SONGWRITERS NOTES ISSUE # 239 NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023

 Hello Songwriter,

We've are finally blessed with some cooler weather and a season of fun. 

SEPT - Brought the close of the DSA 2023 International Song Contest, our Young Songwriters Song Contest and Summer Lyric Contest on Sept 30. The songs are in the judges hands.

Our North Texas Giving Day was a big success. We really appreciate your contribution. 

Lilly Harrigan receives a $500 scholarship from Dallas Songwriters. She's majoring in music at the university of Rochester where she is taking classes in music theory, musicianship, and intro to sound design and audio recording. She's an active member of the school’s musical community and participates in two choirs. She is also the head of an acoustic ensemble. She has started another band with her friends where they play her original songs at restaurants around Rochester. 

OCT  - DSA Prez Michael Brandenberger presenting a plaque of the Dallas Songwriters Community Service Award to the Tone Shop. Pictured from left to right - me, Mike Doty, Tommy Roberts, Austin Locker, and Grant Sheffield. 

DSA VP Bobby Montgomery presenting a plaque of the Dallas Songwriters Community Service Award to the Ruth Brinkmann of GuitArlington with Keith Dodson, Troy Inslee, and Jamey Shannon looking on. DSA members manned the booth for 2 days during the guitar show.

Former DSA President Ron Grimes has a song, Love Only Love, up for Grammy nomination with singer IMAJ.

DSA announces the Hall of Fame inductees for 2024 and a list of suggested songs for performance on the program. On April 20, 2024, Rising Stars, DSA Members and the BYO Band will perform songs by our inductees.

Michael Aday (Meat Loaf)  

I’ll do Anything for Love

Whatever Happened to Saturday Night

Hot Patootie Bless My Soul

Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad

Paradise By the Dashboard Light

Billy Joe Shaver

Georgia On a Fast Train

Wacko From Waco

Old Chunk of Coal

Live Forever

Honky Tonk Heroes

Black Rose

Nora Jones

Don’t Know Why

Chasing Pirates

Thinking About You

What Am I To You

Sunrise/Come Away With Me

Erykca Badu

Didn’t Cha Know

Window Seat

Back In The Day

Appletree

Cleva

 

Tom Douglas

The House That Built Me

Little Rock

Southern Voice

Grown Men Don’t Cry

Meanwhile Back at Mama’s

I Got a Car

Buck Owens

Crying Time

I’ve Got a Tiger By the Tail

Love’s Gonna Live Here

Together Again

Under Your Spell Again

Miranda Lambert

The House That Built Me

Gunpowder and Lead

Famous In a Small Town

Baggage Claim

Crazy Ex Girlfriend

Keeper of the Flame

 REGULAR EVENTS

The FIRST THURSDAY VIRTUAL MEETING WORKSHOP is held monthly and features a guest speaker and song critiques. It is streamed live to facebook. See below for details and the Zoom meeting link. 

http://dsameetings.blogspot.com

DSA Monthly Meeting and Song Critiques - Nov 3

Chris Robley will speak about empowering your communication with your fans
https://dallassongwriters.org/song-critique/

Our virtual open mic is still occurring every Wednesday 7 - 9. Join us via the Zoom meeting number. 247 652 3092 or just watch on the Dallas Songwriters Facebook page as we stream live. Some of our members, who are home bound or from out of town depend on this weekly opportunity to share their songs. The hosting duties are shared by Bill Martin, Ace Pounder, Allen Larson, Keith Dodson and Harry Hewlett. Nov. 1, 8, 15, 22, 29 Dec. 6, 13, 20, 27

Second Thursday Songwriter Spotlight streams to YouTube. 7-9 Hosted by Harry Hewlett featuring co-host Barbe McMillen and songwriter performance and interview
Thursday Feb 15, 2024, 7pm - Bradley Banning

Love and War wants you to perform at our 4th Thursday open mic 7 - 9. Rickey Gene Wright hosts with a songwriters round format. Come out and sign up with RGW.   Nov 16, Dec 28

Quick look events page: https://dallassongwriters.blogspot.com

SONGWRITERS NOTES ISSUE #238 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2023

Hello Songwriter,

It's been a long hot summer and the heat still lingers but we are looking forward to some cooler fall weather. Our hot summer included some hot events. Let's Recap.

