Show Reviews

 

“In the Round” w/ Zoee, James House, Jeff Cohen, and Kyle Jacobs

Friday September 30, 2022

@ The Bluebird Café in Nashville, TN

Nashville is a tapestry that’s weaved rich with iconic music stages that hold a tight grip on the traditions of country music and those who paved the way for the modern era.

Ask any artist about standing in the wooden circle that adorns the stage at The Grand Ole Opry House and you’ll be inundated with unique stories about an eerie feeling they get of the ghosts of the legends carrying them through their performances.

Talk about the Mother Church of Country Music, The Ryman Auditorium, and you’ll be hearing about how the walls echo with the barn dance’s staticky AM radio sound from days gone by as the Grand Ole Opry’s foundations swirl around you as if the moments that shaped country music’s most famous show are reoccurring in the here and now.

Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge, a famous spot along the NashVegas like strip of Lower Broadway, brings forth tales of when names like Willie and Kristofferson held a space on their stage when they were first trying out their then new songs that would become those which shaped the entire genre.

But The Bluebird Café…about a 5 mile drop outside the burgeoning downtown area of neon lights and party crowds, is the place where songwriters and their craft become the stuff of legends. The original listening room if you will, where tales of yesteryear tell of how fresh songs from unknown songwriters struck a chord with a future legend; just ask Garth and Tony Arata about that.

Patrons from every corner of the US - Seattle to Buffalo, Minnesota to LA -  gathered with those who traveled to Nashville from faraway places across the pond, all crowded into the sold out room for the “in the round” show on this Friday night which featured one of country music’s most exciting emerging talents Zoee playing alongside her co-writing hitmakers, James House, Jeff Cohen, and Kyle Jacobs; with the incredible Andrea Young of the band The Wildcards sitting in on violin and adding additional depth to each song. 

ROUND ONE

James House, who would open each of the five rounds, began with one of his biggest songwriter hits when he played “Ain’t That Lonely Yet,” the Dwight Yoakam hit that not only rode up the charts to the #1 position, but also earned a Grammy nomination for country song of the year.

“I was living in New York City when that song came out, and I didn’t grow up listening to a lot of country,” began Jeff Cohen, speaking directly to James House regarding the song he had just finished playing. “I was like, what is this? And I got that Dwight Yoakam CD as soon as it came out,” he finished as he fine-tuned his guitar.

“Well…I’m gonna keep it upbeat cause most of songs are sad, and this one is just angry,” Cohen said with hints of sarcasm. “It was in a really scary movie called The Princess Diaries, and then became big on a very Shakespearian television show called Dawson’s Creek,” he finished, laughing with the crowd as he played “Crazy for This Girl,” the debut single from Evan Jaron in 2000 that not only saw the crowd singing along with it, but also had Kyle Jacobs playing along on guitar while Zoee added claps and harmonies.

In a moment that saw Cohen apologizing to the parents in the crowd who had 10-year-olds, he smashed the ending of “Crazy for This Girl” into the Paw Patrol theme song, which he had a hand in writing.

“I love this room. Thank God for the Bluebird,” began Kyle Jacobs as he mused about the legendary venue. “Y’all know Lee Brice?” he asked as he was met with applause. “I love that guy! We’ve written a lot of songs together and this is one of them,” he finished as he delivered “Rumor,” but as good a song as that is on its own, it was when he sang the line “you could lay one on me right now” while pausing to look at his wife, Kellie Pickler, that a chorus of awwws rained out from the crowd and made for the first of several “Only in Nashville” moments that happened throughout the night.

“I want to first thank the three of you for making this incredibly hard to follow,” humbly exclaimed Zoee as she gave a nod to her fellow songwriters before showcasing her witty, Aussie personality. “I wrote this next song for Taylor Swift….and if any of you find her, would you please let her know,” she said with a smile and chuckle as she opened her night with “All Mine,” an ultra-catchy, pop country driven song that immediately allowed her to captivate the crowd with her vocal as she dipped into her lower register before punching up her voice to strike home the chorus.

ROUND ONE SET LIST

1) Ain’t That Lonely Yet (James House)

2) Crazy for This Girl/Paw Patrol Theme (Jeff Cohen)

3) Rumor (Kyle Jacobs)

4) All Mine (Zoee)

ROUND TWO

“I’m gonna do a medley of my hit,” House said with a laugh as he took the crowd back to the mid-90’s with “This Is Me Missing You,” a single he released as an artist that landed him in the Top 10 on Billboard charts.

Jeff Cohen opened his family photo album so-to-speak as he took us through a history of how he grew up and the power of music in his life, whether it be his dad only listening to classical music and opera, or the first time that he heard The Beatles and getting hooked.

