Photo: Ben Krebs

Kent Blazy called Nashville’s The Bluebird Café “a place of magic and miracles” as he joined superstar Garth Brooks, Victoria Shaw, Pat Alger and Tony Arata Tuesday night for an exclusive, secret writers’ round at the tiny, 90-seat music club where Brooks was discovered nearly 30 years ago.

The writers’ round celebrated the Nov. 14 release of the first volume in Brooks’ upcoming five-part, multi-media anthology. Part I: The First Five Years chronicles Brooks’ ascent to stardom, as he released his first five albums for Capitol Nashville from 1989-1993.

For approximately and hour-and-a-half at The Bluebird, Brooks and his fellow songwriters swapped stories behind several of Brooks’ songs, both hits and album tracks, along with acoustic renditions.

Blazy recalled first meeting Brooks for a co-write at the request of Bob Doyle. The resulting song, titled “If Tomorrow Never Comes,” would appear on Brooks’ debut 1989 album, making it Blazy’s first cut after moving to Nashville—as well as the first No. 1 hit for both Blazy and Brooks.

Arata had a similar tale with another hit from the same album, “The Dance,” which would become his first cut and first No. 1 song. Later in the set, Arata recalled being bullied as a young boy, and how a song he wrote about the experience, “Face to Face,” wound up on Brooks’ The Chase album.

“There’s many forms of revenge,” Arata quipped.

Shaw performed “She’s Every Woman,” and recalled co-writing “The River” with Brooks in a house in East Nashville. Shaw took the lead during a performance of “The River,” with Brooks chiming in on the bridge.

“I tried to talk him out of using the word ‘vessel,’” said Shaw.

“But try singing it with the word ‘boat,’” Brooks shot back.

Alger reminisced about penning the then-controversial Brooks classic, “The Thunder Rolls.”

“I had an office in the basement, no windows, kind of like a dungeon,” Alger said. “But when I wrote with Garth, Allen Reynolds would let us write upstairs.”

Alger, who in addition to co-writing, also played guitar on the track, noted that Brooks had listened to Kathy Mattea’s “Like A Hurricane,” and found inspiration for a cheating tune from the line But in my heart there’s a thunder rolling/storm of love that was untrue.

Alger and Brooks recalled that the song’s famous “third verse” was crafted after taking advice from Jerry Crutchfield. “He said, ‘Get back on that song. Somebody needs to die,’” recalls Brooks. “And we wrote the third verse. Now everybody asks for the third verse.”

Alger took the lead on “The Thunder Rolls” during the writers’ round, offering both vocals and elegant guitar work. He also contributed “What She’s Doing Now.”

Multiple times throught the evening, all the writers paid tribute to their late co-writer, Kim Williams.

“There will always be an empty seat here for Kim Williams,” Brooks said. Blazy and Brooks performed songs co-written with Williams, including “What Never Happened (Is What I’ll Never Forget),” “Cold Shoulder,” from Brooks’ Ropin’ The Wind album, and invited the crowd to sing along with the Brooks classic “Ain’t Goin’ Down (Til The Sun Comes Up),” all done acoustically.

“That might be the slowest you’ve done that one,” Blazy said.

Brooks concluded the writers’ round with “The Dance.”

“Looking back, I just felt blessed to play here and play songs with my friends, “Arata said. “I still feel blessed to sit with friends in the Bluebird and play songs.”

To commemorate the 35th anniversary of the Bluebird, Brooks announced a documentary about The Bluebird Café is currently in the works. Then Brooks, now a seven-time Diamond-certified artist who is the reigning CMA Entertainer of the Year, 10 years following his previous CMA Entertainer win, stayed after the show to sign autographs and take photos with a small group of lucky radio listeners outside the Bluebird Cafe.

(L-R:) SESAC’s Lydia Schultz, Jenny Tolman, and SESAC VP of Creative Services Shannan Hatch

Jenny Tolman has joined SESAC as a new affiliate.

Tolman just surpassed 100,000 streams on Spotify with her recently-launched song “Stripper For A Week.” The Nashville native has opened for acts like Alabama, Love and Theft, Brandy Clark, and Cole Swindell, and is set to release her forthcoming debut album Jennyville.

