Rick Jamison, a bluegrass songwriter based in northern California, has recently launched a blog about his craft, titled appropriately enough, On Songwriting.

The new site went live on July 14, and Rick has already posted 5 songwriter profiles among 11 posts. He says that traffic has been picking up, and he is very pleased to see that an interest exists among songwriters - and interested observers - for a site of this kind.

Rick explained a bit about what led him to create his new blog, and what he hopes it can accomplish.

“I have been thinking for some time about creating a website where I and other songwriters could share ideas, experiences and insights about this personal — and often lonely — endeavor. In July, I followed through on that goal by securing a domain (www.onsongwriting.com) and launching the blog.

In the process of thinking through what a useful site might look like, I landed on the combination of featuring artist profiles (helps introduce ourselves to each other and others who may be interested), links to MP3s and URLs (hear what others are doing and fast-track to other songwriting sites/online resources) and songwriting hints and tips (can be helpful when you’re staring at a blank sheet of paper and forget how to start).”

New material will be posted twice each week.

“On Mondays, the site features my own musings on the topic of songwriting — everything from the art of creativity to recording considerations to sources of inspiration. Each Thursday, I plan to feature a ‘Songwriter Profile’ where I interview active songwriters from a variety of genres. Songwriters who are interested in being featured in a future profile are welcome to contact me by email.“

Rick is also developing another site as an adjunct to On Songwriting, which will be social networking space for songwriters. It is expected to launch at some point in September.

“In my day job, I have recently become the Online Community Manager for a software company in Silicon Valley. As I try to fulfill all that goes with that professional role, I wanted to simultaneously create an online community site around a pursuit that I’m personally engaged in and passionate about.”

Follow the discussion online at OnSongwriting.com.

UPDATE 2:45 p.m.  Rick said that he got busy over this past weekend, and the songwriters social networking site is now active at onsongwriting.ning.com.

CMT will soon begin their 3rd annual Music City Madness, where artists compete in head-to-head video competition online. Video entries can be submitted until October 6, 2008 and in-person auditions will be held in several locations over the next few days.

The format follows very closely to the “bracketology” of the NCAA basketball tournament. 64 contenders will compete for viewer votes in subsequent rounds of online balloting until just four finalists remain, from which one will chosen.

The winner will be flown to Music City (Nashville, TN) to tape a segment of Unplugged at Studio 330 for CMT.com and a showcase with Warner Brothers A&R execs. A mentor session with country star Randy Travis is also included.

Bluegrass acts are specifically invited to enter, and have done quite well in the competition in the past, though not yet reaching the finals.

To submit a video online, or by mail, you need to submit your information online. Live local auditions will be held on August 23 in Pittsburgh and Atlanta, and in Nashville on August 27. At least one act will be chosen at each live audition site.

Full rules and competition details can be found at CMT.com.

Colorado’s Spring Creek has another trophy for their mantle. On top of winning the band competitions at both the RockyGrass and Telluride festivals in 2007, they have now been named as the winners of the Vox Populi award from online viewers in the 2007 Independent Music Awards.

Their song, High Up in the Mountains, was chosen in the Americana category in this “people’s choice” component of the annual competition, hosted by Music Resource Group. More than 37,000 votes were cast online, and the band tells us that they were the only bluegrass band in this voting category.

The band consists of Chris Elliott on banjo, Alex Johnstone on fiddle and mandolin, Taylor Sims on guitar and Jessica Smith on bass. All four band members sing.

You can hear their winning song on the band’s web site or MySpace page.

Congratulations Spring Creekers!

In today’s changing music market, artists, songwriters and producers are all looking for new revenue streams as established ones diminish or dry up. One venue that may not pop up for most bluegrass musicians is the thriving video game market, but that is just where popular Irish grasser Niall Toner finds one of his tunes featured.

His tune, Nuns Island Reel, is included in the audio track for the new edition of the Grand Theft Auto franchise (Grand Theft Auto IV), which has been setting sales records since its release in April.

