The Bluebird on the Mountain concert featuring Marshall Chapman has been rescheduled for Saturday, Oct. 16, at Dyer Observatory. Gates will open at 5:30 p.m. for the 7 p.m. show. Joining Chapman onstage will be Matraca Berg and Will Kimbrough.
Tickets sold for the Aug. 21 show, which was canceled because of severe weather, will be honored and a limited number of tickets are available by calling Dyer Observatory at (615) 373-4897 or by emailing lynn.mcdonald@vanderbilt.edu. Tickets are $95 for a carload but no RVs or buses will be admitted.
A proud Vanderbilt alumna (BA ’71), Chapman has enjoyed a multi-faceted career. As a recording artist, she has released nearly a dozen albums and as a songwriter, her songs have been recorded by Sawyer Brown (“Betty’s Bein’ Bad”), Emmylou Harris (“Better off Without You”) and Jimmy Buffett (“Everybody’s on the Run” and “Beyond the End”). Chapman has also penned two books, Goodbye, Little Rock and Roller (2003) and They Came to Nashville (2010). Earlier this year, Chapman added a movie credential to her impressive resume with a small role in the film Country Strong, starring Gwyneth Paltrow. Her new album, Big Lonesome, will be released in late October.
Berg has written hits for some of country’s most successful female artists of the last two decades including Reba McEntire (“The Last One to Know”), Patty Loveless (”That Kind of Girl”), Deanna Carter (“Strawberry Wine”) and Trisha Yearwood (“XXX’s and OOO’s (An American Girl)”, co-written with Alice Randall, and “Wrong Side of Memphis”). To date, she has accumulated 11 No. 1 chart singles. Others who have recorded Berg’s songs include Martina McBride, Faith Hill, Randy Travis and Keith Urban. She has released a series of critically albums including Lying to the Moon and Bittersweet Surrender.
Kimbrough first garnered attention in the mid-1980s as the front man for Will & the Bushmen, a popular Southeastern band hailed by critics and loved by frat boys. Since that time Kimbrough has expanded his portfolio to include work as a session musician, producer and solo recording artist. He has played on albums and toured with
Jill Sobule, Chely Wright, Rodney Crowell and John Prine and produced albums for Adrienne Young & Little Sadie, Todd Snider and Kate Campbell. He has also managed to establish himself as a solo artist recording a series of albums for his own label Waxy Silver that include Home, Americanitis and Godsend.
Dyer Observatory is located at 1000 Oman Drive, off Granny White Pike between Old Hickory Boulevard and Otter Creek Road, near Radnor Lake. Directions are available at http://www.dyer.vanderbilt.edu/.
Weather permitting, the observatory also invites visitors to remain and stargaze using the observatory’s Seyfert telescope. If severe weather is forecast for show dates, please check the Dyer Observatory calendar for updates or call (615) 373-4897.
Built in 1953, Dyer Observatory was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2009. The property consists of the observatory, 1953 house and garage and 2006 Star Chamber. The observatory serves as a community resource for the teaching of science as well as a venue for public, private and corporate events.