PA Heritage Songwriting Contest

[songsmith]

Attention songwriters, if you have an original song that pertains to Pennsylvania, there's a contest you should know about.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=p ... touBHlU5CI

The entry fee is $50, which sounds like alot, but it tends to weed out the folks who aren't as serious about writing, and if you place, you get two free tickets to Smoked Country Jam (which are worth far more) and cash, to boot. Smoked Country Jam is probably the best "first festival" I know of. It's an excellent show in a beautiful place, and you can decide if you like bluegrass festivals at your own pace... the operative word there is casual.
Many songwriting contests are simply designed to sell songwriters something, but I have helped judge this one in the past, and am intimate with it's inner workings: it's run by a songwriter, to help get songs out in front of people who want to hear them, and THESE PEOPLE ARE VERY OPEN TO ORIGINAL MUSIC. Imagine playing a song you wrote, to a large crowd of people who actually want to hear it!
The judging is fair, too. Many times , it's a foregone conclusion who will win, but in this contest, there's an ironclad checklist the judges have to abide by, no matter what the popularity of the submission or contestant... in short, this is a rare FAIR songwriting contest, and very much worth entering. I won't be judging this year, because they opened the contest to pro musicians (who don't write professionally), and I know some of the contestants, so I recused myself from it. Believe me, it's all about the song, and we wouldn't have it any other way.
I believe the deadline is May 15th, check the video for details, and maybe we'll see you at Smoked Country Jam. Jim Price went a few years ago, and sat in a flooding rain all day... and still comes back every year to camp and hang out with us! Why? National acts, local acts, people playing music everywhere, kids running and playing, top-notch sound & production, and everybody's mellow and happy. Try it!

[MistValkyrie]

It said on the site the entry fee per song is $15...did they change it or is there a seperate fee per person?

[songsmith]

Like I said, I'm not associated with it on that aspect. Even when I judged, I wasn't given any info about the writer or the song, I judged it specifically from an exact scorecard, and a CD with song titles and nothing else. (Which seemed pretty fair to me)
I'm sure there's a fee, but I doubt they make any profit from it, they're a non-profit organization. I think they wind up spending everything they get on the prizes, and some online expenses.
I do know that relatively few people enter, usually no more than 15 people, so you actually have a pretty good chance of at least placing, and getting the free tix (which are 60-75 bucks-ish each, and you win two, plus cash).
I know that in past years, simply having a decent recording and mentioning PA would get you top five... but among that top 5, the competition is serious. They tend towards historical-event songs. The guy who won last year should have been judging MY songs, his song was excellent. If you have a good one, based on my knowledge of it, you should at least try it out, it looks good on a resume.

[PanzerFaust]

Umm....

That didn't answer MistValkyrie's question AT ALL????

[songsmith]

Like I said, I'm not associated with it on that aspect.

Sorry, I thought the first sentence was pretty clear.
I had almost zero contact with the people who run the contest until after all songs were entered, then sent to me and other judges, and in fact, not much contact until the actual performances of the winners. Great pains were taken to make it a fair contest, because we are all musicians/songwriters. Exactly the reason I won't be judging this year: I might know a few of the entrants, and I don't want people to think there's any favoritism.
I still fully support the contest, and believe it to be worth the entrance fee. Lots of local folks have written songs about local events. Those songs should be heard... if not there... where?

[KeithReynolds]

An entry fee?? Haha damn. 50$?? Im in the wrong biz. Im gonna start holding song contests.

[songsmith]

Stick to the freebies, then. You get what you pay for.