Bluebird Cafe

Our pal Ed kindly agreed to guest-post on my blog about his recent experiences at The Bluebird Cafe in Nashville. To what he says below, I will add that I really like Ed's new song called Pretend Promises and Jenni's called The Only Sound. The audience noticed and was wrapped.

I so enjoyed visiting with Ed and Jenni over lunch and both Bluebird evenings. They are two of the reasons I have warm fuzzies when I think of Abilene.

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10,000,000 songwriters in this country, and every monday night roughly 50 of them converge on the Bluebird Cafe in Nashville for a three-hour open mic session. each person gets exactly nine minutes to sing two original songs. if someone isn't picked the first time they put their name in the hat, they get a stamped coupon that guarantees them a chance to perform the next time they show up for the open mic night. that is what happened to jenni and me. our first night there, too many "second-timers" showed up, so we sat and listened to other songwriters for three hours, then got our coupons stamped. we came back two weeks later (on our way home from vacationing in virginia), and that time we each got to sing two songs.

i had become aware of the Bluebird Cafe several years ago, and i had heard just enough about it to give me an almost completely inaccurate vision of it in my head. i had it pictured as a cozy little hole-in-the-wall in downtown Nashville, probably in some historic old building, with tons of unique ambiance. i had heard that it had a stage-in-the-round, and i could picture an intimate setting with the performer(s) in the middle of the room and all the chairs and tables up close and personal. i also had some kind of vague notion that some very famous people had performed there and/or had been discovered there, so it had begun to take on mythical proportions in my mind. imagine my surprise when i discovered the real Bluebird Cafe - not in downtown Nashville, but several miles from downtown in a 1980s-era strip-type shopping center! i could hardly believe my eyes! it looked like a typical storefront in a typical shopping center that can be found in every city of any size across this entire nation. there was no unique ambiance - absolutely nothing that would distinguish this place from any other "greasy spoon" in the country. once inside, i could see that there was no stage-in-the-round - just a small cafe with a small stage against one wall.

however - both nights we were there, it was inexplicably jam-packed with aspiring songwriters and family or friends they had brought along to give them moral support. the place looked to hold about 75 people, and fully 50 of those were people who had come to sing at the open mic. our first night there - the night we didn't get to perform - we sat through three hours of some of the most gosh-awful songs anyone could ever hear. it was a veritable cliche festival, complete with rhymes like "true" and "blue," "pain" and "rain," and "tear" and "beer." but you've never seen people perform with such earnestness. i'm sure every person who performed thought their songs were going to be the next #1 songs on the country charts. in the three hours we sat and listened, there may have been three or four songs that were creative and interesting.

our second night there - the night we performed - was equally crowded, but since we had our stamped coupons, we were guaranteed a performance slot. so - at the appointed time we each got up and sang our songs as if they were at least as good as the best songs ever written, if not better. and we were SO nervous! we have performed hundreds of times over the last eight years, but i've never been more nervous. and why??? there were no record company execs there - at least not that we knew about. we were playing to people just like us - "undiscovered" songwriters who dream of writing a handful of hits, getting rich, and spending the rest of their lives writing, touring, singing, and living off huge royalty checks.

it was interesting, fun, and something to tell people about later, but in fact, playing there probably had little more significance than playing at a coffee house in abilene texas. i'm glad we got to experience it, but i've played many, many gigs at which i had more fun and found to be much more rewarding.

ah yes - the Bluebird Cafe - a microcosm of the myth that seduces people into thinking they can be successful in the music business. 10,000,000 songwriters in this country, and at any given time no more than roughly two dozen of them actually have a song playing on the radio. in the meantime, the rest of us languish in anonymity and wonder why we haven't been discovered on the internet or at any one of the hundreds of gigs we've played. after all, every one of those 10,000,000 songwriters has penned the greatest song ever written. all they need is the right break - if only they could get a chance to play the open mic at the legendary Bluebird Cafe in Nashville. if only............

...

On September 11, 2001, I was sitting next to Karen in an Ethics class at ACU. As Randy Harris began class, a student came in and said that something had happened... he had heard it on the radio as he rode his bike to class. But we still didn't know what exactly, because only the first plane had hit.

We headed over to the campus center after class where we saw a friend who was angry and in shock and in a hurry. He shouted a few brief details as he walked away. We went on and saw students packed into the campus center like sardines, nearly silent, staring at the televisions.

