The Venues
Midtown. The Hutton Hotel’s club is like a large, beautifully decorated living room with couches around the stage. They invested the bucks to ensure great sound. Valet and self-parking.
Green Hills. It’s the best-known songwriters’ venue, has stellar line-ups, and is an intimate environment (only 90 seats). Translation: expect it to be difficult to a reservation. If a show is sold out, you’ve got a slim chance of getting in if there are no-shows. With construction next door, the parking situation is horrendous so I’d recommend a taxi or rideshare. After a show, consider walking a block or two up the street to get an exit ride.
SoBro. The smaller of their two listening rooms. Surface parking is available adjacent to the building.
West End/Vanderbilt. With paid parking onsite (the Holiday Inn-Vanderbilt), it’s one of the easiest venues logistically speaking. The room wasn’t designed for live music so get there early to avoid sitting behind a pillar. FYI, the Commodore is one of the busiest songwriter spots year-round.
Midtown. I have to get over the fact that this is known as a karaoke bar with animatronic animals as a back-up band. This week it’s living, breathing poets with guitars and keyboards. The Graduate Hotel, home of this venue, offers only valet parking so keep that wait-time in mind when changes locations.
Downtown. The Reverb Room is a box-shaped room up a level from the main floor. Check out the interesting memorabilia displayed on the walls. The bar is behind the audience so not so much of a distraction. No onsite parking but here’s a guide to downtown parking.
SoBro. Walk through the lobby which doubles as a bar to the listening room in the rear where there’s another bar. Valet parking is available but can get backed up so arrive early and be patient.
SoBro. One of the larger venues, it frequently welcomes some of the city’s top songwriters and even hosts a midday songwriters’ round every Saturday. Even though its spacious by comparison to some, the sound is great and there’s not a bad seat in the house. Only a few parking spaces onsite with paid lot and scan-to-park street parking nearby.
The Gulch. The legendary home of bluegrass extends its borders a bit to welcome a variety of songwriters. It’s smaller than some of the other venues so take that into consideration in planning your week. Also, the food options are limited to pizza, garlic knots, and snacks so love basic pizza or eat elsewhere. There are plenty of restaurants nearby as well as several surface lots and parking garages.
Hillsboro Village. Just off 21st Avenue S. in a rather innocuous newer building, it was formerly known as AB. There’s on-site parking in an adjacent garage and a surface lot across the street. More than a dozen restaurants within three blocks.
