Quad Cities singer/songwriter achieves dream at iconic Nashville cafe
If you know country music, you know the iconic, historic Bluebird Cafe in Nashville, Tenn.
Over a decade after singer-songwriter Angela Meyer (of McCausland, Iowa) first performed at an open mic in the intimate 90-seat place, she returned March 1, 2023 to play a real gig there, with her mentor David G. Smith, and Alicia Michilli, made all the more special with her folks and grandfather in the audience.
“My grandpa hadn’t been in Nashville since his honeymoon in 1962 with my grandma. So, to get him back to Nashville at all was totally awesome,” Meyer, now 29, said Tuesday. “He’s from northeastern Iowa. But my grandparents love country music and were instrumental in getting me started in what I do and bought me my first guitar. It was definitely a full circle moment.”
Meyer first played at the Bluebird around the time of her 2011 high school graduation (from North Scott), at a Monday night open mic, after standing in line for five hours.
“The first time, I was very, very nervous,” she recalled. “The Bluebird is one of those true exposure gigs, like you truly don’t know who will be in the audience.”
The Bluebird’s motto is “Shhhh,” and audiences are amazingly quiet and attentive, she noted.
“It’s wild. You don’t have a lot of shows like that, especially doing what I do, where you’re doing bar gigs and honky tonks,” where customers are talking all the time, Meyer said. In the Bluebird, “people are truly listening to every single word. And on top of that, there’s an expectation that if they were to say something, they’re going to be shushed,” she said.
“It’s definitely been a dream for me to play at the Bluebird. And however it happened, I knew it would happen,” Meyer said, crediting Smith for opening the golden door. “I didn’t want to ever feel pressure that because I knew him, he needed to get me onto some show.”
She’s been to many Bluebird shows over the years. “It’s definitely one of those venues that when you’re in Nashville, you look who’s there and try and get in there and it doesn’t always work because it is busy and it’s such a small room,” she said. “But if you can get in there, it’s always worth going.”
Sacred ground in country music (made even more famous in the TV series “Nashville” (2012-16 on ABC, then CMT 2017-18), the cafe is part of an unassuming strip mall. But inside, the magic is all about its intimate atmosphere and storied history, Meyer said.
“It’s less about the building and more about the songs that have been played there and anybody who’s anyone in songwriting has played there,” she said. “That’s much like the Ryman or the Grand Ole Opry, when you step onto that circle, the Bluebird has that same kind of reverence — that you step onto that stage and know that you’re a part of a long line of songwriters who have done that.”
A place to be discovered
“It was a place that you could be discovered, if you will, in the truest sense of the word,” Smith (who divides his time between Nashville and the QC) said Tuesday of the Bluebird. “You could be on stage there or in the round as they say, and there could be record executives out there; people from BMI that hear you; there could be a publisher out there, or it could be other artists that were checking you out.”
“It was a place for many years, up until about the late 2000s, to be discovered, Taylor Swift was discovered there,” Smith — a lifetime member of Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI) said.
In late 2007, the NSAI bought the Bluebird, to use as a songwriters venue. Founded in 1982 by impresario Amy Kurland, the club has hosted performances by virtually every major songwriter in Nashville. It’s also attracted music publishers and record label executives in search of fresh talent.
Capitol Records executives signed Garth Brooks after catching one of his Bluebird shows. So renowned was the tiny venue that it was an inspiration for “The Thing Called Love,” a 1993 film starring River Phoenix and Sandra Bullock, in which singer K.T. Oslin played the club owner.
After NSAI bought it, the group asked Smith if he wanted to host shows there on a regular basis, and he has averaged a few every year since, where he shares the stage with other singer-songwriters.
Each time, the songwriters share the stage and take turns performing, explaining the background of each song.
‘Songs and Stories’
Smith has known Meyer for about 14 years, since she was 15. In 2019, he started a new series at Davenport’s Redstone Room, “Songs and Stories,” based on the Bluebird format. COVID in 2020 put a quick kibosh on that, and it only really got restarted last November, when Smith, Meyer and Michilli performed at the Redstone (2nd and Main streets, at Common Chord), on one side of the venue, close to patrons, and not on the stage.
“Angela, she’s probably as good a prototype of what to do locally when you’re starting out,” he said Tuesday. “We can’t say enough good things about what she’s put together and she just really brought herself up by her own bootstraps.”
The second show will be this April 7, featuring James Turley of Eldridge (who Smith called “a killer songwriter”) and Anne E. DeChant, a top songwriter in Cleveland, Ohio. “Songs and Stories” is planned for the Redstone Room twice a year, Smith said, noting he also plans to feature under-18 local talent as well, to open each show.
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Smith, Michilli and DeChant played the Bluebird April 20, 2022. Seeing Meyer at the Bluebird, he said: “It was great. I mean, she’s coming along and developing, and I mean, she’s got what it takes.”
“There’s no one path anymore,” Smith said of success. “There will be people in Nashville, especially, that will tell you, you got to do it this way anymore. There’s no one path and there never really has been, on how you become successful.”
