The superstar recalled earlier when the exit/entry of the new debut gave a struggling troubadour a break, excerpted from "Exit/Enter: Fifty Years and Counting".
Earlier this fall, Exit/In, one of the most famous and influential nightclubs in Nashville, celebrated its 50th birthday. The coffee table book "Exit/In: 50 Years" shipped later this fall celebrates the history of this cultural landmark. Interviews with John Hiatt, Rodney Crowell, Margot Price, Darius Luke, Jason Lingenberg, Lucinda Williams, Marshall Chapman, etc. There are also photos taken by legendary figures such as Willie Nelson, John Prin and George Jones at this proud venue-which were sold to a hotel developer earlier this year, and the future is unclear. This book is also available in a collector's edition, which can be pre-ordered from Grandin Hood Publishers here.
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The exclusive premiere below is the foreword written by Jimmy Buffett for the book. Buffett, who had just started his career, became the first actor to exit/enter the stage in 1971. This year he returned to the venue to perform again.
Somehow, as early as 1971, I played the opening song of Exit/In. That's why, when the shocking facts 50 years ago began to emerge from people who loved this place like me, I went back to my 24-year-old living in Nashville and the pleasure of getting it to work. So, I want to take you on a quick journey along the score that brought me to the Exit/In that day.
After studying at Auburn University for a while, I left in the third quarter and went to Panama City Beach in Florida to find a job as a singer. No luck on the beach, I returned to my hometown of Mobile, without telling my parents that I had dropped out of school. There, I found my first real singing job in a Mexican restaurant in a mall.
After re-entering the university at Southern Mississippi University, I started to travel to New Orleans with classmates and friends, where we found ourselves in the Bayou Room on Bourbon Street, listening to "professional" private groups, dreaming of being on that stage one day. In the end, we formed a folk music group and got some reservations and "pick-up" performances in the French Quarter, but unfortunately, the live music that was as attractive as the ubiquitous strip clubs began to disappear from Bourbon Street. Learn more than in any class.
After returning to Mobile’s home, I found a daily job at the shipyard and an evening show at the Admiral Semmes Hotel bar. The local music manager Milton Brown heard my music and offered to take me to Nashville to record a demonstration with some "real choosers". My high school classmates and I reconnected with Spring Hill College beauty queen Margie, and we just got married. We decided to take a big step and pursue the dream of Nashville. Milton introduced me to Buzz Carson, and I started working as a writer at Russell Carson Music Company, earning $150 a week. Margie got a job as a receptionist at Capitol Records. My plan is to use the skills I honed in New Orleans and Mobile to find a job in singing.
Damn, this should be easy in Music City. But what I did not expect is that there is no unknown place to play in this city that prides itself as the world's music capital. I was serious. In New Orleans, before I saw the inside of the club, I was a street singer. This is the tradition there. In Nashville, they arrested you for this. The work of the musicians is closely guarded-from the small speakers in Printer Lane behind the Lehman Auditorium, to the performances in the hotel bar that "was a country star". There is no audition room in the town-a place where customers can sit down for coffee, beer and wine and listen to acoustic guitar players.
With a degree in journalism from Southern Mississippi, I work as a bulletin board reporter during the day and write and record demos of new songs at the Buzz studio in Berry Hill at night. Buzz also introduced me to Don Light. He is a very respected talent agent. He began to book me performance rooms for the Southern Folk Tour: Atlanta, Athens, Raleigh, Great Smoky Mountain Resort, Houston, Dallas , Austin and Miami. But Nashville still has no listening room.
As a bulletin board reporter, I am familiar with Elliston Place because its restaurants are very popular with musicians and Music Row staff. I can bike through Centennial Park to my favorite places: Elliston Place Soda Shop, Rotier's, Krispy Kreme and Elder's Bookstore. In 1971 at the Elliston Place soda shop, where the universe performed its magic. It was a Wednesday, and it was "Fried Chicken Day." When I finished my coconut cream pie dessert, I noticed a bustling building across the street. I asked the waitress if she knew what had happened, and she told me they were building a nightclub, which seemed to annoy her.
I quickly paid the bill and walked over to take a look. The front door is open, and workers come in and out. One of them told me that they are refurbishing the building into some kind of bar. I asked him what kind of bar. He squinted and said, "Listening to music quietly doesn't sound interesting to me." "You mean the listening room?" I asked. "Yes, that's it," he said. Then he told me that the owner was inside and I should talk to them. When he walked away and entered his truck, I glanced inside the door. More workers are busy beating on a small stage behind, others are unloading tables and chairs.
I ran to get my guitar and hurriedly reappeared at the door. The two guys sitting at the same table look more like hippies than construction workers and must be owners. I walked straight to them, introduced myself to Bugh Reynolds and Owsley Manier, and asked if they were the owners, and they said yes. I asked if they were still auditioning performers. "Not really," they said. I made up my mind, hopefully, and continued, "It won't take long." "Of course, go ahead," Owsley replied. Blue asked the workers to turn off the chainsaw and electric drill. I sat in a chair on the unfinished stage and played four or five songs I knew I had worked in clubs elsewhere. When I was finished, the carpenters applauded and Owsley and Brugh hired me on the spot.
When the venue opened, Minecraft got a big shock from the first performance, and this shock seemed to last for fifty years—or at least the memory of it. Exit/In is also the spark that ignited the Nashville listening room. All you have to do is look at the front sign with the names of celebrities and admirers who become celebrities, and you know what this place means to Nashville’s musical history. In these pandemic days, when so many performers and technicians are struggling to make ends meet until we can all start working again, I will do my best to help keep the exit/entrance doors open, I hope this story Can help cause.
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