Nashville, February 15, 2007: ASCAP Senior Vice President‚ Connie Bradley, announced plans for the ASCAP Foundation's twenty-sixth Country Music Songwriters Workshop. The workshop is part of an on-going series of workshops sponsored by the ASCAP Foundation. The ASCAP Nashville workshop will run for six consecutive weeks, beginning in late spring. The workshop is free of charge and is limited to 20 - 30 participants. Deadline for submissions is Friday, March 2, 2007.
The ASCAP Foundation Country Songwriters Workshop focuses on the development and education of promising new Country songwriters. Each session will feature prominent music industry guest speakers giving advice on the art and craft of successful songwriting techniques as well as business related topics including A&R, music publishing and legal issues. Past workshop hosts have included hit writers such as Walt Aldridge ("There's No Getting Over Me", "Modern Day Bonnie & Clyde"), Bonnie Baker ("This Woman Needs", "Ordinary Life"), Rivers Rutherford ("Real Good Man", "If You Ever Stop Loving Me"), and Steven Dale Jones ("He Gets That From Me", "One More Day").
ASCAP songwriter Rory Lee Feek will serve as moderator of this year's workshop. Feek was born in Kansas and grew up around country music and cornfields. After high school and two tours in the Marine Corps, Rory moved to the Dallas/Fort Worth area where he worked playing in clubs at night, and wrote songs during the day. In 1995, he showed up in Nashville in a '56 Chevy and began hitting the streets with his songs. After a chance meeting with legendary songwriter Harlan Howard, he became Harlan's lone staff-writer for the next five years.
A compelling storyteller that weaves unforgettable slices of American life, he has written songs that have been recorded by such artists as Kenny Chesney, Randy Travis, Terri Clark, Mark Wills, Reba McEntire, Waylon Jennings, Lorrie Morgan, Buck Owens, John Michael Montgomery and Charlie Pride and has earn three No. 1 singles (Blake Shelton's "Some Beach," Clay Walker's "The Chain of Love" and Collin Raye's "Someone You Used To Know") as well as Blaine Larsen's heart-wrenching 2005 Top 15 single, "How Do You Get That Lonely."
Feek found, co-funded, and co-produced Blaine Larsen's debut album with Tim Johnson, independently creating and releasing a single, video and album that received major airplay and resulted in a major label co-imprint deal with RCA Records -- an unheard of accomplishment on Music Row at the time. He is half-owner of independent label Giantslayer Records. In 2005, Rory and four partners founded storybehindthesong.net, an interactive website providing the stories behind the biggest hits in country music. He also co-wrote the story "The Chain of Love" that was published in the wildly popular Chicken Soup book series in the CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE COUNTRY SOUL volume.
ASCAP is currently accepting song submissions for the workshop. Each applicant must send a CD of two original songs, typed lyric sheets, along with a brief resume or bio that includes their name, address, e-mail address and daytime phone number. Submissions should be mailed to: The ASCAP Foundation Country Workshop, 2 Music Square West, Nashville, TN 37203, ATTENTON: Chad Green.
Deadline for submissions is Friday, March 2, 2007. (
Material will NOT be returned.) Dates of workshop will be released only to selected participants upon notification of admission. Those who are not selected will be notified via written notice. For further information on the Songwriters Workshop, please call Chad Green at (615) 742-5000 or log onto
www.ascap.com/calendar.
The ASCAP Foundation is dedicated to supporting American music creators and encouraging the development of American music through educational programs. Included in these are songwriting workshops, grants, scholarships, music education programs, and public service projects for senior composers and lyricists. The programs of The ASCAP Foundations are supported by contributions from ASCAP members and music lovers throughout the United States.
www.ascapfoundation.org
