It's off the tourist-beaten track, and it's a venue to visit for earnest listening, so the staff doesn't tolerate speaking during the live performances. If you've heard of the Bluebird Cafe but have not been there in the flesh, you might be shocked at how tiny it is.
Almost out of sight in a bland strip of establishments beside Hillsboro Road in Green Hills, with a hardly obvious sign, the Bluebird Cafe is a diminutive hole in the wall restaurant and cocktail lounge, where four singer-songwriters sing from the heart of the cafe, in the round. It's a very casual, up close and personal setting, in which to enjoy some of Music City's up and coming and proven artists.
Actually, the songwriter in the round arrangement got its start at the Bluebird. Artists Fred Knobloch (Used to Blue and Meanwhile), and Don Schlitz (The Gambler and Forever and Ever, Amen), supposedly after a night of drinking, determined to place four chairs looking opposite to each other in the center of the place, extinguish the lights, and simply watch what takes place. This format proved to go so well, that you're likely to run into it at most songwriter's get-togethers in Music City.
The Bluebird has not simply come up to be renowned as Nashville's most respected venue to hear artists, but it has been the jumping off place for many acknowledged country songwriters, beginning back in 1983 when Kathy Mattea got a record agreement after playing at the Bluebird for merely a few months. As soon as that happened, the Bluebird turned into one of the most popular venues to play. And this process would continue to recur again and again, as several of the Bluebird's singer-songwriter regulars continued to score record deals, and singer-songwriter after songwriter arrived at renown in the identical way. (There have been too many stars "born" at the Bluebird to list every one here, but have you ever heard of Garth Brooks? - Yup, you guessed it, he got his start at the Bluebird, as well,also.)
The Bluebird Cafe hosts two performances every night, and reservations are advised, which you can set up on their website (probably the optimal manner) or by telephone. But if you haven't made reservations and wish to run out there at the last minute, you really should go for it - the folks there will do all they can to get you into the show. The Bluebird certainly must be on any visitor's list of Nashville attractions to visit.
Source: http://www.ArticlePros.com/author.php?David Seldon
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