ALICE NELSON

Sunday December 5, 2021

@ The Commodore Grille in Nashville, TN

(Review by: Jeffrey Kurtis)

When I first moved to Nashville in 2009, attending songwriter rounds was an exciting part of my every single week – two or three times a week you’d find me at venues like The Listening Room Café, Hotel Indigo, Edgehill Café, or The Commodore Grille.

Songwriter rounds are a true gem and integral part of the fabrication that earns Nashville its “Music City” nickname. These are the places where songwriters connect, ideas are born, and the songs that will later provide the heartbeat of country music begin to reach an audience while still in their infancy.

Confession time! it’s probably been since Tin Pan South in 2014 that I’ve attended a songwriter round (I know, where have I been?) But in a week that saw me revisiting a lot of my old haunts, reconnecting with my oldest artist friends, and remembering all the very reasons I moved to Nashville 13 years ago, I was blessed with the chance to catch one of my newest artist friends, Alice Nelson, at Debi Champion’s Songwriter Night at The Commodore Grille while she was in town to celebrate the official release of her debut single “Girlfriend.”

Nelson was flanked by two songwriters who were both solid in their own right - Andy Howard, who delivered songs that leaned against more of a pop influence and included titles such as “Don’t Let Me Smoke Alone” and “Hurting Me,” and Crawford Redgate, who’s Western influenced cowboy country branded the audience with songs such as “Lonesome” and “Western Man.”

Being the second of the three performers in each round, and the only one who played a decisively modern country style, gave the 18-year-old Nelson the prime opportunity to capture the attention of the audience – which she absolutely did!

“This is a song that I wrote with Carmen Bennett, who is here tonight,” Nelson began as she pointed out her frequent collaborator. “We specifically wrote it for a rodeo down in Florida. I wanted to do something about cowboys, and I hope ya like it,” she finished as she began her portion of the round with “Cowboy Crushin’,” a song which quickly allowed Nelson to dig into her deeper register and highlight her built-in Alabama drawl to douse the song with true country flare.

“This next song I’m gonna play is about how I’m basically gonna choose how my heart breaks. It was written after a guy was a total mess to me,” Nelson introduced as she played the ultra-vibey “Heart Breaks,” complete with its catchy, built for mainstream radio chorus that made everyone in the audience sit up a little straighter in their chairs and lean in attentively for a closer listen.

With that type of immediate audience response to a song, it wouldn’t surprise us if “Heart Breaks” is in consideration for her next official radio release.

“This last song is one of my favorites that I’ve ever written. I wrote this one with Carmen, too!” stated Nelson. “It just got released last week to all the streaming outlets, and you can call your local radio station and they can play it too…that would mean so much,” she finished as she played her debut single “Girlfriend,” an open letter feeling song that’s written from the perspective of a caring ex-girlfriend to warn the new girl in her ex’s life about who he really is.

Though the studio version of “Girlfriend” is very solid and well worth your call to your local radio stations to get them to spin it, there’s still always something so magical about hearing an acoustic version of a song played by the artist/writer. It immediately transports you to the center of the writing room where the song was first conceived and constructed, while forcing the artist/writer to deliver the emotional impact of the lyrics to audience through their vocal prowess.

Alice Nelson will be doing a full band performance in celebration of her debut single at Live Oak in Nashville on Tuesday December 7, 2021, but this songwriter round (a few days before the BIG party) allowed her to connect with the audience on a more intimate level with only an acoustic guitar, her incredible voice, and lyrics that struck a chord of emotions within each person in the listening audience.

FULL SET LIST

1) Cowboy Crushin’

2) Heart Breaks

3) Girlfriend

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