Bloomington musicians sharpen songcraft at Cosmic Songwriter’s Club

Oso Blues is all about making the world a better place through song.

A self-described “rolling stone,” Oso [born Pablo Fuentes] grew up in Santiago, Chile but has since moved all over the world, living in a total of 15 different cities over the course of his life. Prior to his recent move to Bloomington, Ind., Oso called Austin, Texas home, where he met his wife.

“I had a brief stint in Colorado, and then I moved to Austin, Texas about five or six years ago,” Oso says. “There, I met my awesome wife, who is a native Hoosier. She grew up in Bloomington and went to IU.”

As the creative climate in Austin, Texas began to change, Oso and his wife started looking for somewhere to relocate. Seeing that his wife had ties to the Hoosier state, Bloomington naturally became a strong option, considering all that the couple was looking for.

“I wanted to be in a place that was a small place,” Oso says. “We considered a few different places like Asheville, N.C., Bozeman, Mont., and Durango, Colo. We ended up realizing the things we wanted…a college town with a good arts scene and nature…were all available in Bloomington, along with her family too.”

A longtime student of the blues, Oso began searching for Bloomington’s community of songwriters upon arriving in the city last August. While he seemingly found musical talent around every corner, Oso struggled to locate a central place where local songwriters congregated.

“I was really interested in building community through music,” Oso says. “I have very close friends in Texas, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Montana that I’ve met playing music — just building community through music. When I talked to people [in Bloomington] and was like, ‘Hey. Where do songwriters congregate?’ It seemed like there had been a few things before COVID, but there wasn’t anything currently.”

Upon joining the board of the Buskirk-Chumley Theater in Bloomington, Oso met fellow musician Shaun McDermott, and the two decided to co-found their own night for songwriters in Bloomington, calling it the Cosmic Songwriter’s Club. Held at the Orbit Room each month, the event is designed to help local musicians network, while also sharpening their songcraft.

“In Bloomington, there’s such an amazing current of energy, whether it’s the Jacobs School of Music or all the artists in Brown County,” Oso says. “There’s a lot of really good energy, but there wasn’t anything organizing that energy in a way, which is where I felt I could be helpful.”

Unlike your typical open mic, the Cosmic Songwriter’s Club asks its participants to sign up ahead of time via the event’s website, just to ensure everything goes over smoothly.

“You don’t have to be on Capitol Records, but you at least have to have recorded something at some point and made it sound like you care about this,” Oso says.

Set for its fourth installment on March 2, the Cosmic Songwriter’s Club has already gotten a warm reception from area songwriters, Oso says. As the weather starts to warm up and word continues to get out about his event, Oso is hopeful that the Cosmic Songwriter’s Club can become a staple of the Bloomington music community.

“It’s honestly gone beyond what I even would have reasonably expected,” he says. “The fact that all these positive things are happening is a huge compliment and not something I take for granted one bit. People have told me, ‘Bloomington really needed something like this.’”

To learn more about the Cosmic Songwriter’s Club, be sure to visit the vent’s website, where you can also sign up to take part in the next edition.