Bluebird in the Boro, a three-night concert series that captures the spirit of Nashville’s iconic Bluebird Cafe, is coming back to Murfreesboro March 5–7 to benefit the nonprofit Alive Hospice.

Now in its fifth year, Bluebird in the Boro features “in the round” style performances by songwriters who have penned some of country music’s best-known songs. The event is an offshoot of the Alive at the Bluebird series, which celebrated its 25th installment in January at The Bluebird Cafe.

Alive Hospice provides care to people with life-threatening illnesses, counseling for families and community education about the end of life. Money raised from past Bluebird in the Boro events helped fund the Alive Hospice facility near Saint Thomas Rutherford Hospital. The facility opened nearly debt-free last summer.

The songwriters attending this year’s event—Don Schlitz, Kendell Marvel, Even Stevens, Waylon Payne, Mike Loudermilk, Tim James, Dan Couch, Kent Blazy and Danny Myrick—have written songs for Kenny Rogers, Tim McGraw, George Strait, Jason Aldean, Chris Stapleton and a host of other artists.

We spoke with Grammy-nominated songwriter and Murfreesboro native Tim James, who will perform Wednesday, March 7, alongside Couch (Kip Moore’s “Somethin’ ’Bout a Truck”), Blazy (co-writer on the classic Garth Brooks ballad “If Tomorrow Never Comes”) and Myrick (Aldean’s “She’s Country,” McGraw’s “Truck Yeah”). James played an integral role in helping launch Bluebird in the Boro in 2014.

Murfreesboro Pulse: You grew up less than an hour from Music City, yet ended up living in California for a while as a performer. What inspired you to come back to Nashville, return to your roots and seriously pursue a career in songwriting?
Tim James: I moved to L.A. when I was a young lad and didn’t know any better. I decided when I lived in California, after having quit my day job in sales, to pursue what I felt like God wanted me to do, which was music. As you know, the odds of making it are slim to none and everybody told me that. So at some point, I started making trips back to Nashville to play songs for people and got shot down like everybody does. Eventually, a guy, who is still in the music business, told me if you truly want to be a country songwriter, you’ve got to be in Nashville. His exact words were, “If you want to be on Broadway, you’ve got to go to New York. If you want to be in television, go to L.A. But if you want to write songs, come back to Nashville.”

Like you said, chances were slim to none, but you moved back to Tennessee and not too long afterward you had “My List” recorded by Toby Keith. How much time had passed after moving back before the song hit No. 1 on the charts?
The actual time was probably about three years. But I’ll tell you, it was a long three years. I got signed to a publishing deal in Nashville before I even moved back to Tennessee, and I was there for about a year before they closed. For a couple of years, I painted houses for a living . . . I would paint two to three days a week and then I would write the other days. I then met a guy who told me Toby Keith and his manager started a publishing company and they were looking to sign some writers. So I went over there and signed a deal with them. Toby cut that album called Pull My Chain, and “My List” was on it.

Not everyone approaches songwriting the same way. How does a song typically come together for you?
When I first started, I was older than most people who were having success. A couple of veterans told me back in the day that you have to treat it like a job, but you will find that there are a lot of creative and artistic people that disagree with that. I got up every day for many, many years and went to Nashville and wrote songs. Even after “My List,” I wrote more and more because that was just my foot in the door. I was going to continue to go to work and throw enough songs in the filter in hopes that at the bottom something good would come out.

With hits like “My List” and Lee Brice’s “Love Like Crazy,” you’ve had a lot of radio play. What goes through your mind when you hear your song for the first time after being cut?
That’s the ultimate goal as a songwriter, to have something that you hear on the radio. I was just in a restaurant in Denver and they played my George Strait song “Give It All We Got Tonight.” So it’s always a thrill . . . that’s just the day in the life of a songwriter. There are people I know that came up with me in the same class of songwriters, and they’ve never had a song on the radio. So I certainly never take it for granted.

You mentioned that people said you were crazy for quitting your day job. But you persisted, and it paid off well. What advice do you have for songwriters who are cutting their teeth in the music industry?
Well, it certainly is a different game than it was back in the day. Back when I first started, there were more successful artists. Nowadays, there are only a handful of really successful artists, and then there are only a handful of those artists that will record songs they didn’t write. My advice is that you have to get in it now and with low financial expectations. You have to do it for the passion of it. But it’s tougher now because of streaming services, and the digital age has changed everything . . . nobody buys physical albums as much.

[Keith’s] Pull My Chain album that “My List” was on sold, I wanna say, three million copies, and it wasn’t that big of a deal. Now I have a song called “Either Way” on From a Room: Volume 1 by Chris Stapleton, and it’s probably going to sell a million records. That’s huge nowadays.

You’re no stranger to Bluebird in the Boro, having been involved with the event since the beginning. What do you enjoy most about performing at the event to benefit Alive Hospice?
They asked me to put this together for them in the initial stages because I was born and raised here and still live here. My dad passed away about eight years ago, and Alive Hospice took care of my dad in the last few months of his life. So Anna-Gene O’Neal, who is the head of Alive Hospice, contacted me and my buddy Rivers Rutherford, who is also a songwriter. Most of the songwriters I know come together for benefits all the time. But this one was more special to me because they took care of my dad and were so great at it. And this is my hometown, so whatever I can do to help support a hometown cause or benefit, I’m always going to do it.

Check out the event’s full schedule below:

Monday, March 5: Opening night of the three-day concert series is an Evening with Don Schlitz, the Grammy-award-winning songwriter and Country Music Hall of Fame member whose catalog of country hits includes Kenny Rogers’ perennial “The Gambler.”

Tuesday, March 6: The series’ second night will feature Kendell Marvel, a veteran songwriter who recently released his own solo album “Lowdown and Lonesome” and Even Stevens, the co-writer with Eddie Rabbitt on a string of pop-country hits. Marvel and Stevens will be joined by singer and Walk the Line actor Waylon Payne, as well as renowned guitarist and Crystal Gayle’s “Midnight in the Desert” co-writer, Mike Loudermilk.

Wednesday, March 7: The final night of the concert series will feature Grammy-nominated songwriter and Murfreesboro native Tim James along with fellow songwriter Dan Couch, who co-penned the hit song “Somethin’ ’Bout a Truck.” Recently added to the event’s closing performance is award-winning songwriter and “If Tomorrow Never Comes” co-writer, Kent Blazy and songwriter Danny Myrick, whose works have been recorded by artists such as Tim McGraw and Jason Aldean.

___

The Grove at Williamson Place is located at 3250 Wilkinson Pike in Murfreesboro. Tickets are $100 and include food and drinks from Five Senses and Mayday Brewery. Each show begins at 7 p.m. For more information on Bluebird at the Boro, visit alivehospice.org/boro.