Archive for the ‘NewSong Music’ Category

Weekend Flash Sale: Save 20% through Monday on submissions to the LEAF Festival Singer-Songwriter Competition

Friday, April 5th, 2019

Save 20% this weekend when submitting to the 2019 LEAF Festival Singer-Songwriter Competition.

This weekend is a GREAT time to submit your original music to the sixth annual LEAF Festival Singer-Songwriter Competition, presented by NewSong Music, presented by NewSong Music.

Now through Monday night (Apr 8 11:59 PM EDT), we’re offering 20% off the regular submission fee for this year’s competition.

To save some your hard earned cash, enter discount code LEAF19FLASH when entering your songs on our submission platform.

LEARN MORE AND ENTER HERE

Thanks and have a great weekend!

#singersongwriter#songwritingcompetition#newsongmusic#flashsale#leafcommunityarts

Weekly Roundup: NewSong Artist News 1/14-1/20

Monday, January 14th, 2019

Happy New Year everyone!

After a somewhat relaxing holiday break, we’re rested up and super excited to help keep you up-to-date on all the great shows, releases and collaborations that are in store this year for the ever-growing and talented community of NewSong artists. 

These performing songwriters live and perform across the continent and beyond, and their work spans multiple genres. To keep track of it all, we’ve put together a list of shows, album releases and other happenings that we think you should be paying attention to this week.

 

1. 2018 NewSong grand prize winner mel bryant to perform at Sundance ASCAP Music Cafe

Big congrats to Mel Bryant for her grand prize win this past December at the NewSong Music Competition finals. As part of her prize, Mel will travel to Park City, Utah to showcase in the Sundance Film Festival’s esteemed Sundance ASCAP Music Café on Thursday, January 31 and Friday, February 1. Other performers at the ASCAP Music Cafe this year will include Patty Griffin, Lee Ann Womack, and others in an incredible lineup of both accomplished and up-and-coming songwriters. 

We’ll be doing a ‘Facebook Live’ webcast of her two performances from our Facebook page. Both shows begin at 2 PM MST / 4 PM EST.

RSVP for the Facebook Live webcast here.

See the full lineup and schedule of the ASCAP Music Café

 

2. Blue Yonder’s ‘Rough and Ready Heart’ places in No Depression‘s year-end Critic’s Poll

Blue Yonder’s 2018 album Rough and Ready Heart (NewSong Recordings) has received many accolades since its early June release, and was recently counted among the No Depression critics’ ‘favorite roots music albums of the 2018.’ Recorded at Echo Mountain Recording Studios in Asheville, NC, Rough and Ready Heart introduces listeners to characters dealing with life and death, love and loss, memories and aspirations – with stories set to a pleasing arc of Americana styles ranging from barn-burning rockers to gentle waltzes to mournful ballads to inspirational anthems. 

The Charleston, West Virginia-based band was in great company among the other artists included in the year-end poll. We encourage you to check out the full list and catch up on some great listening!

Read full list of ND critics picks here

Stream album on Spotify

Purchase album on 180g vinyl, CD or download

 

 

3. Critics call Rachael Kilgour “Folk Music’s Next Big Thing” // vinyl pre-order for “game changer” available Feb. 1

 

Rachael Kilgour’s latest album Game Changer will be released on February 1 on NewSong Recordings, and is now available for pre-order on 180g vinyl, CD and digital download

Leading up to the release, the Duluth, MN songwriter is garnering praise from critics across the country, including a recent feature in Rolling Stone for the EP’s first single, “Holy Are We.”

“Kilgour’s unapologetic lyrics are a real treat.” – Rolling Stone

“Master crafted indie-folk.” – Billboard

For more information on the pre-order, join the album release event on Facebook and visit the Rachael’s website.

 

 

4.OUR FIRST ‘NEWSONG IN NASHVILLE’ SHOWCASE SCHEDULED FOR MARCH 7, featuring finalists from the 2018 NewSong Present: LEAF Festival Singer-Songwriter competition.

