October 22nd, 2018
We love to keep up with our past NewSong Music Contest finalists and winners, and, over the years, we have amassed a busy and hardworking group of musicians we admire.
NewSong songwriters live and perform across the continent and beyond, their work spans multiple genres, and these artists are always putting out new material. To keep track of all their news and upcoming shows, we will be highlighting NewSong artists in our weekly roundup.
We’ve put together a list of five shows, publications and recordings we think you should be paying attention to this week. The deadline for the 2018 NewSong Music Performance & Songwriting Competition is coming up! You have until Sunday, Nov. 4 to submit your original music.
David Robert King and Crys Matthews have officially released the video for their first song collaboration, “Have Mercy.” The song is a heartfelt and powerful response to family separation along the U.S. southern border. All proceeds from “Have Mercy” will benefit RAICES.org, a nonprofit agency that promotes justice by providing free and low-cost legal services to underserved immigrant children, families, and refugees in Texas. The song was recorded with producer Gar Ragland at Echo Mountain Recording Studios in Asheville, NC.
Watch “Have Mercy” on YouTube. Listen to David Robert King and Crys Matthews on Spotify.
Kelly English will return to Asheville to record her sophomore album with producer Gar Ragland. Kelly was a finalist in the NewSong Music Contest and traveled to Asheville to compete at the Lake Eden Arts Festival in 2015. There, she found a home at Echo Mountain Recording Studios and eventually recorded her 2017 album, City Limits. A year later, she is returning with a host of new songs to record, and we can’t wait to see what is next for this talented artist.
Listen to Kelly English on Bandcamp and stay tuned for new music, coming soon.
Max Hatt / Edda Glass are recording a new album at David Lange Studios outside Seattle. The duo’s last album, Ocean of Birds, was recorded in 2016 with NewSong Recordings and has garnered praise from critics across the country. The band has been featured by NPR Mountain Stage, Sundance Film Festival, NYC’s Lincoln Center, & Daytrotter. This fall they’ve made a sweep of the highly competitive official juried showcases at Arts Midwest, South Arts PAE, and Arts Northwest, three top-tier booking conferences attended by major performing arts centers, presenters, agents, and artists.
We look forward to their highly anticipated next album. In the meantime, listen to Max Hatt / Edda Glass on Spotify.
Crys Matthews, Grand Prize Winner of the 2017 NewSong Music Performance & Songwriting Competition, has some exciting shows coming up this week. You can find Crys at the Cellar Stage in Timonium, MD on Oct. 26 and The Living Room in Ardmore, PA on Oct. 27. This hardworking and eclectic songwriting is on tour through the fall, so check out her tour schedule to see if she’s stopping in a city near you.
Listen to Crys Matthews on Spotify.
Now in its 17th year, the NewSong Music Performance & Songwriting Competition is one of North America’s premier showcases of emerging performers and songwriters across an array of genres.The final deadline to enter this year’s competition is Sunday, November 4.
To learn more and submit, click here.
