Bob Welch

Bob Welch

Bob Welch is best known as the singer, songwriter and guitarist for legendary rock band Fleetwood Mac AND for his own platinum solo albums and top-ten hits including "Sentimental Lady" and "Ebony Eyes" from French Kiss (Capitol).

Roger Cook

Born in Bristol, England but spending most of his professional songwriting
career in Nashville, Tennessee, Roger Cook has received many accolades,
including five Ivor Novello awards.

Roger is a member of SODS (Society of Distinguished Songwriters)
and is the only British songwriter ever to enter
The Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame.

Chas Sanford

CHAS SANDFORD
Guitar, Vocals
Beaker Street Blues Band guitarist and vocalist, Chas Sandford, played on his first recording session for Ike & Tina Turner at the tender age of fifteen. The many acts he has played with over the years includes the infamous "last" concert in Augusta, GA with James Brown, before the Godfather of Soul went to serve his time in the big house. During his many faceted career, Sanford has been a solo recording artist for Elektra Asylum records, releasing the critically acclaimed album PARALLAX VIEW and has gained status as a mega-hit songwriter, session guitarist, hit producer and engineer. As a songwriter, Chas is the recipient of six ASCAP "Most Performed Songs" Awards, including John Waite's MISSING YOU and Chicago's WHAT KIND OF MAN WOULD I BE?. Some of the other great recording artists Chas has written for and/or produced include, Stevie Nicks, Rod Stewart, Roger Daltry, Don Johnson, Berlin, the aforementioned Chicago and many others. Born in Atlanta, Chas lived and worked in Los Angeles and London for more than 20 years before putting down permanent roots in Nashville.

Been Awhile

It's been awhile since I've written, but the 2006 Tin Pan South festival gave me new info on songwriters indiginous to Nashville. What a great festival it is!!!! check out the link to see pictures and bios.

Tin Pan South

Hey... it's the week for TinPanSouth. Lots of good songwriters are at planned venues throughout the city. We have the likes of Peter Frampton, Jeffrey Steele, Jimbeau Hinson, Rodney Crow, Shawn Colvin, J.D. Souther... and tons more. I noticed that http://www.nashvillerage.com had a great review of who the artists are and what songs they are known for and what venues they will be playing on what nights. This weekend is going to be fun!

Nancy Middleton

It's hard to know exactly what it is about great songwriting that moves people. Whether it's a well-crafted turn of phrase, a passionate plea for understanding, or an astute observation about everyday life, it's an intangible that you can't quite put your finger on. You just know that it's great.

Nancy Middleton is one of those great songwriters. With a wonderful voice that shifts gears seamlessly through the entire spectrum of human emotion, and an arsenal of solid tunes that straddle the line between rock, country, folk and blues, Nancy is a rare gem

The North Carolina native cut her teeth on the cover band circuit, honing her stage-savvy and planting the seeds for a loyal grass-roots following. She molded her experiences into her first release, Homeland, in 1994, and quickly followed with The Way I Do, which shot her to national recognition.

Musician Magazine voted The Nancy Middleton Band one of Musician's Best Unsigned Bands out of a field of over 3,000. Among the all-star judging panel were Steve Winwood, Stone Gossard, Juliana Hatfield, Pat Metheny and Matthew Sweet. Billboard Magazine called her "one of North Carolina's most underrated artists. New Country magazine said "When Nancy Middleton becomes a household name, you can say you heard her here first", and promptly featured the bittersweet "This Town Is Yours" on one of their CD's. Her blues background is evident on tracks like "All I Do Is Cry" and "If It Hadn't Been So Good", and her country roots are strong enough that somebody created a couple of line-dances to her songs. But that wasn't her idea.

Nancy soon transplanted herself to Nashville, fighting for attention amongst an increasingly conservative Music Row who didn't understand her pop sensibilities. She's been favorably compared to the likes of Bonnie Raitt, Lucinda Williams Kim Richey, Mary Chapin-Carpenter and Trish Murphy, but definitely charts her own musical course.

Sarah Siskind

"Sarah Siskind started making records earlier than many people begin collecting records. As a girl growing up in Winston-Salem, N.C., in a family of bluegrass and Celtic musicians, she was encouraged not only to play piano and sing, but to do what too few young students are given the freedom to do: make up her own music.