JUNE - Brought the opening of the DSA 2023 International Song Contest and our Young Songwriters Song Contest. Deadline to enter the contests is Sept 30. 

http://dsasongcontest.blogspot.com

https://dallassongwriters.org/dsa-annual-song-contest/

 

https://youngsongwriterscontest.blogspot.com

 

2023 Wild Dawgs

The Wild DAWG deep sea fishing adventure in Port Aransas on June 15 - 18 was an awesome weekend. Good times and big fish were caught by all. Join our Facebook Wild Dawg group and posting some photos and videos. If you have been on this trip you will want to join and post to share your photos of your past trips. Also, if you plan to go next year, this is a great way to connect for info. https://www.facebook.com/groups/486583939901589

JULY -

  On Sunday, July 23 - Columbia Lodge 66 presented the 5th Annual Blue Christmas In July -  A perfect Sunday afternoon blues event for charity included a BBQ Brisket, Chicken, Sausage Dinner + potato salad (bring a side) and a show with Texas Slim and Gregg A Smith to benefit the Larry Tutson Toy Drive at Sons of Hermann Hall.

 

 All proceeds went to the Larry Tutson Jr Foundation to give toys to kids in South Dallas at Christmas. This is an important community outreach event for Dallas Songwriters. This event is held each year on Bobby Wilbanks' and Gregg Smith's Birthday.

 

AUGUST - 

 

DSA held it's annual Pool Party at Joe Milton's on Saturday, Aug 5. There was enough gourmet food to feed an army. Joe is a great cook and also everyone brought side dishes. The pool was a bit warm as the hot weather has been relentless. There was lots of jamming throughout the afternoon. Yours truely has the flu and missed the party but look how much fun they had. 

SEPTEMBER SPECIAL EVENTS
North Texas Giving Day - 9-21-23
Early Giving opened September 1st!
https://www.northtexasgivingday.org/dallassongwriters

The North Texas Giving Day season is here! Early Giving opened on Friday, September 1.


 

‘Repeat Your Donation’ you gave in 2022 on Thursday, September 7th with one simple click.

SWARFA - Southwest Regional Folk Alliance - Sept 27 - Oct 1 Austin, Tx
http://www.swfolkalliance.org

 

DON'T FORGET TO INCLUDE THE STATE FAIR ON YOUR CALENDAR. 9/29-10/22

 REGULAR EVENTS

The FIRST THURSDAY VIRTUAL MEETING WORKSHOP is held monthly and features a guest speaker and song critiques. It is streamed live to facebook. See below for details and the Zoom meeting link.

http://dsameetings.blogspot.com

DSA Monthly Meeting and Song Critiques - Sept 7

Dae Bogan from MLC will speak about collecting mechanical royalties 
https://dallassongwriters.org/song-critique/

Our virtual open mic is still occurring every Wednesday 7 - 9. Join us via the Zoom meeting number. 617 432 0082 or just watch on the Dallas Songwriters Facebook page as we stream live. Some of our members, who are home bound or from out of town depend on this weekly opportunity to share their songs. The hosting duties are shared by Bill Martin, Ace Pounder, Allen Larson, Keith Dodson and Barbara McMillen. Sept 6, 13, 20, 27

Second Thursday Songwriter Spotlight streams to YouTube. 7-9 Hosted by Harry Hewlett featuring co-host Barbe McMillen and songwriter performance and interview
Thursday Sept 14, 7pm - Alexis Tapp (Songwriter of The Year Winner)
Thursday Oct 12, 7pm - Jamey Shannon (Music Biz Prof at Mississippi Delta College

Love and War wants you to perform at our 4th Thursday open mic 7 - 9. Rickey Gene Wright hosts with a songwriters round format. Come out and sign up with RGW.  Sept 28, Oct 26, Nov 30

Quick look events page: https://dallassongwriters.blogspot.com

SONGWRITERS NOTES ISSUE #237 MAY-AUGUST 2023

 

What a great month of May! We were so blessed with cooler weather. Perfect for our outdoor festival stages. But before we talk of that, lets recap our March-April events.

