Nashville songwriter rounds since 2017
Hear it first.
The writers, not the cover band. Songs that aren’t out yet, and songs you already know every word to — played by the people who wrote them.
What a Grindhouse night is
Songs nobody has heard.
Songs everybody has.
Four to twelve songwriters on stools, no band, no set list you’ve seen before. You get both halves of this town in one night.
Before the world gets it
The song that isn’t out yet
Unreleased material, first live performances, verses written that week. Ella Langley played this round seven times before anybody outside the room knew her name. It happens constantly — you just don’t know which one it was until later.
The ones you already own
The song you know every word to
178 Billboard #1s have been written by people who’ve played this round. When one of them plays the hit they wrote for somebody else, and tells you what happened the day they wrote it, the whole room sings it back.
You already know these
The person who wrote it
has played this round.
Eighteen of the 178.
Cruise
Florida Georgia Line
Written by Jesse Rice
Beautiful Crazy
Luke Combs
Written by Rob Williford
Live Like You Were Dying
Tim McGraw
Written by Tim Nichols
Bless the Broken Road
Rascal Flatts
Written by Bobby E Boyd
The Thunder Rolls
Garth Brooks
Written by Pat Alger
Fancy Like
Walker Hayes
Written by Shane Stevens
What Ifs
Kane Brown
Written by Matt McGinn
Check Yes or No
George Strait
Written by Danny Wells
In Case You Didn’t Know
Brett Young
Written by Trent Tomlinson
Three Wooden Crosses
Randy Travis
Written by Doug Johnson
Rock and a Hard Place
Bailey Zimmerman
Written by Heath Warren
She’s Country
Jason Aldean
Written by Danny Myrick
Up Down
Morgan Wallen
Written by CJ Solar
’Til You Can’t
Cody Johnson
Produced by Trent Willmon
A Woman Like You
Lee Brice
Written by Phil Barton
Permission to Dance
BTS
Produced by Stephen Kirk
One More Day
Diamond Rio
Written by Bobby Tomberlin
Don’t Blink
Kenny Chesney
Written by Chris Wallin
Shows & tour
Thursday is home.
The round travels.
311 shows, 12 rooms, 6 states. The weekly night in Midtown is the heart of it. The rest is festivals, takeovers and private rooms.
Midtown Grind
The weekly round, two blocks off Broadway. Free at the door, doors at 7, and the lineup changes every week.
On the roadWhitefish Grind
Four of our writers take the round to Montana for one night with the Whitefish Songwriter Festival.
Takeovers & privateBook the round
Publishers, labels, brands and festivals give us a night and we build the room around them. We’ve done it 60+ times.
Watch
Nine years on tape.
We film the room every week. Some of it is a writer nobody had heard of yet. Some of it is a song already on your phone.
They played here first
1,324 songwriters have played a Grindhouse round. 759 of them have a credit you can look up — a cut, a chart, a deal, an award. Ella Langley sat in this round seven times before her first #1. Tucker Wetmore played one Thursday in June 2023 and had a debut single out eight months later.
178 Billboard #1s
Written, co-written or produced by somebody who has sat on one of these stools. Luke Combs, Morgan Wallen, Garth Brooks, George Strait, Kenny Chesney, Cody Johnson, Kelsea Ballerini.
Nine writers on Lainey Wilson records
She has never played here. Nine of the people who wrote her songs have, including cuts on the Grammy-winning Bell Bottom Country and on Whirlwind.
Three Grammy winners
Plus 18 Grammy nominees, two Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame inductees, and 192 wins across the CMAs, ACMs, CCMAs, Doves, BMI, ASCAP and SESAC.
Partners
Give us a night.
We build the room around you.
Publishers and labels use a takeover to put their writers in front of a real crowd. Festivals fly the round in. And a good share of these nights raised money instead of making it.
Publishers, labels & management
BMG
Kobalt Music
CURB | WORD
peermusic
Anthem
ONErpm
Endurance Music
Bluetick ManagementFestivals & stages
Whitefish Songwriter Festival
Lake Martin Songwriters Festival
Muscle Shoals Songwriters Festival
Half Moon, Montego BayCauses we’ve played for
Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital
CreatiVets
Thistle Farms
Music Remembers Project
Young Entertainment ProfessionalsAll marks are the property of their respective owners and are shown unaltered.
Where it’s been
Six states,
and one night at the Opry.
Whitefish, Montana. Ike Hall at West Point. Lafayette’s in Memphis. Ybor City in Tampa. Red Clay in Georgia. Lake Martin three years running. Half Moon in Jamaica. And once, for a private event, the stage of the Grand Ole Opry House.
Contact
Come play. Book us.
Put your writers on.
One inbox for all of it. Tell us which one you are and we’ll get back to you.