Much of it was instrumental, which she often played during services at her church. But there also were songs, and she was playing and singing regularly in coffee houses and song contests in her early teens. Home schooled, she had extra time in the afternoons, and she filled many days playing piano at a mall food court to make money to buy a four-track tape recorder, a rudimentary version of what is found in full-size studios.

Her first album-length cassette came out when she was 14. Another project followed at 17, a six-song CD just a few years later.

As a result, Siskind, now 24, worked through most of the trial and error of learning how to record before preparing what amounts to her official debut as a ready-for-prime-time artist. But listening to Covered, a 12-song collection featuring the backing guitar of Bill Frisell and vocals of Jennifer Kimball, one wonders if she's ever erred in her musical judgment.

The independently released project exudes intelligent, emotional atmosphere and moody electricity. Indeed, it is one of the finest albums of any genre to emerge from Nashville this year, and a genuine contribution to the singer/songwriter canon, thanks to its startling originality."

-Craig Havighurst, The Tennessean

read entire article

Julie Lee

The life of Nashville-based singer/songwriter Julie Lee has always been a lesson in assemblage art. She grew up in Maryland on a steady diet of family stories, jazz and folk music, learning early the connection between history and the creative act. The raw ability of music to convey and preserve story mesmerized young Lee, as she watched the world change amidst the timelessness of Ella Fitzgerald and James Taylor.

Later, after earning an art degree, Lee delved into the world of visual art, and found a creative home in the hammering together of rusty junk sculptures. Taking wood and metal relics of history, Lee reassembled them into something new and beautiful: timelessness and change as sculpture. The old and new altogether. Continuity.

By this time, Julie Lee had relocated to Nashville, and was writing music as well as creating visual art. Her Northern roots replanted, she was experiencing for the first time the music of the South: bluegrass and blues and Gospel sat alongside her experience of jazz and folk. "Blues, bluegrass, and jazz to me are very similar," Lee discovered. "It's all a basic structure, and people veer off of that to create these amazing melodies with dissonance."

With a smooth, lilting voice, which gracefully slips across the borders of musical genre, Lee began to experiment with her songwriting, assembling melodies and stories like a patchwork quilt. "I've gotten more interested in other people's stories, and more into writing about my family" she says. "My mother is really into genealogy, and the more I've gotten her to share with me what she knows, the more it's inspired me to do my homework there--to write something true about these people." Listening to the stories of her neighbors, reading biographies at the library, "I try to put myself in that person's shoes and take on another character's voice as my own. I use their vocabulary, and the style with which they'd articulate themselves."

The result of Lee's experimentation with story and song is an ever-growing collection of timelessness and change. Her music is homespun and raw, marrying together the traditional melodies of her musical roots with something new, yet warmly recognizable to the listener's ear. After three self-produced CDs, all recorded in Nashville's historic Downtown Presbyterian Church, the evocative music of Julie Lee is beginning to turn the heads of the music world. Recently, she has supported such artist as Alison Krauss, Vigilantes of Love, and Pierce Pettis.

In 2002, Lee signed a publishing/production deal with Brumley Music, and is set to release her first studio recording, Stillhouse Road. The project, produced by Andy West and Mike Porter, is a culmination of her love for history and creativity. Featuring some of the most talented players in Nashville, Stillhouse Road is a quilt of bluegrass, jazz, blues, and folk. And, much like the appeal of a quilt, Julie Lee is not afraid to let the seams show. A neat, overproduced, perfectly-packaged CD is not what she had in mind. Rather, she wanted to preserve the freshness and intimacy found on her previous recordings. With the talents of such collaborators as Alison Krauss, slide guitar player, Colin Linden (O Brother, Where Art Thou soundtrack, Bruce Cockburn), and bluegrass artist, Dave Peterson (1946), she pulls it off beautifully.

The music of Julie Lee is not simply about nostalgia. "Harlan Howard once said that songwriting is about 'three chords and the truth'. That pretty much sums it up--I long to encourage people--to say something of importance," Lee admits. And the songs of Stillhouse Road do just that. Whether singing with guest vocalist Vince Gill about her own family during the prohibition on the title track, or exploring the deepest implications of faith in songs like "Your Love", each song carries with it a common thread of a time-tested hope, and the possibilities that love can afford. These are the stories proclaimed by her mother and father and Bible, neighbors and biographies. Hope perseveres and many waters cannot quench love. "I gain wisdom from other people's stories," Lee says. With Stillhouse Road, she has offered wisdom gleaned; the kind of wisdom that makes you want to know your own story better.

click here for details of some of the venues Julie's played.

