Nashville Lights open mic contest bumped to Sept. 24

Aug. 30—Opportunity didn't knock for area singer/songwriters last week as planned but soon will come a-rapping again.

The Nashville Lights open mic contest, originally scheduled for Aug. 27, has been bumped to Sept. 24.

The rescheduled tryouts on that date, a Tuesday, will begin at 6:30 p.m. at Plaza Theatre Dudley Hall, 305 S. Anglin St., in Cleburne. The try outs are open to members of the public as well. Doors open at 5:45 p.m. and tickets cost $10.

Nashville Lights organizers, via an email release, cited illness for the schedule change but did not elaborate.

The singer/songwriters chosen by judges on Sept. 24 will earn the opening spot of this year's Oct. 17 Nashville Lights concert.

Musicians participating in the open mic must be able to play and perform their original songs. For additional requirements and to sign up to compete, visit cleburneeducationfoundation.com/nashville-lights to fill out an application.

Nashville Lights organizer Peter Svendsen, who enjoyed a long career in the Nashville music industry, said he an other organizers added the open mic and coveted opening spot to Nashville Lights' lineup several years ago to bring local flavor and highlight new talent to the annual concert series.

"It's a lot of fun for us," Svendsen said. "It's a great opportunity during the opening mic contest for residents to come out to enjoy a night of local music from the different contestants.

"For the musicians competing it's an opportunity to shine and maybe even go on to bigger and better things."

It's happened before. Open mic judges picked Alvarado resident Andrew Sevener for the opening spot in 2017. Sevener went on to place fourth on NBC's "The Voice" a year later and returned to Nashville Lights in 2019 as one of the main performers.

Judges picked one winner for the opening spot in the early opening mic contests but have picked two over the past several years.

Nashville Lights, now in it's 11th year, features Texas and Nashville singer/songwriters in addition to the opening spot musicians. Texas and Nashville songwriters who have had hits on their own and/or penned hits for country music's biggest names.

"We'll be announcing the Texas and Nashville line up soon," Svendsen said. "But I can tell you now that one of our closing acts has written 21 number one songs."

In addition to the opportunity for the various musicians to perform and interact with one another on stage, they also share stories of how they wrote their songs, Svendsen said.

Money raised from the annual concerts benefits the Cleburne Education Foundation.

Through grants to teachers and campuses, CEF provides funding for equipment, projects and other needs to Cleburne ISD schools.

"CEF's focus is to raise private dollars to invest in programs in CISD that are not funded through local, state or federal tax dollars," CEF Executive Director Paige Harris said.

About $1 million in grant funds have been distributed through the nonprofit, which was founded in 2011.