The nominations for the 2010 Songwriters Hall of Fame (SongHall) induction ceremony have been announced, with ballots in the mail to the SongHall voting membership.

Songwriter nominees are in two categories—Non-Performing and Performing.

The nominees in the Non-Performing Songwriter category–with two representative song credits—are:

• Tommy Boyce & Bobby Hart–The Monkees’ hits “Last Train To Clarksville” and “Valleri”
• Jackie DeShannon–“Put A Little Love In Your Heart” and Kim Carnes’ “Bette Davis Eyes”
• Luther Dixon–The Crests’ “Sixteen Candles” and The Shirelles’ “Soldier Boy”
• David Foster–Chicago’s "Hard to Say I’m Sorry" and Peter Cetera’s "The Glory of Love"
• Mark James–Elvis Presley’s “Suspicious Minds” and B.J. Thomas’s “Hooked On A Feeling”
• Robert John “Mutt” Lange–Def Leppard’s “Photograph” and Bryan Adams’ “(Everything I Do) I Do It For You”
• Johnny Mandel–“Suicide Is Painless (Theme from M*A*S*H*)” and Tony Bennett’s “The Shadow Of Your Smile”
• Jerry Ragovy & Bert Berns–Janis Joplin’s “Piece Of My Heart” and Miriam Makeba’s “Pata Pata”
• Harvey Schmidt & Tom Jones–Ed Ames’ “My Cup Runneth Over” and “Try To Remember” from The Fantasticks
• Billy Sherrill–Tammy Wynette’s “Stand By Your Man” and David Houston’s “Almost Persuaded”
• Joe South–“Games People Play” and Lynn Anderson’s “ I Never Promised You A Rose Garden”
• Paul Vance & Lee Pockriss–Perry Como’s “Catch A Falling Star” and Brian Hyland’s “Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini."

Nominees in the Performing Songwriter category are:

• Bono (Paul Hewson)/The Edge (David Evans)/Adam Clayton/Larry Mullen (U2)–“Beautiful Day” and “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For”
• Garth Brooks–“If Tomorrow Never Comes” and “The Thunder Rolls”
• Leonard Cohen–“Bird On A Wire” and “Suzanne”
• Elvis Costello–“Alison” and “Pump It Up”
• Dion DiMucci–“Donna The Prima Donna” and “Runaround Sue”
• David Gates (Bread)–“Baby I’m-a Want You” and “Everything I Own”
• Yusuf Islam (formerly Cat Stevens)–“Moonshadow” and “Peace Train”
• Tommy James–“Crimson And Clover” and “Mony, Mony”
• John Mellencamp–“Jack And Diane” and “Pink Houses”
• Lou Reed–“Sweet Jane” and “Walk On The Wild Side”
• Leon Russell–“Superstar” and “Tight Rope”
• Maurice White/Philip Bailey/Verdine White/Larry Dunn/Al McKay (Earth, Wind and Fire)–“September” and “Shining Star."

SongHall voting members will now select three nominees from the Non-Performing category, and two from the Performing category. Ballots are due back by Dec. 11, with the new slate of inductees to be announced next year.

Last year’s songwriter inductees were Eddie Brigati, Gerome Ragni, Stephen Schwartz, James Rado, Galt Mac Dermot, Graham Nash, Stephen Stills, David Crosby, Roger Greenaway, Roger Cook, Felix Cavaliere, Richie Sambora and Jon Bon Jovi.

Founded in 1969 by songwriter Johnny Mercer and publishers Abe Olman and Howie Richmond, The Songwriters Hall of Fame celebrates songwriters, educates the public with regard to their achievements, and produces professional programs devoted to the development of new songwriting talent through workshops, showcases and scholarships.

Inductees have included such Tin Pan Alley era legends as Mercer and Irving Berlin, rock icons like Bob Dylan and John Fogerty, rhythm-and-blues greats such as James Brown and Curtis Mayfield, country stars including Kris Kristofferson and Dolly Parton, and contemporary pop tunesmiths like Jimmy Webb and Hal David and Burt Bacharach.

David also serves as the SongHall’s Chairman/CEO.

