There is still time to vote for one of the five Canadian songwriters nominated for SOCAN's fourth annual ECHO Songwriting Prize. ECHO celebrates the songwriting talents of some of the best independent and innovative songwriters in Canada.
The five nominated songs, as selected by an independent panel of music community tastemakers, are:
o "Lay Down In the Grass" written by Taylor Kirk, performed by Timber Timbre
o "Love Can Be So Mean" written by Sebastien Grainger, performed by Sebastien Grainger and the Mountains
o "Nobody With a Notepad" written by Derek Christoff and Robert Bakker, performed by D-Sisive
o "Some Are Lakes" written by Elizabeth Powell, performed by Land of Talk
o "Through and Through and Through" written and performed by Joel Plaskett
The writer(s) of the song that receives the most votes will receive a $5,000 CDN cash prize. SOCAN invites the public to cast votes for their favourite song at http://www.echoprize.ca. The contest runs until 4:59 p.m. EST, September 29, 2009.
The Prix de la chanson ECHO, celebrating the songwriting talents of some of the best independent Francophone songwriters in Canada, is running concurrently.
Visit http://www.prixecho.ca for more details.
Monday, September 28, 2009
Echo Prize 2009 - More Canadian Songwriting Awards
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
John Fogerty Honoured With Lifetime Achievement Award for Songwriting
Throughout his prolific career, John Fogerty has celebrated and shaped American roots music.
He is a quintuple threat: songwriter, singer, lead guitarist, arranger, and producer. A roots classicist in love with Memphis-style rockabilly, New Orleans-drenched rhythm-and-blues, and classic country styles, Fogerty was ahead of his time in forging a hybrid of these genres before it was common or stylish to do so. He was more than prescient: As Springsteen said upon Creedence Clearwater Revival's induction into Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, "Creedence wasn't the hippest band in the world, but they were the best." Also a member of the Songwriters Hall of Fame and Grammy Award-winner, Fogerty began his work four decades ago, and thankfully, he never finished.
While his 60s contemporaries stretched into lavish musical experimentation, Fogerty wrote songs with defiant concision. Rarely has one songwriter been able to write about fun times and ominous times with equal power and clarity. Such self-confidence and panoramic awareness resulted in music that is timeless: "Proud Mary," "Fortunate Son," "Bad Moon Rising," "Who'll Stop the Rain," "Green River," "Travelin' Band," "Lodi," "Run Through the Jungle," "Centerfield," "Looking Out My Back Door" and "Have You Ever Seen the Rain" shift between head-banging escapism, subtly poetic self-reflection, and trenchant political analysis, all while remaining essentially and unrepentantly American.
But it's also universal... and for that the Muse will continue to be with Mr. Fogerty...
Paul Williams Announced as Keynote Speaker for CMW 2010
Canadian Music Week announces Songwriter/Performer/Actor, Paul Williams, as a 2010 Keynote Speaker. Presented by the Songwriters Association of Canada (SAC), he will be speaking on Saturday, March 13 as well as performing on the "Kings of Songwriting" panel as part of the Songwriters' Summit. The conference runs from March 10th - 14th at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel in the heart of downtown Toronto.
Paul Williams is an Oscar, Grammy and Golden Globe winning Hall of Fame songwriter. He has composed such timeless musical standards that have been recorded by diverse musical icons as Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Willie Nelson, Ella Fitzgerald, David Bowie, Ray Charles, R.E.M., Tony Bennett, Sarah Vaughn, Johnny Mathis, Luther Vandross and Kermit the Frog. He is a recipient of The National Music Publishers President's Award and is President and Chairman of the Board of ASCAP (the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers).
Publicly lauded for his work as a singer/songwriter, he has created classics such as "We've Only Just Begun," "Rainy Days and Mondays," "You and Me Against the World" and "An Old Fashioned Love Song". He has scored the films Bugsy Malone and Phantom of the Paradise and his songs "The Rainbow Connection" (The Muppet Movie) and "Evergreen" (A Star is Born) grace the American Film Institute's list of the top 100 movie songs of all times.
Williams predicts he will be best known for his lyrics to "The Love Boat" and his appearances as 'Little Enos' in the Smokey and the Bandit trilogy, however he has made numerous appearances in movies and television throughout his career. His recent work in theatre and television includes creating the story and writing the songs for Disney's A Muppets Christmas: Letters To Santa for which he received an Emmy nomination, Garry Marshall's touring sensation of Happy Days, and a stage version of Jim Henson's Emmet Otter's Jugband Christmas.
Incredible talents such as Paul Williams inspire Canadian Music Week to explore the world of songwriting with a daylong summit…
The Canadian Music Week Songwriters Summit is a series of workshops specifically designed for songwriters with participation from esteemed industry professionals. Occurring on Saturday, March 13, 2009, attendees can experience session topics that include 'Kings of Songwriting', 'Xtreme Performance Makeover', 'Can Artists Afford to Give Away Their Music for Free', 'The Screen As Jukebox: Song Placement for Film and TV' and many more. To attend the Songwriters Summit, one-day event tickets are available for $150.00 and can be purchased by visiting www.cmw.net or by calling 905-858-4747.
Canadian Music Week is Canada's leading annual entertainment event dedicated to the expression and growth of the country's music, media and entertainment industries. Combining four information-intensive conferences; a trade exposition; a film festival; four awards shows and the nation's largest New Music Festival - Canadian Music Fest - CMW spans a five-day period from March 10 to March 14, 2010 at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel and various downtown Toronto venues, attracting participants from across the globe. For more information, visit www.cmw.net.
And The 2009 Polaris Music Prize Winner Is...
Click on the pic to open the player and here all the 2009 Polaris Music Nominees...
Monday, September 21, 2009
Polaris Music Awards live on CBC Radio 3
The prize, which is modeled after the UK's Mercury Music Prize, is a Canadian music award annually given to the best full-length Canadian album based on artistic merit, regardless of genre, sales, or record label.
The award, picked by a jury of Canadian music industry insiders, was established in 2006 by Sirius and includes a C$20,000 cash prize. The winner will be announced during the broadcast.
This years event will be hosted by CBC Radio 3 Host Grant Lawrence and will feature live performances from all ten short-list nominees Great Lake Swimmers, Hey Rosetta!, K'NAAN, Malajube, Metric, and Joel Plaskett.
Last years winner was Caribou for Andorra.
This years nominees include:
* Metric - Fantasies
* Elliot BROOD - Mountain Meadows
* Fucked Up - The Chemistry of Common Life
* Hey Rosetta! - Into your Lungs
* Malajube - Labyrinthes
* Joel Plaskett- Three
* Patrick Watson - Wooden Arms
* K-NAAN - Troubadour
* Great Lake Swimmers - Lost Channels
* Chad VanGaalen - Soft Airplane
Listen to them here... (choose the flash player in the right hand margin) and may the Muse stay with all the nominees...