Niall gives us the run down on how this came to be…

“I composed the tune in the normal course of my song-writing and tune-composing, and it was recorded in a demo session at Paul Ashe-Browne’s studio in Dublin’s Canal Street in the mid 90s. On that day we recorded four tunes, The Belles Of Aer Rianta, Dodder Valley Waltz, Elancyl’s Hornpipe and Nuns Island Reel. [So-called because my Dad was born and raised on Nuns Island in Galway City]

These tunes are all part of my Publishing deal with Bardis Music in Dublin, and my Publisher, Peter Bardon, would have been ‘pitching’ this material, and my other country and bluegrass songs, to producers, artists and other publishing houses around the world. Several of my songs have been recorded in the past 15 years or so, most notably, from a bluegrass perspective, There’s A Better Way by the Nashville Bluegrass Band, and Josie’s Reel by Special Consensus - plus Mood Swing by Bill Wyman of the Rolling Stones, and Working On Love by Albert Lee.

In early 2000, Peter did a sub-publishing deal for about 40 of my compositions with Crucial Music in Los Angeles, a Company run by Tanvi Patel. Tanvi works with Movie makers and a whole variety of music-using Industries in Silicon Valley. In 2005, Tanvi made a pitch to Rockstar, who were beginning to work on GTA4, and they choose Nuns Island Reel for a scene in an Irish Pub in the game. My piece was re-named A Real Real, and the rest, as they say, is history.”

Niall tells us that he has not yet played the game, though he has seen a brief extract of the scene that features his tune.

A Real Real will be included as a bonus track on NTB3, the third all-original CD release from The Niall Toner Band. It is a live version recorded on Niall’s My Roots Freeway Radio show.

The new CD is due for a May 25 release, and will be available on that date in iTunes.

Gospel singer and songwriter Joyce “Dottie” Rambo was killed early Sunday morning while traveling from Illinois to Texas, when her tour bus encountered severe weather on Interstate 44 in southwest Missouri. The bus ran off the road near the town of Mount Vernon and struck an embankment. Rambo was pronounced dead at the scene. Seven passengers on the bus were injured, several seriously.

Nashville, Tennessee, resident Rambo was on her way to a Mother’s Day concert at a church in North Richland Hills, Texas, following a Saturday night performance in Granite City, Illinois, just outside of St. Louis. She was 74.

Dottie Rambo is perhaps best known as a songwriter. Among her more than 2,500 published songs were gospel classics such as He Looked Beyond My Fault and Saw My Need, Sheltered in the Arms of God, Behold the Lamb, Holy Spirit, Thou Art Welcome, and We Shall Behold Him, the gospel music Song of the Year in 1982.

Her songs have been recorded by artists as varied as Elvis Presley and Whitney Houston to Alison Krauss and Rhonda Vincent.

She was inducted into the Kentucky Music Hall of Fame in 2006 and the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2007.

ASCAP, more fully known as The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, recently launched A Bill of Rights for Songwriters and Composers. The document contains 10 “core principles” that ASCAP hopes will serve to remind their members, the public, and government legislators of the rights granted to authors of creative works under the US Constitution.

The introduction to the document makes the case that without these rights, the outcome would be a diminishing of the economic viability of music creation, resulting in less music being created for fans to enjoy. ASCAP President and Chairman, Marilyn Bergman, commented on this idea.

Given the many issues surrounding the music industry today, it can be all too easy to overlook the source of it all - individual songwriters, lyricists and composers. That is why ASCAP has launched this Bill of Rights for Songwriters and Composers. Our goal is to remind lawmakers, the general public and music creators themselves of the rights that are inherent in their art. We simply cannot allow the original source of all music to be lost in the shuffle.

They are asking that those who support this position electronically ’sign’ the bill. After collecting as many signatures as possible, ASCAP will present the document to key legislators in Washington, and other leaders both inside and outside the music industry.

The first and possibly most important of the rights is this.

1. We have the right to be compensated for the use of our creative works, and share in the revenues that they generate.

It must be with some satisfaction that ASCAP reports on this court decision determining license fees to be paid to ASCAP by AOL, RealNetworks and Yahoo! for their use of musical works. The report indicates the payments could be as high as $100 million for the full period covered by this decision (July 2002 - December 2009).

It seems some lawmakers already agree with right #1.

“On Route 23 down in eastern Kentucky…”

So begins the mournful song written by Jack Adkins and Buddy Dee, and recorded by the Stanley Brothers in February 1958 at Radio WCYB in Bristol, VA. No School Bus In Heaven was the last official studio recording that Carter and Ralph would make for the Mercury label.

