Ann Arbor, MI (MICHIGAN SONGWRITERS, LLC) - Although they competed against songwriters from Minnesota to New York and Ontario, Michigan's songwriters have swept over half of the awards in the 2006 Great Lakes Songwriting Contest.
Jen Cass of Bay City has been awarded the Grand Prize for 'Small Town Boy.' Ann Arborite Whit Hill won first place for 'Farsighted' and second place for 'Sandusky.' Lansing singer-songwriter Rachanee also won second place for 'From Here.' Three Michigan songwriters shared third place: Rober MacNaughton of Ada for 'Cherry Creek,' Patrick Power of East Lansing for 'The Heart of Mary Lou,' and Rachele Eve of Plymouth for song 'Lady in Black.'
The annual Great Lakes Songwriting Contest is limited to residents of the eight states bordering the Great Lakes, plus the Province of Ontario, Canada. The 2007 contest opened for entries on Sept. 1, with a deadline of April 14, 2007.
Cass's winning song, 'Small Town Boy,' chronicles her grandparents' exodus from rural America to the industrial Midwest in the early 1900s. The song is a tribute, she says, 'to anyone who's ever survived hard times by leaning hard on good love.'
Cass grew up near Detroit and now lives in Bay City. She has been a winner in numerous music contests (including the Metro Detroit Songwriting Contest and the John Lennon Songwriting Contest), and has performed her songs in major venues across the US. Her winning song comes from her third and most recent album, 'Accidental Pilgrimage,' which was produced by hit producer John Jennings and features some of the top session musicians in the country. Five of Cass's songs also received honorable mentions in this year's contest.
Whit Hill's first place song, 'Farsighted,' is the title cut from her most recent CD. Her second place song, 'Sandusky,' is from her acclaimed 2003 release 'We Are Here.' She also received honorable mentions for three songs in this year's contest. Trained as a child actor in New York City, Hill came to Ann Arbor to study dance at U-M. After graduating, she founded the local dance company 'People Dancing' in 1988. In 2001 she formed the band, 'Whit Hill and the Postcards,' which includes her husband, pianist Al Hill. She and her band perform frequently in the Ann Arbor area.
Singer/songwriter Rachanee has been compared to 'Michelle Branch [and] Christian artist Jennifer Knapp, [with] a voice that can sound like Natalie Merchant' ('Noise,' Oct. 2003). She is presently touring the country, performing songs from her debut album 'Ordinary Girl.' Her songs have received airplay on college, AAA, and Christian radio stations nationwide. She co-wrote her winning song with Steve Wilson of Nashville.
MacNaughton won third place with his composition 'Cherry Creek' and was a finalist with 'October Mourning.' He also had three honorable mention songs: 'All in Good Time,' 'Cold-Hearted Orb,' and 'Jack's Lullaby.' All of the winning songs are from his newest CD, 'Cold-Hearted Orb,' which he describes as 14 'stay-up-late, introspective pieces' for solo piano. MacNaughton's career has encompassed music performance, recording, production, directing, arranging and composing, as well as teaching theory and music history at the college level. He is well-known in Grand Rapids for the CD he has written, arranged and produced for the Lena Meijer Children's Garden.
Rachele Eve's winning song deals with a young woman's internal struggles with romantic rivalry, and is from her debut recording, 'Wishful Thinking,' a five-song CD of original acoustic-rock compositions. Now 20 years old, she was still in high school when she joined Avenue, an established Detroit area band. The band went on to appear on the Fox News Morning Show and twice on the nationally syndicated Mitch Albom Radio Show. Rachele Eve now performs solo in clubs and coffeehouses in the Detroit area.
Patrick Power is the Music Coordinator for the annual Great Lakes Folk Festival in East Lansing. His winning song, 'The Heart of Mary Lou,' for his friend Mary Lou Lord after reading her chapter in the book 'Solo: Women Singer-Songwriters in Their Own Words.'
In addition to the top thirteen winners, there were 16 finalists chosen by the judges in the 2006 contest. The following eight are from Michigan:
- John Bentley of Buckley, for 'Dear Mr. President';
- Carl Thomas Gladstone of Birmingham, for 'Somewhere Beneath' and 'For Her Sometimes';
- Roger MacNaughton (see above);
- Mason of Jennison, for 'Money';
- Nora Salyer of Stockbridge, for 'Medal for Mama';
- Luke Sayers of Ferndale, for 'Long Way Back';
- Susan Schnerer of Traverse City, for 'Drivin' Down the Road' and 'Be Still';
- and Eddie Torre of East Lansing, for 'Cut Me Off.'
Michigan songwriters receiving honorable mentions were: Jim Buckley of Clarkston, Jen Cass (see above), Cory Cole of Greenville, Mark Elliott and Karissa Wilson of Grand Rapids, Michael Grady of Westphalia, Whit Hill (see above), John Jeffrey Hodges of Grosse Pointe Park, Michael T. Hover of Rochester, Brainsik of Rochester, Douglas LaFerle of Royal Oak, Roger MacNaughton (see above), Mason (see above), Joe and Lou Rutan of Stockbridge, and Lazlo Slomovits of Ann Arbor.
The winners from outside Michigan represent a cross section of musical styles from around the Great Lakes region, with winners from Minnesota, Illinois, and New York. Profiles about the winners and their songs can be found on the contest website, www.GreatLakesSongs.com. The top six winners of the 2006 contest will be featured in concert on February 17, 2007, at the Trinity House Theatre in Livonia.
The 2007 Great Lakes Songwriting Contest is now open to current residents of the eight Great Lakes states and the Province of Ontario. Thirteen winning songs will be chosen, and the Grand Prize has been increased to $1,500 cash this year, with additional publicity and promotional opportunities. More information is available at www.GreatLakesSongs.com
The contest is open to all ages and all types of music. Songwriters are not forced to pick a particular category for their songs. Each song is judged on its own merits, not by how well it conforms to the conventions of a certain genre of music.
The contest is sponsored by the Songbridge music marketing company based in Ontario, Canada, Elderly Instruments of Lansing, and Lamb's Retreat for Songwriters of Royal Oak. More information on the contest is available at www.GreatLakesSongs.com.
The four judges for the 2006 contest were: Philadelphia's Freebo, the singer-songwriter and long-time bass player for Bonnie Raitt; Chicago's Rich Warren, host of the syndicated radio show 'The Midnight Special'; Toronto's Jodi Krangle, proprietress of 'The Muse's Muse' songwriters'website, internet radio show and electronic newsletter; and Central Michigan's Dan Bracken, a songwriter and one of the organizers of the Wheatland Music Festival. The 2007 judges will be announced when the winners are announced, in October 2007.
