James Bay plays surprise performance at Nashville's Bluebird Cafe, discusses his time in Music City

On Wednesday, Nov. 1, English singer-songwriter James Bay showed up to play a surprise evening set at Nashville's Bluebird Cafe alongside songwriters and musicians Jon Green and Dave Barnes.

The famed Bluebird Cafe—a beloved, intimate live music venue—features both up-and-coming performers and experienced ones who've risen to fame. On Wednesday night, Bay surprised the cafe's audience, who sat at cocktail tables, tightly pressed up against each other, with a surprise performance at the Bluebird's open mic night.

James Bay, a 33-year-old folk rock performer, is a three-time Grammy Award-nominated multi-platinum singer, songwriter and guitarist. He's best known for songs "Let It Go," "Hold Back the River" and "Us." Bay released a new single, "All My Broken Pieces," last month.

Sitting in the round at the center of the cafe was also Jon Green, a songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist who Bay has worked with closely. Bay and Green have produced numerous albums together, including Bay's multi-Grammy nominated debut album "Chaos And The Calm."

The evening also featured Dave Barnes, a Nashville-based singer-songwriter known for sentimental hits "Good Day for Marrying You" and "Nothing Like You."

Each performer went around in rotation, playing one song and then tossing the baton to the next artist, traveling around the circle and bantering between songs. In typical Bluebird Cafe fashion, collaboration was the name of the game.

All musicians had mics and held guitars, and would often jump in on each other's songs, harmonizing or fingerpicking on the guitar. The trio riffed off one another effortlessly, both in their mid-set jokes and through their musical coordination.

Bay kicked off and closed the show, starting the evening with his 2015 song "If You Ever Want to Be in Love" and ending with his hit "Hold Back the River." A grinning Bay sang with spirit and feeling during his songs, showcasing both his impressive falsetto and belt through his signature grainy and emotive tone.

Though Bay spends much of his time in London, he often frequents Nashville. He even performed at this year's Pilgrimage Festival in September in Franklin, TN.

Bay's affection for Nashville was clear. After being moved by his fellow performers' artful storytelling through song, Bay proclaimed, "I don't know why I'm hanging around London so much!"

He told the crowd, "So I made my first album in Nashville, recorded it here at Blackbird, and I actually made a lot of my third album here. But even down to the detail, I remember picking the piano out of some amazing storage unit in Nashville."

Bay continued, "It all kind of started in so many respects for me here. To be in this moment, to know this brilliant man and this brilliant man," Bay gestured to Green and Barnes, "And be in this brilliant room, it's all very overwhelming."

Bay showcases new music

Bay's gratitude for Music City and his fellow performers seeped through this work and his song introductions throughout the evening set. He held an appreciation for the songwriting sanctuary of Bluebird Cafe, even showcasing some of his unreleased and freshly written music.

One of Bay's new songs, with the working title "Prisoners," filled the cafe with its power and Bay's raspy vibrato. He sang, "Where do you go when we're lost in the silence / I wanna scream but I can't make a sound / Since when did love hurt like some kind of violence / Are we prisoners now?"

Later in the evening, Bay played a song he wrote last week with working title "Hope." The song instilled an inspirational message in the audience, also showing Bay's positivity in times of struggle. Barnes and Green harmonized with Bay on the chorus, singing, "If I have to learn to suffer and lose it all / If I have to let it go / When my best feels like joke / Still I have a little hope."

Throughout the evening, Green played song "Golden" about his brother, who lives in South Africa. Barnes performed his singer-songwriter anthems with Beatles-infused rock lyrics, like his 2023 song "Hayley with a Heart."

And of course, Bay sang his most popular and moving hit "Let it Go" and ended the evening with "Hold Back The River," met with three-part harmonies from his Bluebird counterparts.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: James Bay & friends' surprise performance at Nashville's Bluebird Cafe