Eight entrants in the 7th annual Plowshares Singer-Songwriter Competition have been selected to perform during the Finals Showcase at the Plowshares Coffeehouse in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania on March 15, where a panel of judges will determine the Grand Prize winner. The showcase finalists, who were selected by a panel comprised of Philadelphia-area songwriters on the basis of songwriting and performance, include Denise Jordan Finley, Patrick Fitzsimmons, Dan Gonzalez, Jenny Goodspeed, Kierstin Gray, Robby Hecht, Tim LaBorie and Angela Shiek. Each finalist will receive $100 and will compete for a grand prize of $500, an invite to perform at the Philadelphia Folk Festival this summer, and a feature slot at next year’s Finals Showcase. [To read the entire article, click on the headline].

The Our Times Coffeehouse will host a Bob Dylan Song Contest Night on Friday, February 15, at the Ethical Humanist Society Building, 38 Old Country Road in Garden City, NY. Cash prizes of $150, $100 and $50 will be awarded to the three top performers as judged by a panel and the audience on the basis of originality of interpretation and quality of musicianship. “We’re not looking for Dylan impersonators, just great musicians putting their personal spin on two Dylan songs,” says Marty Stone, arts coordinator of the monthly coffeehouse series that is a joint project of the Ethical Humanist Society of Long Island and the Long Island Progressive Coalition. The entry fee is $15. [To read the entire article, click on the headline].

Entries are now being sought for the 2008 Grassy Hill Kerrville New Folk Competition for Emerging Songwriters to be held on Saturday and Sunday, May 24 and 25, 2008 during the 37th Annual Kerrville Folk Festival. Songwriters may either send two original songs (which must have been written after Jan. 1, 2006) on a home-burned CD, not to exceed eight minutes in total, to the Kerrville Folk Festival office or submit them electronically using Sonicbids. The first 800 entries received prior to March 15 will be accepted and 32 finalists will be named on or about April 15. Half of the 32 finalists will perform on May 24, while the other half will perform the next day. Six New Folk winners will be selected to perform 20 minutes of their original songs on Sunday, June 1. They will receive cash honorariums and other prizes. All of the performances will take place at the Threadgill Theater on the Quiet Valley Ranch campgrounds, nine miles south of Kerrville, Texas. [To read the entire article, click on the headline].

Nominees for the 50th Annual Grammy Awards, to be presented by the Recording Academy on February 10 in Los Angeles, were announced yesterday. [To see the list of best album nominees in the Bluegrass, Traditional Folk, Contemporary Folk/Americana and the Zydeco/Cajun Music categories, click on the headline].