Original subtitles

MAN 1: I don't think that there's an artist

that I know that doesn't have

a Bluebird story.

WOMAN 1: The kind of songs that have come out of here

have had a depth

and the careers

that have come out of here have had depths.

MAN 2: If you had a discography of all the songs

that got played in here,

I bet it would just be staggering.

MAN 3: It's almost like

seeing something you're not supposed to.

MAN 4: If you can get a ticket, if you can get in,

you get to see.

WOMAN 2: Whether you're the biggest songwriter in Nashville

or someone that's been there a week,

it's an equal playing field.

MAN 5: There could be a show there tonight

where a special guest gets up

and a couple years from now, they're all over the radio,

they're all over the TV and everybody knows who they are,

but the crowd that's here tonight gets to say,

"I saw them back there at the Bluebird."

♪ From the corners of the country

♪ From the cities and the farms

♪ With years

♪ and years of living

♪ Tucked up underneath their arms

♪ They walked away from everything

♪ Just to see a dream come true

♪ So God bless the boys who make the noise

♪ On 16th Avenue

JOHN OSBORNE: When you hear a hit songwriter play a song

that they just finished

and you're like, "Wow, we are some of the first people

in the world to ever hear this song."

Any of the biggest writers you've ever heard of

or haven't heard of have played there.

It just made you feel like you could dream

and you could be on the stage right there.

It just made the dream a reality, like, in the room.

The Bluebird Cafe is a place to come and be found.

It's a place to come and call home.

♪ With a million dollar spirit

♪ And an old flattop guitar

♪ They drive to town with all they own

♪ In a hundred dollar car

♪ 'Cause one time someone told them

♪ About a friend of a friend they knew

♪ Who owns you know a studio

♪ On 16th Avenue

CHARLIE WORSHAM: Whether it's me

just having moved to town

with songs I've never sung for anybody, or me a week ago,

I get the same butterflies.

There's a couple of places I get nervous. One, playing at somebody's wedding

and one is, for some reason, playing at Bluebird.

It's like the first time I've ever performed

every time I play there.

You'd see the people you're about to play for in the bathroom,

-so you usually just try... -Yeah, it's true.

Just try and hold it.

♪ 'Cause they walk away from everything

♪ Just to sing for me and you

♪ So God bless the boys who make the noise

♪ On 16th Avenue

Thanks so very much.

You're very kind. I'm so glad you're here.

AMY KURLAND: When I rented this place,

it was the Greenhouse Game Room

and there were pool tables and pinball tables.

BARBARA KURLAND: And it was bright yellow, as I recall

and looked much bigger.

BARBARA: I do remember when you were getting the bar built.

-Yeah. -And that was very exciting

-because she wanted it to look antique-y. -Yeah.

I love the neon.

I think that's really beautiful.

Whoever designed it for you did a wonderful job.

A songwriter named Gove Scrivenor did it.

He just took it neon class and that was what he chose

to make and then he brought it to me.

And I remember going out in the country

to really terrible antique stores

and digging those pews out of the back

of old collapsed barns and things.

Guess you put a lot of people in those chairs.

We have, we have.

JAY PATTEN: A one, two, three.

ROGER COOK: Amy got this place

and she didn't intend it to be a music venue, initially.

She just wanted a restaurant or a cafe.

She had gone to cooking school

and she became a really good chef.

It was a, you know, an established lunch place.

It was kind of a ladies who lunch type situation

Folks would come over from next door

after they had their hair done at the salon.

There were fancy tablecloths on the table,

Crab Louie on the menu.

People like Minnie Pearl

would come over after she had her hair done.

And then a couple of friends, I think

it may have been Jay Patten.

It may have been Bob White.

"You should have some live music in here."

PATTEN: Ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to introduce you

to the Anniversary Choir.

Jonnell Mosser, Carrico and Sheila Lawrence.

PATTEN: Opening night was so beautiful.

I come in, everybody was all dressed up.

And I thought, "This is gonna be very special."

♪ So nice to be with you

♪ So nice

I went to work for The Tennessean

as the music reporter in the summer of 1981

and almost a year later,

The Bluebird Cafe opened.

♪ So nice to be here with you tonight

♪ You're exactly what I want to see

♪ So very nice to be where the vibe is just right

♪ It's an absolute pleasure, indeed

OERMANN: It was different in several respects.

It was not in Midtown,

It was not near Music Row

and it was not Downtown.

It was out here in a suburban strip mall.

♪ So nice to be here with you

♪ Tonight

♪ So nice

RICHEY: We'd have some lingering diners

and we'd have to play some music

that wasn't especially

conducive to, like, an intimate dinner.

I remember it was the '80s, so we had Talking Heads

and we cranked them up a little more and more and more

to get rid of the diners, so then we could turn it

into a club and that's when the music would start.

RICHEY: It was like a regular, you know,

any other club back in the day, you know,

drinking and smoking and talking. There wasn't any...

There was definitely not the shushing business going on.

The room was loud, it was smoky.

Four people deep at the bar,

you could not move through this room

without putting your tray up over you head

and shoving people out of the way.

My band played louder back then.

People wanted louder music.

AMY CLEVELAND: The room was rocking.

It was loud and people...

Glasses were clinking and people were having

a good time and, you know, getting their hair blown back.

I had the waitresses dancing over the bar

which was a sight to behold.

VINCE GILL: If you still had

an hour or two left in the night,

it was midnight or whatever you need,

you could come over here and catch the end of something.

They would all come down, support their friends

when they were playing and then everyone

would hang out at the bar late night.

CLEVELAND: Maybe it was a little bit folkier,

maybe it was a little more rock and roll,

Maybe it was a little more R&B.

It was Steve Earle and the Dukes

and John Scott Sherrill

and The Wolves in Cheap Clothing.

None of them were hardcore country acts.

I remember The Bluebird as a rock joint

more than I do anything else. I remember my memories

at the Bluebird are starting in the kitchen

with a wireless guitar rig

and playing Rebel Rouser

and rocking to the stage to the back of the house.

That's the Bluebird to me.

When I first opened the Bluebird, we did everything.

We did all kinds of music

and it was fun.

But the number one complaint I got was,

"It's too loud in here."

And in that first summer we were open for business,

the guy who was helping me book it

booked something called a Writer's Night.

I didn't even know what that is.

♪ On a warm summer's evening

- ♪ On a train bound for nowhere-

♪ I met up with a gambler

♪ We were both too tired to sleep

♪ So we took turns a-starin'

AMY KURLAND: Everybody was just silent.

All they were doing was focusing on the song

and the person who was playing it

and it was magic.

And over time, I just transformed

to what I think this room

was crying out to be

as a place where people could really listen to the songs.

The idea of showcasing songwriters.

Well, there was no such thing as a songwriter venue

or a songwriter club

where you would go in with the expressed intent

of hearing not a star,

but of hearing a great songwriter.

♪You got to know when to hold 'em

♪ Know when to fold 'em

♪ Know when to walk away

♪ And know when to run

♪ You never count your money

♪ When you're sittin' at the table.

♪ There'll be time enough for countin'

♪ When the dealing's done

♪ You've got to know when to hold 'em

MAN: ♪ When to hold 'em

-♪ Know when to fold 'em -MAN: ♪ When to fold 'em

♪ Know when to walk away

♪ And know when to run

♪ You never count your money

♪ When you're sittin' at the table

♪ There'll be time enough for countin'

♪ When the dealing's done

♪ There'll be time enough for countin'

♪ When the dealing's done

♪ There'll be time enough for countin'

♪ When the dealing's done

THOM SCHUYLER: I think the world at large doesn't realize

that, you know, Kenny Rogers didn't write everything he sang

and you know, when you hear

Schlitz start The Gambler, or something, they go,

"No way. This guy didn't write that song."

