Yesterday I played in the finals of the New England Songwriting contest, held as part of the Ossipee Valley Bluegrass Festival. There were 20 finalists selected from about 100 submissions. The finalists came from a pretty wide area including Maine, New Hampshire and a couple from Nantucket MA. The variety of genres represented was pretty wide from contemporary singer songwriter to pop to real old-time bluegrass. I can't imagine trying to select one winner from the variety and generally high quality of the submissions. That was left up to the panel of 3 Judges -- there were two outstanding bluegrass musicians and songwriters Audie Blaylock and Ted Demille who were performing at the festival, and then there was the legendary Bill Morrisey.
In the end the winner was Michael Troy and deservedly so. He played a great song and his performance was a picture of ease: flowing out of him as if he was talking and accompanied with buttery smooth guitar. Michael has already garnered a number of festival and songwriting accolades including the Boston Folk Festival and Kerrville. Another finalists who has been wracking up the awards lately was Jud Caswell who will be off to the Philadelphia Folk Festival next month after winning a spot there through the Plowshares Songwriting Contest.
In company like that it wasn't hard to feel good about just being a finalist. The atmosphere is great and the things you learn just by chatting with folks certainly makes it worthwhile. A bonus was that Ted Demille also gave me some great positive feedback on my song. So while the money would have been nice I still left having had a valuable experience. Maybe I'll try a couple more contests this year...
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2 comments:
sounds great!! such a good experience going to these types of things you actually like to do. it's good you had the opportunity going to this compatition and even being one of the finalists! good job :]
have a g'day <3 ayelet.
Hi - thanks for the comment. Pretty interesting combination: german/chinese/israeli. I have some cousins in Bethlehem.
Are you a songwriter/musician/writer or just interested in creative stuff?
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