"Celebrating Nashville's Music Legacy : Chris Blair on The Listening Room Cafe and 20 Years of Nashville Music History"

00:00:01
Speaker 1: Taking a Walk Nashville. Hi, this is Sarah Harrelson, your host of Taking a Walk Nashville and joining me here today at the Listening Room Cafe is the owner and founder Chris Blair. The Listening Room Cafe is one of Nashville's premiere venues for hit songwriters and up and coming songwriters. I even have the chance to perform here a couple times myself. It opened in two thousand and six, and this year they are celebrating their twentieth anniversary with the show at the Ryman Auditorium on March third. In addition to being a venue owner, Saint Louis native, Chris Blair is also a songwriter and host of the podcast Stories Behind the Songs, featuring in depth interviews with Nashville songwriters and artists. Chris, thank you so much for opening up your doors and the stage for taking a Walk Nashville today. So this is the third location of the Listening Room Correct, this is.

00:00:59
Speaker 2: The fourth location. Yeah, thank you for that intro, by the way, Sarah, that was really nice. Yeah. We started in Franklin in two thousand and six, so that's the little area that most people don't even think about. So there's a there's so many people that think of Coming Station as our first location, but started in Franklin, moved it to Coming Station in two thousand and eight, then to Second Avenue in twenty twelve, and then to this location in twenty seventeen.

00:01:29
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it's progressively gotten bigger location. So when you opened the listening room in two thousand and six, were there any other venues you notice doing the same kind of right around format besides the Bluebird Cafe?

00:01:47
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean a little bit. Obviously, the Bluebird was the one that everybody knows and kind of what you know, what I had had looked at when we were doing this. But you know, there's other smaller place. Douglas Corner was on Eighth Avenue at the time, and you know they would do writers' rounds every now and then. You know Commodore that's still around. You know, little places like that, But you know, with the with the great hit songwriters, the Bluebird was pretty much it.

00:02:21
Speaker 1: Absolutely And what led you to working in the restaurant industry in Missouri to wanting to come here to Nashville to pursue music and open up a music venue.

00:02:33
Speaker 2: An alarm clock. My dad saying you got to get up at three thirty in the morning and go to work with me. So I grew up around entrepreneurship. My grandpa owned his own business in real estate. My dad owned four restaurants when I was growing up, and I always like to joke, there's no labor laws when when you're the the owner's kid. So I would get up on the weekends and literally at three thirty in the morning and drive to work with my dad. And as soon as I was old enough to stand on milk rates in the kitchen, I was washing dishes, and then I was slicing bread and slicing deli meat and just kind of moved my way up. So it all kind of started with that.

00:03:27
Speaker 1: And the restaurant industry, like you said, it's brutal hours. So you're definitely incorporating both the restaurant and the music industry together.

00:03:35
Speaker 2: Here.

00:03:37
Speaker 1: Were you just interested in coming to Nashville to pursue your own music at the time.

00:03:41
Speaker 2: I was, Yeah, I moved here in two thousand and three. I've been in music my entire life. I started singing. My mom's got you know, old tapes of me singing on pitch to songs when I was like three, started taking piano lessons when I was four, and I mean, it's just a it's a part of my DNA. I don't remember any memories without music as a part of my life. Started putting out my own songs. Started writing a little bit back then, but mostly just getting songs from other people. I didn't really fully understand what songwriting was. And yeah, I got an offer to move to Nashville from Doug Howard, who's the DIN of music over at Bellmont. Now by the time, he was running A and R for a label here in town and said move to town and we'll work together. So that's what ultimately brought me here. And then you know, through multiple steps that just that led to more songwriting and this passion of just sharing the stories behind the songs, and then the idea to to do something like the Listening Room.

00:04:58
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it's expanded so much in the last twenty years, and so many artists and songwriters have taken the stage at the Listening Room. And you're celebrating your twentieth anniversary show this year, as I mentioned, at the Ryman Auditorium on March third. You have a great lineup It includes Hardy, Jody Messina, Mitchell Tinpenny, and many more hit songwriters and artists. Will this concert at the Ryman. Is it going to be in the round style like the listening room format or is it more full band with the artists.

