The Bluebird Cafe Scrapbook: Music and Memories from Nashville’s Legendary Singer-Songwriter Showcase

There’s a little bistro in a small strip mall in Nashville, Tennessee. Twenty years ago owner Amy Kurland flung open its doors, and Music City’s greatest unsung singer-songwriters ambled in. It was there that Garth Brooks performed his earliest gigs — and landed a recording contract with Capitol Records. Since its opening in June 1982, the club has inspired a television series, a feature film, and more webcasts than a person can count. And it has perhaps become the premier legend in a town that’s known for legends — one of the hippest hangouts and best listening rooms in country-music country! In celebration of the Bluebird’s twentieth anniversary, owner Kurland — with able help from collaborators Mark Benner and Neil Fagan — has compiled a treasure trove of mementoes and memories from the cafe’s first two decades. It is chock-full of candid photographs, history and fascinating trivia, unique memorabilia, and fond personal remembrances from the likes of Pam Tillis, Henry Gross, Rusty Young, Garth himself, and many, many more of the country royalty who, before they could fill great arenas, filled the Bluebird Cafe with song. Here, too, are mouthwatering recipes straight from the Bluebird’s incomparable kitchen and from musicians, including Faith Hill and the Dixie Chicks — everything from Shrimp Gumbo to Chocolate Chunk Cheesecake! There is no other place in the world quite like the Bluebird — and there is no other book more indispensable to the true country-music lover’s collection than The Bluebird Cafe Scrapbook. It’s fun, funky, absorbing, intriguing, and always heartfelt — a one-of-a-kind keepsake that gloriously celebrates a unique Nashville monument and the talent that made it so.