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Nov 8, 10:38 PM EST

Bluebird Cafe Changes Hands, Not Mission

By JOHN GEROME
AP Entertainment Writer

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- After 25 years, the Bluebird Cafe, the songwriters club where Garth Brooks and Faith Hill were discovered and where many hits were first performed, is changing ownership.

The Nashville Songwriters Association bought the club in a deal that ensures it will keep operating as a hub for songwriters, founder and longtime owner Amy Kurland told The Associated Press.

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

"It's a lot to give up, but by giving it up for so many of the right reasons, I know it's the right thing to do," Kurland said.

After all those years of fixing toilets, worrying whether the ice machine is working and the dozens of other chores that go with running a nightclub, Kurland, 52, wanted a change and had been searching for an "exit strategy" when she thought of selling to the NSA.

"I couldn't think of anybody else other than the Songwriters Association that would have the same mission, the same love in their heart for songwriters," she said.

The not-for-profit group has about 5,000 members and bills itself as the largest organization of its kind in the U.S.

Kurland didn't disclose the sale price, but she described it as "extremely reasonable - even unreasonable." Bart Herbison, executive director of the NSA, said he views the sale essentially as a contribution.

"The goal is not to make a bunch of money off this, but to give them something they can continue and prosper with," Kurland said.

Herbison said the club will continue operating as it always has, down to the existing staff.

"We wrote in the contract that the Bluebird remains a songwriters venue," Herbison said. "Something magic happens in those walls that doesn't happen anywhere else in the world.

"There are a lot songwriter venues, but not like the Bluebird," he continued. "I think we learned a lesson from other great venues. There have been other legendary nightclubs that when they sold or changed what made them famous, they were not famous anymore. We'll never do anything but grow on what she's built."

Most of the changes that do occur won't be noticeable to patrons, Herbison said.

"There are a lot of efficiencies we can bring to it and a lot of utilization in terms of using it during the daytime, which they don't do now, plus more showcases and corporate-type things," he said.

Kurland opened the Bluebird in 1982 as a restaurant with some live music, but began adding writers' nights within a few years. The club soon evolved into a place where songs, often performed by the writer sitting in a circle with three or four other writers, take center stage.

The place is small and intimate - it only seats about 105 people - and if you talk during the performances, someone is sure to shush you or at the least shoot you a dirty look.

"We don't even offer them a free drink, but they do get the one thing that really means something to a performer, and that is a listening, appreciative audience," Kurland said.

Though off-the-beaten path in a nondescript shopping center several miles from Music Row, it draws lots of industry folks, from record label executives to all level of songwriters to established stars like Kristofferson, Brooks and Vince Gill.

Brooks found his hit "The Dance" while visiting there one night. Songwriter Don Schlitz tried out many of his songs that Randy Travis recorded ("On the Other Hand," "Forever and Ever, Amen") at the Bluebird. Club dishwasher/bartender Mark Irwin wrote the Alan Jackson hit "Here in the Real World."

The club was also the setting for the 1993 movie "The Thing Called Love," starring River Phoenix, K.T. Oslin, Samantha Mathis and Sandra Bullock.

While some new performers come in with the unrealistic notion of being signed on the spot, Kurland said she can assure talented tunesmiths of one thing.

"One of the magical things that happens at the Bluebird is your songs get noticed by somebody. Sometimes it's just a guy who has an appointment with a publisher and says, 'Hey, let's write together.' There's a very communal thing that happens. A publishing company will come down here to see someone they're interested in, but they have to hear three other guys they've never heard of, so they might be exposed to something they wouldn't have heard."

After Jan. 1, Kurland will stay on at the Bluebird for at least six months, maybe more. After that she'd like to take some classes, maybe travel a bit.

The one thing she doesn't want to do is step away entirely from the music scene she helped foster.

"I think that living in Nashville with the songwriters who are writing and performing now is like living in New York during the Gershwin era or the Tin Pan Alley era," she said.

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