00:05:32
Speaker 2: No full bands. We may have a little a couple surprises, but mostly in the round type style. The names that you mentioned, you know, those are all great friends that as soon as I reached out, was an immediate yes, we'd love to be a part of it, along with several other artists that we haven't even announced yet. We're going to have some special guests that we won't announce until they walk on stage. Great hit songwriters you're hearing at first. I just got confirmation from Ashley Gorley yesterday, so absolute monster songwriter that was trying to figure out his schedule, so he will be there, and Matt Jenkins and j T. Harding and Phil Barton and it's just the going to be It's gonna be amazing. So it's kind of a little bit of mix of some artists who got their start here on this stage as well as you know, the best songwriters in the world.

00:06:28
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's going to be a great event. People don't want to miss it. Can people purchase tickets on the Listening Room Cafe site for this event?

00:06:37
Speaker 2: Yeah, if you go to our website, there is a link that will take you to the Ryman's website, but you can also go directly to the Ryman's website and just go to go to the March shows. We're the first one on there, I think, and we still have a few tickets left. It's almost sold out. Wow, that's amazing.

00:06:56
Speaker 1: Yeah, And if it does get sold out, people who are coming in town can still check out shows right here. Took the Listening Room Cafe too. So over the course of twenty years, what has been the change the biggest change you've seen in Nashville since two thousand and six, and you know since the original location in Franklin of the Listening Room.

00:07:17
Speaker 2: Yeah, I wish I would have bought the overpriced real estate that I didn't buy fifteen years ago. I've heard both sides of the fence on this. You know that Nashville has grown so much that we're losing a bit of history, and I agree with that. You know, I remember walking down Music Row when I first moved here. It was just publisher after publisher after you know, Studio B and like, I mean, just all of these great things and to watch everything go vertical and that's been a big change, and it's pushed a lot of small businesses out because they can't afford it. But at the same time, you know, Nashville is for several years now been kind of the it city and it's for the economy year and I think what we're able to provide for all of the tourists that are coming in, you know, that's what I've seen change the most. And I think it's just like I think we have to embrace it and be proud of a city that's growing. Maybe still work on the parking or the driving situation, but you know, I think from everything that I see, it's not slowing down. And you know, we're we're working on some things behind the scenes of you know, how we can sustain the growth and be here for another twenty years. Yeah, but you know, I think it's good.

00:08:43
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's I think it's all good change too. Do you have a favorite or most memorable listening room show we've experienced?

00:08:54
Speaker 2: Sarah, I get asked this all the time, and it's so hard because there. There are a flood of memories that come up anytime this question is asked. I mean it is. I can't pick one, there's no way. But you know, just the moments that stopped me in my tracks when I hear a song for the first time that no one's ever heard, and I kind of get numb to songs. I hear so many of them that it really takes a great lyric to stop me. So those are those are amazing moments when I hear something that is like, man, that is that is so good, and then you know months later it's a number one hit it's been released. Full circle moments from back when I still was an artist and I was touring doing a lot of cover songs even back in the day, and looking at songs that I used to sing with my band, like I don't know, amazed by lone Star, you know, and and then becoming very good friends with guys like Richard McDonald and Dean Sam's and getting to know those guys I used to tour on the road with Andy Griggs, he and I had music out at the same time, and really getting to know those guys like as friends. Those are those are amazing moments and then you know, like the people that are playing the rhyman, you know, just watching Michael you know, like before he was known just as hearty, you know, like watching him and Morgan Wallen play songs here, you know, when they were just trying to pay rent tenpenny. You know, there's just Garth Brooks is the reason that I got into music in the first place, as far as country music goes. And you know, those those moments where having Garth on this stage that we're sitting on right now and watching him play for I don't know, an hour and a half and I don't think he finished one song because it was just like this melodic mash of all of his hits and going into other songs that he loves and all. I mean, there's just literally so many moments I have to pinch myself, even when you were doing that intro, you know, it just it's hard to believe that we've been doing this for twenty years. And it's awesome.

00:11:24
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's amazing to see where songwriters have gone with their journey with the listening room too, like you said, especially you know, even just coming for shows of the listening room at ten Pan's house sing a songwriter who maybe just got signed, play a song that's never been released before, and you know, two months later you heard on Cody Johnson's album or someone's album. I think that's what's so special about this format and hearing songwriters share their stories behind the songs. You're also involved in a lot of philanthropic causes, such as the Listening Room Sound Good Do Good program, and it gives back to the community by donating a portion of ticket sales to locally based charities. So when people buy a ticket to the Listening Room, who are they supporting.

