Be my guide: Janis Ian surfaces at Nashville’s Bluebird Cafe

Leading up to my stop in Nashville on my reader-driven road trip, I was skeptical. Readers had made comparatively few suggestions for music spots there, despite the trip having been featured on the city’s tourism Twitter page, which made me consider crossing Music City off the list.

I didn’t. Instead I went to the Bluebird Cafe, the only Nashville suggestion that I got with any frequency or gusto. (Sorry, Grand Ole Opry)  James Robinson and Jenny Steuber had sent e-mails urging me to stop at the Bluebird, which has long been a major grounds for local songwriters.

Bluebird Cafe is outside the downtown nightlife scene, and I had initially driven by the small storefront. Not only was the place tiny, but it was dead silent, with not a soul lurking outside. Was it closed? On a Saturday night? I later found out that what was happening inside was so spectacular that no one in the place even thought about missing a beat.

Bluebird was packed with more than a hundred mostly older patrons. In any other densely populated area, you wouldn’t be able to hear yourself think. But here, it was quiet except for the music.

Janis Ian, Craig Carothers and Gretchen Peters sat in the middle of the joint, each holding an acoustic guitar.  Every chair faced the songwriters, and everybody stared in awe.

In between songs, the three singers, who had played together many times before, would banter. When the gray-haired Ian, Ian, who penned the 1975 Grammy-winning song “At Seventeen,” spoke, everyone listened.  Only a handful of people can throw in the phrase, “I once played with Billy Joel,” in conversation.

Bluebird musicians are asked to play only original songs, but when Ian says she wants to do a cover, no one objects. As her hands slide up and down the frets of her black guitar in an introductory riff, the audience listens intently to find out which country or folk act she is giving an endorsement to. “Love, love me do,” Ian sings with a jazzy nod to an early Beatles hit. “You know I love you.”

As she plays a rendition that would send chills down your back, some people nod their heads and smile  almost uncontrollably, an unspoken acknowledgment that they’re witnessing a masterpiece being painted in front of their eyes (or ears, rather).

By the end, Ian was smiling too. “That was fun,” she said with a cowboy laugh.

Following Ian must be intimidating, but Carothers did so with his signature soft, endearing melodies that include little accompaniment. Peters’ commanding, angelic voice and the tone of her between-song banter mirrored that of indie musician Neko Case.

After Bluebird, I drove to Broadway, Nashville’s own sort of mini-Las Vegas Strip. Bright neon lights punctuated the bar scene with illuminated guitars and cowboy-hat signs. The bands were your average, late-night cover band. But the girls — boy-howdy. There was nothing ordinary about the girls.

To make a sweeping generalization, Nashville had the hottest bunch of ladies of any city I’ve been to so far. Most seemed to be practically carbon copies of one another with varying shades of hair color. (The default model, however, comes in blond.)

To my pleasant surprise, some of them were also incredibly easy to impress. Saying I’m a writer for a major newspaper or even the concept of living in Los Angeles held their attentions for some time.

But the reliable East Coast pickup line, “I play guitar in a band,” fell flat. Nashville has musicians on every street corner carrying every type of instrument. Saying you play guitar is like boasting about having a cellphone or being able to operate a car.

Although cowboy hats and nauseatingly bad country music filled the air downtown, I’m glad I didn’t miss Nashville. I’ve added another Tennessee stop — Memphis. The number of readers who urged me to stop there was overwhelming. The home of Graceland will replace Montgomery, Ala., on the tour.

To provide travel tips for my two-week road trip, inspired by music, send e-mails to mark.milian@latimes.com, leave comments on the Los Angeles Times Daily Travel & Deal Blog or, for those on Twitter, send tweets to @mmilian. To follow my road trip status live, visit http://twitter.com/mmilian. For the trip schedule and cities, check out earlier posts.

— Mark Milian, Los Angeles Times staff writer

[Photos from the top: Gretchen Peters (left) and Janis Ian perform at the Bluebird Cafe; Janis Ian plays her black acoustic guitar. Credit: Mark Milian / Los Angeles Times]

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This entry was posted on Sunday, June 28, 2009 at 1:49 pm by Mark Milian and is filed under Be My Guide, Celebrity, News, Tips & Advice, Southern States, Summer, Travel Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.