Submissions are now being sought for the 17th annual Chris Austin Songwriting Contest, hosted by MerleFest. Open to aspiring songwriters, who derive no more than 50% of their income from songwriting or music publishing, the contest deadline is February 18.
Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Jim Lauderdale chairs a volunteer panel of Nashville songwriters, publishers and other music industry professionals, who will judge entries based on originality, lyrics, melody and overall commercial potential.
Winners will be recognized in four categories – country, bluegrass, gospel and general. First place winners in each category will perform Cabin Stage during MerleFest and will each receive an acoustic guitar, a check for $300, two boxes of D’Addario Strings and a one-year subscription to Acoustic Guitar magazine. Second and third-prize winners also will receive cash prizes, strings and magazine subscriptions, as well as performance slots during the Friday night Songwriters Coffeehouse at Merlefest. Twelve finalists – three in each category – will be named in early April and will compete on the Austin Stage at MerleFest 2009.
Previous winners of the Chris Austin Songwriting Contest include Gillian Welch, Tift Merritt, Michael Reno Harrell, Adrienne Young and Martha Scanlan. The contest was established to honor the memory of Chris Austin, a songwriter and former sideman for Ricky Skaggs, whose life was tragically cut short when the private plane carrying him and six other members of Reba McEntire’s band, as well as her tour manager, crashed in the mountains near San Diego, California in 1991.
Additional information about the Chris Austin Songwriting Contest is available online at www.merlefest.org or by calling the contest hotline at (800) 799-3838 or Laurie Hayes, the contest coordinator, at (336) 838-6158.
One of America’s most popular Americana music festivals, MerleFest celebrates the music of the late instrumental virtuoso Merle Watson and his father Doc Watson. The “traditional-plus” music festival – featuring traditional, roots-oriented sounds of the Appalachian region — takes place April 23-26 on the campus of Wilkes Community College in Wilkesboro, North Carolina. An article about this year’s artist lineup, posted last November, is archived in the Bluegrass & Beyond section of AcousticMusicScene.com.
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