My last two days in Nashville had more open time to hang out and meet a few more folks.  I took my time Tuesday getting out needing time to sleep in and relax a bit.  Considering all I had been up to, I wasn’t overwhelmed with the pace of Nashville or all the people I was meeting.  For the city dubbed “Music City” with all its talents and competition to play, it did not have a cutthroat feel to its people at all.  In fact, much of it reminded me of the collaborative and mutual respect DC’s music community has.

I went down to Big Shotz late afternoon on Tuesday to see my music friend Jenae Cherry play.  We had originally met there back in December during her 4-6pm gig and she had invited me out the prior night to play a few songs.  This time around she had her guitar player with her, Austin, and they sounded great together.  It was good to see a fellow musician making progress, especially in a town like Nashville.

Later Tuesday night I headed over to The Commodore Lounge, which is a showcase/open mic hosted by Debi Champion.  I had been invited back by Debi from my appearance there in December.  The cool part about Commodore is that they put 3-4 songwriters on the stage at once and you play “in the round”.  Each artist gets a song, you go through, then start from the beginning again.  I ended up playing three songs, including my audience participation song “Restless Times”, which went over well.

There’s something I notice about us musicians after we play showcases like this.  Some musicians leave immediately–perhaps to move on to the next open mic.  Those that stay always say “great job” or offer some other words of encouragement and the conversation ends there.  Musicians are just bad at networking for some reason.  No one likes to brag or trying selling you stuff right away.  Well, the majority of musicians don’t.  In Nashville, you mainly trade CDs, it’s hard to sell anything of yours.  I on the other hand, like to make an attempt at a meaningful conversation.  And never around my music unless they ask a lot about it.  I’m glad I stuck around at the Commodore Lounge because I ended up meeting a rep from Nashville Songwriters Association (NSAI), which offers workshops and other connections.

During this trip I’ve met a lot of people and in our conversations about music, it became apparent to me that some folks (not all) in Nashville are a bit jaded.  I completely get this, because I grew jaded about the work I was doing in Washington, DC before I made music my full-time thing.  It pains me to think that something as wonderful as music can become the bane of your existence.  But if it’s the only thing you know at the end of the day that you know, you stick it out, albeit with much negativity.  Nashville, one of the hubs of music, like Washington, DC, the hub of politics, share many similarities.  Much of the success and continuation of people’s careers in these respective areas comes down to the people and politics.  It’s who you know and if they can benefit from you and if you can benefit from them and how much of each others resources it will take to reach those benefits.  Taylor Swifts parents can pay a label $3 million to cut a record on a major label.  Mine cannot.  It’s still a world of haves and have nots unfortunately.

Wednesday was my last day in Nashville.  I grabbed lunch with new friends, Jeff and Jillene, and headed to a spot called Jackson’s where I met Courtney for cookie dough eggrolls (awesomeness served in a dish with vanilla ice cream).  Courtney had been half jokingly saying I should move to Nashville, and it is something that was tempting considering all the music and cheaper living conditions.  But I’m not 100% convinced.  Aside from those two wonderful factors, it doesn’t have other things I really like to have around me such as skiing, diversity (not the music kind), and decent public transportation.

It’s certainly now a place I’d like to get to as often as I can because I have felt very inspired by Nashville.  Up til now, 2011 hadn’t gone as well as I would have liked.  I was sick often the first two months then have been dealing with the loss of my friend Jayna.  I haven’t felt as motivated as I had in 2010 but now I do.  If Nashville can do that for me, I’ll try to get back every three months.

I spent my final hours in Nashville at a Tweetup–which is basically a Twitter networking event that one person organizes.  The organizer happened to be Ariel Hyatt, who I did an online campaign with this winter for my album, and is someone who has taught me quite a bit about how to use online tools to promote my music career.  It was great to see her and I met many other people from Nashville doing things other than playing music.

My time in Nashville has been the best time I’ve had in 2011.  The question this entire trip was “Why Nashville”, why am I there taking so much time in my life.  I’ve come back home refreshed, inspired, confident, and feeling ready to conquer new projects and the world.  That has answered the question for me.  If Nashville is anything to me right now, it kept my dreams alive of continuing my life as a musician.  I thank Nashville and all the people I met for giving that to me.