We were lucky to catch up with Buddy Norris recently and have shared our conversation below.
Buddy, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What was it like going from idea to execution? Can you share some of the backstory and some of the major steps or milestones?
I grew up in a big family of music lovers in Central Georgia and music has literally infiltrated my whole life! A big leap of faith and a big adventure touring in a music group landed me in Nashville in 2000 where I eventually fulfilled a big dream to be “part of the Nashville music industry” with a job at EMI Music! That dream job came to an abrupt halt with a massive company-wide global layoffs in 2004.
One thing that I’ve learned about myself in hard times is that I’m a resilient person and have survived some difficult seasons in life. I found another job to pay bills and live life but still yearned to be involved in music, somehow someway, in this great city. A chance meeting with a horrible waiter (who just happened to be a great songwriter) was my introduction to the world of singer songwriters! I had no idea there was a huge network of talented music makers out there writing songs that were recorded by other artists that we heard on the radio and records! I made a new circle of friends by attending songwriter rounds all over town. These were simple nights of music where songwriters share their stories and songs in an acoustic setting, just taking turns to play their songs “in the round”.
After several years of hearing so much great music and seeing these talented friends struggling to make ends meet while working odd jobs all over town, I really wanted to do something to help and encourage them. I had heard about a unique concept called a “house concert” and in January 2011, with finger foods and drinks in hand, I had 24 of my music loving friends pay a little cover charge at the door of my little townhome south of Nashville and three of my favorite singer songwriters friends sat and shared stories and songs with my friends for two hours…it was hit!
I began hosting shows once a quarter, then every other month and then, as the demand grew and word of mouth spread, we started doing shows every month! I was so excited to feel like I was in some small way contributing something to the music industry and at the same time supporting and encouraging my talented friends in their pursuits! It was a win win!
In the summer of 2015, a great friend and fellow music lover, Ellen Huddleston, had a dream about a music venue called “Buddy’s Place”! Ellen approached me about forming a partnership to take things to the next level! In September 2015 Buddy’s Place was officially created as an LLC! We created a logo and merchandise was ordered along with development of a website that told the story of our little house concert venue and series of live music events! I created Facebook and Instagram social media pages to help keep our regular attendees “in the know” about upcoming dates and happenings with all of our favorite songwriters around town and to hopefully help connect other music fans in the area!
We experienced a steady organic growth and began to host shows and ticketed events in other people’s living rooms around town as well as apartment complex club houses, restaurant openings, private clubs and organizations around town! We provided music at food truck festivals and celebrated our 50th show with a sold out event at Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum!!
March 2020 was our last living room house show as the Covid pandemic put an abrupt stop to our nights of live music with the ban on group gatherings, mask mandates and “six feet apart” rules! Buddy’s Place came to a stand still with no way to keep the music playing until a big supporter – Shirlee Stevens – reached out and offered use of an open air event space she had on her property as a possible spot to continue shows! So in July 2020 – Buddy’s Place was back with a masked up socially distanced night of music at the Cedar Springs Ranch south of Nashville off of 24/840 just north of Murfreesboro in Lascassas! It was an amazing night and live music was back! Our nights of live music have continued at the ranch since that time! We have seen our attendance triple as well as word of mouth and steady growth on social media platforms! To date, we have hosted over 120 Singer Songwriter individuals at our shows (they are all featured on our website www.buddysplacenashville.com)! It has been an incredible journey over the last 12 1/2 years getting to see many of our songwriter alumni achieve their dreams through number one hits, touring, signing record and publishing deals, some winning major industry awards, and even playing on the historic stage of the Grand Ole Opry (two of our alumni have even become official Opry members!)! I’ve loved getting to cheer on my music making friends! It’s a lot of work that I call a “labor of love” but it’s truly been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life!
The slow and steady growth continues and we recently celebrated our 100th show with a sold out event in March at Nashville’s historic Woolworth Theatre! The special event featured 25 of our songwriter alumni performing as we looked back at our first 12 years with a capacity crowd of 400! We’re excited to continue these nights of live music as Buddy’s Place and keep supporting these talented music makers! I’m hopeful for the opportunity to possibly host more shows in different locations! As one of our tshirts read: “Buddy’s Place – Where the Music Is!”
I’m so thankful for this journey so far and excited to see what’s to come!
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I’m just a regular guy. I love my family and my amazing circle of friends in life and my rescue cat Conway Kitty too! I’m a huge music lover who wanted to find a way to support his music making friends who are going for their dreams! I love getting to meet these special individuals and hear their stories and what got them here! I took an idea, gave it a shot and tried to do something positive and encouraging and have been blessed to watch it grow over the years! So thankful for the opportunity to introduce other music lovers to music that I enjoy with the hopes that they will support and encourage the music makers as well!
We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.
I met my partner Ellen in 2009 when we were both volunteering at Nashville’s annual CMA Fest (Fan Fair to some) in downtown. An avid fellow music lover too, we became friends right away during the festival! I invited Ellen to attend the house concerts and she was hooked after her first experience too! She had a literal dream about Buddy’s Place and was the true catalyst to make it a reality – through a few Starbucks meetings and discussions, plans were put in motion and Buddy’s Place was born!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.buddysplacenashville.com/
- Instagram: buddysplacenashville
- Facebook: Buddy’s Place
- Other: Email – buddysplacenashville@gmail.com
Image Credits
Tokenbrit Photography Cooper Smith Productions