Grammy nominated singer/songwriter Carlene Carter has announced an October residency at Nashville’s famed Bluebird Cafe. Aptly titled “Wonderful World of Women Who Write,” the series will feature some of her favorite female songwriters and collaborators. Lilly Hiatt and Elizabeth Cook will be featured at the October 2 show. Lauren Morrow and Pam Tillis are scheduled for October 16, and Gretchen Peters and Matraca Berg will join Carter on October 30. All shows are 9 p.m. Central.
“I wanted to celebrate my return to Nashville by inviting women who inspire me in their writing,” said Carter, daughter of country music legends June Carter and Carl Smith and granddaughter of “Mother” Maybelle Carter. “I was brought up in a songwriting family of women writers, and there is a sisterhood that is so special and solid between women who write. Each one of these ladies have inspired me in their works, and I am so honored that they all said YES!”
Carlene Carter
Reservations will be available on a pre-paid basis for $25.00 one week ahead of each show date at www.bluebirdcafe.com.
“When I got the call about Carlene’s wish to create this residency, I was thrilled she would want to mark her return to Nashville here at The Bluebird,” said Erika Wollam Nichols, General Manager of The Bluebird Cafe. “We’re delighted that we can present this series to welcome Carlene back to town and share in her musical collaborations with these amazing and spirited women during the month of October!”
About the Bluebird Cafe:
Amy Kurland opened what she thought would be a small cafe in a nondescript strip center just south of downtown Nashville in June of 1982. Adding a stage as an afterthought, live music soon became a staple of the eatery. Recognizing the room was built for acoustic music, she offered the club as an outlet for songwriters and aspiring artists to perform original material. Inspired by private guitar-pulls, regular performers Thom Schuyler and J. Fred Knobloch, pioneeredthe idea of presenting songwriters “in the round,” where writers set their chairs in the center of the room to play their original material, telling the stories and inspirations for their songs.
In 2008, Kurland sold the legendary venue to the Nashville Songwriters Association International, (NSAI) a 50-year-old, not-for-profit organization devoted to the service of songwriters and the craft of songwriting. In the ensuing eleven years, little about the club itself has changed as the small room continues to focus on promoting the craft of songwriting, but the reach has expanded and the Bluebird hosts several off-site events that bear the iconic name.
Bluebird on the Mountain – a sold-out concert series at Vanderbilt’s Dyer Observatory in Nashville, the Bluebird Cafe at London’s Country2Country Festival, and the annual Bluebird Cafe Concert Series at Utah’s Sundance Resort. Most recently, the new Opry City Stage in the heart of New York City’s Times Square began featuring the Bluebird Cafe Songwriter Series spotlighting songwriters from Nashville, New York and across the country.
About Carlene Carter:
Grammy nominated singer-songwriter Carlene Carter is the daughter of country music legends June Carter and Carl Smith, stepdaughter of Johnny Cash, and granddaughter of “Mother” Maybelle Carter of the original Carter Family.
Carlene’s own career started in the late 1970s when she went to England to record her acclaimed self-titled debut album (with Graham Parker and the Rumour), and Musical Shapes (with Nick Lowe and Rockpile). She co-wrote hit songs for Emmylou Harris (“Easy From Now On”) and The Doobie Brothers (“One Step Closer”), shared the Top 40 Pop duet “I Couldn’t Say No” with Robert Ellis Orrall, then “came home to country” in the 1990s with hits like “I Fell in Love,” “Come On Back,” “Every Little Thing,” and her own TV shows on VH1 and TNN.
Following her 2008 Stronger CD (which Elvis Costello called “astounding”), Carlene Carter came on back again in 2014 with a tribute to the timeless music of her historic family that critics hailed as “a triumph,” “masterpiece,” “an album for the ages,” and “really quite perfect.” But while she is often referred to as “country music royalty,” she simply calls herself (and the album) Carter Girl.
Starting in January 2015, Carlene was Special Guest on the John Mellencamp Plain Spoken Tour, playing to over 250,000 fans in sold-out theaters across the United States and Canada. A new album, Sad Clowns and Hillbillies, was released on April 28, 2017 including material by both singer-songwriters. Carlene said: “It’s not a traditional kind of duets album. I think people are really going to enjoy it.” Mr. Mellencamp told The Today Show: “She pulled me out of the dump, the doldrums.”
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