SOURCE Nashville Hosts Song Stories Luncheon at The Bluebird Café
SOURCE Nashville returned to The Bluebird Café for the second edition of Song Stories. Moderated by Ashley Hertzog Embry, the October 22 luncheon included panelists Missi Gallimore (Truth or Dare Music), Liz Morin (Showbiz Ro Music), and Jessi Vaughn Stevenson (Perfect Game Creative). The hour-long discussion put a twist on the traditional writer’s round to focus on the women behind the scenes of the songs we know and love, and how those songs journeyed from the writing room to radio and beyond.
The afternoon shed light on each woman’s journey into the Nashville music industry, what it’s really like being a song plugger, and the hurdles each faced climbing the Music Row ladder. In between the discussion, snippets of songs the women helped champion were played on the Bluebird’s speakers as they told the humorous and unlikely treks to the top of the charts.
One of the most memorable moments was when each woman shared the song she was proudest to watch find its way to the masses. Liz recounted her time as an assistant song plugger at Double J Music Group. Her team thought they had a hit for Clay Walker, but she heard George Strait singing the song and took matters into her own hands.
“I’m thinking, ‘This song is not Clay Walker. It needs to go to George Strait,’” she recalls. “Now again, I’m not the boss. I’m just the assistant song plugger. So, I take my walk down to 18th and Grand, and I go, ‘You know what? I'm gonna put it in George’s box.’ Never told them at that point.”
Weeks later, Liz’s boss, Juan Contreras, gets a call from George’s manager, Erv Woolsey. He tells Juan, “George loves this song called ‘Check Yes or No.’”
As Juan tries to explain that they pitched it to Clay, Erv is adamant the song was for George. Liz then replays the conversation Juan had with Erv. George's manager explains that it was the country superstar's son who instantly loved the song.
“George was riding in the car taking his son, Bubba, to school, and Bubba heard it. He was playing songs in the car, and Bubba said, ‘Dad, you need to cut this song. It reminds me of my girls at my school,’” she says. “That happened, and the rest is history.”
Jessi’s story was a whirlwind. While on a girls’ trip in New York in 2021, Jessi received a text from songwriter Jessi Alexander with a song called “Don’t Think Jesus.” Jessi wrote the track that day with Mark Holman and Chase McGill and told her, “We wrote this for Morgan.”
“So, I texted it to him,” she says. “He texts me back immediately. He's like, ‘I want this song. This is amazing.’ He learns it that night, posts it on Instagram, goes on to record it, and then it’s his first single post controversy. Not to radio, they just put it out to streaming, but I think it debuted at number one on the streaming charts.
“Most of the time, songs take a while,” she admits. “It was really cool to be a part of a song that was kind of an apology song, but also a love letter to forgiveness and grace, and I just really loved that.”
Missi then shared the unlikely first pitch of “Breathe” to Tim McGraw. Songwriters Stephanie Bentley and Mary Lamar called her up and stopped by her office to share their song.
“I originally put it on hold for Tim, and I remember Tim was at the studio singing at the time,” Missi explains. “Byron [Gallimore] had a little studio in the basement of our house, and Tim would come there to do vocals and things. I called Tim out to the car, and we sat in the car … He’s like, ‘God, I love this, but I don’t hear me doing it. But you should definitely play this for Faith.’ So, played it for Faith.
“This one, in the studio, whatever the little fairy god came down on that song, and after they cut it, it was like, ‘Wow, this has got to be it,’" she continues. "Jim Ed Norman was the one that picked it. He said, ‘It’s got to be this song’ because nobody was really thinking it was going to be this song, and that’s the one. That was her big one.”
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