I went to check in at my next class on my way home. The teacher (TA) told us we were to stay in class because "this will be on television for days." I stayed until a classmate got a phone call from her husband, stationed at Dyess, telling her to come home right away.

At that, I remember looking up into the sky, wondering what was next and really, really wanting to throw up.

And for once in ACU history, chapel was quiet.

That day and the days that followed were filled with conversations you hope you never have. Like should my sister get out of the DFW area, should our parents be further from Houston, should their parents get out of Nashville, and where is the "important papers" file at the house. It was the only time I had ever heard my father sound shaken.

I think of the impact that day had on those of us who were hundreds of miles away and didn't know a victim and couldn't do a whole lot to help - and I think of how that only scratches the surface of the impact it had on those who witnessed the attack and lost loved ones and volunteered to look for others.

I am struck by the array of perspectives through which that day was experienced; the passengers on the planes, the employees in the buildings, air traffic controllers, the guy who designed the WTC towers, the president, college students, foreign tourists, the owner of that Pennsylvania field, the media, children of all ages... and in a completely different way, the terrorists.

And because of those perspectives... We pack our bags differently before we fly. We don't mind nearly as much when we stand in long security lines at airports. And you probably give your fellow passengers the once-over as you board a plane. Or maybe that's just me. Those perspectives changed the way we travel, the way emergency responders communicate with each other, the way we handle immigration, the way we monitor suspicious folks, and on and on and on.

The ripple effects of September 11, 2001 amaze me. As a sociologist, I can't get enough of it. I am fascinated by the way our lives are all connected to the lives of other people and the decisions they make.

Because of terrorists on the other side of the world, 3,000 people died five years ago.
Because of that, B turned his life upside down to become a soldier.
Because of that, his seat was next to mine on an airplane two years later.
Because of that, I have had a humbling glimpse into courage and sacrifice.

i think i'm in the seventh grade.

on saturday afternoon, my friend stevie called to invite me to a cookout at her house on sunday night. i happily said yes, and because i like this sort of thing, offered to basically split the hostessing efforts with her. so we made our grocery lists and invitation list. while i baked brownies and such, she called everyone.

i arrived at her house early sunday evening to prepare... burgers and chicken, chips, baked beans, fruit, brownies and ice cream... for about fifteen people. now, those of you who enjoy hosting friends know that there is a certain amount of excitement that comes with the preparation, even if it is just grilling burgers and even if it is for people you already know well. the effort you go to isn't a burden - it is something you enjoy doing for other people. it had been quite some time since i had seen any of these people or even helped with something like this, so i was looking forward to the whole thing.

well, besides stevie and myself, two people showed up. TWO. and i dont mean that the others came late. or that they called to say they were lost. or that they called to say that something else came up that required their presence. or that they have called stevie since then to acknowledge that they said they would attend but didn't show up.

the four of us did have a good time that night, but it was overshadowed by the fact that we had expectations and food for fifteen.

now i know that this isn't the end of the world. but it is an example of why i had previously given up on making an effort to spend time with these "friends." i had been so irritated at their selfishness and immaturity in other situations that it had become more stressful than fun to hang out with them. when i would begin calling to invite them out, they always had to know who else was going. you see, people as insecure and gossip-y as them can't go anywhere without the right combination. more than once, an evening would fizzle AFTER i got to someone's house because they would find out who was and wasn't going. and you know how much a girl likes to get ready, only to have nowhere to go.

surprisingly, i am talking about males rather than females. i thought only women had rules about who they could and couldn't be seen with. what guy repeatedly acts like that?? but i thought that maybe things had changed... maybe i was overreacting to past behavior... maybe i needed to try again...

honestly, i will not be surprised in the LEAST if i find out that several of them went out together somewhere else. my disgust with them stems from many, many previous interactions like this. sunday night was just the icing on the cake.

so, i'm moving on. if they want to see me, they can make an effort. and they will - when their girlfriends dump them or when they finally get fed up with each other. and i'm pretty sure i won't be willing to try again. and i don't feel bad about that. i can forgive them and not be mad and yaddda yadda yadda, but i don't have to set myself up to be slighted by them for the millionth time.

i am so happy to have a select few friends who are consistently wonderful - some who live around the corner and some who live far away. they know who they are. they make all the difference.