WWC: Tin Pan South

According to the website, Tin Pan South is "America's largest music festival dedicated to songs and songwriters". This is the fifteenth year that several hundred songwriters will perform in near a hundred shows during the last week of March, thanks to the Nashville Songwriters Association International.

Although Willi and I make at least one trip to Nashville each year, this is only the third time for Tin Pan South. In fact, Nashville has become a very comfortable place for us now. We have never been to Opryland, or any of the other slick, high priced places, but we can tell you all the good venues for small, up close and personal performances. We always hit lower Broadway and places like the infamous Tootsies, but the best shows are far from the lights and action. The nice thing about Tin Pan South is that the shows are already lined up with a schedule to boot.

We ordered our "Fast Access" Passes last week. They get us into the venues without the wait in line. There are two shows a night, for five nights, in each of nine different locations. Each show usually has at least four performers "in the round" and are timed so that you can get from one to the other without too much hassle. A lot of times the writers will stay after and just play for fun. Sometimes they mingle after the show which is kind of cool, in a scary sort of way. The only real problem we ever have is if two people we really want to see are playing at the same time in different locations. That sucks.

Trolling the huge list of performers, here are a few of the ones we have enjoyed, or will sure try to see this year... Harley Allen, Tony Arata, Bonnie Baker, Matraca Berg, Suzy Boggus, Chuck Cannon, Grayson Capps, Marshall Chapman, Rodney Crowell, Justin Townes Earle, Danny Flowers, Radney Foster, Dr. John, Jelly Roll Johnson, Will Kimbrough, Fred Knobloch, Wood Newton, David Olney, Lee Roy Parnell, Jon Randall, Rivers Rutherford, Mando Saenz, Thom Schuyler, Darrell Scott, John Scott Sherrill, Michelle Shocked, John David Souther, Jeffrey Steele, Joy Lynn White, Walt Wilkins, and Tommy Womack. Many of them are performers in their own right; most of all they are writers. It is a real kick to hear them perform the songs they wrote. Their credits will be listed on the link above.

Aside from the music, we have found several places for local brews and great food, including oysters on the half shell. Last year our find was a little place called the Crescent Cafe and Oyster Bar. You can bet we will be back there this year.

Then there is the annual hunt for the first Redbud and Dogwood bloom. Last year we found Cheekwood, a museum and botanical garden that was outstanding. The best part was their collection of Trillium, one of Willi's favorites.

We did not find even one Dogwood in bloom until the very last day, and it was just beginning to open. But, oh what joy!

Courtesy of Odd Mix, the words are Rush and Wait.

The Fast Access Passes are ready and waiting to be picked up. The list of artists is posted and updated daily. The show schedule is due to come out March 5th. The hotel reservations are made. Even Cali's hotel reservations are made. I'm so excited I can hardly stand it. It was a rush to get it all going, now all I can do is hurry up and wait.


NEWS FLASH!! Willi has posted his Mocha Latte recipe... can you believe it?