Overture
 
Today the atmosphere at Fido, a coffeehouse in Nashville’s midtown, is the same as it always is: moody, overcast, an almost cliché backdrop for creative people.
 
I’m here working, soaking up the scene, hoping to find an idea or the beginning of an idea that I can turn into a feature or an Op-Ed for one of Nashville’s entertainment newspapers. I like this part of my job, one that simply requires me to watch, listen, drink coffee, and jot down notes on my laptop.
 
Two tables to my left, a twenty-something female holds a square piece of charcoal. She keeps looking up at two gentlemen sitting against the window, and then down at her sketch pad, practicing her skill at capturing the human form. Her subjects, each wearing a different vanity T-shirt, talk about technology and graphic design. At one point I hear one of them yell at a four-top in the corner of the coffee house. The only girl at the table yells back, asking if he’s coming to their show on Friday evening. He shrugs. She pretends to be offended.
 
The majority of people sitting around me are singers, musicians, or wannabe singers or musicians. And most aren’t the kind who fiddle, slide their guitars, or sing nasally on purpose. Well, the two fiftyish men sitting at the booth across the way look like washed-up fiddlers, but Nashville’s music scene has grown deep and wide since the first time I moved here in 1993. Country is still the mainstay of the music business here, but these days lots of people come to Nashville to pursue careers in rock, folk, jazz, blues, gospel, and Christian music, among other genres. Dreams of success draw many interesting people to Nashvil...