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Writers Round San Diego
A weekly songwriters-in-the-round community.
Every Monday | 6-9pm | The Ould Sod
Writers Round San Diego mixes Nashville-style songwriter rounds with the accessibility of an open mic to put musicians’ original stories and songs centerstage.
The result is an intimate listening room
where San Diego’s veteran and novice songwriters come together as one thriving network of collaboration and support.
Yep, we said every Monday!
But this isn’t your standard open mic. Every week, we combine featured artist Nashville-style rounds with new artist open rounds to make sure YOU get a chance to play.
Sign up, head down to The Ould Sod, listen to great songwriters, and share your own tunes. It’s that easy!
Hosted by Ben Grace of Story & Tune in association with Writers Round LA.
Follow along.
FAQs
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Each Monday has two open rounds & one feature round.
In each round, three artists will take turns sharing stories and singing original songs. (Great tips on How to Slay a Nashville Round here.)
You can sign up for the open round online in advance, or at the door before 6pm.
Round 1: Open Round
At 6pm, we’ll draw three names from the hat. Those three artists will play the first round, two songs each.Round 2: Featured Artists
Featured artists are booked in advance and promoted on social media. Each writer in the featured round will play 3-4 songs.Round 3: Open Round
We’ll pull another three names from the hat for our final open mic round.We reserve the right to evolve, tweak, adjust, and adapt the format as our community grows, and we’d love your help! Come out on Monday and help shape the future of Writers Round SD!
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It’s easy!
Every week, we’ll refresh this link.Sign up, then be at The Ould Sod at 6pm to listen and/or play.
”Wait, I have follow up questions!”
Cool. Shoot.
”What if I can’t be there right at 6pm?”
No worries! If we call your name at 6 and you aren’t there yet, we’ll toss you back in the hat for the 8:15ish round.
”Does signing up guarantee me a spot to play?”
Signing up gets your name in the hat, spots in the round are luck of the draw! We CAN guarantee you’ll hear and meet some great fellow songwriters to network with.
”C’mon, mate, just tell me when I’m playing.”
Cute Aussie impression, but no. Because 1. I can’t - the hat decides and 2. Part of the goal of WRSD is to play for AND listen to each other. We don’t want you to play to an empty room because folks decided not to show up until their specific time slot. We want to show up for and enjoy each other, and make sure everyone who gets to play also gets to be heard. -
Thanks for asking, we really like talking about this! You’re a gem.
Here are a few of our goals:To build community among San Diego musicians.
To give the public a chance to experience your original work.
To make it easy for artists who are new to the area to connect with the local community.
To create an environment where ALL are welcome, and where networking and collaboration take the place of competition.
To help sustain and foster a robust local original music scene.
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When we first started trying to make connections with other singer/songwriters in San Diego, it wasn’t easy. In the years since, COVID has shut down many of the well-attended & well-loved open mic nights & smaller songwriter friendly venues we were able to find. “Are the days of intimate listening rooms, like Java Joes & Lestats West, that launched artists like Jason Mraz & Jewel just… over?” we wondered.
The San Diego music scene is saturated with venues that want up tempo cover sets, which is fantastic for your dancing shoes and our working artist wallets. But there aren’t a ton of spaces for artists to create and share original material. As artists, we craved a place to experiment.
As far as we know, there is currently only one Nashville-style Songwriters' Round event in San Diego. While we’re so grateful for that round, we wanted an event that was on a night most musicians don’t have paying gigs (hey, Monday!) and was a little more centrally located. A place that would provide an opportunity to network with our LA artist buddies just a few hours north. A place where musicians from around the county could come work together, not compete against each other.
So we decided to make one. -
Just get involved!
Start by signing up for an open round. Come lean into community, & cheer your peers on. One of the main goals of this project is to connect with the brilliant artists we just haven’t met yet - that could be you! Open mics are how you say “Howdy, I’m here!”
We’re rooting for you. We think you’re an essential part of this community. We can’t wait to get to know you better.
A rising tide lifts all boats!
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Why Nashville-style writers rounds?
The in-the-round format allows multiple artists to share the stage and take turns telling the stories behind their songs. Songwriters listen to and build off each other, sometimes choosing their songs in the moment based on the last song played.
Nashville rounds are friendly, casual, and intimate. They provide the opportunity for a writer to try out new material live in a supportive space, and foster a culture of collaboration, creativity & community.
Check it out.
We collaborate with DharmaDen Sessions to record the feature rounds about every 6 weeks. Click here to get to a playlist of those videos so far from incredible artists like Lisa Sanders, James Spaite, & Arielle Silver.