Until I got into the music business,

I just thought, if I wrote songs, and they recorded them, and they put them out.

Like, I didn't really know,

until I was taught.

I didn't realize that, uh, these artists,

that I listened to growing up, didn't write all these songs

That there's this community of folks in Nashville,

a small handful really, writing the majority of these songs.

And, then I go, "Where did they play?"

Because there are venue for people that's not an artist,

to play the songs, that they wrote for the artist.

That's whenever the Bluebird,

and what the Bluebird does, started to be real to me.

♪ I came

♪ See you over there Starin' at your drink

♪ Watchin' that ice sink All alone tonight

♪ And chances are you're Sittin' here in this bar

♪ 'Cause he Don't treat you right... ♪

AMY: These people are true artists.

They may not be performing artists, but they are artists.

And they deserve to be recognized, for how wonderful they are.

NATALIE HEMBY: Whenever I go to the Bluebird, I can be an artist.

And I... I'm not someone, who wrote a song for somebody else.

They nurture the songwriter, in an artist way.

♪ 'Cause blue

♪ Looks good on the sky

♪ Looks good on that Neon buzzin' on the wall

♪ But darlin', It don't match your eyes

♪ I'm tellin' you...

Whether you've had 30 number ones,

or whether you're brand new,

songwriters want to be heard.

The Bluebird provides that for both.

FAITH HILL: I learned in that room,

being a songwriter is a legit job.

I would never say, "Oh, yeah, I'm a songwriter."

It... I just have so much respect for songwriters.

And I always have, and it's because of that place.

It's because of Bluebird Cafe.

♪ I'm not tryna

♪ Be another Just pick you up kinda guy

♪ Tryna drink you up Tryna take you home... ♪

DAVE BARNES: It's as much educational as it is,

I think, entertainment,

and that people can hear these songs,

from the people that wrote them.

And a lot of times, I think,

what's so unique about that is their version of that song

is sometimes more personal than the artist's version.

Even if you've heard a song a hundred times on the radio,

and then you hearing the songwriter sing it,

there's different inflections, there's reasons that different lines stick out.

BARRY DEAN: The songs hold

the pictures of their lives.

That's what songs do.

So, if I play the song

from when you're in high school,

you see the pictures.

They wanna know how that song get written,

it's connected, it's holding these things that are precious to me.

♪ Blue ain't your

♪ Color

Thank you guys, so much.

AMY: We stayed with the music on stage, for a few years,

until Don Schlitz and Fred Knobloch, came in one Sunday night,

perhaps having, uh, imbibed a few.

KNOBLOCH: Don was upset about people talking while we're playing.

And, I said, "Well, you know,

"we could make them shut up, if we set up in the middle of the room."

I mean, if you sit and write next to you, they're not gonna say anything.

And so, it's kind of...

We decided to try it the next time

and it was me, Paul Overstreet, Don Schlitz and Thom Schuyler.

Tom and Paul

were not too crazy about the idea.

I considered it really bizarre and stupid idea

and I reluctantly showed up the first night

to do that with them.

And...

two hours later, it was like,

it's the most fun I ever had with my clothes on.

I became aware of the original man in the room

because one of the original guys,

Fred Knobloch, is from Mississippi.

I'm from Mississippi.

And I thought, "Let's see if we can get four girls

"who can do this, sitting around and do the same thing."

She said, Ashley Cleveland,

who's a gospel singer, who I knew,

is very good friends. They were college roommates

with Pam Tillis,

who was a successful country star,

and Karen Staley, who was writing a lot of hits.

They came in. I gave them the chance to do it, and what do you know?

STALEY: They became the next true, in demand,

you gotta get there and see these shows.

The guys that did it first

were sort of their, you know,

sisters, in a way, that just seemed

a natural thing for us to do that.

To be the women in the ramp.

♪ Ain't shinin' bright

♪ And the stars the stars the stars

♪ Won't shine for you tonight

PAM TILLS: It was almost, like, an alternative persona,

Like, to be, to have my own career,

but then, to be a part of something fun.

Maybe the world didn't know about it but,

you know, we had our little groupies, you know.

♪ Out of hand

♪ Come to mama

ASHLEY CLEVELAND: I drive up to the club and think,

"What are all those people doing that were lined up for the show,

you know, I mean, I just...

It didn't occur to me that it would be anything.

♪ If you need

♪ If you need a satisfier

STALEY: We weren't trying to hit people over the head with anything

or prove anything. That's just who we were.

TRICIA WALKER: I never gave much thought to the fact

of trying to find out how many women writers that were here.

But I think as the years have passed,

I can look back and see that we were

some of the first ones to really

trying to make a foray into the Nashville songwriting community.

Which at the time, was mostly men writers

and there are some great female writers who have come along

behind us, you know, just blowing the doors off.

So, if we had a hand in that, then I'm... I'm pleased.

THOM SCHUYLER: We were just, kind of, opening a vein, you know.

It's like, well, here's who we really are.

We're just gonna sit here and be ourselves.

It was modeled after a guitar pull,

you know, which is songwriters get together in the living room

and pass the guitar and take turn playing songs for each other.

It's what you dream of,

is having a bunch of really great musicians

come over to your house, sit in the living room

and play their songs for real.

♪ Bet your window's rolled down and your hair's pulled back

♪ Bet you got no idea

♪ you're going way too fast

It's almost this voyeuristic kind of thing

where the people on the outside,

they're not quite in the circle but they feel like they're a part of it.

TILLIS: You feel like you're inside the music business.

You're not just inside the Bluebird,

you're inside the music business.

Everybody feels like they're in the round

even if you're not sitting in that circle.

You know, you really do feel like you're in that circle.

Someone's eating chicken,

and they can touch your shoulder.

Oh, I've, I mean, I've shared some french fries with strangers.

My water's sitting on this lovely couple from Iowa's table.

♪ The highway won't dry your tears

♪ The highway don't need you here

♪ The highway don't care if you're coming home

♪ But I do, I do.

GILL: It's a neat environment where,

where, kind of, everybody gets to shine.

If somebody's playing a song over here,

you know, the guy or girl across the aisle from them,

when they hear a lyric that they really respond to,

they'll nod their head or smile, or you know,

react in a way that musicians don't normally react in a larger venue,

because they're part of the audience too.

As soon as you finish your song,

then the round passes you, you become part of the audience.

I was excited in this moment by watching

other writers sing their songs because I...

Even if it wasn't a song I heard before,

I could just understand

what would make them write it.

♪ But I do, I do

♪ I can't live without you, I can't live without you, baby

♪ No, I can't live without you, I can't live without you, baby

♪ Baby

ELLIOT DUKE: The Bluebird is,

you know, it had a life

before the Bluebird cafe was in this room.

And so, the infrastructure,

as a building, is always a challenge.

The air conditioning in here is not up to par.

So, we try to get the room as cold as we can

before we open doors and as soon as we seat the room.

The roof used to leak.

The plumbing's always a challenge.

When I first started working here,

the water pressure was so bad

that they used to keep a bucket of water

around to be able to go flush the toilets.