Each year, a Nominating Committee selects candidates for induction into the Songwriters’ Hall of Fame. Only writers who have actually been engaged in the profession for a minimum of 20 years–and who have written an extensive catalogue of hits–are eligible.

May the Muse remain with all these worthy nominees…

The Songwriters Association of Canada and Astral Media Inc. recently announced the launch of a brand new Web portal for songwriters and composers across Canada.

The portal will revolutionize the music industry. It enables songwriters across the country to share their compositions, receive advice from industry professionals and offer their creations for sale to music buyers for television, film and other media. The new portal will also make it possible to replace the traditional practice of mailing CD demos to songwriters, musicians, agents and distributors.

Songwriters Eddie Schwartz, Jim Vallance, Greg Johnston and Marc Jordan, known for their songs performed by artists such as Pat Benatar, Diana Ross, Hilary Duff, Backstreet Boys, Bryan Adams and Olivia Newton John, are just some of the prominent industry members who will provide free, personalized feedback to songwriters who upload their songs to the platform.

"The launch of this new portal is in keeping with Astral Media’s creative and innovative spirit. Thanks to our work over the past few years with the Songwriters Association of Canada, we can have an immediate and significant impact on the careers of thousands of songwriters, aspiring and emerging artists and music program students across the country," said Jacques Parisien, Group President, Astral Media Radio and Astral Media Outdoor.

"When aiming to have a significant and immediate impact on emerging talent, aspiring and established artists, you must start at the bottom of the Canadian radio industry’s food chain. That is, to start with the songwriters. The Songwriters Association of Canada and Astral Media both know that it all starts with a song. Thanks to this partnership with Astral Media, a songwriter from any region of the country will have access to the industry’s senior decision makers as well as the advice of Canada’s most prolific songwriters," added Don Quarles, Executive Director of the Songwriters Association of Canada.

To learn more about the new portal and how it works, visit www.songpitch.ca.

The Songwriters Association of Canada is dedicated to the advocacy and education of Canadian songwriters and devoted to developing and nurturing songwriting communities across the country. Astral Media is one of Canada’s leading media companies, active in specialty and pay television, radio, outdoor advertising and interactive media.

When it’s live and I try it… I’ll let you know how the Muse works within this site, but I am looking forward to it… may the Muse be with you.

Technorati : Songwriting, Songwriting Awards

The Americana Music Association awarded John Fogerty with a well-deserved Lifetime Achievement Award for Songwriting last week. As the 2009 honoree, Fogerty joins an elite list of previous recipients which includes John Hiatt, Willie Nelson, Rodney Crowell, Guy Clark, Cowboy Jack Clement, John Prine and Billy Joe Shaver.

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…

Technorati : Songwriters, Songwriting, Songwriting Awards

From the CMW news release:

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 10^th – 14^th 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.

Technorati : Songwriters, Songwriting

Click on the pic to open the player and here all the 2009 Polaris Music Nominees…

Technorati : Songwriting, Songwriting Awards

CBC Radio 3 (webradio) today announced that it would broadcast live the 2009 Polaris Music Prize Gala at 9:00 pm ET tonight (September 21, 2009). If you have Sirius Canada Satellite radio, you can catch the program on CBC Radio 3 channel 86.

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…

Technorati : Songwriting, Songwriting Awards

Jerry Leiber (lyrics) and Mike Stoller (music) have written so many standards that one simply cannot choose a favourite… So I won’t even try…

I will reproduce for you some thoughts on songwriting and their musical legacy that the pair shared with the San Francisco Chronicle in a recent article here:

“With all the great pop songs, nothing can be added or subtracted on either an emotional or musical level,” [Leiber] says. “They’re absolutes. The most automatic efforts come from a spring that has the earmarks of time and meaning to them. If you can translate those into a tune and marry that to something that can be easily deduced, you have a chance for a standard.

“Of course, we thought all the standards had been written already,” he adds. “How could there be more standards when you had Cole Porter, George Gershwin, Irving Berlin?”

He closes his eyes and hums to himself, fixing the tune in his head, and softly starts to sing.

