Songs can come from anywhere, including a hospitality executive’s career.
Chuck Bowling is an unexpected example. Bowling retired from his post as president and chief operating officer of Mandalay Bay and Luxor in June 2023. Bowling and his wife, Clara, were surprised at the exec’s retirement party by the debut “The Dealer.” The acoustic ballad unspools the couple’s life together. Other than an audio clip picked up from that night, it is unavailable to the public.
“It has not been recorded,” says Bowling, who has helped establish Las Vegas Songwriters Festival to Mandalay Bay. “It tells the story about two young kids growing up in Georgia, who and move out to Vegas and build a life together.”
LVSF is taking over all of Mandalay Bay’s live-entertainment venues Thursday through Sunday. Ticket info and the full schedule is at vegassongwriters.com. Single-day and weekend packages are still available.
Warren (who has written hits for Darius Rucker and Gary Allan) is a partner in the event, along with Bowling and Entersong Entertainment execs and pro songwriters Rob Hatch and Mike Every.
“I think the beauty of this is showing that Las Vegas is never complacent,” Bowling said during an chat with Warren and Hatch at an otherwise vacant Eyecandy club at Mandalay Bay. “We can’t expect that what we had yesterday is going to work for tomorrow, and this event is a perfect fit for the biggest entertainment city there is.”
Bowling has retired to his farm in North Carolina, but continues in a consultant capacity in the company, including the MGM Osaka project due to open in 2030. Bowling and MGM Resorts International President and CEO Bill Hornbuckle have long knocked around the idea of a recurring songwriters’ festival at Mandalay Bay. Similar to the Sublime takeover of Park MGM last weekend, LVSF is designed to run annually.
Lee Brice kicks off kicks off this year’s event with “Stories and More” at 8 p.m. Thursday at House of Blues. Billy Montana, Bobby Pinson, Brian Davis, Jerrod Niemann, Justin Wilson, Lance Miller, Liz Rose, Phil Barton and Hatch join the opening party.
This is just a sampling. The event is akin to a resort-wide festival themed for Rhythm & Riffs, the Friday night no-cover lounge show hosted by Benward. Multiple Rhythm & Riffs shows are scheduled over the weekend, too. The event is loaded with more than 300 No. 1 songs on the multitude of set lists. Artists will perform more than 100 live performances on five stages.
The stories behind the tunes are told by the writers. Performances start at 11 a.m. daily, with unique collaborations and songwriter pairings, and Q&A sessions filling the lineup.
The LVSV is under the same roof, and nothing like, the Cirque production “Michael Jackson One.” The organizers and artists are fine with that. No aerial stunts or pyro for this bunch.
“A lot of people have already seen the big show in Las Vegas,” Bowling says. “They’ve seen it over and over. But maybe they don’t have any idea what songwriting is about. What was the writer doing when they wrote it? What caused that creative chain reaction? That’s what we have here.”
Hatch refers to the personal touch that arrives from a songwriter sharing what inspired a song. His example is one he worked up, “If Heaven Wasn’t So Far Away,” a No. 1 for Justin Moore.
“The truck in that song is in my backyard, the names in there are people from my town,” Hatch says. “I can tell you exactly what each line is about, where it came from, and what picture I was thinking about when I wrote it.”
The process gives familiar songs a new life.
“I think one thing that will be surprising to people who don’t know a lot about songwriters, is they’re going to see some of their favorite songs, but they’re going to like the way that the writers are doing them better than the artist,” Warren says. ” “It’s like if you see some guy shooting 20-under on a golf course, and he’s great, but he just never really wanted to be a pro. You’re gonna see guys and girls here who are the best you’ve ever seen, but might not know about.”
And maybe you’ll get lucky and procure an audio bootleg of “The Dealer.” I have one. I know a guy.
Cool Hang Alert
Staying with the honky-tonk themes, Gilley’s at Treasure Island is running with Nathan Dean and the Damn Band on at 10 p.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday. This outfit plays more than 200 shows a year. Matt James (1-4 p.m.) and Brent Payne & Boyz (6-8:30 p.m.) are also on the Friday’s bill. Payne is back Friday, same times. Go to Gilleyslasvegas.com for intel.
John Katsilometes’ column runs daily in the A section. Contact him at [email protected]. Follow @johnnykats on X, @JohnnyKats1 on Instagram.
What: Las Vegas Songwriters Fesvival.
Where: Mandalay Bay.
When: Thursday through Sunday.
Schedule/tickets: vegassongwriters.com
Full Lineup:
Aaron Benward
Allison Veltz Cruz
Anthony L. Smith
Anthony Smith
Billy Montana
Bob DiPiero
Bobby Pinson
Brian Davis
Brian White
Brice Long
Bridgette Tatum
Brinley Addington
Charles Esten
Chris DeStefano
Chris Tompkins
Clint Daniels
Cole Taylor
Danny Myrick
Dave Pahanish
Dean Dillon
Eric Paslay
Gary Burr
Jared Mullins
Jerrod Niemann
Jesse Lee
Jim McCormick
Jimmy Yeary
Joe Fox
Jon Mabe
Justin Wilson
Lance Miller
Lee Brice
Lincoln Parrish
Liz Rose
Mark Irwin
Marla Cannon-Goodman
Marti Frederiksen
Matt Warren
Mitch Oglesby
Paul Jenkins
Paul Overstreet
Peyton Davis Niemann
Phil Barton
Rachel Thibodeau
Ray Fulcher
Rebecca Lynn Howard
Rob Hatch
Ronnie Bowman
Shane Minor
Shane Stevens
Steve Bogard
Trent Tomlinson
Tyler Reeve
Victoria Shaw
Wynn Varble