Mark your calendars, Nashville music fans! Join us at the first ever ‘NewSong in Nashville’ performance showcase with recent NewSong alums My One and OnlyCarly TaichAlexa Rose; and Beth Snapp at the Listening Room in Nashville on Thursday, March 7, for a night of stellar songwriting and performances. 

In the meantime, check out the artists’ music by clicking their names above.

RSVP to Facebook Event

Mel Bryant wins the 17th annual International NewSong Music Performance & Songwriting Competition

Wednesday, December 19th, 2018

MEL BRYANT WINS THE 17TH ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL NEWSONG MUSIC PERFORMANCE & SONGWRITING COMPETITION

 

AS GRAND PRIZE WINNER, BRYANT RECEIVES AN EP RECORDING PROJECT AT ECHO MOUNTAIN RECORDING STUDIOS, RELEASED ON THE NEWSONG RECORDINGS LABEL, A PERFORMANCE SHOWCASE AT 2019 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL’S ESTEEMED ASCAP MUSIC CAFE AND MORE

 

ASHEVILLE, N.C. — Nashville-based singer, instrumentalist and songwriter Mel Bryant has been named this year’s grand prize winner of the seventeenth annual NewSong Music Performance and Songwriting Competition. Bryant – along with seven other finalists – was selected from nearly 800 entries to this year’s contest. The finalists performed at Isis Music Hall in Asheville, NC on Saturday, December 15, in front of a sold-out crowd. The panel of music industry judges included Gar Ragland, music producer and co-founder of NewSong Music; Diana Ezerins, director of public programs at The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.; and Elysa Marden, Vice President of Arts Brookfield in New York City.

“This year’s live performance finals of the NewSong Competition was a particularly special and noteworthy one for us,” said Ragland. “Not only was the caliber of performances and songs as high as it’s ever been, it marks the first time we’ve hosted the event here in Asheville, our beloved headquarters now for the last six plus years. Moving this event to Asheville from New York’s Lincoln Center was long overdue, especially given how amazing and appreciative the fans of live music are here. The energy, enthusiasm and support that the audience provided our finalists’ made for a really magical experience for everyone involved.”

As the grand prize winner, Bryant will receive a fully funded six-song EP, recorded and mixed at Asheville’s own Echo Mountain Recording Studios and released on the NewSong Recordings label. Bryant also receives a performance showcase at the esteemed 2019 ASCAP Music Café at the Sundance Film Festival (January 31) in Park City, Utah and a featured performance in the 2019 Arts Brookfield ‘Summer Plaza’ series in New York City. All finalists receive a Shure MOTIV microphone, and will be strongly considered for future ‘NewSong Presents’ paid performances across the United States.

 

 

Bassist and songwriter Bryant leads the Nashville-based indie rock band Mel Bryant & the Mercy Makers. The four musicians moved together from Philly and New York to settle in East Nashville where they run their own recording studio, Electric Church Records, and work as the backing band for various local artists. Bryant competed in the NewSong Music Competition with her accompanist, Aaron Hicks, on acoustic guitar. Musical influences range from Fall Out Boy and Green Day to Laura Marling, B. B. King and the Allman Brothers.

“It was truly an honor just to be recognized as a finalist and to have been a part of such a wonderful night of music,” says Bryant of her win. “That show was really a career highlight and you could feel the mutual astonishment of all the finalists throughout the show— such an absolutely gorgeous group of musicians. Winning this competition could not have come at a better time for us; it’s so easy to get lost and discouraged by a career in music, but to be recognized by such a wonderful and authentic organization is incredibly heartwarming and life-affirming. I’m so excited to continue working with NewSong, and I can’t wait to see what this next chapter has in store.”

For the first time in its seventeen year history, the live performance finals of the NewSong Music Performance & Songwriting Competition was held in Asheville, NC, where NewSong Music has been headquartered since 2012. The move marks a new direction for the program, relocating from its longstanding host venue, New York City’s venerable Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.

 

For more information about Mel Bryant, visit the artist’s website, and listen to her band, Mel Brant and the Mercy Makers, on Spotify.

For more information about NewSong Recordings and the NewSong Music Competition, visit newsong-music.com/

For media requests, contact Lea McLellan at leamclellan@gmail.com.

