Page 3 of That Weekend in Paris
WHAT DO YOU MEAN HE WAS YOUR DISCOVERY? IT’S MY COMPANY. IF I HADN’T AGREED TO SIGN HIM, HE WOULD BE NOTHING.
This is arrogant, even for Josh. We both know Klein could have been signed by just about any house in Nashville.
But then Josh’s arrogance has been pointed out to me many times. In the early days, when I was starstruck with a head full of the flattery of his belief in me, I preferred to see it as confidence.
It did take confidence to build the kind of publishing empire Josh had built in Nashville. It didn’t come easy. I should know that. And he’d started twenty years ago from the ground up with one writer.
So I would be the first in line to give him credit for the success he had achieved in a town where no one threw it at you without the substantial recognition you had something worthwhile.
But on this subject, the subject of Klein Matthews, he’s wrong.
Hewasmy discovery.
Dillon
“A good country song takes a page out of somebody’s life and puts it to music.”
?Conway Twitty
Seven years ago
I OFTEN WENT TO the BluebirdCafé for inspiration, finding a quiet table in the back where I could observe the singer-songwriters playing on any given night. That was where I first heard him play.
He’d gotten in on a fluke, a cancellation at the last minute by one of the well-known writers who’d had an accident on the way to the round.
I would later learn that Klein had been new to Nashville, and in the audience to absorb whatever he could to learn about breaking into the business. The panicked manager had approached me that night with a request to jump in the round. And although I’d appreciated the request, I no longer sang my songs in public.
And so, she’d put out a plea for a singer-songwriter in the audience willing to act as a stand-in. There were a few hands, but to her credit, the manager’s gaze had fallen on Klein, where he’d been sitting near the back of the room. She walked straight over to his table, which happened to be only a couple away from mine, and said, “Are you up for this?”
He’d responded as if the opportunity were no big deal, when everyone around him knew differently. The Bluebird Café was well-known for bringing to light up-and-coming talent in Nashville. And the waiting list to play on a night like this was longer than long.
“You have any original songs?” she asked him, meeting his gaze with a clear understanding of what she was offering him.
“I do, ma’am,” he said in a quiet, South Carolina drawl.
“All right, then. What’s your name?”
“Klein Matthews.”
“Well, Klein Matthews, someone else’s misfortune has made this your lucky night. You got a guitar?”
“Yes, ma’am. In my truck.”
“Best go on out and get it then. We’re starting in less than five minutes.”
He stood, unfolding a surprising height of six-three or better. I wasn’t the only woman in the room whose gaze hung right there in a freeze-frame of awareness. He was stunningly good-looking, dark brown hair with a slight wave, longer at the front, shorter at the sides. He had an athlete’s build, broad shoulders that tapered to a narrow waist, his black T-shirt stretched tight against a well-hinted-at six-pack. He wore faded jeans in the way they were meant to be worn, close-fitting, the legs tapering to a pair of worn biker boots.
He weaved his way through the tables and out the front door, a gaggle of admiring female gazes following him. I told myself the observation had nothing to do with anything other than the realization that he looked like a country music star, whether he already was one or not.
Josh wasn’t with me that night. I do remember glancing at the wedding ring on my left hand. Since meeting Josh, I’d never had any reason to look at another man. I was as content being married as I had ever imagined being. Josh and I had a pretty great relationship, all things considered. It wasn’t easy to combine marriage with work, but we’d somehow managed to do it.
Having said that, I don’t know what made me look at my ring. Some ping of awareness I suppose my body must have recognized on a cellular level. I wasn’t proud of it. Vows meant something to me. I had never taken them lightly.
But I do believe we have an innate ability to immediately recognize attraction when it presents itself. Acting on it, however, was another thing altogether. That was something I had never done.
Even so, from the first line of the first song Klein Matthews played during his turn in the round that night, I knew immediately I was witnessing the birth of a new star in Nashville.
His obvious gift was a rare thing. That combination of the ability to put words into a song that would move its listeners almost immediately. And a voice with the kind of delivery that made women want to go home with him after the show.
