Songwriters Turn Out For ‘It All Begins With A Song’ Screening

Nashville’s Belcourt Theatre held a crowd of cold but excited song lovers on Tuesday night (Jan. 22) to watch the first Nashville screening of It All Begins With A Song: The Story Of The Nashville Songwriter, presented by the Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp. (NCVC)

Derived from over 100 hours of interviews with Nashville songwriters, It All Begins With A Song features interviews with Rodney Crowell, Bill Anderson, Bob DiPiero, Jessi Alexander, Mac Davis, Shane McAnally, Brett James, Caitlyn Smith, Claude Kelly, Mikky Ekko, Brandy Clark, busbee, Desmond Child, Garth Brooks, Jeffrey Steele, Kacey Musgraves, and so many more. The film also included candid interviews with the late, great Lari White, and paid tribute to Guy Clark. Many of the songwriters featured in the film were in attendance at the screening, like Lee Thomas Miller, Tony Arata, Craig Wiseman, Connie Harrington, Victoria Shaw and more.

Produced by the NCVC as a marketing tool, along with John Godsey and VML, a global marketing agency, It All Begins With A Song was directed by Chusy Jardine of Plan A Films. The CEO of the NCVC and an executive producer of the film, Butch Spyridon, was on hand to provide a brief introduction to his work and to answer a few questions.

It All Begins With A Song Executive Producer and CEO of the Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp., Butch Spyridon. Photo: MusicRow

“If you’ve ever done anything: singing or writing, publishing, pitching, recording a song, then you inspired this film,” Spyridon said. “I want to thank you. I mean that from the bottom of my heart. It would not have happened without all the relationships and all the experiences that we have had. And if there’s one thing in Nashville that’s different from any other city, it is our songwriting community. I’ve never been more proud to work on a project.”

This was not the NCVC’s first go at memorializing Nashville’s music community, nor will it be it’s last, Spyridon confirmed. They released a documentary chronicling the story of ‘Music City’ called For the Love of Music: The Story of Nashville in 2013. In the future, Spyridon told the audience the NCVC may be interested in telling the story of the musicians.

In a featured article about the film in MusicRow‘s 2018 Publisher Issue, Spyridon said: “Our goal was to make you laugh, make you cry, and we had to inspire.” And that they did. There was not a dry eye in the room by the end of the heart-warming documentary.

Spyridon did not let the audience in on a release date or location for the film to be watched, but assured the crowd that it was being shopped worldwide to major buyers. It All Begins With A Song has already been awarded three Silver Lions at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.

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LB Cantrell

LB Cantrell is Editor/Director of Operations at MusicRow magazine, where she oversees, manages and executes all company operations. LB oversees all MusicRow-related content, including the publication’s six annual print issues and online news. She is a Georgia native and a graduate of the Recording Industry Management program at Middle Tennessee State University.

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