00:12:18
Speaker 2: We work with a lot of nonprofits. So we are actually booked up for the entire year of twenty twenty six, and we have a waiting list and then starting to look at twenty seven already. This started back in the year of the flood. You know, this is early days where I was bartending, running sound booking, the talent, you know, everything, and we were struggling pretty bad, and a couple songwriting friends put together a show that later I found out was a benefit for us, and it just happened to be right after the Nashville flood. So we're doing all this hype, trying to talk up the show, and then it happened. In the aftermath of that, decided that we should give a small portion of the proceeds back to a nonprofit. So I teamed up with Hands on Nashville, and something hit me during that show where it's just like, you know what, like this is this isn't right. It just didn't feel right. I looked at us as like we are we're we're a venue or a bar, we're a restaurant, entertainment, and people have lost their homes, they're clothes, some of them have lost family members. You know, the Nashville flood was terrible. So we gave it all back and that was kind of the birth of like, you know, if we're able to keep going. I'm big in my faith and you know, just kind of vowed at that point, like Lord, if this is what we're meant to do, help us get through it, and this is what we'll do forever. And that's what we've done once a month ever since then. And it's not portion of the tickets, it's one hundred percent of them. So we we will team up with anywhere from you know, we we've found local families that may have a child and you know, going through cancer treatments at Vanderbilt and they can't afford it. Most often it's more local charities that are all across the board from we've worked with, you know, people who support hearing aids and animal shelters and homeless and education and you know, just all of these things. And then you know larger things like Unit Away, Red Cross, Tug McGraw Foundation, stuff like that. So it's just a big part of my heart and and it's part of our core values. And you know, as long as as long as we're allowed to keep these doors open, that'll be a part of it.

00:14:53
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's amazing. I love to hear how the listening room is giving back to the Nashville community. I also saw something very interesting reading about you, Chris. I saw that in your free time you enjoy flying planes. So what peaqued this interest for you?

00:15:10
Speaker 2: Uh? Kennett, Missouri. The Kennett Country Club. My grandparents were not members of the country club. They couldn't afford that, but we would get passes to be able to go in there. And I had a great uncle who was an incredible golfer. He took me golfing when I think I was like maybe nine ten years old something like that, and it was right beside this small airfield that was full of just crop dusters. Kennett, Misouri is a big cotton town, and I was not into golf whatsoever. I hated being out there. And I think about a whole three or four he realized I was watching these guys take off in their planes. And of course this was years ago before any kind of security, and he also was one that just wasn't afraid to ask anything. And we left the golf course. My uncle drove right past the restricted area sign and drove right into the airport up to a hangar, found a guy outside working on a plane and said, you know, hey, is this your plane? Can you take him up? I would not have wanted to be in the room when my mom found out this happened after the fact, but yeah, that's where you know, like nine ish years old, I was in one of those planes and got to the take the yolk and feel what that was like. And it was just a burning love inside of me for a long time. So finally in two thousand and nine I started taking pilot lessons and been doing ever since.

00:16:54
Speaker 1: Wow, that's very cool. So Chris my last question for you is something I always as my guest. Since we are on taking a Walk Nashville, do you have a favorite place you like to take a walk in Nashville.

00:17:09
Speaker 2: Uh. Yeah, We live out in Mount Juliet and there is a there's a park out in that area that it goes around a really large lake and it's just quiet and I spend time out there alone just walking and thinking and being a visionary. And then I also just love taking my family and doing that. So you know, there's there's several places in Nashville. I think that's That's another great thing that the city has done a pretty decent job of is throughout this growth, they've you know, they've kept this certain areas like Percy Warner Park or whatever where they have you know, really not let those areas get developed. So Nashville is good for that. Yeah.

00:17:56
Speaker 1: Yeah. And the listening room is right near downtown Nashville, so people can get a show here and walk downtown askraards too. Yeah. Well, Chris, thank you so much for being on taking a Walk Nashville Today. Everyone can find tickets to upcoming shows and your twentieth anniversary event at the Ryeman on March.

00:18:15
Speaker 2: Third at your website. Thank you again, Thank you, thanks for having.

00:18:19
Speaker 1: Me, Thanks for listening to Taking a Walk Nashville with singer songwriter Sarah Harrelson, and check out our other podcasts, Music, Save Me, Comedy Save Me, and Taking a Walk. Available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts