Tin in Tenn.

America’s largest music festival dedicated to songs and songwriters, Tin Pan South is celebrating its 17th year as the signature event put on by the Nashville Songwriters Association International. In the past, the event has boasted such luminaries as Townes Van Zandt, Garth Brooks, Jimmy Webb and Loretta Lynn, but as anyone in Nashville knows, it’s not usually the superstars doing the emotional woodshedding that results in those chart-topping tunes. Tonight’s showcase at the Mercy Lounge will feature a trio of purty penners, each boasting numerous Billboard bullets. Suzy Bogguss, who in the late ‘80s and ‘90s bridged the gap between the classic country of a Trisha Yearwood and the aberrant Americana of a Sam Phillips, headlines the event. Also on the bill are Gretchen Peters (who wrote standout songs for Martina McBride, Etta James, Bonnie Raitt, The Neville Brothers, George Strait and Neil Diamond) and Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame member Matraca Berg, whose song “I Don’t Feel Like Loving You Today,” co-written with Jim Collins and performed by Gretchen Wilson, was nominated for a Grammy in 2007.
Tue., March 31, 6 p.m., 2009