“The old wolf sniffs the summer breeze and dreams about his youth,” he whispers, the opening lines to Leiber and Stoller’s “The Girls I Never Kissed,” a song recorded by Frank Sinatra.

Leiber went to see Sinatra sing the song at Carnegie Hall, a richly rewarding moment for the songwriter. Sinatra introduced the song. “This was written by a couple of kids who write nothing but that rock ‘n’ roll crap,” he said.

It’s not something Leiber hasn’t heard before. After he wrote “Is That All There Is?” Johnny Mercer invited Leiber to sit beside him at the head of the table at the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame dinner. “You know why you’re here?” he asked Leiber. “Because you finally wrote a good song.”

Good song? I wish I had written some of the “bad” Leiber & Stoller songs (”Jailhouse Rock” or “Hound Dog” or “Fools Fall in Love”)… May the Muse be with you.

Technorati : Songwriters, Songwriting

The Songwriters Hall of Fame (SongHall) has announced a partnership with Hal Leonard Publishing, a world leader in the music print industry. The partnership with the legendary music publisher includes the creation of a series of branded songbooks for the Hall of Fame, and and innovative link between the Hall of Fame’s digital Virtual Museum and Hal Leonard’s vast library of song sheets and folios.

“We are excited about this new partnership,” said Hal David, “because it permits us to extend our mission of honoring the world’s great songwriters, by offering sheet music, both in print and online, to the public. The partnership also will result in direct financial support for the Hall of Fame by Hal Leonard, permitting us to continue our many educational activities.”

Hal Leonard has created the first in a forthcoming series of Songwriters Hall of Fame songbooks highlighting the songwriting gems of 38 inductees from 2003 – 2009, including Jon Bon Jovi & Richie Sambora (”You Give Love A Bad Name”); Desmond Child (”Livin’ On A Prayer”); Loretta Lynn (”Coal Miner’s Daughter”); David Bowie (”Fame”); Queen (”We Are The Champions”); Van Morrison (”Brown Eyed Girl”) and many more. This premier Songwriters Hall of Fame Songbook features bios and photos of each artist, along with an introduction by SongHall Chairman/CEO Hal David, and is being sold at music and bookstores nationwide.

Hal Leonard’s SheetMusicDirect.com has now been made available as a SongHall online affiliate. Options to download sheet music from Hal Leonard’s SMD are available on hundreds of inductee web pages within the Virtual Museum. This new feature enables links to hundreds of thousands of pages of digital sheet music and song folios by everyone from Johnny Mercer, Sammy Cahn, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein to Eric Clapton, Phil Collins, Hal David and Burt Bacharach. The Hal Leonard SMD program is easily accessible and user-friendly, loads quickly, and takes customer service to a new level, customize viewing experiences with a variety of options on every page.

About Hal Leonard Corporation
Founded in 1947, Hal Leonard Corporation is the world’s largest music print publisher, producing songbooks, sheet music, educational publications, reference books, DVDs, CD-ROMs, children’s music products and more. In its more than 120,000 available publications, the company represents in print some of the world’s best known and most respected publishers, artists, songwriters and arrangers. The Hal Leonard Corporation has been a formidable presence on the Web since 1997, the year it launched SheetMusicDirect.com (SMD), a worldwide website for downloading legal and accurate sheet music. For more than a decade, SMD has been and remains a leading online destination for musicians seeking printed music.

About The Songwriters Hall of Fame:
The Songwriters Hall of Fame celebrates songwriters, educates the public with regard to their achievements, and produces a spectrum of professional programs devoted to the development of new songwriting talent through workshops, showcases and scholarships. Over the course of the past 40 years, some key Songwriters Hall of Fame inductees have included Desmond Child, Dolly Parton, John Fogerty, Isaac Hayes and David Porter, Steve Cropper, Richard and Robert Sherman, Bill Withers, Carole King, Paul Simon, Bob Dylan, Billy Joel, Sir Elton John, Bernie Taupin, Brian Wilson, James Taylor, James Brown, Curtis Mayfield, Hal David and Burt Bacharach, Jim Croce, Phil Collins, Alan and Marilyn Bergman, Jimmy Webb, Van Morrison and Cy Coleman among many, many others. The Songwriters Hall of Fame was founded in 1969 by songwriter Johnny Mercer and publishers Abe Olman and Howie Richmond.

