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...

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].

Submissions are now being sought for The Indie Acoustic Project’s Best CDs of 2007 Awards. Full-length CDs (25 minutes or longer) that have at least some acoustic instrumentation and were released for sale to the public during 2007 by any entity other than a major US label are eligible for consideration. Entries must be postmarked no later than Dec. 31. One award will be given in each of 15 categories: acoustic ensemble, alt country, alt rock, Americana, Celtic, instrumental, lyrics, multi-genre, rock, roots, singer-songwriter (male), singer-songwriter (female), world music-Africa, world music-Latin, and world music-Eurasia/global. [To read the entire article, click on the headline].

All songwriters who have not previously performed at the New Jersey Folk Festival are eligible to apply for its 14th Annual Singer/Songwriter Showcase. Six “winners” will be afforded the opportunity to perform 20-minute sets during the annual day-long festival on Saturday, April 26, 2008, at the Douglas campus of Rutgers, the State University, in New Brunswick. Each showcase performer also will receive a $50 honorarium and be included in the printed program. Singer-songwriters should submit three songs containing original lyrics and music by the featured performer (no covers), along with lyric sheets. The application deadline is December 15, and entries may be sent in on CD, cassette tape or via Sonicbids. [To read the entire article, click on the...

The 8th Annual NSAI Song Contest is seeking entries from songwriters in all music genres through Nov. 15. Nashville Songwriters Association International members may enter for $30 per song, while the per-song fee for others is $40. The grand prize winner and five finalists will receive a single-song publishing contract form one of a half-dozen major Music Row publishers. Bart Harbison, NSAI’s executive director, believes this will “create an opportunity for the aspiring songwriter to build relationships with top-notch songwriters, publishers, publishers and music industry executives that would normally take years to establish.” In addition, the grand prize winner will receive mentoring sessions (including song critiques, industry advice and instruction on the craft of songwriting)...

Maine’s Jud Caswell, a 2006 Grassy Hill Kerrville New Folk Contest winner and first-place recipient in last year’s Boston Folk Festival Songwriting Contest, continues to garner well-deserved recognition for his well-crafted songs, which he delivers in a warm & resonant voice, aided by his solid fingerstyle guitar-playing. On the heels of releasing Blackberry Time and winning the Plowshares Singer-Songwriter Contest in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania earlier this year, Caswell captured top honors in the Dave Carter Memorial Songwriting Contest at the 2007 Sisters Folk Festival in Sisters, Oregon on Sept. 8. [To read the entire article, click on the headline]

Youth between the ages of 13 and 17 are invited to enter the 2nd Annual Voices of the Future Songwriting Competition, which was created to encourage and facilitate growth for young aspiring songwriters who reside in the continental U.S. Entrants will be evaluated on the basis of creativity, originality and artistry. A panel of music industry professionals will judge the submitted songs based purely on the quality of the writing and will select three winners, all of whom will be awarded two passes to the 2008 Nor-East’r Music & Arts Festival that takes place in Michigan in June, along with the opportunity to perform their winning songs on the main stage. In addition, the first place winner will be...

Nine finalists have been chosen for the 2007 Boston Folk Festival Songwriting Contest. Finalists in the adult category include Kevin Connolly, Marie Duprey, Reg Espinola, George O'Connor and Larry Pitt. The youth finalists are Matt Borrello, Sarah Borrello, Holly Howes and Casey Sullivan. [To read the entire article, click on the headline.]

Ten finalists and two alternates have been named in the 2007 Folks Festival Songwriter Showcase, a nationally recognized songwriter competition that is open to those who write and perform original music and who are not currently signed to a major recording or publishing deal. The finalists, each of whom will play two original songs on the main stage during the first day of the 17th Annual Rocky Mountain Folks Festival in Lyons, Colorado on Aug. 17, are: Nels Andrews of Brooklyn, NY; Jim Beaver of Philadelphia, PA; J.E. Borgen of Boston, MA; Julie Clark of Norfolk, VA; John Common of Denver, CO; Cary Cooper of Dallas, TX; Julie Payne of Nederland, CO; Sarah Sample of Laramie, WY; and Amy...

Entries are now being accepted in the fourth annual International Acoustic Music Awards (IAMA). Intended to “promote excellence in acoustic music performance and artistry,” IAMA is open to amateur and professional musicians and songwriters in various genres. [To read the entire article, click on the headline].