Acoustic versions and ‘stories behind the songs’
By Preshias Harris
If you were able to attend the history-making 2023 Tin Pan South Songwriters Festival, then you were a lucky human. From hearing the stories behind the songs that included: ‘The Dance”, “Amazed”, ‘Check Yes or No”, “The Most Beautiful Girl”, “Ships That Don’t Come In”, “The River”, “Beer With Jesus”, “Daddy Wasn’t The Cadillac Kind”, “She Had Me At Heads Carolina”, “All About That Bass” “Whiskey Glasses” and I could go on for days… :D. If there was a place where GOOSEBUMPS came from, it might be a Tin Pan South show…
2023 marked the 31st annual Tin Pan South Songwriters Festival presented by Nashville Songwriters Association International with presenting partner Regions Bank. Once again, the Festival pretty much took over Nashville, March 28 – April 1, with hundreds of performances at ninety-eight shows spread across ten venues: The Bluebird Cafe, The Vinyl Lounge, Cross Eyed Critters Watering Hole (Graduate Hotel), Hard Rock Cafe, The Listening Room Cafe, Analog at Hutton Hotel, the Lounge at City Winery, Commodore Grille, and Live Oak.
Again this year, numerous recording artists made unannounced appearances to play acoustic versions of their hit songs. Scroll down to see a sampling of those ‘surprise guests’ and the hit writers (and rising newcomers) that appeared at the various venues across Music City.
Backstory: The Tin Pan South Songwriters Festival is an annual festival of songwriters in Nashville, Tennessee. It was established by the 4,500+ members Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI) in 1993. Every year since 1993 people have come from around the world to hear the songwriters (our unsung heroes) play the songs that made a memory or changed people’s lives.
It includes all different genres of music, and features both professional and up and coming songwriters in the US and all around the globe. The name was derived from Tin Pan Alley, a district of Manhattan near West 28th Street, where music publishers flourished as far back as 1885.
Tin Pan South was created to celebrate the songwriting community in Nashville and beyond. Venues host two shows each night, typically with four to five to songwriters sharing the stage in an “in the round” format. The festival is a five day festival for songwriters including nights of “songwriter in the round” shows held at ten venues around Music City and includes hitmakers from all genres.
Back in 2019, Tin Pan South was named “the world’s largest ‘Original Music’ songwriter festival” according to the Nashville Convention & Visitors Corporation.
Country stars that including Garth Brooks, Chris Young, Lee Roy Parnell, Kassi Ashton, Callista Clark, Larry Gatlin, Maddie & Tae, Mitchell Tenpenny, Michael Martin Murphy, CJ Solar, Eric Paslay, Ty Herndon, Ingrid Andress, Radney Foster, Chase Rice and Dylan Scott among others, made you say, “I DON’T WANT IT TO END.”
Artists surprising us in the first few days of the festival include Carly Pearce (Tuesday at The Bluebird Cafe [Amazon Music Stage]), Jo Dee Messina (Tuesday at The Listening Room [Visit Music City Stage]), Brad Tursi (Wednesday at The Listening Room [Visit Music City Stage]), Kate York (Wednesday at The Bluebird Cafe [Amazon Music Stage]), ERNEST (Wednesday at Cross-Eyed Critters Watering Hole [Tennessee Entertainment Commission Stage]), Ben Earle (Wednesday at The Lounge at City Winery [Recording Academy Songwriters and Composers Wing Stage]) and Thursday at Cross-Eyed Critters Watering Hole [Tennessee Entertainment Commission Stage].
Some of the newcomers as performers were: John Haywood, Liam Stolly, Mark Taylor, Bryan Ruby, Matt Koziol, Bre Kennedy, Jessica Sharman, Hadley Kennary, Bethany Joy Lentz, Josh Melton, HunterGirl, among others.
Tin Pan South favorites that took the stage were: Songwriter of the Decade – Ashley Gorley, Tony Arata, Marv Green, Wynn Varble, Brett James, Danny Wells, Matraca Berg, Steve Cropper, Jeffery Steele, Dave Gibson, Barry Dean, Mark Irwin, Aaron Barker, Clint Daniels, Anthony L. Smith, Josh Dorr, Laura Veltz, Rodney Clawson, Joel Shewmake, Allen Shamblin, Luke Laird, Lori McKenna, Keesy Timmer, Tenille Townes. Rivers Rutherford, Emily Weisband, Greg Friia, Mitch Rossell, Mike Reid, Paul Overstreet, Rory Bourke and more who told the stories behind the hit songs they’ve written and also performed their chart-topping songs. With over 400 plus songwriter’s performing it’s hard to name everyone… But please go to www.tinpansouth.com to read and smile with full stories and wonderful highlights.
Throughout the festival, songwriters have encouraged and inspired thousands of fans, leaning on the power of music for the community as it carries on with heavy hearts and the utmost respect for the victims and anyone affected by the recent tragedy at Covenant School. At several of the shows it began with prayers for their families, our community that was affected by this horrific tragedy.
Note: Some of the venues had to close early due to serious weather threats during the Festival.
ABOUT NSAI: Established in 1967, NSAI is the world’s largest not-for-profit songwriters trade association supporting 78+ chapters throughout the U.S. and beyond and a membership of nearly 5,000 professional and developing songwriters of all genres.
With the 55-year-strong mission to advocate, educate, elevate and celebrate the songwriter, NSAI has successfully led numerous legislative endeavors to protect the rights and profession of songwriting nationwide and acts as a unifying force within the music community at large. Nashville, Tennessee is home to its headquarters and NSAI shines the spotlight on the art of songwriting year-round as the proud owner of the legendary Bluebird Cafe, and through numerous songwriter-focused events including the world’s largest annual festival of its kind, the Tin Pan South Songwriters Festival.
If you are interested in songwriting but unsure where to start, go to https://www.nashvillesongwriters.com and sign up to receive a seven-day introduction to NSAI’s services at no charge.
THANKS AND KUDOS: Tin Pan South partnered with a number of organizations who have curated shows for the 31st annual festival. ASCAP, BMI and SESAC who all showcased their writers on Tuesday night of the festival, and The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum returned with a show of legends on the Amazon Music stage at The Bluebird Cafe on Thursday. As previously announced, Austin’s award-winning listening room, The Saxon Pub, participated in the festival this year as part of an exchange with The Bluebird Cafe and NSAI.
Tin Pan South’s corporate partners are Regions Bank (title sponsor), Southwest® Airlines (official airline partner), NewsChannel 5 (official broadcast partner), Amazon Music, Jack Daniel’s, Visit Music City, ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, Graduate Hotel, and Hutton Hotel.
Note: an earlier version of this story misspelled photographer Tori Perry‘s name. Our apologies for the error.
Preshias Harris is an advocate for songwriters and a music career development consultant with the emphasis on new and aspiring artists and songwriters. Her book, ‘The College of Songology 101: The Singer/Songwriter’s Need to Know Reference Handbook’ is available at www.collegeofsongology.com Follow her blog at www.nashvillemusicline.com @PreshiasHarris #PreshiasHarris