Flight of the Bluebird: Nashville cafe a is Singer/Songwriter Talent Laboratory

Nashville’s Bluebird Café is small, but on Monday nights between 6 and 9 PM there is enough musical passion to fill the Tennessee Titan’s LP Field. On weekly open mike night, singer-song writers gather to perform and hear each other and visitors gather to hear original music. Just a few rules apply – no vulgarity, original songs only and performers provide their own musician accompaniment. It is one after the other and all are asked to keep performances tight enough to give everyone a chance. Long-time Bluebird personality Barbara Cloyd was the emcee for the night and called tonight “a laboratory of talent.”

This laboratory was opened by Amy Kurland in 1982. After a few years they were showcasing lesser-known talents. Decades of photos line the wall, some older than others. Dust and fading is visible on one picture. Melissa Etheridge wears 1990-era big hair in another. It has a generally cozy feel like the coziness just happened and was not planned.

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The focus on the unknown singer/ songwriters at The Bluebird makes it sound like a great backdrop for a movie about young singers pursing a dream. And it was in “The Thing Called Love.” ( see March, 2010 article on Tennessee in the Movies ). Filmed in the fall of 1992 and released to limited audiences the following July, it was the last movie for River Phoenix. Samantha Mathis played a New Yorker with big dreams. Dermont Mulroney was River Phoneix’s competition for Samantha Mathis’ love and her friend was played by a mostly unknown actress, Sandra Bullock. They all played young, passionate and ambitious song writers, not too different from many of tonight’s performers.

Four years ago Kurland sold the Bluebird to the Nashville Songwriters Association International. Today they own and maintain the café.

Last Monday, variety was the rule. There was Johnny Moore, who started performing in the 1940’s. “Baby” was composed of two women who looked barely out of high school. Performers were Nashville born and raised, transplants from Texas, California and Canada. Michael Hansson is a native of Sweden.

Father Eric Albertson, a Catholic Chaplin with the Army, had recently returned from Afghanistan and performed a tribute to those days and those who did not return. “We lost so many guys and had so many close calls you wonder when your number is going to come up,” he said after the show. One thing he looked forward to on his return was this performance at The Bluebird.

Adelaida (no last name) is a local singer-songwriter who was there to take in the music and support her friends. And by friends it seemed all fellow songwriters were friends of hers, including those she me that night. “rock ‘n roll will keep you young!” she says.

Ed Branding, in his suit and professional haircut, contrasted greatly with the others who preferred jeans and pullovers. He looked more like an attorney about to present a case to a judge than a song writer about to present a song to the crowd. “This song is meant to be sung by a woman,” he said, introducing the piece he wrote. The song worked, his voice was good, but, yes it was DEFINATLY for a woman to be singing. It may have been an odd moment, but open mike night is as much about the writing as the performance.Through this is a club with a nationwide reputation, waitresses, a bar and sitting on busy Hillsboro Pike, the relationship with local musicians makes this something unlike any other place. The familiarity amongst the singer/songwriters, the coziness and the purity of the music – playing one’s own songs with one’s own accompaniment- made The Bluebird feel less like a nightspot and more like friends getting together at someone’s home. And for many a Nashville musician, that is exactly the point.http://www.bluebirdcafe.com

4104 Hillsboro Pike Nashville TN 615-383-1461