 

 

Meet 2018 NewSong Competition judge: Diana Ezerins

Wednesday, December 12th, 2018

NewSong is pleased to introduce 2018 NewSong judge Diana Ezerins, Director of Public Programs at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. in the Performing Arts for Everyone / Community Programming department. 

Ezerins oversees the curation of several festivals and Millennium Stage, a daily, free performance series with live web streams and an online archive. The programs by her team are designed to reflect society through presenting outstanding, culturally diverse artists, and to be as accessible to as many people as possible, without financial or geographical barriers. These projects and performances are developed in partnership with regional, national, and international artists, activists, educators, youth, and more as they strive to democratize curation, creating a space for all to highlight important voices in various communities as well as telling the stories of our collective humanity.

Ezerins is a newcomer to the NewSong judges panel, and is looking forward to learning more about the contestants. When asked what she looks for in a meaningful, well-written song, she says she pays close attention to “lyrics that reflect and empathize with the human experience and sing along-ability.” 

An avid music lover and listener, Ezerins’s most-played albums of 2018 include Neko Case’s Hell-On; Father John Misty’s God’s Favorite Customer; Kacey Musgraves’s Golden Hour; US Girls’ In a Poem; Young Fathers’ Cocoa Sugar; Lucy Dacus’s Historian; The Midnight Hour; Alfredo Rodríguez’s The Little Dream; and The Shins’ The Worm’s Heart

To purchase tickets for the Dec. 15 event at Isis Music Hall, visit our ticketing page. 

We’ve created Spotify and YouTube playlists featuring this year’s lineup of NewSong finalists, and these artists are well worth a listen. Follow the playlist on Spotify here, and watch our YouTube playlist here.

 

Weekly Roundup: NewSong Artist News 12/10-12/16

Monday, December 10th, 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 NewSong Music Songwriting & Performance Competition will be held at Isis Music Hall in Asheville, NC on Dec. 15. Purchase tickets hereRSVP for the Facebook Live webcast of the finals.

 

1. Meet our 2018 NEwSong competition Finalists (and judges!) on the blog 

We hope you have enjoyed meeting our 2018 NewSong Music Performance & Songwriting Competition finalists on our blog this week. We’ve been sharing videos, artist links and interviews with all of the artists who will compete at Isis Music Hall on Dec. 15.

Visit the blog to read our interviews with Alex Wong; Alice Howe; Carly Taich; Kaiti Jones; Liz Frame, Mel Bryant and Suzie Brown, as well as an interview with our guest performer and 2016 grand prize winner, Wilder Adkins

Stay tuned this week for interviews with our judges.

2. Crys Matthews — New tour dates announced 

Crys Matthews, grand prize winner of the 2017 NewSong Music Competition, is back on the road, this time playing shows mostly in the Northeast, along songwriter Chris Pureka. Her first show is Thursday Dec. 13 at Club Passim in Cambridge, MA. 

Vist Crys’s website for full list of tour dates. 

3. No depression Year-end readers poll — deadline is 12/14

No Depression’s annual year-end readers poll is now open for voting, and this year’s list includes a handful of albums from some of our favorite NewSong artists, past and present, with two releases from our own NewSong Recordings label: “Rough and Ready Heart” from Blue Yonder (NewSong Recordings, 2018); “Don’t Apologize” from Beth Snapp (NewSong Recordings, 2018); “Idaho” from 2017 NewSong finalist David Robert King; and “White Tiger” from NewSong 2007 finalist Ana Egge. 

Click here for album links and instructions on how to vote. 

4. Wilder Adkins —  guest performance at 2018 NewSong Music competition & Listen: ‘Christmas and chill’ spotify playlist

 

Birmingham, Alabama-based songwriter Wilder Adkins will travel to Asheville on Dec. 15 to be our guest performer at the 2018 NewSong Music Competition at Isis Music Hall.

Adkins received the grand prize in 2016 and has this to say about his NewSong win: “I really have gotten a lot of opportunities to play in some neat venues, and all that really pads the resumé. … Getting to record at Echo Mountain is cool – it’s a world class recording studio.”

