Reed Turner (Photo: Greg Murray)

Reed Turner (Photo: Greg Murray)

Austin, Texas-based folk-rock singer-songwriter Reed Turner was selected as the winner of the 2013 Telluride Troubadour Competition and had the opportunity to perform a short set on the main stage during the 40th Annual Telluride Bluegrass Festival that took place in Colorado, June 20-23.

The nationally recognized performing songwriter competition is open to anyone who writes and performs original music and who is not currently signed to a major recording or publishing deal.

Reed Turner was one of ten finalists chosen from among nearly 500 entrants on the basis of the quality of their songs’ composition, vocal delivery and the overall performance. After performing in two finalist rounds during the festival, Turner was named the winner and awarded a Shanti acoustic guitar and $300 in cash, in addition to the mainstage set before some 10,000 festival goers. He also did a live performance on Telluride public radio station KOTO-FM, during which he was backed by Elephant Revival’s Bridget Law. Among the songs that Reed performed was “Room for Doubt” from his February 2013 release, Ghosts in the Attic. A video of Turner performing that song live in the studio is posted on YouTube, while additional videos and information about him may be found at www.reedturner.com.

Second to fifth-place winners in the 2013 Telluride Troubadour Competition were Pete Katsounes (Boulder, CO), Chris Alvarado (Santa Rosa Beach, FL), Michaela Anne (Brooklyn, NY), and Korby Lenker (Twin Falls, ID).

Previous winners of the Telluride Troubadour Competition, which has been held in conjunction with the festival since 1991, include Larry Good (1991), Cosy Sheridan (1992), Dan Sheridan (1993), Catie Curtis (1994), LJ Booth (1995), Michael Lille (1996), Jonathan Kingham (1997), Eugene Ruffolo (1998), Libby Kirkpatrick (1999), Mary Coppin (2000), Kris Delmhorst (2001), Deb Talan (2002), Rachel Davis (2003), Brian Joseph (2004), Keith Greeninger (2005), Nels Andrews (2006), Gregory Alan Isakov (2007), Nathan Moore (2008), Mitch Barrett (2009), Robby Hecht (2010), Matt Harlan (2011, and Reed Waddle (2012).