Nashville’s Bluebird Café gives a musical cue to Green Valley Ranch

By Jerry Fink

Thursday, June 25, 2009 | 6:32 p.m.

Taking a musical cue from the famed Bluebird Café in Nashville, the Green Valley Ranch’s Ovation lounge is launching Nashville Unplugged.

The free monthly showcase of talent begins a 7 p.m. Friday, June 26.

Each show will feature a host and two guest songwriters who will perform some of their songs and discuss what went into the songs. The hosts are Brian McComas and Aaron Benward and this week’s writers are Travis Howard and Chas Sanford.

During the first 30 minutes of the evening fans will submit made up titles for a song for a “Songs From A Hat” segment. The proposed titles will be placed in a hat and the guest songwriters will pick one title and pen a song through the evening to that title and then perform it at the end of the night.

Sanford, a native of Atlanta, moved to Los Angeles at age 15. Within a month of moving there he met Ike Turner, which led to his first recording session later that night with Ike & Tina Turner and Delaney & Bonnie and Friends. This was the beginning of Sanford’s career, which has included success as a session/live musician, producer, engineer, songwriter, recording artist, publisher and studio owner.

Sanford has played on, arranged, engineered and produced many hit records and toured with some major acts - including topening for the Eagles on their “Hotel California” European tour, appearing in and recording live in the Robert Altman film, “A Perfect Couple” (including a show at the Hollywood Bowl with the L.A. Philharmonic); two months on Broadway in “Divine Madness” with Bette Midler (appearing in the film of the same name); and playing with the late James Brown for a charity show in Augusta, Georgia.

As a hit songwriter and publisher, Sanford is the recipient of 12 ASCAP “Most Performed Songs” awards, including John Waite’s “Missing You” (over 6,000,000 plays), Chicago’s “What Kind of Man Would I Be” and Stevie Nicks’ “Talk To Me.” His songs have also been recorded by Tina Turner, Rod Stewart, Melanie, Roger Daltrey, Berlin, Millie Jackson, Brooks & Dunn, Alison Krauss, Rick Springfield, Sammy Hagar, Jimmy Barnes, Don Johnson, David Wilcox, Tyler Hilton and Sheila B. Devotion to name a few. Chas is now a BMI writer/publisher.

As a producer, Sanford has worked with Chicago, Stevie Nicks, Rod Stewart, Roger Daltrey, Berlin, Willie Nelson, Ron Wood, Bonnie Raitt, Gene Loves Jezebel, Jimmy Barnes, Dan Hill, Gina Schock, Don Johnson and others.

Travis Howard was a bartender in Hollywood, Calif., in 2003 when he was cast in the first season of the USA Network’s Nashville Star. There he met fellow cast member Miranda Lambert. The two discovered they shared mutual tastes and were an instant writing partnership. Since then Lambert has recorded 10 songs written with or by Howard, including “Bring Me Down,” “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend,” and last year’s hit, “Famous In A Small Town” and the upcoming single, "Heart Like Mine."

From Nashville Star, Travis also went on to work as an actor in Cameron Crowe’s “Elizabethtown,” CBS’s crime drama “Cold Case” and many other film and television projects.

The Bluebird Cafe has gained a reputation worldwide for presenting the best original country and acoustic music seven nights a week. Performers do not generally play "cover" songs. Musicians do not jam here, and songwriters frequently are accompanied by just one guitar or piano.

The Café has Writers Night on Sundays, with a hit songwriter the featured guest.