We are pleased to announce that  983 entries for the 2008 Chris Austin Songwriting Contest were judged by a committee chaired by Jim Lauderdale and the following finalists have been selected. Thank you to everyone who entered this year's contest!

General Category Finalists:

”When It Comes My Turn” by David Myles, Halifax, Nova Scotia, CANADA

“Sandston Girl” by Jim O’Brien, Mechanicsville, VA

“Early Morning Rain” by Jessie Nickes, Brevard, NC

Country Category Finalists:

 “Fiona” by Sean Patrick McGraw, Nashville, TN

“Runaround” by Wendy Newcomer, Nashville, TN

“Wrong Girl” by Jaimi Shuey, Santa Monica, CA

Bluegrass Category Finalists:

 “Famous for Doing Something Bad” by Brandon Story, Bristol, TN

“Hear My Cry” by Jocelyn Amanda Gold, Leesburg, VA

“Thats As Close to Lonesome” by Jimmy Moore, Marlboro, NJ

Gospel Category Finalists:

 “On the Winning Side” by David Tew, Turkey, NC

“Trap Door (In The Ceiling)” by Willie Schoellkopf, Buffalo, NY

“Matthew, Mark, Luke  and John” by Phil Ruff, Rutherfordton, NC

The situation here is out in the open now, let's just see what comes of it, One thing for sure, besides the CASC thing, Merlefest is a great festival. The CASC was not here when this festival started, it may not be here when it ends, if it ever does. But we need to let the powers at be take over and explain how this thing works, and stop bashing each other for our own beliefs, since their is only one reason for Merlefest, remembering Merle! These people have a legal right to ask these questions from Merlefest, hell they are funding the CASC, do they not have the right to question the system? Why all the "Sour Grapes" comments? Did any of the people who have posted and bashed the submitters send in their $25 per song fee? I believe if you are not involved finanically here, how can you respond in a negitive way towards someone who has invested money to a contest that is asking legitiment questions? It bothers me how we automaticly bash someone when they question the process. Anybody with a computer can find evidence that questions this system, it easy, google it! But the word is out now, let's see what happens, but the bashing does not help anything, it just brings me down.

Entries will be judged by a panel of professional songwriters, publishers, or other music industry professionals from the Nashville music community. All entries will be judged on originality, lyrics, melody and the song’s overall commercial potential. Music production and performance quality are not considered. All decisions by judges will be final. Finalists will be determined and notified by the week of April 1. Only finalists will be personally notified. No entrants will be provided with scores or evaluations of their entries. "

Take a look at the "Country Top 3" As stated in a recent thread, the top 2 are straight out of the "Billy Block/Jim Lauderdale" camp of rising stars, and Jaimi Shuey is the #3 fill -in. Even though one of the top 2 will probably be the winner, my vote goes to Jaimi! She is one sweet voice, and this win could put her in the Billy Block/Jim Lauderdale camp for next year! This is a win win situation for these guys. Way to go guys, you did it again, guaranteed yourselves another win win CASC in the "Country Catergory"!

Listen, I'm a 10 year Merlefest veteran and this year is the first year I have entered the CASC.

In fact, I submitted multiple songs, two of which I wrote specifically with the contest in mind.  

Am I a finalist?   No.

Am I bummed?    Somewhat... but I knew I'd be competing against some of the best songwriters in the nation. That’s why I entered.

Am I bitter?    No, and I won’t be until I have reason to be. I have listened to all of the finalist's songs that I could find on the internet and many of them are certainly of merit.

That said, I hope that it is the song's, not the artist's commerical potential that is being judged.

But surely friends, you will never hear me bashing another person’s work – no matter how upset I am.

Criticizing someone else’s songs is pointless. Besides, the

3 chord structure and ‘less is more’ writing is hardly a bad thing.

Hank Sr., anyone?

John Prine, anyone?

Harlan Howard, anyone?

Carter Family, anyone?

I would agree. The issue isn't with who won, or the relative merit of their songs, it's that:

A) it would seem that there is an overrepresentation in the winners circle of those who know or have worked with the judges, and

B) that many entrants entries were not listened to.

Are these things surprising? You bet they are ... I would have expected better of Merlefest. I guess I won't anymore.

