She loves Georgia, especially her hometown of Greensboro.

But Anslee Davidson knows, even at 17, to make an impact in what also owns her heart, writing and recording her own songs of the country style, she has to go to the hub of it all: Nashville, Tenn.

While the nation was in the grips of a global pandemic, young Anslee started making trips to Music City USA in late 2020 to begin collaborating with the industry’s best. It all started with a guitar provided by her father at age 11, and now she has an EP called “Letters Home” with four tracks, including the title song, her debut single “I’ll Wait for You,” “My Roots,” and “Wish You Well.” She was on her way to an EP release celebration at the Red Clay Music Foundry in Duluth when she did some acoustic numbers with fellow young Georgia singer/songwriter Will Finley at the latest Songwriter’s Night held April 22 at Briarpatch Farm in Putnam County.

Anslee doesn’t do it alone. Her father is her co-writer, and she’s worked with Nashville’s Eric Dodd, who was the emcee for Songwriter’s Night.

Songwriter’s Night was just that, not only songwriters performing their own works but also giving the audience the backstories behind their inspiration. Anslee told the gathered crowd of supporters – she felt it was the largest audience she’s sang before so far – that her songs have mainly been based on relationships … that come to an end. Such ideas come to her mind like, “You can’t always fix it with flowers.” Boom, there’s another song added to the anthology.

“This is so awesome,” she said after her introduction. She went on to tell them about a boy breaking her heart, but in an upbeat fashion.

“There are a lot of breakup songs out there talking about the person who was dumped. But there aren’t a lot about the people doing the dumping. I’ve only ever dated one boy … got a lot of songs out of it.”

And she’s still a ways from “being an adult for real” (turning 18).

“I’m all over the place all the time,” Anslee said after her set about her “crazy” life.

“It’s super fun. I love Nashville. It’s probably my second favorite place in the world to Greensboro, Georgia. But it’s kind of intimidating. There are a lot of really big people there.”

Not giants in size or physical stature, but influential and powerful in the music industry. Anslee said she’s found them to be welcoming.

“They keep their eye on the little guy,” she said.

“I definitely miss the small-town feel. Everybody knows everybody here. That’s incredible. And I love coming to things like this, seeing friendly faces.”

And Anslee hasn’t neglected the other important factor in growing up: school. She is on track to graduate high school in 2023 and “maybe” she will attend Belmont University in Nashville while also putting out more entertaining music.

“I want to end up in Nashville,” she said. “It’s all up in the air. I’ll be trying to get my name out there. Just going day by day now.”

Anslee’s partner going back and forth with their original music at Songwriter’s Night was Finley, whose family’s based in Newnan and originally from Mississippi. Will, however, is tried and true Georgia Bulldog.

The main event was Rivers Rutherford, a Nashville Songwriter’s Hall of Fame member who goes back to the days of Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson and even had a run-in with the members of Lynyrd Skynyrd telling him to keep his noise down. Rutherford can play and sing a tune on his own, but it’s others who have taken his co-writing to No. 1 on the charts, the Grammy Awards, the CMA’s and ACM’s. Those tunes include “When I Get Where I’m Going” by Brad Paisley with Dolly Parton and “There Ain’t Nothing About You” by Brooks and Dunn.

The whole purpose of Songwriter’s Night is to benefit Putnam County Christian Learning Center. Groups showed up to fill the place after buying a table in the Briarpatch Farm venue, which last year staged a show by former American Idol contestant Caleb Kennedy. Or music fans could take a seat in the back on stacks of hay bales.

The show organizers, including Briarpatch Farm owner Mike Rainey and Tim Cadiere Productions, paid tribute to the late Putnam County farmer Roy Embry, who was the first to buy a table for the April 22 occasion prior to his tragic death.