This is a mini version of our symposium. We have a great line up for you this Sat, Feb 21.  The instructors involved in the workshop this weekend have a vast and varied knowledge of all aspects of the music business. The classes will have a general topic, but it has been our experience that the information given out in any given class far exceeds a single topic.  One of the main assets of this organization is providing you access to these music professionals and their years and years of first hand experience in the industry. Where else can you go on a Saturday to avail yourself to this kind of expertise? With this in mind, here is our line up of instructors for this workshop.

      Bill Carter  and Ruth Ellsworth Carter   songwriting/publishing

      Bill and Ruth are two of Austin's most prolific songwriters. They also own and operate their own publishing company, Blame Music. 

   

      Bobby Arnold   and  Marvin Dykhuis    pre-production/recording/engineering

 This class is designed to take the mystery and guess work out of the recording process.  You will learn how to prepare your songs for recording prior to going into a studio.  You will learn the different levels of recording from basic demo with a single vocal and single instrument, to a full blown production with multiple players and what costs to  expect and budget for each level.

      

      Will Callery      songwriting

       Will has been a successful songwriter since the 70's.  Nora Jones just cut his song "Hands on the Wheel" which was first cut on Willie Nelson's "Red Headed Stranger" album. After the workshop   Will will be performing at the Platinum Series Songwriters show Saturday night at the Saxon. He is a world of knowledge.

The day begins at 10:00 AM and will end at 3:00 PM in time for everyone to get to the Saxon for the 6 o'clock show. The cost is 45 dollars to members and 95 to non members but it includes your membership. As of April 1st 2009 the cost of membership per year will be $100.00. No fooling. That is still less than ten dollars a month..Now is the time to join! We have lots planned for you this year. In the short term we have Austin Cunningham, Jim Photoglo and Gary Nicholson coming. It is going to be a great year! write on.

 

 

Beginning at 1 PM on Saturday afternoon there will be a workshop with some very special songwriters.  Kimmie Rhodes, Jim Photoglo, and Monte Warden will be here for you!

Kimmie will be leaving the next day for her tour in Europe. She is a very accomplished writer and has the sweetest voice. She has written with and for some of the greatest writers. When Willie and Waylon (two great writers) choose to write and record yours songs it is a hugh deal. It is one thing to say they thought she had good songs, another to write and record with her. Check her out at www.KimmieRhodes.com 

Jim Photoglo is one of my favorites. He has been coming to work with the group for the last five years and I know he is one of your favorites too, because you are always asking me to have him back. He's back.  : )

Jim is a singers singer. Great vocals. Coolest songs. One of Jim's songs, Fishing in the Dark is one of the top 200 songs played on the radio for the last thirty years. He has played with some of the greats and has had his songs used in movies, tv shows, plays, and everything imaginable. 

Check him out at www.JimPhotoglo.com     

Monte Warden, who wrote desperately for George Strait, will round out our list of great songwriters for the day.  myspace.com/montewarden  Monte is also the host of the Platinum Songwriters Series at the Saxon once a month.

We will also have a special little guest as a treat for you. 

Please come and support this event. WE ARE AT 3105 MANCHACA, 78704

 

 This will be a mini workshop and short performance with Stephen Doster and Gary Nicholson.

The cost of the workshop is 25 dollars. Some of the topics covered in this month's workshop will be preproduction, production, the difference in studios and their recording equipment, songwriting, cowriting, writing exercises and more.  We will have a surprise platinum writer as our guest. 

 

These workshops are at our office at 3105 Manchaca. It is at the SE corner of Manchaca and Glen Allen. You can park on Glen Allen with no problems. Come a little early and meet some of the other writers if you have the time. You never know who might show up and you know YOU HAVE TO BE PRESENT TO WIN.   

 

See you there.

 

 

 This Saturday at 3105 Manchaca Road starting at 4:30 in the afternoon we are having a series of workshops and a concert!!!

 

Kevin Welch will be joining us for the first time. This is a very, very special treat for us. We have been sending out wishes to have him here to work with our group for the longest time. 

Please go to his website and check him out if you are not familiar with his music. KevinWelch.com and myspace.com/kevinwelch1   He is a great writer and awesome performer.

 

Joining Kevin by popular demand of the members are Bob Cheevers, Roger Allen and Cash Edwards.

 

BobCheevers.com    Bob is going to talk about his tour in Europe that is coming shortly. Come and pick his brain about how to connect and what to expect when you get there.

 

CashEdwards.com    Cash has a business that covers all types of music services. She has works with some of the best in the business. Check her website out and then come and ask all the questions you have been thinking about asking about how to make and sustain a visual presence in this business. 

 

Roger Allen  has worked in radio in Austin for the last 30+ years. He hosts the very popular Lone Star State of Mind on Friday nights at KGSR radio station. 

 

This workshop and concert costs $30.00. Unbelievable.....I know. 

If you would like to come to just the concert the cost is $20. ...if there are any places left. We have limited seating and those attending the workshop will have first choice of attending the concert.