The integrity of the CASC is important to MerleFest and we would like to address your concerns and clarify some misunderstandings:

• Jim Lauderdale is the volunteer chair of the CASC committee and does not participate in the first round judging.
• All finalists will be asked to sign an acknowledgment that states that their primary source of income (50% or more) is not derived from songwriting or publishing.
• ALL songs entered in the CASC have been heard and judged fairly. SonicBids has provided the following information to address the confusion:

“ Please keep in mind that your Sonicbids Hits Tracker will only track song plays made directly on your EPK.  For this particular gig listing, you were required to select and upload the song you wanted to be considered onto the submission form itself. [This process is very common for songwriting contests.]   Because the song was uploaded to the submission form--separate from your EPK--it seems that the promoter simply listened to your song off of that submission form.  Hence, your Hits Tracker would not count that play, since it was not off the EPK directly.

Even though your personal EPK Hits Tracker did not track that song play, rest assured that we can still view from our end if the promoter is viewing submissions or not.  The promoter inbox is set up similar to an email inbox, where you can see if a submission has been “Reviewed” or “Not Reviewed”.  In fact, a promoter is physically unable to send a “Not Selected” or “Selected” message in our Status Manager to an artist without reviewing the submission first. This way, here at Sonicbids we can check and hold our promoters accountable to make sure they are following through with their agreement.”  

We appreciate the feedback we receive from MerleFest fans and encourage discussions about the festival. We do ask that discussions remain respectful of all and that forum members abide by the user agreement of this forum.

okay

--yup, I know Billy Block.  Have for a long time.  I've played his show many times....it costs me $150 -$300 to pay my band something...the GIG pays nothing.

i.e:  i PAY to play. As does everybody else.  that's just the way it is. Billy has to make a living like everybody else and he presents a quality show or so i'd like to think.

--I'm not a rising star.  I'm prob more like wannabe on his way down.  I played Billy's show for the first time (the Western Beat thing)  over fifteen years ago.  I'm older that you think. Most smart people would have seen the light after all the years of rejection i've had.  I really am stupid and I know it. I just never made a plan B and here i am still trying to do something in music.  I don't have a back-up plan so i don't have a choice but to try. 

I'm not part of the Jim Lauderdale "camp." In fact, I had the pleasureof meeting Jim for the very first time at Merle Fest.  I've been a fan of his a long time though.  His "Planet of Love" record (i had it on cassette back in the day)  is one of my favorite country records ever.

-I haven't supported myself with my songwriting since 2001...and even then I was given a meager draw.  I've made 700 buck from royalties in 2007 and 405 for last year.  YAY, I'm kickin; ass!

and I mean that seriously, making even that makes me happy....but it does not make me a professional?  NO.  Have I had cuts?  yes...quite a few actually.  Does it pay my bills?  NO, and neither does singing or playing guitar.

-as far as tearing apart my song goes:  thanks to the dude who stuck up for me.  No, it's not such an original melody, or chord change.  I didn't think using more colors in the painting would have made a better picture.   I know lot's of chords ( i wasted my parents $$ on a degree in Music).   Once in rare while i can make something up that uses a bunch of those chords that expresses what I hear in my head..but i thought the melody served the lyric well and besides, I attempt to make living by making line-dancers happy and they want stuff like "WINK." I wish i'd written "WINK."  In a way, it's brilliant in it's simplicity...and It worked great for the artist which if any of us (songwriters) who want to provide for ourselves and our families is of the most important talents to have: the ability to please.

and to the dude who stuck up for me "Fiona" is named after John Prines wife...and John told me he like the song and that was pretty cool even he was just being nice.

I've written a lot of songs that were excersises in craft and not much else--but I never felt that "Fiona " was one of them.  I always wanted to find a way to sing "I just want to lay you down and make sweet love to you" and one day I heard it singing in my head and a I really like (personally) the line (even if i made it up)  "and you whispering somthin' dirty to me in yer native tongue."  ---Warren Zevon is quoted as telling Craig Northey to "write the songs only you can write and you will do good work."  I always felt that the Brilliance of what Bob Dylan did was that he said things the way said them and no one else said them that way..."Fiona" is spoken in a dialect that I grew up speaking and hearing and it's very ME.  Good or bad up to you..I'd NEVER presume to think that I was qualified to grade some other writer work. I can tell whether it moves me or not, but what do I know?"

"Fiona" won a bunch of other song competitions as well---and really the award  is meaniingless in a carreer sense, but the contests had me travelling to some cool places and I made some great friends and that's been awesome. 

"Fiona"  charted in the UK and made me like 120 bucks in royalties.

-if all yer worst assumption were valid, it would really just reaffirms a common truth:  Life ain't fair.

but life is beautiful.

have  nice day and smile--it's all over fore ya know it.

peace!

sean