We woke up early on Saturday morning, packed the car, and drove up to Harry's Market in Chapel Hill, NC for the NC Alzheimer's Music and Spoken Word Festival. We joined several members of the NC Songwriters Co-op for a day of music, education, and frivolity celebrating the care givers, educators, and family members of those with Alzheimer's. Joe Woodson, a fellow Co-op member did a great job organizing the event. He decided to do this festival in honor of his parents and in honor of those who have died with this tragic disease. There were many educators on hand to speak with folks who attended the festival to explain how to care for someone with Alzheimer's and to give out information on prevention and resource services.

We couldn't believe how cold it was! This time last year, we had another outdoor event and it was sweltering. Good thing we had blankets in the car, because we definitely needed them since it was an outdoor event. There were all kinds of cool things to do at the festival. There was face painting for the kids, a pumpkin patch, all kinds of goodies to look at and buy inside the old time market, food vendors, education booths, and even a clown. 

One of the best things about the festival, besides all of the great music, was the a raffle and a silent auction to benefit the "Frail Elderly Fund" of Orange county. All money collected was donated to the group to use in whatever way they needed,  and all of the musicians donated their time to support this worthy cause. 

We must mention the dedication of our Co-op Coordinator, Dwight Sullivan and his wife Deb. They ran sound for the event, and did a great job. We have some pretty amazing folks at the Co-op. Also, special thanks to Teresa Smith, owner of Harry's who worked so hard to make sure that everything went well for the festival and to Louise Bendall the MC of the event who entertained us all. The following performers made the day a great success, and we hope to hear more good things about this event next year.

1.    Joe Woodson

2.    Jim Haggard

3.    Taylor Slay

4.    Tom Voorheis

6.    David Tew

7.    Dwight Sullivan

8.    The Cloers

9.    Louise Bendall

10.   Jamie Kay

11.   Chuck Champion

12.   Peter Laiosa

13.   Frank Princiotta

14.   Mary Rocap

On Tuesday, we attended our monthly local chapter meeting of the Nashville Songwriters Association. We always have a great time with the gang, and this time was no exception. One of our members, Alan Barrington, was our guest speaker. He did a presentation on the benefits of using Sonicbids to help promote yourself as an independent artist and songwriter. 

Soncibids is a way for artists to quickly and easily compile all of the information a promoter or press person wants to see (music, bio, photos, calendar, stage requirements, etc...) so they can connect with the many opportunities that Sonicbids offers to their clients. All of this information is known as an EPK, or Electronic Press Kit. After the EPK is built, it is easily able to be sent out electronically to anyone in the Sonicbids network, or anywhere else. 

Just from our own experience, we have seen that many large festivals want you to submit to play by using Sonicbids. Many of these promoters and festival directors are tired of sifting through paperwork and having to keep up with CDs and contact information for sometimes hundreds of artists. Now, all of the artist information they are sent is in a standard format. It is much quicker for them to take a quick read over the artist bio, see where the artist has been playing, read what others are saying about the band, listen to some of their songs, and even print off photos to use in the promotion of the gig. 

Another big use of the EPK is for the college market. NACA (National Association for Campus Activities) and APCA (Association for the Promotion of Campus Activities) usually prefer that all submissions from artists be via Sonicbids. This makes it easier for the college bookers and event promoters to quickly see what the artist is all about, and decide whether they are a good fit for their event needs. 

Sonicbids gives artists an opportunity to get their music in front of many industry experts, and several of the artists that we know have either been booked for a gig because of Sonicbids or have received placements in film and TV because of this service. It is a paid service, so be forewarned. It's important to know which opportunities that they offer that you as an artist are well suited for. To submit your work, it usually costs between $5.00-$30.00 per submission, so it can get expensive quickly. There are no guarantees, but there are opportunities to be had that without this service, would not be possible to smaller, independent folks unless they are well connected in the industry, or are extremely serious about networking. Since we are not an active member of the Sonicbids community yet, it was really great to see Alan log in to his account, and have it displayed on the over head screen. He walked us through each section, and now we are even more sure about becoming a member of Sonicbids.

The fee structure for Soncibids is difficult to find on their website, so we are just going to post it here on our blog. There are two levels of membership, Standard EPK and Supersonic EPK. The Standard Plan is $6.00 per month, or $50.00 per year if paid up front. The Supersonic Plan is $11.00 per month, or $100.00 per year if paid up front. As a Standard Sonicbids member, you are able to upload up to 25 MB of MP3 audio, 10 lyrics sheets, 10 press reviews, all of your Calendar dates, your Biography, Discography and more. As a Supersonic member, your audio space is boosted to 60 MB, and you'll be able to upload up to 30 lyric sheets, 5 more links from your EPK, 5 high-resolution photos, and most importantly, a Video. Also, Supersonic members have the benefit of some more tools such as the PDF Rider upload tool and our Dynamic Stage Plot. All in all, it's a pretty good deal.

On a personal note, it was very disappointing to not be able to present a new song to our group. This was the first meeting that we have attended in over a year where we didn't work on a new song during the month to perform for the group. I was too sick for the past 3 weeks to do much of anything. But, on the bright side, it was really great not to have any pressure on us and we were able to listen to all of the songs our fellow songwriters brought to have critiqued. There were some really great songs this month! We had several visitors at this meeting, and I hope they will all come back to see us.

On Monday night, we attended our first meeting with the Bloggers and Journalists group from Social Media Charlotte. We joined this group about a month ago, and have been really excited to participate in their monthly meetings. The guest speaker this month was Jeff Elder, syndicated columnist and social media expert for the the Charlotte Observer. Jeff spent a year in Silicon Valley studying social networking at Stanford University. During this time, he visited Twitter and Facebook, met with the leaders of both of these companies, toured their campuses, and conducted case studies.