And several years later, they, um,

renovated the offices downstairs

and as they were tearing down a wall,

they discovered a faucet down there

and someone turned it on and all of a sudden,

we magically had water again.

We had water pressure. It was like the greatest thing

that ever happened to the Bluebird

was that no one was toting buckets of water

to the restroom all night long.

♪ There ain't no number

♪ There ain't no sign

♪ The secret code is just you knock three times

My first time coming to the Bluebird, I go,

"This can't be it."

When I drove to it the first time when I moved to Nashville,

I couldn't find it.

Directions are pretty easy.

It's right before you get to McDonalds.

You could drive by that place

looking for it, determined to get there

and never imagine that that was it.

You pull up and it's like, next to a dry cleaner.

You're like, "Am I at the right place?"

♪ Bamboo curtains and a neon moon

Think about your favorite spot

that's like the place to go.

Most of those places are in odd spots,

the decor hasn't changed in 35 years,

and that's kind of what you love about it.

♪ We got it all at the Jungle Room

HUNTER HAYES: And it's small.

You see it in pictures and you think it looks small. It's smaller.

You feel like you might be in a small town

where it's the only restaurant in town.

MAN: Cool and hip, and grungy and greasy.

MAN 2: Dark, friendly.

There's a scent of whiskey.

LUKE LAIRD: All the headshots.

Does anybody still get those headshots?

♪ Bring it on home to the Jungle Room

♪ Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah

Can I say the one thing that people do not get to enjoy

unless you come here,

is the smell.

You can feel and taste and smell

years and years of grease from french fries.

TILLIS: You might see the acoustic tile ceiling

and the not fancy chairs,

and the vinyl table cloths. You might see all that.

Well, that means, there's just

people rolling their sleeves up and working here.

♪ A little dirty dancing

♪ Blue collar romancing

♪ I can get cleaned up If you ask me

♪ But I can only get so fancy

♪ Got a little dirt On my boots

♪ But I'm taking you Uptown tonight ♪

TILLIS: If you start studying the walls,

you realize what's really going down here.

BRANDY CLARK: It's not about the ceiling or the bathrooms.

It's about the songs.

And songs have humble beginnings.

♪ Got a little dirt On my boots

♪ So we're gonna dance the dust right off them tonight

♪ Yeah, girl

ERIKA WOLLAM NICHOLS: The really unique piece

of what we do here at the Bluebird cafe

is our audition process.

That audition process has been going on

since the '80s.

Some of the biggest names in country music,

songwriters and artists

have come up through that audition process

here at the Bluebird cafe.

♪ Looking back

♪ On the memory of

♪ The dance we shared

♪ 'Neath the stars above

I got a call from a woman I knew

who said, " I got a young kid from Oklahoma, you know,

"he's really wanting to make it. I think he's really good.

"Can we get him on the songwriter's audition?"

And so, one of the Sunday auditions, he showed up.

Late, may I add.

♪ And now

♪ Glad I didn't know

♪ The way it all would end

He passed the audition.

He came back and he played one of those

showcases we have.

He'd already been turned down by all the labels.

But for some reason, Lynn Schultz

from Capitol Records was here anyway,

and that vulnerability,

that honesty, that truth that he does

made all the difference and Lynn Schultz grabbed him

and said, "I think we made a mistake.

"Come in the kitchen. I wanna talk to you."

And they signed that deal the next day.

♪ But I'd have had to miss

♪ The dance

Nothing like the writer that sings this song.

♪ Holding you

Ah.

♪ I held everything

♪ For a moment

♪ Wasn't I the king

LAIRD: When I graduated high school,

I came up and drove up to the Bluebird

and auditioned.

I had a cowboy hat on,

I think I had a vest on,

And I actually have brought that paper with me

from when I did the audition.

You have to do a self-addressed envelope.

♪ Our lives

♪ Are better left to chance

♪ I could have missed the pain

♪ But I'd have had to miss

♪ The dance

LAIRD: If you made the audition, they sat you and told you

you know, you got in.

I mean, this was like, you might as well have

told me that I won the lottery because...

This was one of those moments I thought,

"Boy, maybe I have what it takes to do this,"

and it was a huge deal because people thought

your song is good enough to get to play at the Bluebird Cafe

and I still almost get emotional talking about it because

this was my dream and...

And this was one step closer to living that dream.

BARBARA: We do about 65 writers.

They'll come in on that Sunday morning check-in, with their instruments.

The room is full of these people.

Guitars and nerves.

And each one of them will play a minute of the song.

That was established

by Amy, long ago.

Her theory for that was that

that's how long it would take you to change the radio station

if you didn't like a song.

NICHOLS: How are you guys?

Thank you for being here

as part of our Bluebird auditions.

We're glad to have you.

We know it's a stretch for everybody to be here on a Sunday morning,

including our judges who we appreciate so much.

You're gonna play a minute of a song

which is basically, a verse chorus.

And you're going to not do a long intro.

You wanna get right into the song

because that's what we wanna hear.

MADELINE MCDONALD: I actually had no idea how to get into the Bluebird

or how I could even get my foot in the door to perform there.

I literally called the Bluebird.

And I was like, "Hey, guys.

"Hi, I'm Madeline. I'm from Texas.

"And I love your place, and can I sing there?"

And so, they were like, "Of course, you can.

"But you need to go through this process."

♪ I was going out tonight

♪ With my friends on my side

♪ It's been too many weeks

♪ To not be on my feet

♪ They've been pushing me... ♪

When I stepped on that stage, my voice was shaky.

I was trying to think to myself,

"Don't forget the lyrics. Don't forget the lyrics."

which I never do to myself,

but just knowing

the... the heaviness of the Bluebird just really...

It was really awesome.

♪ That old Silverado

♪ Took me right back

♪ It would take me downtown

♪ Spin me around

♪ Till the night ends

I mean, that kind of changed my life in a way.

I know that sounds cliche, but it really did,

because you're surrounded

by people with the kind of the same dream as you.

To be a part of that with them,

it was just so cool.

♪ Oh...

Thank you.

TONY WOODRUFF: I came in for a part time job and ended up barbacking.

I stuck with it

and started working full time,

quit for a while, came back.

Still here.

It all started in the kitchen

and quickly just became the prep guy,

where I would come in in the afternoon

since it's prep all day,

and got to go home by 6:00

so it was the perfect schedule,

and then Erika asked me to... To come and be the manager,

so at that point,

I was here earlier, and stayed later.

My first job here at the Bluebird

was a lunch waitress.

KIM RICHEY: They were looking for a cook,

and it just seemed like a really, you know, great place

with music and everything.

Worked in a kitchen for about two years.

After about two years, I graduated to the bar

and I worked for the bar for about four years.

RICHEY: It was a really great place to work.

Amy Kurland was great to work for.

It was... It was kind of a family,

and like a big gang of people, we hung out a lot together.

WOODRUFF: It's a small business,

so it's a small family of folks.

AMY: Maybe they could make more money somewhere else.

They like to work here because they're music lovers, too.

And a lot of them

are up and coming musicians themselves.

We've had some of our staff go on

to fame and fortune in the music business.

MARK IRWIN: I was lucky enough

to get a song cut, that was a hit

and in my fourth year, I graduated to a publishing deal

and I was able to leave.

♪ Well, cowboys don't cry

MAN: Yeah.

♪ And heroes don't die

♪ Good always wins

♪ Again and again...