Christmas Break

For anyone who is following this blog. Details and postings will resume after Christmas.

12/14/04 Songwriter events

WILL KIMBROUGH. With ADAM HOOD. Kimbrough is Nashville’s Americana everyman who has found himself wrapped up in the music of almost every artist in town, from Todd Snider to, most recently, Rodney Crowell, through his immense skills as guitarist, singer, songwriter and producer. His own work draws on the intricate guitar lines of Richard Thompson, rough-and-tumble rock of the Replacements, down-home Delta blues and studied songcraftsmanship of Crowded House’s Neil Finn. Opening is South Alabama roots-rocker Hood. 9pm, 3rd & Lindsley, $7. Also, DREW KENNEDY and PETER DAWSON, 7pm, $5

* RAY HERNDON. McBride and the Ride member and longtime sideman to the likes of Kenny Chesney and Marty Stuart, Herndon had scored eight country hits before ever venturing out on his own. But on his 2004 solo debut, Livin’ the Dream, he didn’t exactly step out alone: Jon Randall, Lyle Lovett, Jessi Colter, and Clint Black all make vocal contributions to this star-studded disc. 7pm, Borders Books & Music (Nashville), free.

* DOUG JOHNSON, DARRELL BROWN, TY HERNDON and GARY BURR. Herndon is a certified country star and a respected writer. Burr is a Music Row hit machine, and Johnson scored NSAI’s Song Of The Year in 2003 for his Three Wooden Crosses. 9pm, Bluebird Cafe, $12. Also, JEREMY CAMPBELL, NOAH GORDON, GEORGE McCORKLE and SPADY BRANNEN, 6:30pm, free.

Open Mike/Writer’s Nights

DEBI CHAMPION’S WRITERS NIGHT. With host DEBI CHAMPION featuring RALPH MURPHY, RAY SISK, MISTY LOGGINS, TIM STANLEY, TIM HAYNES, MICHELLE MOLNER, ASHLEY FILIP, CHRIS HUDSON, DIANNA JONES, BOB MOGAN, STEVE LIBBY, SHANE JONES, JASON EUSTICE, BILL GOFF, BRYAN WYNICK, SHANNON CAIN, JOHN RUSSELL, BOB TURK, DAMON SMITH, CRAIG WINQUIST and SCOTT JARMAN. 6pm, Commodore Sports Bar & Grille, free.

OPEN MIKE WRITERS NIGHT. With host CHET O’KEEFE. 8pm, Douglas Corner Cafe, free.

Q’S PHAT TUESDAY OPEN JAM. 8pm, Boardwalk Cafe, free.

LEE RASCONE’S WRITERS NIGHT. With STEVE FRAME, MERSAIDEE SOULES, TREVA BLOOMQUIST, TIM MATTHEWS, BRANDON RICKMAN, plus other special guests. 6:30pm, Nashville crossroads, free.

* SHORTSETS. With host COLE SLIVKA featuring CARRIE MILLS, DANA COOPER and TOM KIMMEL. One of the city’s most consistently cool writer’s nights, featuring tunesmiths who primarily dwell outside of the Nashville mainstream. 8pm, The Family Wash, free.

12/13/04 Monday Night Songwriters Events

WRITERS NIGHT. With host DAVID WARREN REED featuring JIMBEAU HINSON and TOMMY BARNES. 7pm, Boardwalk Cafe, free.

MIKE HENDERSON BAND. With MICHAEL RHODES, JOHN JARVIS and PAT O’CONNOR. With limber slide guitar work and hotter-than-Texas six-string solos, Henderson is known as one of Music City’s top blues cats. His guitar playing and songwriting skills have resulted in work with top-shelf talents like Mark Knopfler and Trisha Yearwood. 9:30pm, Bluebird Cafe, $7.

Also, OPEN MIKE NIGHT hosted by BARBARA CLOYD, 6pm, free

MOKE CAMERON’S WRITERS NIGHT. With CHARLIE BROWN, SCOTT CARTER and TOM WORTH. 6:30pm, French Quarter Cafe, free.