Read the full interview with Adkins here, and be sure to check out his new Spotify playlist, “Christmas and Chill,” which features Adkins’s rendition of the traditional hymn “Come Thou Long Expected Jesus.”

 

5. NewSong founder Gar Ragland featured in “Capital at play” magazine

Curious about the history of NewSong Music? An article titled “Production Line” in Capital at Play Magazine, gives an in-depth view of the story behind the competition and record label, which has grown considerably since its beginnings as Mountain Stage NewSong Festival in 2001.

“Over the past 10 years or so it has become an increasingly well-respected for emerging artists,” says Ragland in the article. “Last year we had more than 5,000 artists enter the competition. I’m continually surprised by the caliber of artists we attract.” 

Read the full article here

Meet 2018 NewSong Competition finalist: Alice Howe

Monday, December 10th, 2018

From the artist’s bio: Boston singer-songwriter Alice Howe is “at once of the moment and timeless, personal and universal” (Mark Walton, Americana UK). Her pure, distilled sound reflects a musical sensibility rooted in ’60s folk and ’70s Southern California songwriters. … 2017 was the year that Alice began making big waves in the folk world. Her EP You’ve Been Away So Long debuted on the April Folk-DJ charts with a #1 song – “Homeland Blues” – and #11 album. “Homeland Blues” went on to become the #7 song for all of 2017. Alice has been touring consistently in support of the EP in throughout the US, and recently returned from a critically acclaimed tour of the UK and the Netherlands. All in the last year, she was a Falcon Ridge Folk Festival Emerging Artist, an Official Showcase Artist at FAR-West, and a Formal Showcase Artist at NERFA. Read full bio here

We asked Alice some questions about her songwriting process and what it means to be a NewSong finalist. To purchase tickets for the Dec. 15 event at Isis Music Hall, visit our ticketing page. 

 

What does it mean to you to be selected as a NewSong finalist, and what do you hope to get out of the experience? 

 
I am honored and thrilled to have been selected as a NewSong finalist. I consider it to be an invaluable opportunity to connect with other talented young songwriters and to learn more about and become involved in the NewSong organization. In the several years that I have been pursuing music full-time, I have learned that relationships and community are an essential part of building and sustaining a career, and I see this is a great opportunity to do exactly that.
 

What is your songwriting process like, and where do you find inspiration?

 
I have been singing and writing songs for as long as I can remember. The process has evolved considerably since my days singing into a tape recorded at age 3 1/2, but there remains a strong improvisational element to my process. I like to sit with my guitar, strumming or picking a chord progression that pleases me, and I sing whatever words come to me, changing words, trying new ones, until it feels right. I am inspired by nature, relationships, and history, and I find that I often begin my songs by painting a picture of what I see, then turning inward. I don’t always know what my songs are about when I write the first line, but I soon learn as I continue exploring.
 
I grew up with my parents’ vast record collection, and have always been inspired by the music of their generation, including Jackson Browne, Joni Mitchell, Joan Baez, Bonnie Raitt, and Taj Mahal.
 

What important news about your music do you have coming up? 

 
My forthcoming full-length album, Visions, produced by Freebo (Bonnie Raitt, CSN, Ringo Starr) and recorded in Bakersfield, CA is complete and will be released in 2019. The new album features a collection of new originals and my interpretations of iconic songs such as Muddy Waters’ “Honey Bee”, “Too Long at the Fair,” first covered by Bonnie Raitt, and songs from Dylan and Taj Mahal. The musicians who recorded Visions with Alice include Freebo, Fuzzbee Morse, John Molo, and John ‘JT’ Thomas who have played or recorded with everyone from Bruce Hornsby to Lou Reed and Richie Havens, Phil Lesh, Jackson Browne, Tracy Chapman, Nick Jameson, and a who’s who of West Coast characters.
 
 
Listen to Alice Howe on Soundcloud and Spotify. Follow Alice Howe on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter

 

Wilder Adkins to perform at NewSong Music Competition Dec. 15

Saturday, December 8th, 2018

NewSong Music is pleased to announce 2016 grand prize winner Wilder Adkins will be our guest performer at this year’s NewSong Music Competition at Isis Music Hall in Asheville, NC on Saturday Dec. 15.  