IRWIN: When I was attending bar,

my first single was a song I wrote

with Alan Jackson called Here in the Real World.

It was his first number one, my first number one as well,

and some of the writers that would play here

were sweet enough to announce to the audience,

"Your bartender right now has the number 20 song on the charts,

"number ten song on the charts." Whatever it was.

And I started to notice

as people were buying drinks for me,

they'd stopped tipping me.

♪ But here in the real world

♪ It's not that easy at all... ♪

They were sweet, but they would say,

"Eh... you don't need that tip.

"You're doing great. You don't need the tip."

You know, I mean, I think they thought

that Alan Jackson showed up at my door every week

with a check for a million dollars or something.

So, I had to ask the writers to stop making the announcement

'cause I was going broke having a hit song on the charts.

♪ Here in the real world...

You have this awesome staff who actually really cares

about what the Bluebird represents,

and cares about the songwriters,

and takes care of the songwriters.

The bartender is so quiet in making drinks.

I still don't even know how they do that.

MAN: The sound guy in there is really considerate

which is usually not the case.

It's because we ask

for too much, and they're stressed out already.

I've never seen better balance and grace among the wait staff.

GARY BURR: They'll wait in time, and the song's over,

and you go, and you put the gin, and you put the beers down,

so you're not gonna hear a margarita machine go off,

you're not gonna, in the middle of the ballad going off.

"Here's your beer."

They're part of the performance.

SHANE MCANALLY: I mean, I was, as a staff,

many times, and seeing them lost in the song,

that feels really rewarding to those of us sitting there

'cause we know they hear

every song first.

And so if you can stop one of them in their tracks,

you better pitch that song.

♪ But here in the real world

♪ It's not that easy at all

♪ 'Cause when hearts get broken

IRWIN: I was lucky enough to be here,

just watching who is playing,

and to now be able to play a hit myself here,

I mean, it's hard for me to articulate it right now.

♪ Here in the real world ♪

NICHOLS: Mark Irwin.

IRWIN: Thank y'all.

MAN: I'm just gonna go over the ground rules real quickly.

Tonight's show, there's $25 cover charge

but you should have already paid that online.

Yes?

ALL: Yes. MAN: Yeah?

FRANK HURD: A friend of mine, uh, was...

Was working at the Bluebird.

MAN: You all enjoy, okay? WOMAN: Thank you.

Job opened up there

and I figured it would be kind of a perfect place

for me to work a little bit there part time,

and just get to be exposed to such great songwriting

on a regular basis.

I first heard about the audition process

after playing an open mic night at the Bluebird.

I went ahead and found out when the date was to register,

and so then, I registered for it, I think about a year ago.

The audition, it's a bit of a stressful process for sure.

There's this long line of people, you know, all lining up,

and you're trying to size 'em up and figure out

if, you know, if they're talented or not, or how talented they are,

or kinda assuming that they're all amazing.

They're all like, George Strait and Garth Brooks

about to walk in there.

Hello, my name is Frank Hurd.

Perhaps you've heard me. Likely you haven't.

♪ If life is a flame

♪ I wanna make it dance...

I think my preparation was probably unconventional.

I played a song that I hadn't finished writing.

I just went to the audition,

and had been working on this song,

and I knew that I only needed a verse and a chorus.

I was like, "Well, I guess I can just use the song I've been working on."

And so that's the song I played,

or the fragment of a song I played.

♪ So I will run

♪ With my arms spread wide

♪ And I will leave my fears a mile behind

♪ Oh, I'm old enough to see

♪ And not a moment's guaranteed

♪ While my fire's still burning

♪ I will never stop learning ♪

I think there's always a little bit of self-doubt,

and I think I'm my harshest critic,

so I certainly didn't think it was in the bag per se,

but while I felt like this audition went well,

I also thought that my first audition went pretty well,

but I didn't end up getting through that time.

INTERVIEWER: How would you describe the room

to someone that's never been to Bluebird before?

SAM HUNT: Um.

Huh.

It's kind of a combination of like...

...your living room and a church sanctuary.

♪ I've cussed on a Sunday

♪ I've cheated and I've lied

♪ I've fallen down from grace

♪ A few too many times

♪ But I find holy redemption

ERIC PASLAY: We're on the road,

and you get out, and you play shows,

and you can feel disconnected from Nashville.

But getting to go back to the Bluebird,

you're, like, filled with the songwriter holy spirit again.

♪ Can I get a hallelujah?

♪ Can I get an amen?

♪ Feels like the Holy Ghost running through ya

♪ When I play the highway FM

♪ I find my soul revival

♪ Singing every single verse

♪ Yeah I guess that's my church

♪ Hey, can I get a hallelujah

RUSTON KELLY: There's this built-in reverence

towards what a song means

and how it can affect people,

and, like, this is the genesis of where it happens.

You feel the energy of that reverence

whether you are aware of the Bluebird's reputation or not.

Even though it might be a place you've never been,

with people you've never met, songs you've never heard,

it will feel like home.

I have had the most spiritual experiences in music in my life,

and many of them have been in that room.

♪ Yeah I guess

♪ That's my church

Thank you, Nashville!

BARRY DEAN: Live music used to be where we touched things.

We go to the show.

But the show's gotten so big.

That's one of the reasons

a place like the Bluebird becomes critical,

'cause we're all seeking touch.

We're seeking that, the real thing.

I wanna see the real thing with none of the tricks.

It's always a fun experience

to watch people come into this room.

They don't know what to expect.

They see the musicians in the center of the room,

it's crowded,

cramped.

People are stiff. They're seated with

people they don't know

and then, all of a sudden, the music starts,

and people relax,

and there's this energy.

♪ There's a jersey on the wall

♪ In a high school gym

♪ In my hometown

♪ In the corner by the scoreboard

♪ Where the bleacher seats fold down

♪ 27 took the Tigers

♪ To the finals that year

♪ But that's not why it's hanging there

DEAN: It will help you find where your soul is located.

You'll have a lot of fun.

You'll laugh, you'll enjoy things,

but you will also have a moment, someone's gonna sing a song

that will locate for you

where your soul is.

♪ I bet somewhere there's a yearbook

♪ In a box under a bed

♪ With a senior picture missing

♪ And loving memory instead

♪ And somewhere there's a mother

♪ Who stopped going to church

♪ 'Cause Your plan quit making sense down

♪ Here on earth

♪ If I ever get to heaven

♪ Got a long list of questions

♪ Like how do you make a snowflake?

♪ Are you angry when the earth quakes?

♪ How does the sky change in a minute?

♪ How do you keep this big rock spinning?

♪ And if you got your hands

♪ On everything that happens

♪ Why couldn't you stop

♪ That car from crashing?

♪ Forgive me, I'm just asking

♪ Oh, I'm just asking

MAN: Yeah.

Thank you.

♪ Where's that angel with dirty knees

♪ Who wasn't hard to please when we first met?

♪ She don't act like she needs me now

♪ And even seem to be upset

You always feel humbled by... by this kind of room

because you know what's happened in here before.

If you're a songwriter and you're singing

your own songs in and around at the Bluebird,

you think, "I better give it my best,

"because people are here to hear the words

"and the melodies and, you know,

"that's all that really matters."

♪ And the chairs go up on the bar now

♪ And the table lights go black

♪ So I order one last double

♪ And start calling people back

I think this was probably the first place

that I ever performed in the round

and I was terrified

and I played this song, uh, Streetlights...

