Local Singer/Songwriter Finds the Bluebird of Happiness: A Personal Story
by Phyllis Sinclair

My husband and I arrived at 4:30 pm. Although the doors didn’t open until 5:30, we wanted to ensure ourselves a seat. After all, this wasn’t any ordinary cafe, this was the longest running and best attended songwriter’s club in Nashville, possibly the world, the place where songwriters from across the globe come just to play their songs.

This was The Bluebird Café, famed for the caliber of songwriting that has passed through its doors; the place that pioneered “unplugged, the place where only original acoustic compositions are allowed, where Joe Ely, Townes Van Zandt, and Steve Earle, hammered out tunes on the stage barstool. The Bluebird Cafe is the ultimate songwriters' venue. Tonight was Open-Mic Night, and guitar-packing songwriters from Ireland, Japan and Canada lined up by the dozen hoping to showcase their tunes. I was excited to hear their works and wondered if I would be given the opportunity to showcase mine.

When the door opened we all lined up to the bar, wrote our names on a slip of paper and placed them in a basket. Then, we all waited anxiously wondering if our names would be pulled. Open-Mic at The Bluebird Café is from 6:00 to 9:30 pm and there were over thirty songwriters hoping to be picked, but that decision is left to the luck of the draw. After the host gave the guidelines like, “Please be quiet when the songwriter’s are singing, make sure your cell phones are off, no music tracks, only two original songs because we only have time for twenty-two writers”, she began to read off the list of the chosen.

I don’t remember the names that were called. All I know is that when she reached eighteen, I accepted that it was unlikely that my name would be called. I was okay with that. After all, I hadn’t come to Nashville to sing at The Bluebird Café. This was an evening out on a business trip. To sing at The Bluebird would only be icing on the cake. I relaxed, excited to hear the other songwriters, that is until she said, “and number twenty is……… Phyllis-Virginia Sinclair”. Well, here it was, the rare opportunity to sing at the world famous Bluebird Café.

By the time I’d heard the other writers, I realized that there are as many bad songwriter’s as there are good, probably more the former. None-the-less, it was my turn at The Bluebird. I sat on the stool, picked up my guitar, and looked over the crowd. I wanted to savor this moment forever; etch it in my mind. This experience was unlikely to happen again. My two songs went by very quickly. When finished, I looked up to smiling faces and warm applause. It took a few minutes for this reality to sink in. I had sung at The Bluebird Café, a songwriter’s dream that I can take to my grave. Medicine Hat Songwriters, watch for a Songwriters' Night coming near you, courtesy of The Medicine Hat Folk Music Club!