Wilder Adkins’ songwriting gleans as much from the earthy poetry of Wendell Berry and Mary Oliver as it does from the works of folk luminaries Richard Thompson and Bruce Cockburn. He’s been busy this year releasing new music, including the well-received and reimagined Bruce Springsteen covers “Dancing in the Dark” and “Marietta.”

We took some time to ask Wilder some questions about his career and any advice he might have for this year’s contestants. 

As a past NewSong winner, do you have any advice to the 2018 contestants? 

Try and be yourself on stage – everyone just wants to get to know you, so tell a joke or an interesting family anecdote or a maybe a cookie recipe. Don’t save your best songs for round 2, you might not make it! Also don’t stress too much over the swimsuit competition. It’s winter, so we all have a little extra flub this time of year. 
 

What has being a NewSong winner meant for you and your career?

I really have gotten a lot of opportunities to play in some neat venues, and all that really pads the resumé. I tried getting the hometown paper to write about me but they were not interested. But you know what they say, a prophet has no honor in his own town. I have found that to be the case. Getting to record at Echo Mountain is cool – it’s a world class recording studio.
 

Is there any news about your own music you would like to share?

Check out my new Christmas playlist on Spotify called “Christmas and Chill,” which features my rendition of the traditional hymn “Come Thou Long Expected Jesus.”
 

The NewSong Music Songwriting & Performance Competition will be held at Isis Music Hall in Asheville, NC on Dec. 15. Purchase tickets here

Meet 2018 NewSong Competition finalist: Mel Bryant

Thursday, December 6th, 2018

Mel Bryant & the Mercy Makers are a Nashville-based indie rock band led by bassist and songwriter Mel Bryant. The four musicians moved together from Philly and New York to settle in East Nashville where they run their own recording studio, Electric Church Records, and work as the backing band for various local artists. Mel will travel to Asheville to compete in the NewSong Music Competition with her accompanist, Aaron Hicks, on acoustic guitar. 

We asked Mel some questions about her songwriting process and what it means to be a NewSong finalist. To purchase tickets for the Dec. 15 event at Isis Music Hall, visit our ticketing page. 

 

What does it mean to you to be selected as a NewSong finalist, and what do you hope to get out of the experience? 

 
The recognition as a songwriter is so heartwarming and self-affirming in the midst of self doubt and those pesky feelings that we don’t deserve to do this thing we love to do. I’m really excited to connect with like-minded songwriters for future collaborations and play in a really awesome Asheville venue!
 

What is your songwriting process like? Who inspires you?

 
My songwriting process is fairly inconsistent, but usually starts with a lyrical idea: something short like a sentence or even a word pairing, and maybe a rhyming scheme along with that, something that I thought of during my daily life, working as a server at a brunch place, or out of things I’ve overheard or read somewhere. I usually flesh it out on a guitar or just with my voice, and then will refine it with another member of my band, or with my entire band, if I think the song would gel with my bandmates.
 
Some of my biggest inspirations growing up were punk rock bands like Green Day and Fall Out Boy, along with folk songwriters like Laura Marling, Joni Mitchell, etc, but as I got older and delved into other genres, some big influences have been blues artists like B. B. King, classic rock bands like the Allman Brothers, Led Zeppelin, The Eagles, etc. Lately, the low-key, heartfelt indie rock vein has informed a lot of my writing, with artists like Phoebe Bridgers, Julien Baker and Pinegrove.
 

What important news about your music do you have coming up? 

 
We released our debut single In My Head in October and we hope to have a lot more music out later in 2019. We are nearly finished building our home studio, which we plan to use to record and film ourselves for weekly videos and to record other musicians in Nashville.

 

Listen to Mel Bryant on Soundcloud, watch on YouTube, and follow on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter

 

Meet 2018 NewSong Competition finalist: Kaiti Jones

Wednesday, December 5th, 2018

From the artists bio: Kaiti Jones has been making her home in the Boston folk scene since 2010. A native of Portland, Maine, she spent four years in Nashville, where she formed her sound in the backyard of Bob Dylan’s folk ballads and Flannery O’Connor’s southern gothic storytelling, before returning to her northern roots. Jones has three studio releases: Arise Child EP (2009), Growing Things EP (2013), and VOWS (2017).

