Whitnei Jeffcoat showed me around the main area of NSAI and talked to me and -- thank you, Lord -- set me up a one-on-one with Brent Baxter at 1:00 tomorrow. I had tried to contact Brent on my own, but was unsuccessful. This is more than I could ask or think!
I left NSAI and got checked into the Holiday Inn which is right across the parking lot from the Vanderbilt stadium. I went downstairs for dinner in the Commodore just as their songwriter rounds were starting. I heard about 18-20 fine singer/songwriters doing their songs in the approximately 2.5 hours I spent there. I was starting to fade, so I came up instead of staying for more (there was still a couple of hours worth of writers left to go).
It's been a good learning experience so far and I look forward to more tomorrow.
Oh, by the way, one of the later performers was a young guy from Sheridan AR (I drove through there on the way today). Also, one of the writers mentioned that Lance Carpenter was the co-writer of one of his tunes. A shout out to Lance!