Friday, 11/09/07

Bluebird Cafe: Songwriters will own club they love
Nashville Songwriters Association International acquires Amy Kurland's gourmet restaurant-turned legendary club, effective Jan. 1

By NAOMI SNYDER
Staff Writer

The Bluebird Café has nurtured Nashville songwriters for 25 years. Now, the songwriters will nurture the Bluebird.

Amy Kurland, who started The Bluebird in 1982 as a gourmet restaurant, is selling the now-legendary club to the Nashville Songwriters Association International. The group promises not to change a thing.

"I wanted to retire, but I didn't want The Bluebird to go away,'' said Kurland, 52.

The Bluebird has served as a testing ground for countless songwriters and artists, including Faith Hill and Trisha Yearwood. Capitol Records executives discovered Garth Brooks there in 1988.

Brooks found his 1990 hit "The Dance" while visiting the Bluebird one night. Club dishwasher/bartender Mark Irwin wrote the Alan Jackson hit "Here in the Real World."

"Something special happens in these walls that happens nowhere else in the world, and we would be fools to tamper with that,'' said NSAI Executive Director Bart Herbison. The nonprofit group has about 5,000 members.

The sale, which was announced at a Thursday night performance by Country Music Hall of Famer Kris Kristofferson, takes effect Jan. 1.

"They didn't have a place like this when I was here" writing songs, Kristofferson said. "When I came, songwriters were at the bottom of the food chain. We were bugs. This Bluebird Café is a place where songwriters can show their stuff. When I was here, you had to go to somebody's house."

Songwriters often say they get spoiled playing at The Bluebird because the well-behaved, adoring audience is hard to replicate anyplace else.

"I love to play here," said singer-songwriter Rodney Crowell. "Whenever we're working on a new record, I bring my band here to rehearse in front of an audience. You can do that kind of thing here."

'Real boost for NSAI'

Neither Kurland nor Herbison would discuss terms of the deal, saying only that the price was in the low hundreds of thousands — less than the business is worth. Kurland said she will retain ownership of the real estate and lease it to NSAI.

Gary Smith, an owner of music business accounting and management firm Smith Wiles & Co. in Nashville, said the Bluebird as a business could be worth millions of dollars.

"I would tend to think the owner has a soft spot for songwriters, and she's gone out of her way to help the songwriters," he said. "That's probably reflected in the price."

The sale was billed as a way to keep the songwriting spot alive for many years to come, even as the location in Green Hills has become increasingly valuable and high-end developments are crowding out locally owned shops.

Kurland was offered $1 million two years ago from a developer for her space, in a strip shopping center. Her parents bought the location in 1982 for less than $100,000 and transferred ownership to her in 1994.

NSAI also hopes to use its own marketing department to expand the profit-making abilities of the Bluebird, perhaps with more TV shows and performances for conventions that come to town.

"It's a real boost for NSAI," said songwriter Gary Nicholson, whose songs have been recorded by artists such as Vince Gill and Montgomery Gentry. "The Bluebird is known as the home for songwriters."

Kurland said the business makes a profit of less than $100,000 per year.

"This has not been about getting rich,'' she said. "I wouldn't ruin the Bluebird so I can have a fancy car."

Cafe won't move soon

She said the NSAI eventually may move to a larger location, but not in the short-term. Herbison said the Bluebird will stay where it is for at least five years.

The shows at the Bluebird often are sold out with just 96 seats in the audience, shoved between sky-blue walls covered in posters of performers who have played there. But Kurland said she wanted to keep the place small so new songwriters could play, even if they couldn't fill out a large room.

"It has the worst sound system, but it's beautiful,'' said Karen Staley, a songwriter who was one of the original female players in the 1980s. "Newcomers come there and think, 'This is the Bluebird?' They expect the Taj Mahal, and it's this little dive."

But that was what made it unique, said Staley, whose songs have been recorded by artists such as Faith Hill, LeAnn Rimes and George Jones. Business got done at the Bluebird as publishers showed up to listen to new talent, she said.

Jody Williams, the vice president of writer/publisher relations at record label BMI in Nashville, has previously worked as one of those talent scouts.

"Over the last 25 years, it became the mecca, the centerpiece for songwriting,'' he said. He and others expressed confidence that the NSAI would be able to take care of its new responsibility.

"The NSAI is the steward of all things precious to songwriting,'' Williams said. "They're going to take care of it."