THE BLUEBIRD CAFE - April 6, 2014

PART 1: ARE WE DOING THIS? (OF COURSE WE ARE DOING THIS).

Brian Scully (singer): I got an email from our friend, Liane, who had been doing some management for the band. She was basically like, "I think I got you an audition at the Bluebird Cafe."

Liane (manager): Back in 2014, I was on Facebook and saw a post from the Bluebird for their Sunday Writer's Night auditions. I sent a FB message (as one did back in 2014) to see if we could get Brian in.

Scully: At the time, the auditions were supposed to be open to musicians actively working and living in Nashville. But, Liane being Liane, she got us in.

Liane: They had one more slot for auditions. Brian flew down to participate in auditions, despite having to come from Nantucket to Nashville in one day, and of course, got through.

Scully: Too often, in this band, the standard is whether something is possible, as opposed to advisable.

But, it felt a little like this opportunity might never come up again. I was sort of convinced that Liane had told them we lived in Nashville to get us in.

PART 2: BOATS, PLANES, AND BUSSES

Scully: There were a few challenges. The weather in April in Nantucket is super unpredictable and there are no late night ferry boats or flights back to the mainland. So, of course, in true Dalton fashion, we hired a tuna boat.

Basically, no other boats were willing to do it. But we offered the guy $1,000 in cash to get us back to the Cape so we could drive to Boston and catch a 7AM flight to Nashville. On the website, the boat looked enclosed and heated. So, I just went to the docks with my guitar and a t-shirt. This, it turns out, was a miscalculation.

Kate (songwriter and business): We have accumulated some crazy travel stories over the years. But the trip from Nantucket to the Bluebird Cafe audition sounds like a game of two truths and a lie. Or, maybe, one of those Sunday night stress dreams where you wake up completely exhausted.

Scully: The plan, let’s say, was not exactly bullet-proof. Every leg of the journey needed to go perfectly for it to work. Ten hours is just not really enough time to get from Boston to Nashville for something important, never mind being given a 30-miles-out-at-sea starting penalty.

Kate: I was at home with the kids and it was difficult to comprehend the updates I was getting.

Scully: The first problem we encountered was that there was now a small craft advisory in place. It was rainy and windy with 6-to-8’ seas. Previously, I had no need to understand the impact of a 6-to-8’ seas or the very reasonable advice not to take a small craft out into them. I have since learned the importance of such warnings.

Secondly, the owner of the bar was so excited that the trip had worked out -- and that we had honored our commitment to play a charity event -- that he immediately began buying the captain and his first mate shots. Probably not ideal.

Scully: We got to the boat and it was not the same as the picture. It was open to the weather, other than some basic fabric covers and it was like, "hold on for dear life." It took us four hours to cross Nantucket Sound. I was soaked fully through and half frozen. I didn’t stop shivering until the plane landed in Nashville. At one point, they sent me a picture of the GPS path the boat took. It looked like a cave person’s drawing of a snake. Just back and forth, left and right the whole way. (Note: We did in fact hire these same folks to ferry us from Nantucket to Beach Road weekend several years later, so I guess, maybe lesson not learned?)

Kate (songwriter and business): One fun fact is that the trip introduced Scully to vertigo, due to the boat trip on angry seas.

Scully: It’s only recently that I’ve been able to take boat rides without immediately getting sick. I had never had a problem before. That trip broke me. My equillibrium didn't trust me for a decade. It would just go into hyperdrive at the smell of marine diesel fumes.

At one point during our meandering, the first mate — who may or may not have been overserved — just went down to the front of the hull and started puking. He just passed out outside of the bathroom down there. He didn't come back up until the boat was at the dock.

I definitely didn’t see the top of a few waves, Perfect-Storm style. I was sending Kate texts when I could get reception and they were all coming in to her out of order. I had legitimate questions about whether we would make it.

Once we hit land, we hopped in the car and drove to pick up Kate. We got to Logan for the 7AM flight and then hopped on public transportation at the airport.

We arrived at 11:30AM Eastern Standard Time. If not for the time zone change, we wouldn’t have made it.

Oh, and guess how long the audition was? One minute. The founder of the Bluebird had a rule that a good song presented itself in one minute or less. So, 11 hours and risking our necks for a verse and a chorus.

PART 3: WE MADE IT! (MAYBE?)

Kate: When we found out we had passed the audition, we thought we had made it.

Scully: Spoiler, we had not.

Kate: But, for the next few years, we played the Bluebird writer’s night a half dozen or so times.

The first trip was epic, though. A bunch of folks flew down and we played a guerrilla show at Tootsies as well. We called them the Dalton Travel Team and we made up softball jerseys for them.

Scully: I feel like I learned a lot from those shows. The industry is pretty cutthroat and I think by the time we were there, it was no longer a place of active music discovery. It didn’t make it any less special, but I think we thought we’d make real inroads into Nashville and I’m not sure that’s how the Sunday Writer’s Night functions anymore.

Tommy Scully (opening act, Sept. 14): The thing I remember most about going to the Bluebird was the waiting. We got to the Bluebird Café at around 10:30 in the morning, knowing full well that Mom and I only had a small chance of getting let in. It was already 90 degrees out and climbing, but we didn’t dare leave the line more than one person at a time. Even though we had gotten there hours earlier than any normal person would, there were still people ahead of us. Seeing someone with an overnight bag and laptop with a portable charger made me feel grossly unprepared. But we made it (with help from Gatorades from a nearby McDonalds) and we were let in!

I stepped inside the room and was hit by the AC. Once my eyes had adjusted to the darkness, I thought, this is so much smaller than I thought it would be. But this was the stage where countless artists had been discovered—most notably -- Taylor Swift. I can’t say that I was expecting my dad to be swarmed by suits with offers once he left the stage, but I wouldn’t have been surprised if it did happen.

Chris L: The Bluebird Cafe in Nashville, a stage that has been played by generational country artists like Garth Brooks, Kenny Chesney, and Brian Scully. When fellow diehard Dalton fan Pat and I flew down to Nashville to see Scully perform at the Bluebird, I don’t think we understood the significance of this achievement until we got there and were told the history. They don’t let just anyone play at this bar. You have to be the best of the best in emerging talent in the industry.

Just a few years ago we would go to Dalton shows where Scully would hand out business cards and CDs to the crowd, and now we are front row watching him play original songs from that album to a crowd of diehard country fans, in arguably the most historical venue in the country. Turns out the set he played that night was just the beginning…

Tommy: I remember feeling amazing about the fact that he got to play on one of the most fabled stages, in the country music industry, and in my 10-year-old loyalty to my parents, also thinking that he was by far the best musician in the room. In hindsight, he probably was.

Chris L.: But what was unique was after shows we’d say hello to Scully (who’s name we thought was Dalton for longer then I want to admit) and he would never big league us. Never think he was too cool for the fans. Instead he’d take our requests, learn everyone’s name in the group, and shout us out on stage. Thats what made it even more special when the band started getting big gigs whether in Nashville, the Pavilion, Paradise Rock Club. Seeing how many people not only knew Scully but how many of those thousands of people he knew too.

We felt like we were seeing a friend who’s career we’d seen from close to the beginning finally get the recognition we knew he deserved. Scully said it best when they played the Pavilion a few years back in front of a few thousand people “this is pretty cool because I’m pretty sure we know all you people here”. And funny part is, he was probably right.