News

The fourth season of The Songwriter’s Dream, the community singer-songwriter series hosted by Martin Methodist College, will kick off on Thursday, Feb. 7.

Nashville songwriters Jon Nite and Jess Cates will be the featured performers. The special guest opening the evening will be Mike Willis, who is returning after earning rave reviews at a Songwriter’s Dream concert in 2010.

The show begins at 7 p.m. in the Gault Fine Arts Center recital hall. For the second straight year, the entire 124-seat venue is sold out for the entire 2013 season, but individual seats often come open at the last minute, so interested persons can get on a waiting list for those free tickets by calling 931-638-6159.

“The Songwriter’s Dream series was the brainchild of Jim Edmondson, former chief executive officer of Hillside Hospital who, himself, is a member of the Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI),” said Grant Vosburgh, director of communications at Martin Methodist and coordinator of the series. “He came to President Ted Brown in the fall of 2009, following the renovation of the old gymnasium into the Gault Fine Arts Center and said that, for all the wonderful Nashville songwriting shows that had been coming to Pulaski over the past decade – thanks in large part to local resident Richard Leigh, a member of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame – the intimate, acoustically fine-tuned recital hall in the Gault Center now provided the community with the perfect ‘listening room’ that songwriters and audiences would love.

“With that, the Songwriter’s Dream series was born in January of 2010, and, very quickly, it became known among Nashville songwriters as a show that they wanted to play.”

In the first three seasons, there have been 15 shows featuring 28 accomplished songwriters who have countless hit songs to their credit. Each show has also featured a young “up-and-coming” songwriter as the opening act.

The two featured songwriters opening the 2013 season continue the parade of talented artists performing at the Songwriter’s Dream.

Among the songs written by Jon Nite are “Glass,” recorded by the new husband-wife duo Thompson Square, “Save Water Drink Beer” by Chris Young, and “Tip It On Back,” by Dierks Bentley, which is currently No. 9 on the country charts. Other Jon Nite songs have been recorded by such artists as Tim McGraw, Blake Shelton, Joe Nichols and Ryder Lee.

Jess Cates’s songs include “Crush” by David Archuleta, “I Just Call You Mine” by Martina McBride and “Gold,” recorded by Britt Nicole that is currently moving up the charts. He has also had songs recorded by Josh Groban, Clay Aiken, the Backstreet Boys, the Jonas Brothers, LeAnn Rimes and Jordin Sparks.

The 2013 season of the Songwriter’s Dream will have four more concerts: March 7, April 25, Sept. 5 and Oct. 10.