I Play A Round

I had a moment last night.  You know one of those moments where your heart fills up with thankfulness and you almost can't believe you are where you are?  Yeah...I had one of those last night.

I was playing a round at the legendary Bluebird Cafe with Danielle Peck, Lauren Lucas and Jesse Lee. Noooo, we weren't playing AROUND, we were playing A round.  Well, we kind of did play around a bit...I told some really bad jokes, some hilarious songs were sung, needless to say - it was a fun night.  But, the premise of a round at the Bluebird is that you have a few writers sit in a circle and one writer plays a song, then the next writer plays one, then the next and so forth, and you keep going around and around until your allotted time is up.  This round was a part of Tin Pan South which is a huge yearly music festival in Nashville where the best of the best set up shows at many of the venues in Nashville.  It's always a huge honor to play in one of these or host one.

The Bluebird is one of the most prestigious and legendary places to play in Nashville.  It's a hole in the wall in a strip mall in Green Hills right beside a kids clothing store and a furniture store.  You'd drive right past it and never know it was there. Everyone who is anyone in country music has played there - even started at the Bluebird.  One of the things I love most about playing there is the intimacy.  It's a very small venue, and people are literally sitting right beside you as you sing.  I almost shared french fries with the lady sitting at the table next to me.  What?  They looked really good.  But the wonderful thing about a round and a place like this is that you can actually hear the songs and the stories behind the songs. You can see the faces of the people there to hear your songs.  It's incredible.  There was one man sitting behind me that would reach out and tap my shoulder after each song and tell me how wonderful it was or how much he enjoyed it... Amazing.

So, I had a moment last night.  It was while one of the other girls was singing.  I looked out to the crowd into the lights and really couldn't believe that I was sitting right there.  Sitting in chairs where music icons had sat singing their songs, sitting there surrounded by such talent, sitting there in the midst of a hundred people who had paid to come hear our songs that came from our hearts.  I had a moment.

I have many moments where I ask myself what in the HELL am I doing still in Nashville and still in this crazy business, but it's that one moment like I had last night that makes everything else worthwhile.