Hey OD. I don't have much to add about the Spoke. Other than; they are not "going to remodel"; They were actually in the beginning stages of working on it when I was there just after Thanksgiving. HOWEVER, to be clear, the clerk did not say it would be a music venue of any kind, let a lone a writers room. He did say they wanted to reopen early this year. To me that means, Jan, Feb. time frame.
Also, the original Spoke (I remember), was 2 rooms. The front room was a sports bar with pool tables and TV's. The back room, at that time, was a true LISTENING room. More like the Bluebird than any of the other "writers nights" venues in town these days. Not quite as quiet as the Bird, but a LOT more quiet than today's venues.
Hey, I'm headed over to Flora-Bama on the 30th. There will be a volunteer appreciation dinner at the Old River Grill. That also happens to be a Monday, and Cathy will have her open mic that [afternoon]. The open mic has been moved to 3pm, and Pace and Petty have a show starting, I think, at 7pm. I plan on playing the open mic and doing at least one MAB co-write; "Missing Link". Will also do my Melissa co-write, "Fast", and probably 2 or 3 other songs.
Speaking of mine and M's song, "Fast", Luke Bryan has a new song on the radio called, "Fast". And, just like our song, it is about contemplating the speed of life. Even has the same theme and approach as our song, but with totally different visuals. Turns out, Luke co-wrote the song with Luke Laird and Rodney Clawson. Just solidifies how Nashville works these days. If you want to be a songwriter, you better find some artist who likes your writing to work with. OR at a minimum, you need to find a songwriter co-writer who is connected to an artist.
phil g.