True North of Nashville

May 22, 2026 7:00 PM
Showplace Performance Centre

Get ready for a night where the spotlight isn’t on the production—it’s on the truth. The North of Nashville Songwriter Series brings country back to its original format: a few great voices in a room, trading verses, swapping stories, and letting the songs do what they were built to do—hit you right in the chest.

At the center of this songwriter’s round is Grammy-nominated James Otto, joined by award-winning Canadian talents Elyse Saunders, Graham Trude, and Tara Shannon. Together they’ll take you behind the curtain—sharing the real-life moments, hard lessons, and road-worn details that turned into choruses people carry around for years. From Nashville chart-toppers to homegrown anthems, this series is country music in its most essential form: raw, real, and deeply human.

Expect the full emotional range: laughs that catch you off guard, stories that linger, and harmonies that only happen when artists truly listen to each other. It’s a one-of-a-kind evening where the songs are the stars—and the stories are the glue.

And James Otto brings serious firepower to the circle. A proud member of the MuzikMafia collective that helped launch artists like Big & Rich and Gretchen Wilson, Otto broke through with the number-one smash “Just Got Started Lovin’ You,” Billboard’s #1 country single of 2008. Beyond his own hits, he’s co-written for heavy hitters—most famously Jamey Johnson’s “In Color,” which earned a Grammy nomination for Best Country Song—and worked alongside artists like Rascal Flatts, Chris Young, and John Rich.

Otto’s sound blends southern soul, country heart, and a little rock grit—powerhouse vocals with a storyteller’s instinct. In a setting like this, that’s the sweet spot: no distance, no distractions, just songs you can feel… and the people who wrote them telling you exactly where they came from.