Full biographies and a complete list of inductees are available at the Songwriters Hall of Fame’s Virtual Museum at http://www.songhall.org/.

Technorati : Songbooks, Songwriters, Songwriting, Songwriting Associations

Hey, he’s one of my all-time favourites… I think of Billy Joel as a tunesmith… He can write wonderful melodies with fantastic hooks and that’s why he’s written the “hits” but also the wonderful gems that aren’t hits and that listeners feel they aren’t sharing with the whole world and that only they know about them (Where’s The Orchestra? or And So It Goes spring to mind as a couple of my favourites in that category). Anywho, here’s an article from the Chicago Sun-Times that captures Billy Joel on songwriting:

Those who know Billy Joel say he’s in a good place now, although that may not always have been the case.

“It’s a different Billy I’m seeing on this tour, a very happy and contented one,” says Elton John, whose Face 2 Face tour with Joel comes to Wrigley Field for shows tonight and Tuesday. “He’s always been funny, always been razor-sharp, but this is a very happy and contented Billy, and I’m very happy that he’s found that space to be in.”

John is a longtime admirer of Joel’s compositions, especially “Just the Way You Are.”

“It’s a standard people will be singing long after Billy and I are dead and buried,” John says. “He’s a proper songwriter in the old tradition of songwriting. And he writes about issues that are very close to his heart, like ‘Allentown,’ and that’s why I really admire him. If he believes in something, he’ll write about it.”

Joel grew up in New York’s Long Island suburbs and turned 60 in May.

Q.When did you start writing songs?

A. I was writing songs since I was a little kid. They were kind of like ersatz Beatles tunes, kind of Merseybeat British pop tunes. Then when I was in [the band] the Hassles I was writing stuff that was more R&B-influenced, more like soul music, like Sam & Dave songs, stuff like what the Rascals were doing, that was a big influence on me. I wrote all the stuff for Attila [a short-lived duo], then I got the rock ‘n’ roll star stuff out of me. I just wanted to be a songwriter and have other people do my stuff. But the advice I got from the music industry was, “Make your own album.” This is the beginning of the era of the singer-songwriter.

Q.It’s been a while since you went into the studio. Are you writing or planning on recording?

A. Well, I never stopped writing music. I’m just writing a different kind of music now. I’m writing instrumental music and thematic music. To what end, I really don’t know. It may end up being a movie score, some of it could be symphonic, it could end up being songs. I’m writing themes. I’m just not writing songs like I used to.

Q.When you wrote songs, did you write the music first?

A. Always. I think the one time I didn’t write the music first was “We Didn’t Start the Fire” and I think it shows, because it’s terrible musically. It’s like a mosquito buzzing around your head.

Q.What do you take the most pride in: singer, songwriter, performer, musician?

A. The hardest part of the job is to write. That’s what it all comes down to as far as taking the most pride in, the composing of the music. And then the next thing would be as a piano player. I think being a good musician is very important. As a singer, I’ve never thought much of my own voice.

And as a performer I take a great amount of professional pride in delivering a good performance. I still can’t believe I’m 60 years old this year and I’m still able to do this crazy-ass job. I thought there was a mandatory retirement: When you’re 40, get out.

Q.Dating to the ’70s, you always ended shows saying, “Don’t take any s—from anybody.” What does that say about you?

A. I don’t know, maybe I got a chip on my shoulder or something. That may be a Long Island thing, too, because people in the city always tend to look down on Long Island. We’re the country bumpkins. So you sort of have a defensive attitude. And sometimes that’s OK, it’s a motivator. It kind of keeps you going, keeps you edgy. “Don’t take any s— from anybody.” I still believe that.

Q.Do you see a time when you’ll quit?

A. I don’t think there will ever be a time when I stop being a musician. Possibly not being a performer, possibly not recording anymore, but I will always be a musician.

May the Muse be with you Billy… thanks for all the great tunes and more to come…

Technorati : Songwriters, Sonwriting