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. 

1. David Robert King & Crys Matthews – “Have Mercy” video Release 10/19

Atlanta-based singer-songwriter and longstanding guitarist for Mary Gauthier, David Robert King, and Virginia-based singer-songwriter Crys Matthews are proud to announce a new collaboration, “Have Mercy.” The single, a response to family separation along the US southern border, is slated for release Friday, October 19..

“Have Mercy” was recorded at Echo Mountain Recording Studios in Asheville, NC and produced by Gar Ragland of NewSong Recordings. King and Matthews met as finalists last year in the esteemed NewSong Music Competition at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City, where Matthews took the Grand Prize, and King was her runner-up. The songwriters kept in touch, and, less than a year later, they found themselves in Asheville, NC, recording the co-written single.

Look out for “Have Mercy” this Friday on your favorite music platform! In the meantime, listen to David Robert King and Crys Matthews on Spotify. 

2. David berkeley – “This be dear to me” video release

David Berkeley recently released his shimmering lyric video for “This Be Dear
To Me” from his forthcoming EP The Faded Red And Blue, out November 2. The
imagery moving behind the words is a 40-foot watercolor painting by Santa Fe artist
Stan Berning that was used in the 2005 movie “Off The Map.” Berkeley’s eight-
year-old son Noah hand wrote the lyrics. PopMatters premiered the video, writing, “[This Be Dear To Me is] a hauntingly beautiful track that perfectly encapsulates all that David Berkeley does best.”

Berkeley has announced a Fall/Winter tour. See his website for confirmed dates. Listen to Berkeley on Spotify. 

3. Chris velan – “Amateur Hour” album release + “All time record” video

Chris Velan’s single “All Time Record” held the #7 spot on the CBC Music chart this month, the latest in a string of critical acclaim for Velan’s latest album, Amateur Hour. The album, released in September 2018, unfolds like a series of monologues in a one-act play where the characters are locked in a room and forced to respond and react to unexpected news, discovering that what they thought to be true of themselves was in fact not.

“Both in its title and lyrics, [“Amateur Hour”] came to encapsulate for me the themes of the album, representing them in this imagined, psychic space; Some dingy bar with a tiny stage where we all assemble as eternally helpless beginners, forever witnessing each other’s efforts to surrender to that inescapable truth,” says Velan. 

Listen to Velan’s Amateur Hour on Spotify. 

4.  Carly Taich – Upcoming performances

Asheville, NC-based indie folk artist Carly Taich has three great shows coming up in Asheville. The “fearless folk-pop” artist impressed judges at the 2018 LEAF Singer-Songwriter Competition, and her unique brand of “fearless folk-pop” earned her first place.

Taich will perform with fellow LEAF finalists My One and Only at Isis Music Hall Oct. 17; The Grey Eagle on Oct. 18, opening for Eilen Jewell; and at LEAF Oct. 20. 

Listen to Carly Taich on Spotify. 

5. Music Modernization act signed into law

The Music Modernization Act was signed into law on October 11, which may have big consequences for those working in the music industry. It is a comprehensive bill that aims to reform the current music licensing system and give music creators an opportunity to obtain compensation that more accurately reflects the value of music. 

Elizabeth Matthews, chief executive officer of ASCAP, says, “The MMA’s unanimous passage in the House and Senate proves that the power of music is a great unifier.” 

To read the entire statement from ASCAP, click here. 

6. SUBMISSIONS NOW OPEN FOR 2018 NEWSONG MUSIC PERFORMANCE & SONGWRITING COMPETITION 

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.