongly suggested they come to 3rd Sunday while in town. They loved it as much as I thought they would and got some good contacts and feedback. Thanks, Brandon Maddox, Steve Craig, and Dave Saunders, for sharing so much of your time and your great songs with them. Among other strong artists/writers I heard for the first time this weekend were Keith Whitley-influenced C. J. Garton, Julian Riviere (sort of a Keith Whitley meets Randy Travis in style), Josh Pennington and Robert Steele.

Happy 5th anniversary, Doak. And happy 1st anniversary to me. I love this town.