Our Place Nashville partners with non-profit organizations to provide brick-and-mortar housing called Friendship Houses throughout the city for adults with developmental disabilities. People with developmental disabilities (“friends”) deserve the opportunity to live full and rich lives in an inclusive environment where they are accepted, respected and belong.  With the help of our housing partners, Our Place Nashville provides these friends with opportunities to live interdependently in a community that houses both able and disabled residents.  Our resident friends live alongside graduate students and older adults (“companions”), also in need of affordable housing, who provide them with natural supports.   We are the only private pay provider of affordable housing for adults with developmental disabilities in middle Tennessee. Our Place Nashville fills the critical need for affordable and supportive housing for individuals with developmental disabilities. Given the rising costs of housing and the challenge of securing direct services, parents and families are hard pressed to financially afford and oversee independent living in the community for their loved ones.  Without Our Place, the individuals we serve would be limited to insular lives at home with minimal opportunities to engage with others or enjoy the rich panoply of options independent living offers.   We provide the missing piece of the puzzle – creating supportive communities where our friends can thrive and exceed their – and their families’ -- expectations. 

Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame member Songs: Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress - The Hollies, I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing - The New Seekers/Coca Cola commercial, I Just Want to Dance with You - w/ John Prine & George Strait

Via the Nasvhille Music Guide: Many years ago, I think it was the early 80s, Earl Bud Lee found his way to the house where Edna and I lived at the time on Walnut Street in Madison, Tenn. He wanted to write with me because I had attained some success in the music business as a country singer/songwriter. At the time I was an MGM recording artist, and I also had songs I had written that were recorded by Loretta Lynn, Con Hunley, Tom Jones and Gary Stewart, and I was not accustomed to writing with anyone. Yet, every other morning for some time, he was at my door wanting to write with me and wanting me to help him structure some of the lyrics in his songs. He was very persistent—something you must possess to be successful in the country music business—so I finally let him come in. He was a young man in his 20’s. This was one of the greatest decisions I’ve made in Nashville. Bud became a good friend and some of the most beautiful melodies I have ever heard in my life came out of his soul and into my mind and heart forever. His lyrics were great too; however, some songs were at the time a little out of meter with a few too many throw away words. Bud was easy to work with and always eager to learn a new idea and a way to get things done properly. I’ve never taught anyone anything without learning something from them in the process. Believe you me, I’m sure I learned more from Earl Bud Lee than he ever learned from me. Bud is certainly not a time waster, and he took his new-found knowledge and went for a long, hard walk down Music Row. It wasn’t long before Earl Bud Lee had a songwriting deal, and the big wigs on Music Row were taking notice and paying attention to this young man with the ideas rolling off the tip of his pen and the great melodies emanating from his heart and soul. Shortly thereafter, Bud showed his true genius to his friend, Dewayne Blackwell, and together they wrote one of country music’s classic songs, “I Got Friends in Low Places” for another new person on Music Row by the name of Garth Brooks. The rest is country music history. This song is requested and heard daily around the world. Garth never goes on stage without performing this song. He must do it, or his fans might riot and run him out of town. This kind of action only takes place when a song is more powerful than the artist. True, this does happen, but not very often in any genre of music. Yet, when it comes to Bud, it does not surprise me at all. If it can be done, Bud will find a way to do it. Bud has since written hit songs for many great artists in the country music field and is still going strong. He, along with John Wiggins, wrote the great song, “Who Are You When I’m Not Looking,” that Blake Shelton recently recorded and took to No. 1. https://nashvillemusicguide.com/did-you-know-the-past-with-a-personal-touch/

Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame member.  Grammy nominee. Songs: The Dance - Garth Brooks, Dreaming with My Eyes Open - Clay Walker

Billy Prine is a natural-born storyteller just like his late, great brother John Prine was a natural-born songwriter.  John was a great communicator of the human experience whittled down to the best words.  His big, little brother, owner of a rich, booming voice yet full of subtleness, is one of the finest orators you’ll ever hear – also choosing just the right turn of phrase.   During these concerts celebrating John’s life in song, Billy will tell stories about or surrounding some of John’s most beloved songs before leading his band through his version of John’s timeless masterpieces. As an example, fans will get to hear the first time John played his classic song “Paradise” for their father as the family sat around the kitchen table.   Songs are stories, novellas, if you will, and stories often become songs.  It is only fitting that in the course of each show during this tour, that Billy relates – as only he can – the stories that surround the songs of his dear brother John.

Moving to Nashville one day is a big dream for musicians from all over the world. The same goes for Scarlett Egan from Heidelberg, Germany. She’d tag along to her parents gigs on the weekends, sleeping in the trunk while they performed on stage until she herself joined the band. Over the years she built Nashville connections backing up artists such as Paul Overstreet, Billy Yates, Daryl Singletary, Deborah Allen and Brent Mason as a singer, guitar, and bass player.  At 19 she had saved up enough money from her shows to fly to Nashville and record her first original Country album with some of Nashville’s top studio musicians and by then was touring heavily throughout Switzerland and Scandinavia, opening for acts like Toby Keith, Albert Lee, Chely Wright or Asleep At The Wheel. After studying Jazz in Saarbrücken, Germany she finally packed her bags and moved to Nashville for good and has been here for nearly seven years honing her songwriting craft.    Scarlett’s songs are refreshingly genuine, clever and beautifully heartfelt. Get ready for someone who gave it all up for music.   Instagram: @scarlettsongs