And when I got to a certain verse in the song,

the lyric that I was supposed to say

was, "Part a block away"

and I said, "Blocked a park away."

I was nervous and jittery that I'd mess it up,

but when I finished the song,

the rest of the songwriters in the round,

especially Angela Cassidy,

was sitting immediately to my left,

said, "I love that line where you said,

"'I blocked a park away,'"

and I didn't tell her,

you know, that it was an accident.

I was just, like, "Oh, thank you very much," you know,

and pretended that I meant to do it,

and the song stayed that way.

I hadn't recorded it yet, so it rem...

I kept that line as it was

because I thought, "Well, she liked it,

"then there must be something to it."

♪ Think I blocked just a park away

♪ But I can't really say, it's been all night

♪ How I wish you would call me here

♪ But you just disappeared

♪ It wasn't right

♪ And the streetlights help a little

♪ But they're barely half alive ♪

WALKER HAYES: One thing I loved about the Bluebird is

it's a place where you wanna go.

I wrote this on Tuesday.

I don't really know if I know it.

Probably gonna mess up some words,

but I wanna try it on you guys.

It's okay if you mess up.

It's okay if you need to start it over.

It's okay if you got your lyrics in front of you.

Multiple times I've written a song that day

and played it that night at the Bluebird

and it's, like, all of a sudden, you're very aware,

like, this is the song that's either gonna

not go over or it's going to.

PASLAY: Some of the greatest songs in the world

probably won't ever be heard

except through the Bluebird Cafe

and that's the magic of Nashville.

Some of the greatest songs that have ever been written

in the world we'll never hear.

ASHLEY MCMILLEN: Yes, so, this... This is actually...

We laughed for many years

because I would write songs on my napkins.

I shouldn't be driving and writing, but that's where

a lot of my s...

Especially in the very beginning,

that's where a lot of my songs would happen.

Like, because I've always lived far from my family

and traveling, and I would always, in the car

when there's no distractions and it's quiet,

the hum of the interstate.

I had auditioned once before

and I didn't get through.

You know, the selection is so small

and I was pretty bummed out,

but I knew that it would take another chance.

So, when it came time to sign up again,

I knew I was super pregnant,

but I was, like, "You know what, you only live once."

Due to my condition I'm gonna have to sit down.

My name is Ashley McMillen.

♪ We can build a fire from one little stick

♪ Build a house from leftover bricks

♪ Who needs a room with five stars?

♪ We've got a million in our own backyard

♪ We know how to make the most of what we have

♪ When we hit the bottom dollar

♪ We'll make it last

♪ I'll take this little bitty ring

♪ On my left hand

♪ Out of city Asked if all you gave me

♪ Was a box of sand

♪ Don't need a big shiny thing

♪ You've got nothing to prove

♪ In a case full of diamonds

♪ The one I would choose

♪ Is this little bitty ring ♪

Thank you.

NICHOLS: Hey, everybody. Once Rob rolls in,

let's get started real quick.

Um... All right, let's talk about auditions.

MAN: Auditions were yesterday.

Um, looks like we have about eight people that are gonna pass.

Liv, Nate Chancey...

-...Frank Hurd. -Yeah.

Oh, right. That's great.

-Yes. -Yeah.

Ryan Larkins, Madeline McDonald, Ashley McMillen

Michael Peterson

and Josiah Siska.

I'm gonna reach out to him this week

and, um, they will play their first show

sometime in the fall.

Excellent. Great.

KATHY MATTEA: I got my record deal in this room.

And, uh,

played the first time with a band in this room

and got over my stage fright in this room

and kind of grew up here.

♪ Claire had all but given up

♪ When she and Edwin fell in love

My husband's getting cuts from all kinds

of people in town,

but I've never cut one of his songs.

We got upstairs to his listening room and he puts it in

and when the first chorus goes around

and the hook is, "Where've You Been..."

I know my husband's family story,

so, I knew.

♪ Where've you been

♪ I've looked for you forever and a day ♪

When his grandmother was in the hospital

and was dying,

his grandfather got a brain tumor

and went in the same hospital on a different floor.

He asked the doctor if he could go get his grandfather

and bring him in to see his grandmother

and she had kind of

moved into dementia.

Wouldn't talk, wouldn't speak

wouldn't even look at anybody,

and he said that when he

wheeled his grandfather in,

his grandmother looked him right in the eye,

just looked at him all the way around,

and she looked up and said, "Where have you been?"

And it was the words she ever said.

♪ He asked her for her hand for life

♪ Then she became a salesman's wife

MATTEA: The story goes,

that every publisher in town

had a cassette tape of that song in their desk,

but nobody would touch it, 'cause it was so sad,

so there was a showcase night

here at the Bluebird

and my husband was on the showcase

and he sang, Where've You Been

and the whole place...

...started sobbing.

♪ Where've you been

♪ I've looked for you forever

♪ And a day

The reaction

was huge and... And she went back

and said, "Can't we just kinda tuck this

"on the end of a record?"

And it kinda just sat on the end of the record

and that's all it was ever supposed to be.

♪ They'd never spent a night apart

♪ For 60 years she heard him snore

I'll tell you, I don't how many times

people have come up after a show

and said, "My mom and dad went through that,

"or my grandparents went though that thing in Where've You Been.

"It's exactly like that."

I don't know if I have any other songs that do that.

Thanks to... To Jon and Kathy,

I'm involved in a little piece of music

that might live a little longer than me, I hope.

♪ No, I'm just not myself when you're away ♪

BURR: It's kind of funny

how many roads lead back to this little building.

When I first came to town,

the main songwriters that I wrote with

all wrote for Gary Morris Music

and their receptionist was a young girl.

She heard me sing a song of mine called

Where Love Is Concerned.

I had heard him perform at the Bluebird

and I was obsessed with the song.

And one day she just came up to me

and said, "Would you teach me

"how to sing with you on that song?"

He goes, "Okay,

"I mean, can you sing?"

I go, "Yeah, I can do it."

He goes, "Okay, well, let's go try it."

So, we go upstairs with the, you know, publisher

and another songwriter was up there

and he plays it and I sing it,

like, note for note with him, the harmony part,

and he goes,

"You're in."

So, the first time I played at the Bluebird Cafe

was with Gary Burr,

I sing harmony for him.

BURR: So, then when I would do showcases,

I made her a part of the band

and fast forward, after many soul crushing rejections

doing my showcases for me,

I decided I was gonna do one more.

Martha Sharp, who is an executive

at Warner Bros. Records was in the audience.

Everybody left except the lady from Warner Bros

and I thought,

"Okay, she must be here for a reason."

"She wants to talk to me," and she did wanna talk to me.

She wanted Faith's phone number

because she said, "I want to give Faith a record deal."

♪ Where love is concerned...

FAITH HILL: Being in that room,

playing in that place

can change your life.

As it did mine.

WOMAN: You're okay?

CRAIG WISEMAN: Got a little surprise.

I was doing a solo thing when I got a phone call

from a friend of mine.

Somebody who I have know since...

Since day one.

We actually did a charity show way back

and this little girl got up

and now she's singing this song

and I was, like, "Holy crap, who's that?"

And I went back to meet her

and she asked me for my autograph,

and I was, like, "I wanted your autograph."

So she called and asked to do this

and, um, ladies and gentlemen,

would you please put your hands together

for Taylor Swift?

WOMAN: Oh, my God.

Oh, my God.

Well, hello!

-Oh, hi. -Hi.

How's this going?