We learned so many things that night from Jeff, but some of the most interesting were that Facebook has over 300 million users worldwide (the most used social network), but that they haven't found a way to make it profitable yet. So many people use their service, but many refuse to use it anymore if there is a charge for it. Right now, their main source of revenue are the "gifts" that they sell to send to other Facebook users. What??? Also, we were intrigued to know more about the "graying" of Facebook. As of last year, there were more folks over the age of 55 becoming users on Facebook than those 18 years old and younger. That was very surprising to us.

Twitter is a totally different story. The service is very well known (branding) but it is completely underused. 75% of Twitter accounts are dead, meaning, there are no "tweets" from the user. 10% of Twitter users account for 90% of the "tweets" that are posted. For some reason, Twitter seems to be used mostly by media savvy people. That may change in the future, but for now, this is what is happening. We also discussed social media etiquette, using social networking to build communities, using Twitter and Facebook to get leads for stories, and whether or not Twitter can really help to build a business.

Since we began this blog last year, we have been interested in learning more about social networking and blogging, so we joined this blogger and journalist group. They meet once a month, usually at Amelie's French Bakery in Charlotte, NC, and have a guest speaker who talks about issues related to social networking and writing. The meetings are usually held on the 2nd Monday of the month from 6:30-8:30pm. If interested, look at Social Media Charlotte to check the calendar for updates.

On Monday night, we visited the Rock Hill gathering of the Nashville Songwriter's Group for the first time. We know several of the members, and have been looking forward to attending one of their meetings for quite a while. This was their first meeting since they took their summer break. It seems that everyone is so busy with family and playing music that this group doesn't usually get together during the summer months.

Now, for a little about the Co-op. The North Carolina Songwriters Co-op (NCSC) is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the support and promotion of songwriters in the state of North Carolina. The NCSC assists both new and established songwriters by providing a supportive environment, including resources for marketing and promotion, the opportunity to network with other songwriters, the chance to assist with and participate in the annual NC song contest, and to attend seminars and workshops designed to enhance songwriting and performing skills. Membership is $25.00 for the first year, and $10.00 per year after the first year. We feel that this is such a small amount to pay for such a great opportunity. We have been members for 1 year now, and are glad to be a part of an organization that supports artists all around our state. If you aren't familiar with the Co-op, then check them out. It's a great resource for performing songwriters. We will definitely go back to the board meeting again sometime soon.

OK, I'm not a big crier, but I would be lying if I didn't say that I haven't cried more than once about having to cancel our weekend of gigs.  We have been looking forward to playing for Festival In The Park in Charlotte, NC for such a long time. Every year when they put the banner up in downtown advertising for the festival, we both become a little resentful because it's one more year that we didn't have ourselves together enough to schedule for the event. Well, we were determined to get on the schedule in 2009, so much so, that we were actually booked to play 3 different times. We've been stalled in our music career for so long, and it feels like we need to make up for so much lost time. It ended up that we got our wish to be a part of the festival this year, but we had one GIGANTIC problem. I was too sick to show up.

I could tell that I was starting to get sick last weekend when we went to Carrboro for the music festival, but I was hoping that it would all stay in my head. I've learned how to sing with head and nasal congestion, so that won't stop me from doing a show. However, once it moves into my chest, I'm a goner. Coughing is a singer's worst nightmare. Every time we cough, the vocal cords slap together violently, and over a prolonged period, it causes swelling and hoarseness. Unfortunately, there's nothing you can do about it. Our lungs don't like to have stuff in them, and they try to expel any foreign body (ie/bacteria, food, mucous, etc...). My lungs don't care that I have to sing. They are going to expel, by coughing, to save my life. It's self-preservation in it's finest form.

Now, if I was a guitar player, I could pick up another guitar for a gig if mine suddenly broke. I may not be happy about it, and It wouldn't sound the exact same as my other one. But, the point is, the audience wouldn't know that there was a problem. With singers, our instrument IS our voice (our body), and when there's a problem, there's no running out and getting a new one. Most serious singers I know are germaphobes due to this fact.

Needless to say, when I lost my voice completely on Thursday, I knew there was no way that my vocal cord swelling was going to go down by our gig time on Friday. But, now comes the good part. Over the past year, we have met an incredible group of artists and supporters of the arts here in Charlotte. We have spent the past couple of years being hermits because we needed to spend our free time writing for the CD. We decided to become "plugged in" to our local scene exactly one year ago, and what a great year it's been. As soon as I knew that I wasn't going to be able to perform, John jumped on the phone, talked to a couple of people, and that was it. As easy as that, we had friends that helped us out, and took our place performing. It's bad when you have to cancel a gig because it puts the venue owner, or in this case the event director, in a bad position. But, what's worse is if you do not find a replacement for yourself. Even though people told us that they were coming to see us, I know that people enjoyed the acts that performed in our place. Big thanks to Ang Medlin and Tom Williams who covered our spots on the Theater Stage, and to Kevin Marshall who took our place in the NSAI songwriter's round on the Folk Society Stage. We really appreciate Steve Simpson for helping us coordinate our replacement for the NSAI showcase.

We will work hard in 2010, and hope to be asked back to the Festival In The Park next year. Thanks for all of the well wishes for both of us. It was pretty inevitable that John would get sick too. We hope that everyone is in good health and is enjoying some beautiful, festival weather wherever you may be. It has been GORGEOUS in Charlotte, NC this week!