But it was the story of a lady named Mary that he shared before playing his Josh Groban cut, “In Her Eyes,” that would tug on hearts and create an audience full of misty eyes as he pulled the crowd deeply into the depth of song.

“I got a letter from a lady in Australia. Her husband was in his early 40’s and had early onset dementia. The last two years of his life, he didn’t talk but would occasionally break into song. His young kids, every time he did, would run to their mom and say that daddy is doing a concert again. She said in the letter that the day he died, he put his hand on her heart and said the words of this song to her and that was the first time that he had spoken in two years.”

“It feels like I’m home on my back porch right now,” Jacobs said with his eyes closed while soaking in the moment. “I love this place. This next song is this room. This room wouldn’t be this room without the songs that created it. When we wrote this next one, we asked, what makes Nashville Nashville…is it the artists or the songs? What would those artists be without those classic songs? That’s what inspires us as songwriters,” he shared. “How do we create something timeless…something that makes Nashville Nashville,” he finished as he played “Nashville Without You,” a song recorded by Tim McGraw which pays homage to the iconic songs that created the sound of the genre.

The sexy vibed, falling in love lyric of her newest single “This Thing” allowed Zoee to move into her radio friendly comfort zone as she tilted her vocal into Olivia Newton John territory, balancing fluidly on the edge of pop and country while the crowd bopped along, tapping their toes in rhythm with the mid-tempo melody. As a little bonus, Kyle, Jeff, and James all tackled the harmony role, encouraging the crowd to do the same as they aptly responded, sounding like – as Jacobs put it – owls as they reverberated the room with “ohhh ohhh’s.”

ROUND TWO SET LIST

1) This is Me Missing You (James House)

2) In Her Eyes (Jeff Cohen)

3) Nashville Without You (Kyle Jacobs)

4) This Thing (Zoee) 

ROUND THREE

“I haven’t done this one much,” admitted House as he asked if anyone was fans of Joe Bonamassa before getting everyone in the venue bopping their heads with the melody as Zoee and Jacobs strummed along in rhythm with the swampy blues of “The Ghost of Macon Jones.”

In the second “Only In Nashville” moment of the night, after sharing about co-writing during a recent writer’s retreat in Lubbock, TX, Jeff Cohen brought Hannah Jackson to the stage – her first time ever singing in Nashville - to join him on their co-write “I’ve Been Waiting To Call You Mine,”  sliding back from the microphone several times as Jackson shined brightly in her spotlight moment, allowing the power of her voice to complete hold its own as she grabbed the listening audience and held them tightly.

“As songwriters, the best thing we do is write the truth. The best songs come from the truth,” told Jacobs. “My wife was on Dancing with the Stars, and she won the whole thing; she brought the Mirrorball trophy back home to Nashville with her,” he gushed as the crowd cheered loudly for Kellie. “I’m super proud of her, but when your spouse is gone for weeks at a time doing something like that, a songwriter is gonna write…and this happened,” Kyle finished as he began playing “Spend A Little Time With You,” hilariously stopping the song during its intro, looking across the circle at House, and enthusiastically exclaiming, “We wrote this one!” before continuing with the song as he took the audience straight into the steamy lyric that sang of all he wanted to do when he and his wife get together again, playing its final notes as he leaned back and kissed Kellie, eliciting a second “awwww” moment from the crowd.

“I started writing this song on a beach in Australia, and I ended up finishing it here in Nashville,” Zoee shared as she played “Castles in the Sand,” allowing the slower pace of the song to give her the perfect amount of room to wow the crowd, yet again, with her incredible vocals as she put on a bold display of her amazing range by sliding into high note territory.

 ROUND THREE SET LIST

1) The Ghost of Macon Jones (James House)

2) I’ve Been Waiting To Call You Mine (Jeff Cohen/Hannah Jackson)

3) Spend A Little Time With You (Kyle Jacobs)

4) Castles in the Sand (Zoee)

ROUND FOUR

“In A Week or Two,” the smash hit by Diamond Rio, kicked off the 4th round and immediately had the audience singing along with James House as he led us through the familiar lyric with raw emotion packed into the punch of his voice.

“I was living in New York and got a call from a publisher…and they asked me, “can you please write with these guys?” said Cohen. “When they showed up at my apartment, the first thing they asked me was where the rest of it was,” he paused as he hung his head and the crowd laughed. “Then they asked me if I had anything New York country for them? I told them that I had no idea what that means, but I do have a song I’ve been saving for when I come to Nashville,” he told half joking/half seriously.