It's... it's... it's...

It's picking up considerably.

Amazing.

SCOTT BORCHETTA: In 2004,

the first time I ever met Taylor Swift was November 2nd.

She said, "Hey, why don't you come and see me on Thursday night?

"I'm playing at the Bluebird."

SWIFT: This is the place where I played in a Writers Night

When I was 14 years old.

And, uh, the guy right in front of me was sitting literally right in front of me,

13 years ago and gave a record deal.

When I first went to Nashville and even before that

I would come here and I'd think

that this was such a rare opportunity to see people

who have written these songs in rooms up and down Music Row.

But when I would play Writers Nights in the round

I was playing songs that

I knew I was gonna be putting out and hopefully...

Hopefully like, praying people would one day hear in the radio.

I didn't have the experience of a writer.

Writing something and then it going out into the world.

Then you're hearing it from someone else's voice and someone else's perspective,

and them putting their own spin on it until Little Big Town

heard a song that I'd written.

And they gave me that opportunity to feel that way.

This's a song called Better Man.

♪ I know I'm probably better off on my own

♪ Than loving a man who didn't know

♪ What he had when he had it

♪ And I see the permanent damage you did to me

♪ Never again, I just wish I could forget when it was magic

♪ I wish it wasn't four a.m., standing in the mirror

♪ Saying to myself, "You know you had to do it,"

♪ I know the bravest thing I ever did was run

♪ Sometimes, in the middle of the night

I can feel you again

♪ But I just miss you, and I just wish

♪ You were a better man

♪ And I know why we had to say goodbye

♪ Like the back of my hand

♪ And I just miss you,

♪ And I just wish you were a better man

♪ A better man

♪ Sometimes, in the middle of the night

♪ I can feel you again

♪ But I just miss you

♪ And I just wish you were a better man

♪ And I know why we had to say goodbye

♪ Like the back of my hand

♪ And I just miss you

♪ And I just wish you were a better man

♪ A better man

♪ We might still be in love, if you were a better man

♪ You would've been the one

♪ If you were a better man

WISEMAN: Good night. Ah, that was a good song.

-That was a good song. -Thanks!

Bluebird Open Mic.

All right, sure. What's your name?

You're guaranteed one song.

If we have extra time at the end,

we do draw straws for your who gets to play a second song.

All right, you're welcome.

MAN: All right. Come on in, guys.

BARBARA CLOYD: When I first moved to town in '83,

the Bluebird was already the cool place to play.

And then a woman named Gail Sherry started the Sunday Writers Night.

And I used to go to that faithfully.

And one night somebody else was filling in for her.

And I'm like, "Well, hey. I could do that."

So, next time I saw her I told her,

"Oh, you know, I used to host open mics in St Louis,

"if you ever need somebody to fill in, I can do that."

That was December of 1986. The first December...

First Monday in 1986 is the first show that I hosted.

Good evening.

I'm Barbara Cloyd and I'm the host for the show

I'm gonna tell you everything you need to know

about how the show runs and then I'll go

run the sound and let the songwriters run the show

This is a Writers Night for you all to play original material.

We have 28 people on the list tonight.

Number One is Michelle Poppola. Two, Credenda.

Three, Cory Wilson. Four, Landon Wall. Five...

LANDON WALL: My name is Landon Wall.

I'm a 14-year-old singer-songwriter.

You know, the Bluebird Cafe's changed my life.

When he was seven years old he went to a guitar store, asked them to take lessons

and they said, "You're too young, come back in a few years."

I showed him a few chords I knew,

and he got online and learnt a few more,

and before you knew it, he was playing guitar.

Hey, guys. This is Landon Wall.

And his is one of my new songs I'm learning.

KEN WALL: At that age

there weren't songs for him to sing

So we started writing songs together.

In the car we'd play game called "The Rhyming Game".

I'd give him a rhyme and he'd have to rhyme back and

we just kinda play that game and he learnt to get good at rhymes,

and then few years ago, he said "That rhyming game,

"you were teaching me how to write songs, weren't you?"

Well, yeah. Yes.

♪ Mary had a little lamb

♪ Its fleece was white as snow

♪ Everywhere the child went

♪ That lamb was sure to go

KEN WALL: We learned about the Bluebird around the same time

as he started playing music and got interested in country music.

I'm a huge Garth Brooks fan.

And I'd seen that, you know, whenever he first played the Bluebird,

that's where he got found.

So, I was like, ever since I was nine years old

it was my dream to play the Bluebird.

- Right when I had just turned ten, I was in Nashville.

And I found out about the Open Mic.

This song is one me and my dad wrote.

He's over there. I love him to death.

CROWD: Great dad.

It's called "Nashville Never Leave You, It's True".

LANDON: Me and my dad we're just riding on the road,

listening to country radio.

And we heard Kelsea Ballerini's Peter Pan.

So, me and him look at each other. And we're like, there's two sides to every story.

So, we gotta write Peter Pan's side of the story.

So, we go home and wrote the song

and we did a little video of it.

♪ Saying I'm a lost boy

♪ Girl that's probably true

♪ Because I lost my mind

♪ When I found myself in love with you

KELSEA BALLERINI: I started getting a lot of tweets about this kid

who had written a response to Peter Pan.

And it was basically why he was Peter Pan.

And it was adorable.

Couple of my friends, they sent me a tweet,

they were like, "Kelsea Ballerini retweeted your song."

I'm like... No way!

And I was in Nashville and I was gonna play the Bluebird.

♪ Lost Boy...

And so, everyone started tweeting me like, "Hey, he's playing the Bluebird,

"he's doing Open Mic night, he's playing tonight."

And I was actually in town.

Thank you.

Oh, my gosh!

- If you're gonna sing the response, - WOMAN: What?

I get to sing mine too.

Great song. He's amazing, y'all!

KEN WALL: From that point on, anytime we were in Nashville,

we had to stay over a Monday so he could play the Bluebird Open Mic,

and looking back at our videos we have of him, we've watched him grow up on that stage.

He's just been embraced.

BARBARA: There's just nothing cooler

than the fact that anybody

whose phone call is one of the 25 that gets through on a Monday,

can stand and play on the stage where Garth Brooks played,

and where Taylor Swift got her deal.

So, every week I get to watch these people come in

from all over the world, and go,

"This is the Bluebird!" I get to go,

"Yeah, it is, isn't it! It's pretty cool."

Thank you all very much.

This is for Jack.

♪ This old guitar and me

♪ And the things that we've been through

♪ C.F. Martin built him

♪ Back in 1942

♪ I remember when we met

♪ I was only seventeen

♪ Spent all my college money

♪ On a half a dozen strings

GILL: It's an aspiring place to young songwriters.

There's a kid that works over here at Nashville

where I go eat breakfast everyday

He's a young writer and he finally got to do

a round at the Bluebird.

You know, and he couldn't have been more excited.

♪ They said your future's written on your face

♪ When you sing those traveling songs

♪ So we headed for Kentucky

♪ With a suitcase full of dreams

♪ Rough-out boots, a few t-shirts

♪ A worn out pair of jeans

LAIRD: Whenever I see new writers, or somebody comes up

to me at the Bluebird,

I hope... What I say to them is,

it can be encouraging, because I've been in those shoes.

You gotta be careful,

to be just encouraging enough.

Every show you do, there's somebody in the audience that

you might make them pack up a U-Haul

and leave everything they love to come here.