 

Alexis Tapp

MARCH - Our big event for March was the DSA Members and Community Virtual Awards on March 25 where we honored songwriters with the Song of the Year Award and the Vern Dailey Songwriter of the Year Award. There were  performances by our member contestants Wayne Willingham, Troy Enslee, Ace Pounder, Alexis Tapp, Wayne Gathright, Rio King, Bill Martin, Michael Brandenberger, Michael Roth, Harry Wolf, and Barbara McMillen. Opening Bell, Tone Shop, Patty Allen Driver, and Guitarlington received DSA Community Service Awards. It was streamed on Facebook and the recording resides on our youtube channel. While you're there, please subscribe to our channel. https://www.youtube.com

And the winners are:  

         Vern Dailey Songwriter of the Year - Alexis Tapp

 

         Song of the Year - Shoulda Coulda Woulda by Wayne Willingham

 

/@dallassongwriters_official2702 - Thanks to our judge Jamey Shannon who had a hard job. The scores were very close.

For a list of the competing songs go to the Best Songs of the Meeting Page: https://bestsongsofthemeeting.blogspot.com/2022/03/

See the replay on Youtube: https://youtu.be/biSYiLJVXV8

APRIL - Our special event for April was the DSA Hall of Fame 2023 - 

The 2023 Hall of Fame ceremony was held on Saturday, April 15 at Love and War in Texas, streamed live to Facebook. Inductees are Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jimmie Vaughan, Sly and Family Stone (Dance to the Music), Roger Miller, Jim Collins (Damn Strait), Selena Gomez and Buddy Magazine's Ron McKeown and Stoney Burns, plus Dallas Guitar Show's Jimmy Wallace, Mark Pollock, and Charley Wirz. DSA members (Ian Dickson, Wayne Willingham and Rio King) and Rising Stars under 18 ( Taylor Alyne, Claire Causey, Chloe Rae, Lavada Burns, Junia Rodriguez, and Kayden Turner) performed inductee songs with the BYOB band (Pam and Len Musgrove, Gregg Ballew, Sue Schildt, John Summers and Stan Woodward. https://dallassongwritershalloffame.blogspot.com

See the replay on YouTube:  https://youtu.be/ViqUq78aUaU

MAY - We were busy in May with two outdoor festivals. Our members performed for 4 days on several stages for the   

Deep Ellum Community Arts Fair - May 26 - 29. DSA Members performed. See all performances https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2QmQKUl70-0kMD48nrt13pDklxuLD190

We also managed and performed on the City Line Stage for 3 days at the

Wildflower Arts Festival - May 20-22 - City Line Stage - YouTube link:

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2QmQKUl70-3pd2vZ4TlE7xzw5kzfuH1o

 

JUNE - Brings the opening of the DSA 2023 International Song Contest and our Young Songwriters Song Contest. See below for details and the link.

 REGULAR EVENTS

The FIRST THURSDAY VIRTUAL MEETING WORKSHOP is held monthly and features a guest speaker and song critiques. It is streamed live to facebook. See below for details and the Zoom meeting link.

Our virtual open mic is still occurring every Wednesday 7 - 9. Join us via the Zoom meeting number. 617 432 0082 or just watch on the Dallas Songwriters Facebook page as we stream live. Some of our members, who are home bound or from out of town depend on this weekly opportunity to share their songs. The hosting duties are shared by Bill Martin, Allen Larson, Seth Ginsberg, Keith Dodson and Barbara McMillen. June 7, 14, 21, 28

Third Thursday Songwriter Spotlight streams to YouTube. 7-9 featuring Michael RJ Roth (2021 DSA SC GP runner up with Gone, Gone, Gone) June 8

Love and War wants you to perform at our 4th Thursday open mic 7 - 9. Rickey Gene Wright hosts with a songwriters round format. Come out and sign up with RGW.  June 22, July 27, Aug 24

Quick look events page: https://dallassongwriters.blogspot.com

DOWN THE LINE

Wild Dawgs

 Wild DAWG deep sea fishing adventure in Port Aransas June 15 - 18 will be an awesome weekend. Join our Facebook Wild Dawg group and posting some photos and videos. If you have been on this trip you will want to join and post to share your photos of your past trips. Also, if you plan to go next year, this is a great way to connect for info. https://www.facebook.com/groups/486583939901589

Sunday, July 23 - Columbia Lodge 66 presents the 5th Annual Blue Christmas In July -  A perfect Sunday afternoon blues event for charity including a BBQ Brisket, Chicken, Sausage Dinner + potato salad (bring a side) and a show with Texas Slim and Gregg A Smith to benefit the Larry Tutson Toy Drive at Sons of Hermann Hall, 3414 Elm Street, OBA.