OPEN MIKE WRITERS NITE. With host LORI JOHNSON. 8pm, The Sutler, free.

WRITERS NIGHT. With host DAVID WARREN REED featuring JIMBEAU HINSON and TOMMY BARNES. 7pm, Boardwalk Cafe, free.

12/10 Friday Night!!!!

DAVE OLNEY. This looks like the place to be. A charter member of the songwriting pantheon that includes Guy Clark and Townes Van Zandt, Olney weds historical and philosophical referents to common human concerns, balancing a dark view of power and greed with gentle love songs. Phenomenal folk-country songwriter Olney is what some would call an artists’ artist. Even if you haven’t heard of him, we can almost guarantee that some of the singers and songwriters you like are big fans of his. 9pm, Bongo After Hours, $10.

PHILLIP KYLE, ARLIS ALBRITTON, GREG POPE, & JOHN GRIFFIN IN THE ROW: 6:30 pm, Bluebird Cafe, $10 late show

GARY NICHOLSON W/TOM HAMBRIDGE, COLLIN LINDEN, & WHITEY JOHNSON: 9:30 pm, Bluebird Cafe

CHRIS KNIGHT. With THE COAL MEN and STACIE COLLINS. Raw and rough, Knight writes real-life tunes about the rural life around him growing up in the coal-mining town of Slaughters, Ky., and performs with an unpretentious and convicted voice. His music has been embraced by the burgeoning Americana movement, but they used to call what he sings country music. 9pm, Mercy Lounge, $10, 21+.

MONROE APPRECIATION NIGHT. Hosted by ROLAND WHITE and featuring THE CHERRY HOLMES FAMILY, LARRY STEPHENSON BAND, ROLAND WHITE BAND, LEROY TROY, KATHY CHIAVOLA, PATTY MITCHELL, JT & PAUL GRAY, THE SIDEMEN, PAT ENRIGHT, DAVID GRIER, JON WIESBERGER and SHADD COBB. There’s no better place to have a Bill Monroe tribute night than Nashville, and no better venue for it than Station Inn. Where else could you corral a lineup like this, which includes pickers who actually played with Big Mon himself? 8pm, Station Inn, $12.

ALLEN SHAMBLIN. With TIM JOHNSON and RORY LEE. Shamblin is the kind of songwriter you hope young tunesmiths aspire to emulate. He’s had hits you can hang your hat on, like Bonnie Raitt’s I Can’t Make You Love Me, John Michael Montgomery’s Life’s A Dance and Keith Urban’s Where the Blacktop Ends. One of his songs has even been turned into an award-winning children’s book, Don’t Laugh at Me, which was featured on Reading Rainbow. Shamblin will almost certainly bring along copies of his very first CD, Sunrise, which features 11 narrative tunes collected to form a loose concept record. 6:30pm dinner, 8pm show, Puckett’s After Hours, $12 show only, $27.95 dinner and show.

THE JACK SILVERMAN ORDEAL. This looks good too... and it's free. Wicked guitarist Silverman winds his way through John Scofield covers and like-minded, extended originals. His stellar " ordeal " often includes horn player Jim Hoke, trombonist Roy Agee and drummer Tommy G. 9:30pm, The Family Wash, free.

DEBI CHAMPION'S WRITERS' NIGHT FEAT. JIMMY PAYNE, KARG BROTHERS, CHRIS CAVANAUGH, KARLENE WATT, SHANE JONES, & MORE: 6 pm, Commodore Lounge

BRANDON GUNTER: 7 pm, Murphy's Loft Cafe
In 2000 Brandon wrote and produced all 13 tracks of his first record in 12 years, War About Love. The project is a testament to the passion and intensity with which Brandon approaches his life and relationships and views the world around him. Since the release Brandon has built a loyal and die-hard following of people drawn to the honesty and passion infused in Brandon's music and live shows.

OPEN MIC: Maybe an early start to the evening trying your christian songs out on the crowd. 7 pm, 23rd Psalm Cafe Kudos to MTSU Jazz faculty members Aliquo (on sax) and Simmons (trumpet) for taking the lead in establishing a regular gathering place for aspiring players who want to test the waters and for vets who just want to sit in and cook.