Jones’ music is Americana soaked in melancholy, with the occasional foot stomper thrown in for good measure. Her voice is simultaneously earthy and ethereal, carrying the listener a few feet off the ground on a cloud of rich, sophisticated melodies while whispering truth and contemplating the human condition through good old-fashioned storytelling.

We asked Kaiti some questions about her songwriting process and what it means to be a NewSong finalist. To purchase tickets for the Dec. 15 event at Isis Music Hall, visit our ticketing page. 

 
 

What is your songwriting process like, and where do you find inspiration?

 
I often feel as if I am at the mercy of my own songwriting process. I’ll be out somewhere — in the car, walking down the street, tackling a project at work — and a song will crash over me like a wave, often already in full form, strong, unmanageable, demanding to be written down. It’s often stories or experiences from years prior in my life that are suddenly resurfacing, now processed and safe to speak out. Other times, a song will come to me in the raw here and now of a still-lived experience. My muses include Flannery O’Connor, Wendell Berry, Madeleine L’Engle and Bob Dylan. All approach storytelling with mastery, gravity, and wonder, and have each unraveled me with the haunting, unmatched quality of their words.
 

What does it mean to you to be selected as a NewSong finalist, and what do you hope to get out of the experience? 

 
It’s a great honor to be selected as a NewSong finalist and to be recognized alongside high caliber writers and performers. I consider it a privilege to be given any opportunity to share my stories with others, and I look forward to connecting with and becoming part of the NewSong community of artists and industry folks.
 

What important news about your music do you have coming up? 

 
It is now one year since my album VOWS came out. These days, I’m focusing on continuing to perform as much as possible, as well as writing new material and preparing for a new recording project in the coming year.
 
Listen to Kaiti Jones on Spotify and Soundcloud; watch on YouTube; and follow on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter

 

 

Meet 2018 NewSong Competition Finalist: Liz Frame

Tuesday, December 4th, 2018

(From the artist’s bio): Boston-based singer/songwriter Liz Frame has been performing her own brand of Americana music since her early teens. She is backed live by her band, the Kickers — John Webb on lead guitars, Sean Hennessy on bass and Pete Whitehead on drums — a group of talented friends whose raw sound and sweet harmonies help to deliver her material with distinction. A prodigious writer, Ms. Frame released her first full-length recording, “Sooner,” in 2011 that drew strong praise and consistent airplay, followed by the EP, Justine. She and the band have spent the last five years on the road and are out there again this year, in support of their brand new full-length record, Sparrow in a Shoebox.

Her voice bears likeness to Patsy Cline and Linda Ronstadt, and her writing is influenced by veterans like Dolly Parton and Lucinda Williams, among others.

We asked Liz some questions about her songwriting process and what it means to be a NewSong finalist. To purchase tickets for the Dec. 15 event at Isis Music Hall, visit our ticketing page. 

What does it mean to you to be selected as a NewSong finalist, and what do you hope to get out of the experience? 

Being chosen as a finalist is such an honor! It means I get to meet other like-minded artists who take the craft of songwriting as seriously as I do. And it validates my own efforts, which is always nice. So many of us practice our craft in complete anonymity, so to be recognized like this is very special and much appreciated!
 

What is your songwriting process like?

I make time to write whenever I can, and go into my living room to do so. I sit with my guitar, and I just start strumming. Sometimes I work with a preexisting idea, sometimes not. Oftentimes I’ll have a word or two to work with, usually the title of the song, that gets me going. That was the case with “Sparrow in a Shoebox.” I started with the word “shoebox” and went from there! Songwriting is such a mysterious and satisfying process. I love it!
 

What important news about your music do you have coming up? 

We are busy promoting our new album, Sparrow in a Shoebox, and that it’s getting airplay around the country!

 

Listen to Liz Frame on Soundcloud and Spotify. Watch on YouTube
Follow Liz Frame on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.