On Saturday night, I played an amazing round with hit songwriters Benita Hill and Becky Hobbs at the Bluebird Café. This was the 24th annual Alive at the Bluebird concert series benefiting Alive Hospice, an end of life care facility in Nashville, TN.
This is the fourth or fifth time I’ve played at the event, and this year is special for a couple of reasons.
For one, the first person that invited me to perform at Alive was Richard Fagan, the first professional writer my dad Kim Williams worked with when he moved to Nashville to be a hit songwriter back in the ‘80s.
The pair collaborated on a song “Overnight Male” with Ron Harbin, which was recorded by George Strait for his Pure Country movie.
Rich passed away last year in Alive Hospice care after suffering a long battle with cancer.
Two – my dad was booked to perform at Alive at the Bluebird last year, and his show was snowed out in January. In February, he and my mom took off to Florida for the month, and he passed away on February 11th, 2016.
Later in the year, his friends Kent Blazy, Victoria Shaw, and Pat Alger put together a makeup show at the Bluebird for Alive Hospice to make up for the snow day, and invited me to perform dad’s hit “Three Wooden Crosses” to close out the show. It was a special honor to be able to represent my dad, Nashville Songwriter Hall of Fame Member Kim Williams in that way.
Three – Benita and Becky were part of a trio of songwriters along with Kasey Jones called “A Cowgirl, A Diva and a Shameless Hussy.” As a group they performed for Alive at the Bluebird every year.
Last year, Kasey passed away under Alive Hospice care. This year Benita and Becky asked me to celebrate our lost loved ones by joining their round at Alive at the Bluebird.
Fittingly, the tickets for this very special show sold out in 3 minutes from the Bluebird website last week.
If you haven’t participated in an Alive at the Bluebird event, you should go. The people who work at Alive Hospice are truly Angels helping “with the birth of a soul,” as they say.
After performing at a few of the Alive events, I was moved to go through their volunteer training for music therapy. I can truly say that my life is better as a result of having gone through their training, and working with the Angels there.
So much so that I wrote a song with one of my students about the training I received, and look forward to playing it for the audience at next year’s Alive at the Bluebird benefit.
Do you have an experience with Alive Hospice or Alive at the Bluebird? Leave a comment below.
If you weren’t able to get tickets to last week’s show, there are still a few left for my concert this Saturday, January 28th at the 7695 in Nashville. Get your tickets here.
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