Nashville - Day 1

My first full day in Nashville and what a great start.  Today I visited awhile with my host Doak Turner http://www.nashvillemuse.com and his lovely girlfriend Melissa.  Such nice people and Doak has been very helpful (even prior to my trip) of hooking me up with certain people like Marc-Alan Barnette  http://www.marcalanbarnette.com who I will meet with Monday morning and he will tour me around,  listen to some of songs and provide a critique and give a helping hand where I need it.  He might even introduce me to other songwriters!  Doak also hooked me up with Lorna Flowers http://www.lornaflowersproductions.com who books people into songwriters rounds at the Red Rooster Music Hall and Bar where I will be performing some of my originals Monday night at 9pm.  Pretty excited about my day!

I’m about 15 minutes from downtown Nashville so I took a drive in today to look around a bit.  I found music row!   I actually had to pull over and park on music row and just take it all in.  All the record labels you always hear about – they were there.  Publishing companies, recording studios, etc it was all there.  I also found the Country Music Hall of Fame which I plan on going to on Wednesday.

After music row I headed to the famous Bluebird Café http://www.bluebirdcafe.com.  Not a very large venue and it was packed.  I do believe I was last one to make it through the door and get a seat!  It was songwriters night so there was talented songwriters from across the United States and then the evening ended off with Don Schlitz – famous songwriter for songs like Forever and Ever Amen, The Gambler, I Feel Lucky, When You Say Nothing At All, Strong Enough to Bend and the list goes on and on.  It was an amazing night.  Very, very friendly staff and I highly recommend everyone to visit it at least once.  The M.C. Steve and the bartender Tim were very entertaining as well.

I will still be doing Shelly's Fans Request of the Week so get your requests in this Monday!!  And I will record the picked song right from Nashville!