Boots Blog: Nashville in Europe? Oh, yes!

Have you even been to Nashville? Music city is truly magic. There is music everywhere. The streets are infused by heavy drums and rhythm. The atmosphere is packed with dreams, lyrics and history. Often you'll see musicians working together on stage, and get a true feeling of community. A trip to Nashville is a deep dive into music and especially country music. For many Europeans Nashville is a distant dream, far, far away. But, this fall magic happened. Nashville came to Europe. To Odense, in Denmark. And, I was there.

About Nashville Nights International Songwriter Festival

"The festivals goal is to inspire, entertain and motivate songwriters and music lovers across genre’s, age and countries, and to help upcoming talent by giving them the chance to perform and help them build networks.

Songwriting is the focus, so even though the festival’s name clearly resonates with the hometown of country music, the festival will embrace other genre’s such as pop, rock and indie, which nowadays all seem influenced by songs from Nashville."

Boots thoughts, expectations and evaluation

Hearing about this brand new festival, my expectations were high. Not only does the goals of this festival resonate with with the goals of Boots of Europe, but the caliber of artists and songwriters that was coming totally blew my mind!

I was super excited! Imagine being able to actually hear the stories and see the masterminds behind the songs we love(that's played on radio today!), here in Europe! And also getting the chance to hear the stars of tomorrow? It sounded almost too good to be true.

Not only that; it was a real live event, in the beginning of the end of the world pandemic. And one of the first real life events for me since 2019. Could this actually be true? Is it really possible to bring Nashville to Europe?

I am also over average interested in country music and the industry. How would this festival be like for just a regular country fan?

"Nashville Nights International Songwriter Festival matched my expectations by far. It was even better than what I expected it to be."

Overall

The festival was very professional organized and the musicians were as expected, top notch. They sang their heart out and poured their soul onto the audience, enchanting us with stories and the music made by experience or inspiration.

I'm left with plenty of good memories! The artists managed to create a very intimate atmosphere, making the audience feel like a part of the festival. In many ways, you can say they were hosting the party and we were very welcomed guests. After the shows, the musicians took their time to have a talk. Not only with me, but with average curious listeners. They even joined the audience of their fellow musicians shows, and sat by the listeners tables.

Did the festival manage to bring Nashville to Europe? By far! This festival is like a window to the Nashville community and song creation. Returning home, it felt like I've just visited Nashville.

The festival was very laid back and relaxing, where music and music encounter was in focus. Great music, great food and drinks, great memories. The festival is coming back in 2022, and I'm going for sure.

Discovering Odense

The festival spread over 3 days, 8 venues and 70 different events. It was a true pleasure to travel around in the city and experience the different venues. The webpage made it easy to find the next show. Sometimes the shows overlapped, so it was important to have an overlook in advance to and plan a little where to go. But that was just fun!

From Storm: Like a huge hall with food court, and stage. Nice atmosphere, lovely drinks and lots of happy people. This was also the box office of the festival.

Different kinds of events

Not only was there many artists and venues, but also different kinds of events. I Especially loved the songwriter rounds, a format I know from Nashville. Each artist have a small talk of their song, inspiration behind it, what it's about and how to interpret the song.

Songwriter round: Dan Smalley, Emma Zinck & Eric Paslay.

In a songwriter round, you´ll learn to know the artist and the artists style. It´s like having a direct view into the artist mind, making you connect with their music in a much deeper level.

At one of the shows, the listeners were able to see a song being written, and also being included in the writing process. In my opinion, very often the listeners takes music for granted. There is so much effort to make music. At first it's the stuggle of writing, and even though that can be done fast, it's still effort put in. And when the writing is done, it's over to pitching or production. A thought that's crossed my mind often, is how easy it's for us, the listeners, to discard music. Sometimes we stream the new songs and skip fast through new music with no further thought, like spoiled kids.

This show did not only show off some great, badass talented musicians, but it also taught the audience about some of the struggles and effort put into the art of creating music.

Short clip: We were all having a wonderful time.

There were also pure concert, conversations, workshops, debates, interviews and so much more.

So, even if you are an artist, a complete super interested country fan like me, or simply just love music; This festival is made for you. To me as a radio host/promoter, I made great connections that's of high value, doing what I do. I would highly recommend to participate future Nashville Nights Denmark.

More from the travel and the festival - Unforgettable memories

Imagine to write a song, that is of high value for people all around the world. That´s also life changing. Tim Nichols did just that. I asked him what song he was most proud of, and it was by far this one.

Live Like You Were Dying - Originally recorded by Tim McGraw, co-written by Tim Nichols.

Tim Nichols, has co-written "Over You", one of the last songs that Keith Whitley recorded, if not the last. He is also the master mind of "Heads Carolina, Tails California", and has written for Alan Jackson, Travis Tritt, Chris Young, Dustin Lynch, Rascall Flatt, Reba, The Isaacs, and also our friend with Boots, Wyatt Putman.

"The song "Live Like You Were Dying" has always had a huge impact on me, and running into Tim Nichols and having a cheers while yelling "live like you were dying" is a memory that will last a lifetime."

Tim is such an awesome entertainer, but also a really interesting man to talk to, with lots of experience and great histories.

I've added some more videos at our YouTube-Channel! Be sure to subscribe!

Link to Nashville Nights International Songwriter Festival.

More pictures;

"The hat everybody touched`"

An obligatory mirror selfie, with the famous hat.

Pizza and small talk: These amazing people made me completely forget I was companied by country music masterminds. They had all written some of the music we hear on radio. I don't know how it happened, but at one point I was FaceTiming Chris Young. Still, they were so human, haha! And I felt so welcome in their company. Thank you all!