Songwriters Dean Dillon, Shawn Camp and Scotty Emerick will perform Saturday, Oct. 11, at Dyer Observatory. The final concert in this year’s Bluebird on the Mountain series will begin at 7 p.m.
Held on the scenic grounds of Vanderbilt’s Dyer Observatory, Bluebird on the Mountain features artists from one of Nashville’s most enduring venues, the Bluebird Café. The series is booked by Amy Kurland, who founded the club in 1982 and built it into one of Nashville’s favorite performance venues for songwriters and fans alike. In late 2007, the Nashville Songwriters Association International purchased the club from Kurland.
Dillon, a native of Lake City, Tenn., moved to Nashville in the 1970s and worked at the now-defunct Opryland theme park with fiddler Mac Magaha’s band and later portrayed Hank Williams in one of the park’s shows. In the late 1970s and early ‘80s Dillon began getting his songs on the charts with hits by Jim Ed Brown and Helen Cornelius (“Lying in Love with You”), George Jones (“Tennessee Whiskey”) and Keith Whitley (“Miami, My Amy” and “Homecoming ‘63”). Dillon has also had dozens of songs he wrote or co-wrote recorded by Country Music Hall of Fame member George Strait including “Ocean Front Property” and “Easy Come, Easy Go.” In 2002, Dillon was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Camp is a singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who is able to move from bluegrass to honky-tonk and folk music with ease. Arriving in Nashville in the late 1980s, Camp worked as a fiddle player with the Osborne Brothers and later with Alan Jackson, Jerry Reed and Trisha Yearwood. His songs have been recorded by Garth Brooks (“Two Pina Coladas”) and Brooks and Dunn (“How Long Gone”).
In recent years Camp released Live at the Station Inn (2004) and The Bluegrass Elvises, Vol. 1 (2007), collaborating on the latter with Billy Burnette on a collection of Elvis Presley songs performed bluegrass style.
Emerick began writing songs as a teenager in Florida. After arriving in Nashville in the 1990s, he signed on as a writer with Travelin’ Zoo Music, which was owned by Sawyer Brown band member Mark Miller. Emerick’s songs have been recorded by Sawyer Brown (“I Don’t Believe in Goodbye”), George Strait (“If It’s Gonna Rain”) and Toby Keith (“I Love This Bar,” “Whiskey Girl,” “Beer for My Horses” [with Willie Nelson]). Emerick and Keith have collaborated on roughly 50 songs. In 2004 Emerick was named the Songwriter of the Year by the Nashville Songwriters Association International. He released his latest album, Love Me Like My Dog Does in 2007.
Gates will open at 5 p.m. for this show. No RV’s or buses will be admitted. Single show tickets are $90 for a carload. No single tickets will be available for this concert.
Weather permitting, visitors can linger to stargaze using the observatory’s Seyfert telescope after the show. Dyer Observatory is located at 1000 Oman Drive, off Granny White Pike between Old Hickory Boulevard and Otter Creek Road, near Radnor Lake. A map is available at www.dyer.vanderbilt.edu/directions.htm.
Media Contact: Chris Skinker (615) 322-NEWS
chris.skinker@vanderbilt.edu