Bluebird Cafe

History

Amy Kurland, a former waitress, opened the Bluebird Cafe on June 3, 1982, at 4104 Hillsboro Pike in Green Hills, using money left by her grandmother. It was built as a restaurant of about 90 seats. Friends started playing after dinner, and a writer's night for World Hunger Year turned into the room's habit: songwriters in the round, in the middle of the floor. Kathy Mattea got a Mercury deal in March 1983 after seven months of shows there. Garth Brooks got his record deal in 1988 after filling in for a writer who never showed up. In 2008 Kurland gave the cafe to the Nashville Songwriters Association International.