Townsquare Media has shuffled leadership in its executive team. The company has promoted Bill Wilson and Dhruv Prasad to Co-Chief Executive Officers, both reporting to the Board of Directors. Steven Price, Townsquare’s founder and current Chief Executive Officer, will transition to a new role of Executive Chairman of the Board. In addition, Erik Hellum has been appointed as Chief Operating Officer, Local Media.

“Appointing two of our long-time senior executives as Co-Chief Executive Officers will allow Townsquare to strengthen and solidify its management team while preserving continuity and stability,” said David Quick, a Townsquare Board Member since inception and Managing Director at Oaktree Capital Management, L.P. Townsquare’s principal shareholder. “Our Board is pleased that Steven will continue to focus on the Company’s overall strategic direction and we are appreciative that Townsquare will continue to benefit from Steven’s counsel through his continued leadership of the Board.”

Mr. Price founded Townsquare in May 2010 and previously served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Company. Prior to founding Townsquare in 2010, Mr. Price was Senior Managing Director at Centerbridge Partners, a private equity firm, where he led the firm’s investment efforts in telecom, technology and media. Before that, he held a similar position at Spectrum Equity Investors. From 2001-2004, Mr. Price served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (Spectrum, Space and Communications), for which he was awarded the Secretary of Defense Medal for Outstanding Public Service. Mr. Price was formerly the President and Chief Executive Officer of LiveWire Ventures, a software and services company he founded in 1998, and the President and Chief Executive Officer of PriCellular Corporation, a publicly traded cellular telephone operator. Earlier in his career, Mr. Price worked as an attorney at Davis, Polk & Wardwell and as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs. Mr. Price graduated magna cum laude from Brown University, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and earned a J.D. from Columbia University School of Law. He is co-owner and Alternative Governor of the Atlanta Hawks and serves as an Adjunct Professor of Marketing at Columbia Business School.

Mr. Wilson joined Townsquare in September 2010 and most recently served as Executive Vice President and Chief Content & Digital Officer of the Company. Previously, Mr. Wilson was President of AOL Media from 2006 to May 2010 where he had overall responsibility for the Company’s global content strategy. In his nine years at AOL, he also served in a number of roles including President, AOL Programming & Studios and Executive Vice President, AOL Programming. Under his leadership, AOL’s content sites grew to reach more than 75 million monthly unique visitors domestically and over 150 million worldwide. Prior to joining AOL in 2001, Mr. Wilson served as Senior Vice President for Worldwide Marketing at Bertelsmann Music Group (BMG), which he joined in 1992, and was responsible for worldwide marketing including artist, digital and non-traditional marketing across more than 50 countries for the world’s biggest artists including Dave Matthews Band, Outkast, Whitney Houston and Santana. Mr. Wilson graduated summa cum laude from the State University of New York at Stony Brook with a B.A. in economics and a B.S. in business management and earned a M.B.A. with honors in finance and marketing from Rutgers University’s Graduate School of Management.

Mr. Prasad co-founded Townsquare in 2010 and most recently served as Executive Vice President, Live Events of the Company, where he led all aspects of the Company’s Live Events division. Prior to co-founding Townsquare, Mr. Prasad spent nearly a decade in private equity investing and corporate finance, completing transactions in media, communications, financial services, real estate, and technology. He previously worked at Thomas H. Lee Partners and Spectrum Equity Investors, and began his career in the Investment Banking Division of Salomon Smith Barney, where he worked in New Yorkand Hong Kong. He received an A.B. cum laude from Dartmouth College and a M.B.A. from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He is a graduate of Leadership Music in Nashville, TN.

Mr. Hellum joined Townsquare in August 2010 following the acquisition of GAP Radio Broadcasting, where he served as President of GAP West from May 2008 to August 2010. Prior to joining GAP West, Mr. Hellum worked at Bonneville International Communications, where he was Vice President/ Market Manager of WIL/WRTH in St. Louis, MO from October 2002 to November 2004 and spent 4 years as Vice President/Market Manager of KTAR AM/FM and KPKX in Phoenix, AZ from November 2004 to April 2008. Previously, Mr. Hellum was Vice President—Sales for AM/FM and oversaw Clear Channel’s early cross-platform sales efforts. He began his career at Katz Radio, where he held positions of increasing responsibility in Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York. Mr. Hellum received a B.A. from the University of Wisconsin.