I arrived in Nashville early afternoon on Thursday, March 31 and had a very beneficial 1-on-1 with Brent Baxter at NSAI. That evening, I went to the 9:00 show with the Big Loud Shirt writers: Craig Wiseman, Chris Tomkins and Rodney Clawson. Between and among the three of them are s-o-o-o many hit songs made famous by Kenny Chesney, George Strait and many, many other artists. It was great to get to hear them perform their own work at Puckett's Grocery and Restaurant downtown Nashville.
There were opportunities to make new friendships with other writers throughout the day Friday and to get some great instruction and lots of question-and-answer. Kenny Loggins, Gary Burr and Georgia Middleman -- all great writers in their own right -- now have teamed up and formed a "supergroup" called Blue Sky Riders. They performed for us in the morning. Then we got to eat lunch with a writer -- in my case, with Rand Bishop.
The highlight of the day was the publisher session. Each attendee signed up for the opportunity to play a song for their publisher of choice in a small group session at the end of the day. I was fortunate to be with Bobby Rymer from Writers' Den Music Group. He was very affirmative about "Worn Pages" I didn't get a "give me a call" -- only one writer in the group of a dozen or so got that privilege. But... there were only four of us who got a very affirmative listening. So, I am gratified by that.
Friday evening was the early show at the Commodore featuring writers Marc-Alan Barnett, Jimbeau Hinson, Bonnie Lee Panda and Allan Shervelle. Very enjoyable and I got to meet a bunch of SongRampers.
Saturday brought a panel discussion featuring song placement folks for the Film and TV market. It was very informative, too. In the afternoon, Chris Wallin played some of his tunes recorded b by Toby Keith, Trace Adkins and other. I returned to Puckett's for the early show that evening and heard Regie Hamm, Billy Kirsch, Wil Nance and Karen Staley.
In all, a very worthwhile trip.