On Oct. 4th, The Mane Room hosted Songwriters Night and welcomed local songwriters to the stage, with featured artist Roger Jaeger.
Starting at 7 p.m., the microphone was turned over to the first local artist, Aiden Black, a freshman at the University of North Alabama. His set featured acoustic guitar covers of “Gravity” by John Mayer and “Saving All My Love for You” by Whitney Houston, as well as originals like “Cold Winters Sun” and “Breakthrough.”
Elaborating on “Breakthrough,” Black mentioned that the original song is about the stumps in life, and how those lows get you to become a better version of yourself.
The next local songwriter of the night was Andrew Estes. His set began on the acoustic guitar with his first original “The Poet.” When describing the premise of the song, Estes said that this particular song depicts a time when an individual is “young and dumb,” thinking they have found the love of their life, but end up “never talking to them again.”
He went on to perform a couple more originals, titled “You Hold Me Back and I’m Just Standing Still” and “Martyr.”
After switching over to the piano, Estes played an original song called “Broken,” which he wrote at the university whilst in Mr. John Paul White’s advanced songwriting class.
Estes jumped back on the acoustic guitar and promised the audience a happier song with “Too Good To Be True,” a song about his realization that “without great sadness, we cannot have great joy.”
To close out the local songwriters’ portion of the night, Estes sang his original song “Eternity,” which is about “how people find their way back to each other.”
The last hour of the event was held for established artist Roger Jaeger. On acoustic guitar, his first original was “It’s My Time.” Jaeger bantered with the crowd when he said, “You’ll learn more about me as the night goes on.”
Jaeger dedicated his next piece to “any of you who have felt like the outsider or the weirdo,” performing his song titled “Lone Wolf It’s Gonna Be Ok”.
Afterward, Jaeger talked about how he moved around a lot as an early adult. He mentioned how he lived in Nashville for college at Belmont University, then traveled to India at 19 before coming back to the United States at 27. While back in the states, he shifted between Tennessee, California and Oklahoma, several times. These travels are what he dedicated his next song, “Elevator,” to.
Letting the crowd in on an interesting story about his next song “Rescue,” Jaeger stated that he wrote this song with his friend David for David’s band, but the band did not like the song, so David and Jaeger decided to record the songthemselves and send it to a producer. The producer unfortunately never got back to them. That was when Jaeger decided he would just sing the song himself.

Much to the crowd’s surprise, Jaeger brought out a sitar, which he studied at 19 in Pune, India. “I heard the sitar on Jeff Buckley’s ‘Grace’ album,” Jaeger said. “That was the first place I was kinda drawn to it, so I made some crazy decisions and moved over to India to learn it.”
With his first song on the sitar “Just Start Over,” Jaeger blended Indian classical music with western vocals.
With the sitar, he pondered how he could combine the classical instrument with his artistry as a singer-songwriter, and he ended up creating a beautiful, unique masterpiece. To close out his sitar portion, Jaeger played a classical Indian Raga, one that was traditionally played in the monsoon season to pray for rain.
Jaeger then jumped back on guitar with originals like “When You Hurt Someone” and “Love and War.”
In a heartfelt message, Jaeger dedicated his song “Grandpa’s Ghost” to his grandfather.
“I’ve been angry at my grandfather, but as I get older I’ve come to realize we are all complicated,” Jaeger said.
With his next song, Jaeger dedicated “Don’t Talk About the Weather” to his father.
“Sometimes I have a hard time talking to my dad so that’s what this is about,” Jaeger said.
His second to last song, “Wander,” as Jaeger stated, was about “life and where it takes you.”
To close out the night, Jaeger encouraged audience participation with a sing-along to. After teaching the audience their part, Jaeger and the crowd finished out the night with a beautiful and intimate choir to his original song, “Not the Only One.”
The Mane Room welcomes and encourages artists to come back and participate in the next Songwriters Night on Nov. 4.