Tunesmith "On The Road" in Batavia May 20-22, 2005

Tunesmith, a Nashville-based online songwriting community that features "the most popular songwriting forums on the 'net, is hitting the road in search of the "Best Song" and "Best Songwriting Team". This year's tour, which begins in the Cincinnati area at the historic Clermont Inn in Batavia, Ohio, is part song search and part seminar.

Nashville veteran songwriter/producer/publisher Charlie Craig ("Wanted" - Alan Jackson, "Every Time It Rains" - George Strait) will open Tunesmith On The road at 5:00 PM on Friday May 20th at the Clermont Inn with advice on demo quality and pitching songs in Nashville. Charlie will be doing an acoustic performance beginning at 7:00 PM.

At 8:30, Marc-Alan Barnette, a 17-Year singer/songwriter veteran of the "trenches" of Nashville ("Too Much Blood In My Alcohol Level" - David Ball) will perform, followed by a songwriters showcase with performances of original material by seminar attendees. Charlie Craig will be listening to the showcase as a publisher. This is an opportunity to get your songs heard and make connections in the Nashville music scene.

General public admission is $10.00 at the door. Free to seminar participants.

Marc-Alan Barnette will be putting all attendees thru Songwriters Bootcamp while they write a song from scratch in two days!

Hit songwriter Michael Peterson ("No More Looking Over My Shoulder" - Travis Tritt) will be there with inspiration and encouragement. Michael will speak Saturday Afternoon from 4:00 - 5:00 and will perform an acoustic show Saturday Evening for seminar attendees.

General public admission is $15.00 at the door. Free to seminar participants.

Tunesmith's Nancy Cassidy will tell you all about "Team Tunesmith".

Three-Day Seminar Price: $150.00. Sign up at the Tunesmith website http://www.tunesmith.net/songwriting/seminar.html. For additional information, e-mail seminar@tunesmith.net

All levels of songwriters are welcome. The purpose of this seminar is to sharpen songwriting skills and provide an opportunity to network with music professionals. You must attend the seminar for a chance to compete in the song contest. Seminar attendees are free to develop their own teams OR be paired with another songwriter/songwriters to co-write a new song based on the rules furnished at the beginning of the event. Each song will be performed at the seminar and a local winner chosen.

The winning song and songwriter(s) will receive a fully produced demo of the song, be featured in the Tunesmith Spotlight and the song will be posted on our jukebox. In June, 2006, all the winners will come to Nashville for the SUPER Song Write-Off. The Super Song Write-Off Finals will be held at the Wild Horse Saloon and filmed by "The Nashville Show". The winning song will be performed LIVE on The Nashville Show with Ralph Emery and Shotgun Red. The over-all winning songs songwriter/songwriters will recieve ONE 10 song fully produced CD.

Worth a Listen - Roberto Magris Europlane

Worth a Listen focuses exclusively on independent artists and songwriters whose music has emotional impact.

Roberto Magris is a highly respected Italian jazz pianist and composer with an extensive 15-album discography. I recently had the pleasure of listening to his latest release with the Europlane Orchestra, Check-in, featuring Tony Lakatos on soprano and tenor sax. When I say "pleasure," it's an understatement. The range of energy and emotion on this album is simply electrifying--it is easy to understand why Magris has earned the respect of his peers. He exemplifies the modern piano tradition and it's no surprise to me that one of the artists he cites--McCoy Tyner--is also one of my favorites.

Without a doubt, Check-in earns the "ear candy" rating. I can't wait to hear Magris's next release.

Check him out at www.jazzitalia.net/artisti/robertomagris.asp, www.europlaneorchestra.com, and www.alfabeats.net.

Be sure to check out more of my reviews on Indie-music.com.

Undignified review wins Indie-Music.com writing contest

Indie-Music.com held a writing contest for its writers who submitted music reviews to the May 2005 issue. I didn't hold out much hope of winning (read some of the reviews and you'll see why), but I gave it my best shot with my review of Avery Stafford's Undignified. (See previous entry)

To my surprise and delight, I won! Here is what Jennifer Layton, Reviews Editor, had to say:

MAN, this was tough! But I have picked a winner:

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Kenny Hart, for his review of Avery Stafford's "Undignified."
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I didn't have to edit a word. The writing flows, he provides lots of background information (the producer has worked with Stevie Wonder and Quincy Jones), and there isn't a filler sentence in the bunch. Solid, journalistic, professional voice. He even offers a bit of advice to the artist about taking his message one step further. The review is very descriptive - I can hear the music in my head. Very well done.

Thank you, Jennifer!

Avery Stafford on Indie-Music.com

"You won't find another record that is a more innovative, moving, or an uplifting expression of praise than Undignified."

Read my award-winning review of Undignified, Avery Stafford's fifth album, on Indie-Music.com.

More of my Indie-Music.com reviews are here

Tracks Magazine placed on hiatus

I was excited when Tracks came out. At last, I thought, something for those of us who are musically mature - and over 30. Tracks covered music of every genre, major label and independent releases included. Now, the magazine is in trouble and management has placed it on hiatus until they can get the funds necessary to keep going. I've done my part by being a subscriber, but they apparently need more of us. Here's the official word:

Tracks Magazine Placed on Hiatus

New York, NY – Tracks magazine has been placed on hiatus, it was announced by CEO John Rollins and Editor-in-Chief Alan Light. The hiatus is effective immediately. The current issue of Tracks (April/May) featuring Lucinda Williams on the cover is currently on newsstands.

Launched in December 2003, Tracks was founded upon the premise of music for grownups, the population of music enthusiasts 30 and older who represent the majority of music purchasers.

"We executed on nearly all of our original vision points, including our editorial and advertising goals," Rollins says. "Tracks has attracted 380 pages of advertising, averaging nearly 50 pages per issue. This includes major consumer advertising from GM to Hewlett Packard to Columbia Sportswear. Additionally, the endemic advertising category of music demonstrated tremendous support of the publication by placing an average of 30 pages of advertising per issue."

"However, within our first year of operating, we recognized that the business would take longer to grow to the levels necessary to sustain profitability, which is a circulation of approximately 250,000," Rollins says. Currently the magazine's rate base is 150,000. "As a result of more time needed, our long term cash needs were greater than our original plan and therefore greater than our investor, Frank Wood, could support. So the cash resources required for significant circulation growth over a short period of time were not available. Simply, it is this limited total funding that has led to our decision to go on hiatus."

During the hiatus period, the management team of Tracks will continue to pursue new financing support with the goal of relaunching the magazine in the future.

Light believes that Tracks will find a way. "Being an independently funded, independently founded start-up has proved especially challenging," he says. "But with the single-greatest population of music purchasers being over the age of 30 and with no magazine, indeed no media, directed at this audience, we have always maintained – and still do – that there is a market to be served by Tracks."