 

CONCERT  

Bob Cheevers will open at 7:30 and Kevin Welch will play at 8. We are hoping to be in our beautiful back yard if the weather is good. Bring your guitars so we can do a song circle after the concert. 

 

This is a day of giving from these artists and music professionals. They are doing this to support the members and the programs that we are providing here at the Austin Songwriters Group. They are giving us the most valuable thing they have....TIME.  Would you please support this event and show them that we appreciate their time and energy and love for this group. 

 

If you can't make this event please consider a donation to our group so that we can continue to support artists in our community. There is a donation button on our front page.

 Workshop with Nashville publisher Bobby Rymer. Bring one song on a CD and put it in the group that he will be drawing songs out of to critique during his seminar. Attending this seminar will allow you the opportunity to purchase one on one sessions with Bobby Rymer while he is here. You will need to call 698 4237 to schedule your one on one session. They are on a first come first serve basis. Don't miss this opportunity to meet Bobby Rymer and get some feed back on your writing.

 Tutors are now available to help you in a one on one situation. If you would like to have someone critique your songs, help you finish a song you are stuck on, listen and help with production ideas after you finish a song, or just want a chance to work with a professional then this is for you. The cost is only 80 dollars per hour. Email leeduffy@austinsongwritersgroup.com and schedule your first class now.

 

 

 

 THIS IS A PERFORMING SONGWRITERS CONTEST TO PLAY THE BLUEBIRD CAFE IN NASHVILLE TENN.

 

Send in 4 songs that are bare bones ( one vocal, one instrument)

Put contact info on the CD (Name , song titles, time for each song, email address, and phone number)

Mail it to Austin Songwriters Group, 3105 Manchaca, Austin, Texas 78704

The cost is 50.

Judges chosen from our music community will include hit writers, producers, publishers, publicists, media personalities, etc.

The audience will also have a vote!! Plan on bringing your friends and neighbors out to support you!

 

Entry will be until March 8. 2010. The date for the Bluebird is April 13, 2010. 

 

 

you can sign up on this website!!

the cost is only $50

 

 

for more information on this event please go to the event page or email leeduffy@austinsongwritersgroup.com 

 Lynn Gann is a Nashville native, born in the shadow of Music Row.  As a child, he was exposed to country music through his father’s record collection (Haggard, Dolly, Jimmy Rogers) and through any musical programming that could be found on network TV (“Hee Haw”, “The Glen Campbell Show”, “The Johnny Cash Show”, “American Bandstand”, “Midnight Special”).  At the age of 13, Gann began playing guitar and at 15 joined his first band, on bass guitar.  During his high school years, he continued live band performance, and added disc jockey work on local AM-1,000 watt WEEN (Lafayette, TN).  After high school, Gann enrolled at Middle Tennessee State University, receiving his B.S. in Recording Industry Management.

 

 

 

 

 

Guitar for songwriters:  Approaches for developing guitar arrangements that help communicate a song more forcefully. I was a good guitarist when I played to support other people but I was frustrated with my limitations when I began to play my own material as a solo act. Over time, I developed ways to flesh out guitar arrangements so they carry the song.

 

 David Halley was born in Oklahoma City and grew up in Lubbock, Texas. He had early encouragement of his natural love of music from his mother, who had a baby-grand in the living room and had played since she was a little girl.

He left Lubbock the first time in his early twenties but for one reason or another, kept returning periodically, always with the intention of leaving again. When he returned the first time, in 1973, after stays in Dallas and Amherst, Mass., he met members of the Flatlanders and other Lubbock artists and musicians with whom he had no previous encounters.

Beginning in this time he became exposed to country music that he had mainly avoided until then, his early influences having been AM pop radio and his parents collection of Broadway musicals. It was under the influence of the already accomplished songwriters in the Flatlanders and their deep knowledge and love of country music styles that he seriously began to try to write songs.

The effort took some time to bear fruit. In the summer of 1975 while visiting Del Rio from Denver, where he had moved, he wrote Rain Just Falls, which was the first song that would prove to be a keeper. It has since been recorded by Jerry Jeff Walker and Jimmie Dale Gilmore and others. A few months later he came up with Hard Livin which was eventually recorded by Joe Ely, Jerry Jeff Walker, The Nighthawks, Keith Whitley and others. Keith Whitley version peaked at number ten on the country music charts of the day and provided enough money for Halley to finally make a record of his own, Stray Dog Talk, produced by friend J. D. Foster, which received a great deal of critical acclaim and was released first in Europe on Elvis Costello's Demon Records and later in the U. S. on Antone's spin-off, Dos Records. His second record, released in 93 was Broken Spell produced by Mark Hallman. Around that time Halley signed a publishing deal with Polygram Music Publishing which was later merged with Universal Music Publishing.

Halley was instrumental in the emergence of his friend, Jo Carol Pierce's very successful musical play, Bad Girls Upset By the Truth and appeared in many of its performances around the country.Halley has been featured on Austin City Limits, Mountain Stage, e-town, In Their Own Words (a nationwide songwriter's tour with Marshall Crenshaw, James McMurtry, Jules Shear, and Don Dixon, produced by New York's Bottomline) and many other prestigious venues.