Post Malone, Lainey Wilson, Ashley Gorley & Ernest Highlight Power of Songwriting at Bluebird Cafe Show

When country music fans are asked about the Grand Ole Opry, one of the venue's standout features is its famous wooden circle at center stage, where many country music legends and newcomers have performed.

But nearly 15 miles away is another circle that's famous in country music circles — the Bluebird Cafe songwriter circles. For the past 42 years, the tiny music venue located in a cluster of stores off Hillsboro Pike in Nashville has provided what The Bluebird Cafe COO/GM Erika Wollam Nichols on Monday night called “a home for songs and songwriters.”

Indeed, for the past four decades, The Bluebird Cafe has been a place of camaraderie for songwriters, a place to try out new songs in front of a demanding but supportive audience — and most of all, a discovery vessel for new generations of artists, like everyone from Taylor O Swift to Garth Brooks has appeared at the Bluebird early in his career.

On Monday night (June 17), Bluebird Cafe hosted another one of those “only in Nashville” moments, welcoming 9x RIAA Diamond Award-winning and Grammy-nominated singer Post Malone to its ranks for his first Bluebird Cafe show .

Post Malone, who is currently reigning atop the Billboard Hot 100 for a fifth week with his Morgan Wallen collaboration “I Had Some Help,” is firmly cementing his place in the country music realm, having performed covers of country classics for years. Most recently, he teamed up with Wallen and HARDY to perform a tribute to the late Joe Diffie during the CMA Awards, as well as a set at the Stagecoach country music festival, performing a traditional country classic during the ACM Awards and teaming up with Blake Shelton for new song 'Pour Me a Drink'.

Post Malone had some help that night, welcoming Lainey Wilson and songwriter Ashley Gorley for a true Bluebird Cafe performance in style, featuring Wilson and Gorley. For Post, the industry-only event marked an even deeper nod to his respect for the genre and those who work and create within it.

“I've been dreaming of playing Bluebird, and there's such energy in this room,” Wilson said, before telling Post Malone, “I'm so glad you get to play that part.”

Gourley opened the writers' circle with a version of Cole Swindell's “She Had Me at Heads Carolina.” Throughout the evening, he also offered a cover of Nate Smith's “World on Fire,” Chris Stapleton's 2022 Grammy winner “You Should Probably Leave” (which Gorley noted he wrote in 2011, saying, ” Patience is a virtue”) and Wallen's “Sand in My Boots”.

“I'd play songs from my album, but it's not there,” Gourley said — to which Wilson replied, “You could do a top 100 [album].”

“Do people curse during writers' circle?” Post Malone asked, before setting a new record for how many F-bombs were dropped during a show at the Bluebird Cafe — perhaps another sign of the instant intimacy and comfort the 90-seat venue inspires.

When one of the performers needed a guitar pick, Wilson quipped to Post Malone, “I'll get you to sign it and then sell it on Ebay.”

Wilson, Gorley and Post Malone traded stories, jokes and songs, with Gorley performing many of the numerous hits he's written with and for artists, while Wilson and Post Malone offered a mix of their hits and newer music. Post Malone performed his song “Feeling Whitney” in 2016, a song he noted wasn't actually inspired by the late singer Whitney Houston, but rather by a night of drinking in Texas.

Against this acoustic backdrop, the songs' production was stripped back, highlighting each one's underlying melody, whether that was a more traditional country-flavored tune like Wilson performing “Wildflowers and Wild Horses” or Post Malone delivering the massive pop hit “Sunflower”. ”, which was included in the 2018 animated film Spiderman: Into the Spider-Verse.

Post Malone later noted, “All my life, I've loved shapes, from octagons to triangles to diamonds,” he joked. “But the shape I love the most is the circle,” he added, before launching into his 2019 hit “Circles.”

As the night progressed and the writers' comfort level grew, Post Malone repeatedly called out joking rounds of shots — and hot dogs — for the audience while noting a favorite concoction: White Tea, a mix of vodka, peach and peach schnapps, and sours. Later, a server brought each of the performers a concoction and they sipped the drinks as they continued the round.

Wilson performed a song from her upcoming album Tornado, due in August. She offered up “4×4 by You,” noting that she was still new to performing the song and uploading the lyrics to her phone — with Post Malone holding the phone for her so she could see the lyrics.

“I feel like writing this record and getting into the studio with my band made me feel at home,” he said. “It definitely felt like home when I wrote that song.”

Earlier in the set, she performed “Wildflowers and Wild Horses,” telling the audience that her mother told her when she wrote the song, that Wilson's great-grandfather caught one of the last wild horses in Louisiana and exploited it for years. “That's the power of storytelling,” he shared. “Sometimes you write about something and you don't know what you're writing about until later.”

Singer-songwriter Ernest was also present and joined the circle to collaborate with Wilson on their first performance of a song from Ernest's album Nashville, Tennessee. The two performed their duet of “I Would If I Could,” a two-decade-old song written by famed Nashville songwriters Dean Dillon and Skip Ewing.

“I did this thing for Apple Music called 'Lost and Found,' songs that should have been recorded and never were.” He credited Sony Music Publishing Nashville executive Anna Weisband with finding the song, before Earnest took his side of the song saga.

Unbeknownst to Wilson, songwriter Jessie Jo Dillon (and daughter of Dean Dillon) had also sent Ernest the song. “I had no idea anyone else on Earth had heard that song,” Earnest said, noting that he contacted Dean Dillon to say he was going to record it — and noted that Dillon had forgotten he'd written it. “He said, 'Damn, son — if you're writing songs like this, what do you need me for?' I said, 'You wrote that song!'” Dillon later called Ernest and said, “You're not going to believe me, but [Sony Music Publishing Nashville leader] Rusty Gaston called me and said Laney Wilson was going to record this song.” So Laney and I were like, “We have to do this together.”

While the Bluebird Cafe is known for its policy of preventing the audience from chatting while the songwriters perform, it is also known for its “anything goes” atmosphere. As the night drew to a close, Post Malone broke into his current Hot 100 chart topper (sans Wallen), with the crowd singing along to “I Had Some Help.”

“This song is about drinking, and I might as well drown myself,” he laughed, taking a sip of his drink before launching into the song.

True to that spirit, they closed the night with Ernest joining Post Malone to perform George Jones' 1980 hit, “If Drinkin' Don't Kill Me (Her Memory Will).”

“This is the most fun I've had, being able to play with Ashley and Lainey and Ernest,” Post said.