$15 at the door. $10 with toy donation

Bobby Wilbanks' and Gregg Smith's Birthday.

Aug 5 - DSA Pool Party - Good times again at Joe Miltons. Bring a pot luck dish.

 

Aug 12 - SonsStock -  Mini Woodstock - period Music and craft booths at Sons of Hermann Hall. DSA members perform. An invite to perform will be sent out through the membership google group. The performance will be gratis and will include originals and a minimum of two songs from the Woodstock playlist each set. This event benefits Hermann Sons Columbia Lodge.  Here is the link to the Facebook event page. https://fb.me/e/212cSTC3l

SONGWRITERS NOTES ISSUE #236 MARCH/APRIL 2023

Happy Spring! 

            Yes, St Patty's Day is just around the corner and then Easter. The redbuds are blooming here in Texas. I have one white Iris blooming among the redbuds and forsythia. Music festivals also bloom at this time of year, starting with the Ft Worth Music Festival, then SXSW during spring break, Dallas Guitar Festival, Wildflower Fest, Deep Ellum Community Arts Festival, and Kerrville Folk. 

Waiting for the winner

Besides our regular monthly events, our big event for March is the DSA Members and Community Virtual Awards on March 25 where we will honor songwriters with the Song of the Year Award and the Vern Dailey Songwriter of the Year Award. There will be performances by our member contestants Wayne Willingham, Troy Enslee, Ace Pounder, Alexis Tapp, Wayne Gathright, Rio King, Bill Martin, Michael Brandenberger, Michael Roth, Harry Wolf, and Barbara McMillen. Community partners, Opening Bell, Tone Shop, Patty Allen Driver, and Guitarlington. I hope you will tune into our facebook page for the live stream and later watch it on our youtube channel. While you're there, please subscribe to our channel. https://www.youtube.com/@dallassongwriters_official2702 - Thanks to our judge Jamey Shannon who had a hard job. The scores were very close.

For a list of the competing songs go to the Best Songs of the Meeting Page: https://bestsongsofthemeeting.blogspot.com/2022/03/

Also, our special event for April is the DSA Hall of Fame 2023 - 

The 2023 Hall of Fame ceremony will be held on Saturday, April 15 at Love and War in Texas, streamed live to Facebook. Inductees are Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jimmie Vaughan, Sly and Family Stone (Dance to the Music), Roger Miller, Jim Collins (Damn Strait), Selena Gomez and Buddy Magazines Ron McKeown and Stoney Burns. see who is performing what songs form our inductees as the program develops. https://dallassongwritershalloffame.blogspot.com

We celebrated our song contest winners on Saturday, January 14 live streamed to Facebook. The awards were presented by Barbara McMillen, Alexis Tapp, Bob Ehlert, Bill Martin, Dorinda Duncan, Bobby Smith, Bobby Montgomery, Michael Brandenberger, and Roy Elkins. Performances were by Emma James, Joli Reiman, Rick Valente, Kent Strong, Kevin Toqe, Wayne Gathright, Ava Della Pietra, Rio King, Mike Ryan, Michael Roth, and Harri Wolf. Our technical staff is Harry Hewlett and Troy Enslee.

You can now view this on our youtube channel: https://fb.me/e/2u00tel0K

Press release on Winners: https://dsapress.blogspot.com/2023/03/dsa-international-2022-song-contest.html

Press release on the Grand Prize Winners: https://dsapress.blogspot.com/2023/03/32nd-annual-song-contest-awards-grand.html

REGULAR EVENTS

The FIRST THURSDAY VIRTUAL MEETING WORKSHOP is held monthly and features a guest speaker and song critiques. It is streamed live to facebook. Our guest speaker is Tony Ramey. See below for details and the Zoom meeting link.

Our virtual open mic is still occurring every Wednesday 7 - 9. Join us via the Zoom meeting number. 617 432 0082 or just watch on the Dallas Songwriters Facebook page as we stream live. Some of our members, who are home bound or from out of town depend on this weekly opportunity to share their songs. The hosting duties are shared by Bill Martin, Allen Larson, Seth Ginsberg, Keith Dodson and Barbara McMillen.

Love and War wants you to perform at our 4th Thursday open mic 7 - 9. Rickey Gene Wright hosts with a
songwriters round format. Come out and sign up with RGW.  