Smith (whose new album “Witness Trees” will be out in June) has released 10 albums and feature Grammy nominee Mary Gauthier and Grammy winner Keb Mo on four of them. His songs have been featured on TNT, Lifetime Network, and Travel Channel.
The “Songs and Stories” series did its inaugural launch in March 2019 with “A Candlelight Evening of Songs & Stories,” an in-the-row performance at Redstone Room, including Smith, Michilli and Shannon LaBrie. The performers take turns performing original songs and telling the stories behind them. This format is unique to the QC, intended to focus on the art and craft of songwriting and will feature local talent as well as professionals on tour.
A priceless musical mentor
Meyer said Smith has been an invaluable songwriting mentor over the years and they collaborated on penning the song “Grandpa’s Rocking Chair.”
She used to work as a nanny for three years and the parents had a rocking chair that had been in the family for five generations.
“So as I was sitting in this rocking chair, before I put the baby down for a nap, I’m thinking about all of the previous generations of babies that have been rocking in this chair,” Meyer said Tuesday. “I don’t have kids, but Dave has the dad, grandpa experience and just more years of life. So he’s definitely somebody that just has experience and wisdom that I’m so grateful that he’s just a phone call away for any of that help. We ended up writing ‘Grandpa’s Rocking Chair’ together and it’s one of the coolest songs I’ve ever written. It’s really awesome.”
The November 2022 “Songs and Stories” at Redstone was a great experience, recalling the Bluebird, she said.
“The setup at Common Chord, which was unlike any other show that they’ve done there before, and very much modeled after the Bluebird listening room experience — you could hear a pin drop the whole time,” Meyer said. “It was full of people and just a great vibe and a great atmosphere.”
Meyer was definitely inspired to write more after the March 1 Bluebird, and she has her career sights on the pinnacle Nashville stage — the Grand Ole Opry.
“If you live for those moments that people are laughing or crying along with the song and so to see your songs have any sort of reaction and be seen in such a big light, is really special,” she said. “The Grand Ole Opry is definitely the biggest goal that I have right now. It is the most meaningful goal for myself, for my family. I think that would be the top that my grandpa would care about. There’s nothing bigger than the Grand Ole Opry in my grandpa’s eyes, so that’s my biggest goal.”
Having the Bluebird on her resume is a plus, giving a songwriter “street cred” in Nashville, Meyer said. “To be asked and to be paid there is even better.”
‘Muddy Water’ and Taylor Swift
Meyer will be paying tribute to one of her idols, Taylor Swift, in an all-Swift cover show Thursday, March 16 at 7 p.m. at the Raccoon Motel, 315 E. 2nd St., Davenport. Tickets are $20.
She played a similar show Feb. 11 at Pour Bros. in Peoria.
“I went through about over probably over 100 Taylor Swift songs figuring out which ones I wanted to put into three hours. And so that in itself was a lesson in songwriting and creating music that you could make this dynamic set list of three hours worth of material that people just love the whole time,” Meyer said. “I had a few folks drive down from the Quad Cities, but I had way more people than that kind of hound me for not doing a Quad-City version of that.”
On Feb. 10, Meyer did do a pre-show at Pour Bros. in Moline before The Judds concert at Vibrant Arena.
One of her best days was in 2009, when she got to see Swift play live at the Moline arena. Meyer loves both her prolific country and pop careers.
“I think it’s all just great. I think her songwriting shines through any sort of genre bending that she’s done,” she said. “I think it’s all wonderful and as she’s gotten older, it’s just everything is matured more and more and I think it’s cool when you grow up with an artist. And Taylor is one of those artists for me that I feel like I’ve known her since she was 15, and I’m just a couple of years behind her.
“So it’s been a cool thing to see her navigate the music industry and songwriting and all of it,” Meyer said. Her favorite Taylor album is “Reputation” (2017) and among her top songs is “All Too Well” (from 2012’s “Red”) and “Maroon” from her new “Midnights.”
Since January 2023, Meyer has hosted a Saturday radio show on WQUD (107.7 FM) Vintage Radio in Erie, Ill., called “Muddy Water Radio.” On from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m., she features a local guest musician for the first hour, where they play live, and play recorded songs the artist especially likes. The second hour, Meyer plays new music, and she performs a song; reads a Western event calendar, and the last hour plays country tunes from the 1920s to the 2020s.
“It’s been just the coolest thing that I never saw coming,” Meyer said. “It’s been a challenge writing that every week. I put a lot into the show. And to hear people like the show — people call in all the time and say they’re listening. They’re sitting down listening to radio in a way they haven’t in a long time. And that’s awesome feedback.”
David G. Smith is scheduled to be on Meyer’s “Muddy Water” on Saturday, April 1. Meyer also will play St. Patrick’s Day, March 17, at 8 p.m. at RailYard Restaurant in Lowden, Iowa, then March 18 at 8 p.m., at Green Tree Brewery in LeClaire.
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