♪ Now my dearest old companion

♪ Lies underneath my bed

♪ Our traveling days are over

♪ But the memories fill my head

♪ I've settled with my family

♪ Here in the hills of Tennessee

♪ To teach my children's children

♪ About this old guitar and me

I got a buddy that's here and he's a young kid. He's only 20.

And he's a... He's crazy talented.

A great little guitar player and songwriter and singer.

I just mentioned I was playing tonight,

if he want to come by.

And he goes, "Yeah that's, uh,

"That's a bucket list for me is to get to sing at the Bluebird."

So I thought tonight we might see if we couldn't

get that bucket list to get filled up.

- Jack, would you come sing a song?

- Say hey to my friend Jack Schneider, everybody.

Whoo!

♪ Remember that swing set

♪ In Riverside Park

♪ Remember that cold wind

♪ Blew after dark

♪ Remember the day

♪ I bought my first guitar

♪ Counting coins on the counter

♪ Sure took me far

MAN 1: The Bluebird is almost scary.

Because you're so exposed.

Everywhere there is wall space,

there is someone that you should be nervous to mess up in front of.

HILL: I have played some big places.

I sang the national anthem at the Super Bowl.

But going back to the Bluebird

to sing now,

would probably make me more nervous.

Because the room is full of

the kind of talent you just simply don't see in one place.

At one time ever.

♪ Hoping life gets you again

♪ Remember to dance

SCHNEIDER: Thank you all for letting me, um...

Letting me play a song up here.

Made a dream come true for me tonight.

Young Jacky Schneider right there, y'all.

AMY: This is an exciting night for me.

Of course we have gone through the world's greatest songwriters perform.

But it's also a chance for me to tell you about my plans for the future at the Bluebird.

This has been the celebration of our 25th birthday.

A great year of shows, parties and awards.

I thought a lot about the Bluebird's place in the Nashville community

and how to make sure that it will be here for songwriters

and for Nashville for years to come.

And for that reason, I've made the decision

to entrust to the hands of Nashville Songwriters Association International,

as of January 2008.

NICHOLS: Amy just decided she wanted to retire after her 25 years.

And she had options, lots of people that

perhaps wanted to take over the Bluebird Cafe.

But she decided she wanted to protect its legacy

and make sure it was a home for songwriters.

So she choose to turn it over to NSAI.

So, it's not only songwriter's showcase,

that place where you go to your songwriters.

It's a place where the songwriting community owns it.

WOMAN 3: She left it in good hands to respect her...

Her life's blood, her baby you know.

And also to make sure all of us songwriters

still had a place to go.

One of my dearest friends in the industry

is Erika Wollam Nichols

who succeeded Amy Kurland.

Grows up from being a waitress.

She understands

what this club means.

She understands how important it is.

And she understands how dang cool it is.

NICHOLS: Although I had done many, many things at the Bluebird,

to actually take over Bluebird was a big learning curve.

To really understand how a small business operates from every aspect.

Our budget was getting by,

but it wasn't terrific.

So I needed to work on finding new ways

to generate revenue for the venue.

And at that point,

unfortunately, I got a call from Steve Buchanan at the Grand Ole Opry,

who was working with Callie Khouri to create

a new television show called Nashville.

And they wanted Bluebird team involved in that.

So I thought, "well, here's our opportunity."

♪ I'm old enough to know that

♪ I'm too young to know a thing

♪ But I' seen what I seen

♪ And in you I see everything

♪ I'll ever need

STEVE BUCHANAN: The experience of music at the Bluebird is so pure and honest,

that that really helps convey,

what you're trying to tell people,

about what motivates and drives

songwriters and artists.

CALLIE KHOURI: If you're gonna do a show about Nashville,

you have to put a stake in the ground

around the songwriters,

and is the place that is been the most supportive of the songwriters.

ALL: ♪ The night ain't long enough

♪ I ain't leaving without your love

♪ I ain't leaving without your love ♪

Yay!

NICHOLS: When they came and filmed the pilot at the Bluebird,

of course, nobody knew whether the show was gonna take off to not.

And once it did,

they determined that it would be a good idea

to re-create the Bluebird,

and to build a set that is absolutely remarkable.

And action!

STEVE EARL: I haven't been in the Bluebird in at least 10 years.

Maybe 15 years.

But I shot the penultimate

episode of Nashville.

And I hadn't seen the set that they had built.

And if you're standing on that stage,

I swear to God, you're on stage at the Bluebird cafe.

It's frightening how accurate this is.

CHARLES ESTEN: One of the early things about our show

that made me have hope

that they were so intent on re-creating this room.

CONNIE BRITTON: I never got over, how,

exactly the same

our set of the Bluebird was,

in relation to the real Bluebird.

ESTEN: If they had just some Bluebird-ish type placed there,

I mean, there are shows literally

where we would have showed up to some place called the Blackbird and it would

have been completely different,

but basically the same, no.

This is a cast member of Nashville.

This isn't a set or a location. This is a cast remember.

SAM PALLADIO: My first night in Nashville,

the producers and Callie Khouri took us to the Bluebird

to show it off, to get the essence of what

this character was gonna be,

'cause it is really a character in our show.

This is the most perfect introduction

to what I didn't realize was gonna be the rest of my life.

♪ Sitting here tonight

BOTH: ♪ By the fire light

♪ It reminds me, I already have

♪ More than I should

BRITTON: The Bluebird was really the centerpiece of the show,

I think because it was so important to us,

on the show to really have

the show being about the songwriters.

And to be about the ground of where this music comes from.

ALL: ♪ Two arms around me

♪ Heaven to ground me

♪ And family that always calls me home.

♪ Four wheels to get there

♪ Enough love to share

♪ And a sweet, sweet, sweet song

NICHOLS: We were so lucky to have this cast of actors,

who were also musicians and songwriters.

Who came to the Bluebird, learnt about what we did.

Integrated it into

what we did as part of the songwriting community.

And took what they found from us

and brought it back out to televisions.

BOTH: ♪ Sometimes I'm hard on me

♪ When dreams don't come easily

♪ I wanna look back and say

ALL: ♪ I did all that I could

ESTEN: Nashville the city is not Nashville without the Bluebird.

And Nashville the show

ain't even close to Nashville the show without the Bluebird.

ALL: ♪ I have a life that's good

Hey everybody, welcome to the Bluebird cafe.

Nice to have you all here.

How many people are here for the first time?

Well,

Welcome everybody.

How many of you are fans of the television show Nashville?

Once the television show started to air,

I would say a few weeks into it,

things started to get really, really crazier out here.

Two to three hundred people at a time in the parking lot trying to get in here,

when you see 90 folks at a time.

It was just an onslaught. It was lord of the flies.

It was big shift, it was a life changer for all of us.

And we were completely overwhelmed.

DUKE: There are lot of people here tonight.

I don't know if we're gonna accommodate everybody.

But we'll give you updates periodically.

And, uh, good luck.

All right?

Okay, thank you guys.

At staff meeting each week, we would say to ourselves, "What do we do?"

We had to have security.

Elliot was at the parking lot,

trying to help people be reasonable.

I came here at 7:30 this morning

from Mother's Day, 26 hour trip to Nashville.

And the first place was coming to the Bluebird

and see Sam Palladio.

I was in line at 9:45 and nobody was here, for a 6:00 show.

We heard that Charles Esten was going to be at the Bluebird Cafe tonight.

And we're standing in line hoping to see him.

And we're on our honeymoon.