Quick look events page: https://dallassongwriters.blogspot.com

DOWN THE LINE

Wildflower Arts and Music Festival - May 19-21. DSA Members perform on the Cityline Stage.

Deep Ellum Community Arts Fair - May 26 - 29. DSA Members perform.

Wild Dawgs

Oh Yeah, and the Wild DAWG deep sea fishing adventure in Port Aransas June 15 - 18 will be an awesome weekend. Join our Facebook Wild Dawg group and posting some photos and videos. If you have been on this trip you will want to join and post to share your photos of your past trips. Also, if you plan to go next year, this is a great way to connect for info. https://www.facebook.com/groups/486583939901589

SONGWRITERS NOTES ISSUE #235 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2023

  HAPPY NEW YEAR,

Wishing you a better 2023. I hope the best of your 2022 will be the worst of your 2023 because it's time for a GREAT year to appear.

Dallas Songwriters supports the Larry Tutson Jr Toy Drive each year with a donation for bike and helmets to be given away in the South Dallas Community. 

Barbe McMillen and Bobby Montgomery of Dallas Songwriters Association presenting a $500 check to Bobby Wilbanks president of Hermann Sons Columbia lodge for the Larry Tutson Toy Drive. Columbia lodge matched the DSA check and Wilbanks takes $1000 to buy bikes and helmets for the giveaway on Dec 17 in South Dallas. https://dallassongwriterstoydrive.blogspot.com

We'll be celebrating our song contest winners on Saturday, January 14 from noon - 3pm. This event is a zoom live stream to Facebook. The awards will be presented by Barbara McMillen, Alexis Tapp, Bob Ehlert, Bill Martin, Dorinda Duncan, Bobby Smith, Bobby Montgomery, Michael Brandenberger, and Roy Elkins. There will be performances by Emma James, Joli Reiman, Rick Valente, Kent Strong, Kevin Toqe, Wayne Gathright, Ava Della Pietra, Rio King, Mike Ryan, Michael Roth, and Harri Wolf. Our technical staff is Harry Hewlett and Troy Enslee.

Please join on our Facebook page for the live stream or you can tune in later. Link to Facebook : https://fb.me/e/2u00tel0K

Also, we will be celebrating our members songs in February 4 with a virtual showcase and Awards, plus our community awards. It will also be streamed to our Facebook page.

REGULAR EVENTS

The FIRST THURSDAY VIRTUAL MEETING WORKSHOP is held monthly and features a guest speaker and song critiques. It is streamed live to facebook. Our guest speaker is Sam Moore See below for details and the Zoom meeting link.

Our virtual open mic is still occurring every Wednesday 7 - 9. Join us via the Zoom meeting number. 617 432 0082 or just watch on the Dallas Songwriters Facebook page as we stream live. Some of our members, who are home bound or from out of town depend on this weekly opportunity to share their songs. The hosting duties are shared by Bill Martin, Allen Larson, Kim Cotton, Seth Ginsberg and Barbara McMillen.

Love and War wants you to perform at our 4th Thursday open mic 7 - 9. Rickey Gene Wright hosts with a
songwriters round format. Come out and sign up with RGW.  

Quick look events page: https://dallassongwriters.blogspot.com

DSA Board Planning Meeting - Sat, Jan.7

DSA Song Contest 2022 Virtual Awards Program - January 14, 2023

DSA Best Songs of the Meeting Virtual Awards on February 4

DOWN THE LINE

Deep Ellum Community Arts Fair - March 30 -April 2. DSA Members perform.

 DSA Hall of Fame 2023 - 

The 2023 Hall of Fame ceremony will be held on Saturday, April 15 at Love and War in Texas, streamed live to Facebook. Inductees are Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jimmie Vaughan, Sly and Family Stone (Dance to the Music), Roger Miller, Jim Collins (Damn Strait), Selena Gomez and Buddy Magazines Ron McKeown and Stoney Burns.

Wildflower Arts and Music Festival - May 19-21. DSA Members perform on the Cityline Stage.

Wild Dawgs

Oh Yeah, and the Wild DAWG deep sea fishing adventure in Port Aransas June 15 - 18 will be an awesome weekend. Join our Facebook Wild Dawg group and posting some photos and videos. If you have been on this trip you will want to join and post to share your photos of your past trips. Also, if you plan to go next year, this is a great way to connect for info. https://www.facebook.com/groups/486583939901589