Wednesday evening in Nashville Garth Brooks dropped in to surprise a gathering of writers at the Bluebird Cafe that wrote or co-wrote with Garth on some of his monster hits. Garth sang or harmonized on tunes by Pat Alger, Kent Blazy, Kim Williams, Tony Arata, Dewayne Blackwell, Victoria Shaw, Stephanie Davis, and Larry Bastian. Garth's wife Sandy (who has writing credit on "That Summer" along with GB and Alger) sat behind Garth for the entire two hours of performing and storytelling. On several occasions Garth turned around to tap her on the knee as if to say this song was meant for her.

GARTH DETAILS Garth reminisced about the first time he heard Tony Arata sing "The Dance" at a Bluebird writer's night. It was one of those nights that the audience wasn't paying attention, but Garth says he was spellbound by the song. "That was one time in my life when I was glad nobody heard what I heard," Brooks said.

Larry Bastian ("Unanswered Prayers," "Rodeo") quipped, "Garth dragged our family kicking and screaming into affluence."

Stephanie Davis, from Montana, sang "Wolves" and mentioned that the song was written for her grandparents, when they lost their ranch. She told Garth that she had used the royalties from the song to buy them another ranch right down the road from their original home.

Tony Arata said that most of the writers there, who were comrades in the old days, were delighted when they first heard Garth had landed a recording contract. "We felt like one of us had broken out of the pen, had made it over the wall." Kent Blazy added, "Only to hit another wall!" (All these great writers have gathered in Nashville to record original versions of their hit songs for an album. No details of album title or label were revealed).


USA Today --
"Bluebird Cafe Nurtures Songwriters With Heart"
May 6, 1992
By David Zimmerman

Respectful whoops sound when part-time construction worker and around-the-clock songwriter Tony Rosario introduces a song by saying Randy Travis has put a "hold" on it because he's considering it for his next album.

Then, as Rosario sits in a circle with three other aspiring singer/songwriters in the center of the tiny Bluebird Cafe, he sings his heart out on "The Lonesome Cowboy Waltz." All around, the audience sits perfectly still.

It's the early show at the remarkable Bluebird Cafe, which holds only 110 people. Almost anybody who's anybody has performed here since owner Amy Kurland flung open the doors 10 years ago.

This is where Garth Brooks nailed down his record contract, where stars like the Sweethearts of the Rodeo, Kathy Mattea, and T. Graham Brown were discovered, and where an unknown Vince Gill honed his chops.

A Bluebird dishwasher/bartender, Mark Irwin, wrote the Alan Jackson hit "Here in the Real World;" waitress Liz Hengber this year got on stage to sing her No. 1 song, "For My Broken Heart" (recorded by Reba McEntire).

"It's unlike any other club in the country," says Rosario, who flew in from Colorado on a Sunday night in November 1990 and auditioned that night in Kurland's office. He passed and got a performance slot. "I was terrified."

Even nobodies -- talented or otherwise -- get a shot.

Monday evenings, the microphone's open to anyone. Outside, 30 or 40 aspiring performers line up; some have traveled thousands of miles. When the door opens, all rush in to write their names on a piece of paper. Twenty-five are drawn; each gets to sing two songs.

"Most of them perform with tremendous heart, and people listen with such respect," says Kurland. "Nobody laughs or snickers or even talks through the songs, no matter how awful they are."

Occasionally, there's a find. That person might be invited to perform in the Sunday night writers' show, then maybe in the more prestigious first-Sunday-night-of-the-month show, then on a special "picks" night. With luck, an opening-act spot will open up and maybe, just maybe, the heady role of featured act.

On writers' night, Kurland gives grades, "anything from a flat-out F to an A" (That's what Brooks got).

The Sunday night songwriters' show is a favorite. Kurland says it's booked "six months ahead for people to play three songs for free."

"This is like college for songwriters," say Rosario, part of the creative crew whose songs feed an entire industry. "Everybody's hustling to try to learn the craft and step up into the next level of the hierarchy."

Songs broken in at the Bluebird aren't only hard-time country. Folk-pop performer Janis Ian is a regular, as is jazz saxophonist Jay Patten, who played at the Bluebird's hatching and returns for its 10th anniversary celebration June 1-6.

"Country," Kurland pronounces, "is just a big word for everything that isn't rock."

Members of the staff, nearly all singer/songwriters themselves, help out with the advice. "I don't say 'No,'" says Kurland, 34. "I say, 'You're not ready. Let me give you some suggestions.' Or maybe, 'You don't sound like you meant that song. It doesn't some from your heart. I need to hear about something that happened to you.' Some people get mad, but most are dying to get some honest advice. They're not going to get it from their mothers."

Forget overnight success, says Kurland. "It's very much a buzz town. Everybody's got to start talking about you. It's not just a matter of one show."

First step: "The Dance"

On a recent night at the Bluebird Cafe, songwriter Tony Arata and his wife, Jan, same to hear some new young songwriters.

It was the early show, the same one he and another struggling songwriter names Garth Brooks were doing in 1987 when Arata introduced "The Dance."

Arata, who was paying his rent working at United Parcel Service, recalls that Brooks, who worked in a boot store, like "The Dance" so much, he promised, "'If I ever get a (recording) deal, I'm gonna do that song.'"

"Sure enough, he did," says Arata. Now the life-as-a-dance song is a country classic, and Brooks is a household name. Arata's stock has risen, too: "He's recently had songs recorded by Delbert McClinton, Dan Seals, and Suzy Bogguss.

The Bluebird is "the proving ground," says Arata, who moved to Nashville from Savannah, GA. "Almost everybody who comes to town is going to wind up here at one time or another. The first people we met were from New Jersey."

Who has the right stuff

Bluebird Cafe owner Amy Kurland advises many of the 2,500 songwriters who perform at the club each year. She has definite notions about what makes a good country song. "I want not singulars rhyming with plurals, no 'M's' rhyming with 'N's.' I go overboard on that. And I am not a big fan of the rhymes 'me' and 'Tennessee' or 'arms' and 'charms' or 'pain' and 'rain.' If you've heard them once, you've heard them a trillion times"

And only the go-for-broke people need apply.

"If you're willing to give up everything and come wait tables, we got tables that need waiting, But if you think you've got this one song you wrote that's really great and you're going to make your fortune and you won't have to work again, that's not going to get it."

"You have to be willing to do it for free for the rest of your life and care about it."