The Iconic Café Where Many Music Legends Began That Captures Nashville's Essence

You might not expect to see a music legend perform in a nondescript strip mall beside a hair salon and dry-cleaner's, but welcome to Nashville. A trip to the Country Music Hall of Fame is just the beginning of what Tennessee's capital has to offer. The Bluebird Cafe is where some of the genre's most famous artists — and the songwriters who penned their hits — have made their humble beginnings. Even after making it big, some have come back to reconnect with their roots, taking the stage in an intimate, 90-seat venue with decades of music history behind it.

Stars like Taylor Swift, Faith Hill, and Garth Brooks were discovered at the Bluebird Cafe. Keith Urban and Kenny Chesney auditioned here, while Trisha Yearwood, Miranda Lambert, and Tim McGraw have performed in the 2020s. Vince Gill, Sheryl Crow, Jewel, and Willie Nelson are just a few of the other big names to grace the stage over the years. You may have also seen the cafe in the documentary, "Bluebird," or on the TV series, "Nashville," where a replica of it appeared. The real cafe has shown up on the American Music Awards, with inductees into the Songwriters Hall of Fame mentioning it there, too.

For hardcore music fans, the Bluebird Cafe's reputation precedes it, and it's not uncommon to see a line out the door, with people waiting two or three hours to get inside. Some of those people might be musicians, toting guitar cases and hoping to catch their big break on the Nashville stage. Even if you can't get in with them, you can still enjoy a private performance right outside the Bluebird Cafe.

Inside the Bluebird Cafe, you'll see autographed photos of well-known singers on the wall, but the real heart and soul of this venue is songwriters. Some are up-and-coming artists and others are the unsung writers behind the hits your favorite marquee name may have sung. Steven Whitson is a local musician who has performed at the cafe with fellow singer-songwriters more than once. Through Viator, he also leads a VIP-style tour of Nashville, where you'll visit the Bluebird Cafe and other local landmarks in a private SUV.

With 450-plus reviews and counting, Whitson's tour has managed to maintain a 100% recommendation rating from travelers on Viator. Reviewers praise his knowledgeability as a local historian and his personability as a musical tour guide. Each tour begins downtown, where you can survey Honkey Tonk Row, the famed music strip on Broadway in Nashville. You'll also visit Music Row, where historic recording studios like RCA Studio B are located. This is one of the spots in our music lover's travel guide to Nashville, and it's where Elvis Presley recorded chart-topping Billboard hits like "It's Now or Never" and "Are You Lonesome Tonight?"

Along the way, the tour makes time for photo ops at the Nashville Parthenon museum and other landmarks before landing in the Bluebird Cafe parking lot. Here, Whitson will perform a song for you and give you a preview of what it's like to be in the Bluebird's audience. It's welcomed the likes of Cher, Bonnie Raitt, Bono, Melissa Etheridge, and Jon Bon Jovi as visitors, making this first on our list of Nashville celebrity hotspots.

The Bluebird Cafe hosts open-mic nights on Mondays, when seats are available on a first-come, first-served basis. For shows throughout the rest of the week, it only keeps 10 to 12 seats open for walk-up visitors, reserving the rest for guests who have bought nonrefundable tickets through the cafe's official website. The ticket cost includes the cover charge for each event, most of which goes to the musicians performing. A $12 minimum food and drink order (for all but open-mic night) helps the cafe itself keep the lights on.

Tickets do sell out, and because space is limited (there are fewer than 20 tables), they do reservations by the seat, so you may end up sitting at a table with someone you don't know. The seating arrangement also varies depending on the show type. "In the Row" shows feature songwriters onstage in front. "In the Round" shows put them in the room dead center, with three or four of them accompanying each other and telling behind-the-scenes stories about their songs. As a "listening room," the Bluebird Cafe has a "shhh policy," where the audience is encouraged to soak up the music and refrain from talking during songs.

A typical week at the cafe culminates in a Writer's Night showcase on Sundays, where locals who have passed through a formal audition process can play for music industry professionals. These events are sponsored by the Recording Association of America. Since 2008, when founder Amy Kurland relinquished it as "more of a donation than a corporate sale," the Bluebird Cafe has been owned by the Nashville Songwriters Association International.