"Nashville Unplugged" - You Can Have A Good Time In Las Vegas Without Breaking The Bank!

For about two years now, there has been a show you can see here in Las Vegas, for only a $5 admission fee! You get two GREAT hours of music, interesting stories and a fun night out inexpensively.  It's called "Nashville Unplugged." You can see it every other weekend, on Friday nights it is at the Green Valley Ranch Resort, at "Ovation." Green Valley Ranch is located at 2300 Paseo Verde Parkway. On Saturday night, it is at the "Chrome" Showroom, located inside the Santa Fe Station Casino, located on 4949 N. Rancho Drive. Both shows start at 8:00, and you do have to be 21 years or older to get in.

"Nashville Unplugged" is done by two Nashville Songwriter/Artists named Aaron Benward and Brian McComas, and each weekend (every other weekend), two other songwriter/ artists are also invited to perform. One night when we went, we saw Cyndi Thompson and Carolyn Dawn Johnson. Benward and McComas have been on both sides of the business, both behind the scenes songwriting for other artists, and performing their own music and touring.

A lot of people think that because an artist sings a song, that the song must have been written by them, that's not always the case. A lot of times, there is a person in the background who has written the song that the artist then sings. "Nashville Unplugged" gives you some background of songs, and very interesting stories behind them, how they came to be written, and what the songwriter was going through at the time that they wrote the song. It's a fascinating look into what it takes to write a song, and you may even get a lesson on "bridges" in songs and other songwriting terms that you weren't aware of!

Another night when we saw Nashville Unplugged, we got to see Tia Sellers, the writer behind the song "That'd Be Alright" by Alan Jackson, "There's Your Trouble" by the Dixie Chicks, and she is best known for her super-hit "I Hope You Dance" which was recorded by LeeAnn Womack. She had some fascinating stories to tell of working with other artists, and about her experiences. She told an especially good story of being at the "Grammy" Awards show one year, and getting locked out of the building, then not being able to "prove" who she was, so she couldn't get back in! She told about how she has written over 1,600 songs, about 150 of them were recorded, and out of those, only a handful of them actually became "hits." It goes to show how tough the song-writing business is in Nashville! Also onstage that night was Pete Sallis, writer of a hit song for Canadian artist, George Canyon. He is a wonderful singer, and excellent guitar player, as well as having written some great songs!

It's an interesting, enjoyable night of music and just plain FUN! The audience has a chance to become involved as well. Before the show even starts, you will have a chance to fill out a card for a portion of the show titled "Song From A Hat". You write a title of a song (something that was made up by YOU... not something that already exists)... and if your song title is chosen, Aaron and Brian will go offstage for anywhere from 20 to 40 minutes and write a song using YOUR song title!

Now the first time we went, they picked my song title, and read it out loud... but it wasn't the one that they wrote a song for. They did think I had a good idea though! It was exciting that they picked it out, and wanted to know where I was in the audience.  So, Aaron and Brian, if you want to, you still can use my song title some other time! Usually it takes a couple months to write a song, and at this show, they do it in just 20 to 40 minutes, so you get a really good idea what it takes to write songs. The title they DID pick on this night was "I'll Show You Mine, If You Show Me Yours" and believe me the song they wrote for that WAS pretty funny!!

Another time, they wrote a VERY funny song titled "Drowning In A Dry County." The meaning of that song being that there actually are still "dry counties" in the South! In fact, Lynchburg, Tennessee, where Jack Daniels Whiskey is made, is a dry county. The lady who suggested the song title said that she had recently moved South and was surprised that "dry counties" still existed, but they do!

They seem to like writing humorous songs, and they turn out very well! And as Brian said about the song "Ill Show You Mine If You Show Me Yours," -  "y'all thought it was going to be a naughty song... see where your minds are?" Then he went on to say that the song REALLY was about poker players, four at a table. One gets up to stretch his legs, a lady gets up to go use the ladies room... and the two remaining players say "I'll show you mine, if you show me yours"... see? The song was about CARDS! Now what were you thinking?

It was a really funny experience, and gives you a glimpse into the brilliant songwriting talent that these two guys have. Plus, while they are backstage writing the song, you get to listen to stories behind songs by the other guest artists for the night! Cyndi Thompson and Carolyn Dawn Johnson did a GREAT job, and it was neat to hear their stories of how they came to write certain songs, which later ended up on their albums. And Tia Sellers and Pete Sallis did a fantastic job as well! You learn that country music singers really are just people just like anyone else, they have the real life humorous experiences and "drama" that everyone else has. Their experiences are just expressed in a more "public" way, through a song.

What you'll get from "Nashville Unplugged" will never be the same show on any two nights, that's what makes if so interesting, and makes people keep coming back. The show on Friday nights at Green Valley Ranch (at Ovation) started out with only about 60 to 70 people in the audience, and has recently grown to about 350 people! The show we saw on one Saturday night was the first show they had done on a Saturday night, and was at Santa Fe Station, to an crowd estimated at about 75 people. It's an intimate show, and has a personal feel to it. A fascinating source of entertainment for over 2 hours for an unbeatable price of just $5 a person!

I wish Brian and Aaron continued success as they continue to fly out to Las Vegas from Nashville twice a month for these shows. To find out when the show will be, simply check the websites for the "Green Valley Ranch" hotel and Casino, and for "Santa Fe Station".. they will have listed which weekends you'll be able to see Nashville Unplugged. Brian and Aaron certainly ARE very talented, and put on a wonderful show, one that we definitely will be back to see again!