“I had a friend who was going through something, and I told that frien that they had to get away from it and then go further away from it. Well, we ended up writing this song that day, and I got a call that Martina McBride had put it on hold and was going to be doing it. Then these two guys called me back a few months later and told me, Martina was not going to do the song because they played it for Warner Brothers and ended up getting a record deal themselves and so they were stealing it back from Martina to cut it,” Cohen said with a “really” look, musing that’s how any songwriter would feel. “But those guys did become Big & Rich and this song went #1,” he excitedly shared as the crowd roared while the opening notes of “Holy Water” began.

“I’m gonna sing a song I didn’t write, but one that did take me about a hundred hours to produce,” told Jacobs who then talked about not even knowing the depth that the incredible Lee Brice song “I Drive Your Truck” would have and how it would end up touching millions of people like it has since its release. 

He then shared his own personal experience with the song, connecting its importance with the hearts of the crowd:

“Kellie and I do a lot of USO Tours, and we were on one when this song had just come out. We were in Afghanistan in front of a sea of people and she told me that I was doing the song that night. I had to stop halfway through it because they were singing every single word of it,” he said with a pause to catch his breath as he choked up. “Little did I know that was his home base,” he shared, referring to the soldier who provided the inspiration for the song.

Zoee once again praised her co-writers who sat in the circle with her when she closed the 4th round with “Supernova,” an incredibly powerful song co-written by her with Jeff Cohen and James House that sings of standing strong by the side of the one who holds your heart when they need you to be there most with unconditional love.

ROUND FOUR SET LIST

1) In A Week or Two (James House)

2) Holy Water (Jeff Cohen)

3) I Drive Your Truck (Kyle Jacobs)

4) Supernova (Zoee)

ROUND FIVE

After sharing pieces of his family’s history in music and entertainment, unraveling some of his influences, House talked about his transformation from a rock-n-roll songwriter in LA, to becoming one of Nashville’s most gifted, renowned songwriters in country music when he remembered the inspiration the CMA Awards had on him that would lead to him writing and recording several country songs, and eventually to his record deal with MCA.

“This song changed my life,” he said. “It didn’t go Top 40 or anything, but it got me to Nashville,” he finished with a smile as he played “Hard Times for an Honest Man,” the second of his two original artist songs he played on the night.

After acknowledging members of the CCMA Award winning group Nice Horse being in the crowd, Jeff Cohen shared, “I know that Zoee likes this song, and while I don’t usually play it, I was so lucky to work with a group before they had gotten signed called The Band Perry,” he chimed as the crowd cheered and began to instantly sing along with “Postcard From Paris.”

“The reason that I’m doing this song right now is because the guy sitting at my six is the best fisherman on the planet…he’s one of the best men on the planet!” said Jacobs boldly. “He’s my brother and I love him to death,” he finished as he dedicated a new song called “Get Away” to him to close out his part of the night as he took us on a lyrical journey that reminded us to slow life down and take a little time to truly live.

“I just finished writing this song, so this is its debut performance, which means if I screw it up you won’t know,” laughingly said Zoee. “I’m gonna turn up the heat a little bit since we haven’t had any cheating songs tonight,” she scolded as she sang the sassy, attitude kissed “Sorry,” eliciting cheers from the ladies in the audience who had been scorned in the past as she feistily sang the kiss-off lyrics to close her part of the night.   

“To be up here tonight around you guys,” humbly said Zoee. “I grew up listening to your songs and all these songs are what made me want to do this,” she shared acknowledging the impact that these writers have had as the crowd applauded loudly in approval, showering the incredible writers with well-deserved praise.

ROUND FOUR SET LIST

1) Hard Times for an Honest Man (James House)

2) Postcard From Paris (Jeff Cohen)

3) Get Away (Kyle Jacobs)

4) Sorry (Zoee)

BONUS

“When this song was first written, Faith Hill put it on hold…but then it was off hold,” told House taking us into the ups and downs of the music business. “Then Martina put it on hold, and she cut it. When they gave me her version of it to listen to, I was listening to it in my car while I was driving and I almost crashed cause it was so damn good,” he finished as he closed out the night with “Broken Wing,” a perfect exclamation point on a jaw-dropping night of incredible music, from the hits that the Bluebird is accustomed to hosting in their rounds, to those songs that gave a breath of fresh air into the country music landscape that let us know its heading in such a wonderful direction. 

BONUS SETLIST

1) Broken Wing (James House)

When you look on paper at a stacked lineup of amazing talent such as this, you pretty much expect the stories and songs to be elevated to new levels and wow you with each passing turn around the writer’s circle. But it was so much more than just the songs on this night! The comradery between each of the four playing the round allowed them to show off their witty personalities in the banter between their turns in the spotlight, which took their obvious friendship and support of one another to a place where they made the entire crowd feel like they were welcomed into the inside jokes as they sat in a room with their longtime friends that they hadn’t seen in a while.

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