There was a time when only the Tin Pan Alley in New York City was taken seriously as a commercial songwriting hub. Like vaudeville, those days are long gone. Since professional music-making has been concentrated in Nashville for over half a century — country music especially, of course — the Nashville Songwriters Association International is more than justified in laying claim to the nostalgic Northern name for its annual songwriter festival, Tin Pan South.
This is the festival's 18th year of throwing a spotlight on notable songs and writers, in addition to the profession itself. Proceeds still go toward the nonprofit trade organization's advocate efforts for songwriters, and most of the shows spread over five days still feature folks who've penned hits — again, especially, though not exclusively, for country music — trading songs in-the-round. But a few of the venues have changed (Hard Rock Cafe is now one of them), and — given freefalling record sales and, consequently, royalties — working and aspiring songwriters in the audience are bound to be listening a little harder for clues to a formula for success.
There are some grizzled veterans among the 300-plus songwriters showcasing. Two days into the festival, an April 1 round at Station Inn features Dallas Frazier, who had a hit 50 years ago with a novelty pop song about a caveman ("Alley Oop"), supplied George Jones with many a honky-tonk weeper the following decade and saw the Oak Ridge Boys score big with his country-R&B number "Elvira." Joining him are Dickey Lee (responsible for the 1962 teen tragedy "Patches"), Buzz Cason (co-writer of Robert Knight's disco-anticipating soul hit "Everlasting Love") and Billy Swan (who wrote and recorded the 1974 rockabilly-pop number "I Can Help").
The lineup at the Rutledge April 1 includes three songwriters who've been on the performing end of the equation plenty, in addition to penning upbeat hits for other acts: NRBQ's Al Anderson had a hand in Trisha Yearwood's rollicking two-step "Powerful Thing" and Carlene Carter's hopped-up "Every Little Thing"; fiddler, picker and singer Shawn Camp chipped in on Josh Turner's energetic country come-on "Firecracker"; and Tiny Town guitarist Pat McLaughlin contributed to Steve Wariner's British Invasion-tinged '80s country-rock hit "Lynda."
Experts in the earnest, emotionally stirring art of the contemporary country ballad gather at the Bluebird Cafe April 2. That bill includes Karyn Rochelle (Trisha Yearwood's "Georgia Rain"), Shane McAnally (Lee Ann Womack's "Last Call"), Cory Batten (Blake Shelton's "She Wouldn't Be Gone") and Kent Blazy (everything from Garth Brooks' very first hit, "If Tomorrow Never Comes" to Chris Young's recent one, "Getting You Home").
Convening at the Listening Room April 1 is a group of performing songwriters who are a little more outside the mainstream. Claire Lynch has had Patty Loveless and Kathy Mattea cuts, but she's better known for having one of the sweeter voices in bluegrass. Irene Kelley occupies similar territory, though her musical output leans a little more toward roots country; Alan Jackson cut her song "A Little Bluer Than That." Matt King was once a major label country singer, but in recent years his albums have taken a turn toward Southern gothic storytelling. Emmylou Harris has cut some of David Olney's songs, but his focus is mainly on doing his own thing as a deft deliverer of folk-blues character sketches.
Three out of four songwriters in the April 3 round at 3rd and Lindsley established themselves in an occasionally overlooked branch of the music industry in Nashville, contemporary Christian music. Don Chaffer is one of them, co-leader (with his wife, Lori) of the forward-thinking alt-folk-rock band Waterdeep. Jennifer Knapp is another, a confessional singer-songwriter in an Indigo-Girls-meet-Natalie-Merchant vein, who's only just re-emerged after a seven-year absence from music. Charlie Peacock is a man of many talents: a sharp pop singer with jazz sensibilities and an erstwhile label head who's produced a slew of acts, Christian and otherwise. Trent Dabbs, the odd man out, writes exactly the sort of sweeping, refined pop songs that producers of Grey's Anatomy and One Tree Hill want behind their dramatic scenes.
Email music@nashvillescene.com.
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