Everyone's been emailing calling, coming over and asking me about the Nashville trip (and I love it), but I thought I'd just type up a brief overview of it and let everyone know how things went. The trip was wonderful, to say the least. I had hoped for positive feedback on the songs I had written and some excitement about my singing. We got lots of both. I pitched several songs (Mississippi Moonshine, Forever & A Day, Ballad of BTK) to several publishers, made a ton of co-writing connections with rising and soon-to-be rising stars in town, learned to navigate the Nashville Interstate system (or lack thereof) and got to hear and meet some of the real heroes who are writing the hits we hear today. There were a lot of folks - Joe Leathers who wrote "(I Thought I Was) Tough", Chuck Allen Floyd (another major writer in town), Nicole Witt (incredible singer and writer and she just signed a deal with Curb Records), Barry Dean (writer of "God's Will"/Martina McBride and "Small"/Carrie Underwood's newest single). We were just spellbound. Also hung out a lot with Barbara Cloyd, who is the big-time Nashville person to know, plus she runs the talent at both the Bluebird Cafe and Lyrix Cafe. Barbara also wrote "I Guess You Had to be There" (Lorrie Morgan). We had dinner at her house, drank a few beers and then jammed with a dozen or so of the other writers til about 2AM. Good times. We got to hit The Bluebird Café, Richard's and River Street Café. All with either amazing food, entertainment or both. Also made our rounds to Tootsie's, The Stage, Legends, The Ryman and of course 16th avenue, home to every record label in town like Curb, Lyric Street, Universal, Sony. Things do move slow for writers and artists in Music City, and it all comes down to who you know. And this was my first trip up in a while. So this is not the top of the stairs. But it was so unbelievably productive and necessary and now we are just watching the road, keeping things in gear and moving forward. Also, the chance to co-write is critical in Nashville and co-writing with someone already established is about the only way in. So we're developing those relationships, planning co-writing sessions with people who are in turn, co-writing with the major players. Then that will turn into the next step of writing with the hit-makers and getting radio play and so on. Unbelievable trip though. I was shocked for people to make such a fuss over my songs and my singing. Tons of co-writing offers, already. It was exciting and humbling. But it did validate things for me. The reaction to what we did was enough to convince me that we belong there. I don't feel like a fish out of water now…just a tiny fish in a huge pond. And that was pretty much, the trip. Hopefully, more good news to come, down the road!