MAN: Constantly all day long, people are looking in the windows,

tapping on the glass.

A bunch of families pull up, get out the car, they stand in front of the door

and take these family photographs.

We're from Granger, Indiana on a family reunion.

And we're big fans of the Nashville show.

So we wanted to come see the Bluebird cafe

and have our picture taken.

WOMAN: In some ways, the Bluebird was best kept secret in the world.

It always had an audience.

But you could always get in.

And then that TV show came on,

and everything exploded.

The running gag is, now,

"Hey man, I did a round at the Bluebird, we sold out."

I said, "Dude, everybody sells out at Bluebird."

I always ask when we start the show.

Like, "How many of you are from out of town?"

It's like 80 percent, at least.

Everybody in the world now knows about the Bluebird.

And people make their vacation plans based on, "I wanna go to Bluebird."

MAN: It's great to have the folks coming in, we appreciate that.

Maybe could have done without some of the bachelorette parties.

MAN 2: I don't think there's ever been a time where songwriters

were more respected.

The show has made songwriting suddenly become a groovy profession.

We're from Monterey, California. It's actually my 60th birthday weekend.

This is a bucket list thing, so,

I love music, I'm a singer, and I've always wanted to

go here and watch the process of the songwriters.

NICHOLS: So along the stretch of the road,

which used to be the small businesses basically.

Now we have a lot of chains.

We have a huge condo building going up beside our office.

And you just never know what's gonna happen.

They've torn down several buildings next to the Bluebird.

This whole property belongs to the developer.

We're tucked in the middle of what the developer owns.

And all around us is becoming extremely built up

because the developers bought that

piece of a strip mall,

it could be essentially be demolished.

And once they get the order to be able to demolish that building,

who know what will happen to our building, we're about this far

from the wall of the building that the developer owns.

INTERVIEWER: What happens if the strip mall goes away?

I mean, you can't anticipate what that would look like.

Sure, I mean, you could have a plan B, that's, you know,

we get investors and we build a new building.

But, I don't wanna make a decision too quickly

on a space that has a sense of holiness to people.

MAN: Over the years, we've all said, "Why don't we just move? Build a new building."

Then you realize, it's like the new Yankee Stadium,

where everyone would go "Yeah, its's the Bluebird," but not that Bluebird.

MAN 2: The fact that Amy kept it open even when times were hard,

because she really wanted a place for writers in this town.

Anybody else could have easily closed the place down.

I'm sure she had some real financial troubles with it.

AMY: I suppose it would have been nice

to have had a business where I was minting money hand over fist.

But the real joy in this for me is getting to listen to the music

and to participate in helping people that I really love and really admire.

MAN 3: As this town has exploded and grown

and become this giant thing,

what made Nashville unique,

what made Nashville special,

and what keeps Nashville special has been preserved

because of the Bluebird cafe.

No one goes to Europe to see condos.

History is everything.

It breaks my heart driving down Music Row, going,

"Wasn't this historical?" Now we're tearing it all down.

The fact that the Bluebird cafe is still there,

when a lot of money is trying to erase

why everybody is moving here, makes me hopeful.

MAN 3: There's something beautiful about something unassuming.

The Bluebird remains in a place that gets

continually built around and upon, and gentrified.

But it still remains where it's always been.

They never sold out.

They never said, "We can make way more money if we do this, this, this."

They stayed the course.

LAIRD: You can have a great experience sitting in the back corner

sitting at the bar, sitting in the church pews.

That's why I think it's so cool that it's still small.

I know that that hasn't probably been easy to keep that way.

The Bluebird cafe lifted our community up

and gave us a sense of pride and ownership in the community.

WOMAN: The fact that it doesn't change

yet seems to change constantly with the people inside of it

is what's so magical about it.

I want this to be that place when I'm much older

and I'm bringing my grandchildren in here and I can go,

"This is the Bluebird.

"This is what it is and it is what it was."

MAN 4: We know everything's gotta change.

And if change meant, this place would close down,

well, that's not the change I want.

I'd rather it evolve and keep being here

as a showcase for songwriters and a place for artists to find new songs.

And for audiences to hear songs, not just the hits.

But the ones that may never be hits, that may be better than the hits.

♪ The gravity of a dream don't wait around

♪ So you chase it down It throws out of a small town

♪ Fills the parking lot with out-of-state plates

♪ Words are more like wheels They won't stand still

♪ Once they're rolling off of the back of your mind

♪ Trying find some brand new way to say

♪ I love you or I hate you

♪ Or I miss you, goodbye ♪

NICHOLS: We are not just a performance space.

We're a community builder

When they come to audition not everybody is great.

But they're getting a chance.

And that chance means that maybe they can get to be great.

KACEY MUSGRAVES: No matter if you're known,

If you waited in line all day

and you're from Wichita, Kansas,

you're gonna be treated as equally as someone that everyone knows.

The circle has to continue,

and the only way to do that is to keep the doors open

for those that may not have a publishing deal.

All of us, whether we are singer or songwriter, we all got started somewhere.

Nobody knew who we were in the beginning.

And so, there's got to be that place, there's got to be hope.

♪ I end up on the sidewalk trying to get in

♪ Where the troubadour ghosts are whispering

♪ So you show me what you got

♪ And take a breath while the pen drops

♪ These are the songs we sing

♪ These are the truths we tell

♪ These are the words and the rhymes

♪ The lives and the lines making sense to the way it felt

♪ The heaven and the heartbreak

♪ It's all waiting in one place

♪ Where you find that missing part of yourself

♪ You thought you lost

♪ Right here in the songs we sing ♪

NICHOLS: We have people who have been playing here

since Open Mic and Sunday Writers Night

who are playing here on the late shows,

and they're family to us.

We've watched them change

from somebody that is just learning to write a song

to somebody that's got a number one hit.

I mean how many places can say that?

MAN: We're all crazy dreamers, you know.

♪ Way back on the radio dial

♪ The fire got lit inside a bright-eyed child

♪ Every note just wrapped around his soul

♪ From steel guitars to Memphis,

♪ All the way to rock and roll

♪ Oh, I can hear 'em playin'

♪ I can hear the ringin' of a beat up ol' guitar

♪ Oh, I can hear 'em singing

♪ "Keep on dreaming, even if it breaks your heart"

♪ Some dreams stay with you forever

♪ Drag you around but bring you back to where you were

♪ Some dreams keep on gettin' better,

♪ Gotta keep believing if you wanna know

♪ For sure Here we go

♪ Oh, I can hear 'em playing

♪ I can hear the ringin' of a beat up ol' guitar.

-♪Oh, oh -I can hear them singing.

♪ Oh, I can hear em singin',

♪ "Keep on dreamin', even if it breaks your heart"

♪ "Keep on dreamin', even if it breaks your heart" ♪

♪ I know they say

♪ You can't go home again.

♪ I just had to come back one last time.

♪ Ma'am I know you don't know me from Adam.

♪ But these hand prints on the front steps are mine.

♪ Up those stairs, in that little back bedroom

♪ Is where I did my homework and I learned to play guitar.

♪ And I bet you didn't know

♪ In the shade of that live oak

♪ My best dog is buried in the yard

♪ I thought if I could touch this place or feel it

♪ This brokenness inside me might start healing.

♪ Out here it's like I'm someone else,

♪ I thought that maybe I could find myself

♪ If I could just come in I swear I'll leave

♪ Won't take nothing but a memory

♪ From the house that built me ♪