It relates the tragic story of a tragedy which took place 50 years ago in Floyd County, Kentucky, wherein 26 children and the driver of the bus in which they were traveling lost their lives when the bus plunged into the Big Sandy River

“These little school children have gone on to glory,” but they left behind heart-broken parents, families and friends. The children and the bereaved are remembered in a gut-wrenching article in the Lexington Herald-Leader.

Survivors and those who lost loved ones rarely mention what happened in 1958. They spend most days at home, passing one another at the post office or the grocery store. They sit together in church, bonded by their silent grief and heavy hearts.

But it is a story the whole town knows well. Pictures of those who drowned still hang in local restaurants, schoolhouses and funeral homes.

“People don’t talk about it much. It’s too painful to talk about,” said Orville Ousley, 85, who lost one of his three sons in the accident. “When the anniversary comes each year, we avoid each other and we hide in our homes.”

Read the full piece from the Herald-Leader online.

We received a note from our friend Richard Hawkins who runs the Bluegrass Ireland Blog, and posts at the European Bluegrass Blog, about a bluegrass connection to last weekend’s Academy Awards presentation in Los Angeles. Richard pointed out that one of the writers of the award for Music (Song), Glen Hansard, is a former member of Ireland’s Niall Toner Band.

Toner is a longtime singer and songwriter in Ireland who Hawkins describes as the godfather of Irish bluegrass.

Hansard and fellow songwriter and Marketa Irglova won for the song Falling Slowly from the movie, Once. You can see a live performance video of the song on the Fox Searchlight web site.

Tonight’s Songwriter Chat from the folks at The Bluegrass Guide will feature an online discussion with Carl Jackson. He will join host Eric Gibson on Tuesday, 2/26 at 8:00 p.m. (EST) to talk about his craft, and take questions from chatters.

To participate, visit the Songwriter Chat page at 8:00 and log in. There is no fee to participate, and only a very brief registration is required to join.

Transcripts from previous sessions with Tim Stafford, Larry Cordle, Brink Brinkman, Chris Stuart and others can be found on the site as well (scroll to the bottom of the page).

As a songwriter Craig Bickhardt has had about as much commercial success as a person could hope for. His songs have been recorded by top artists in several genres, including cuts by Alison Krauss, Tony Rice, David Wilcox, Martina McBride, B. B. King, Ray Charles, Art Garfunkel, and many more.

On his songwriting blog, Ninety Mile Wind, Craig recently wrote a post discussing what he feels are the five biggest lies propagated in Nashville these days. Here are a couple of his comments I found interesting.

The first has to do with illegal downloading. The lie is…

It’s the illegal downloading, stupid

Craig discusses just how much it should cost to produce a quality CD. He thinks the reason the labels are hurting has nothing to do with illegal downloading, and everything to do with bloated expenses and the poor quality of the music being produced.

If you want a great CD look to the indie labels, which incidentally, are booming and profiting because they don’t operate on bloated budgets designed to keep the suits well-fed while the artists do all the work. The Indies are mostly in it for the art. Read the blogs and the comments and you’ll find that most consumers are still buying the music they love and they have no problem paying for mp3s. But they do have a problem with paying twice what they ought to pay for crappy CDs,

That sure makes one appreciate the nature of our indigenous bluegrass labels. They operate more like indie labels for sure, smaller budgets, and I’ve meet many of the bluegrass label heads and staffers, they do genuinely love the music. Thanks guys!

Here’s another lie Craig aims to dispel, as it applies to songwriters.

You must live in Nashville

He says it’s not necessary that a songwriter be located in Nashville to be successful, or even to collaborate with other songwriters. In fact, he says living in Nashville may be more of a hinderance than a help in many ways.

I get regular emails and comments from writers who say that Nashville is ruining their writing. They can’t be spontaneous, it’s all done by committee, they fear being criticized for writing anything too artistic, and they must collaborate with artists, many of whom are not songwriters, never will be songwriters, and only show up for the money.

If you’d like to read his full comments, and find out the other three lies he’s exposing, read his post Craig’s blog regularly. He posts some good stuff.

The International Songwriting Competition is nearing the announcement date of its winners for 2007. The field has been narrowed to 15 finalists in each genre category. The winners will be announced in April, 2008.

Our friend Frank Solivan II is one of the finalists in the Americana category, which is the closest to a bluegrass category they have in the competition.

Frank is known to the bluegrass world as a mandolin player and singer, by his tenure with the Navy Bluegrass Band, Country Current. He’s also released a couple of great solo projects that feature him on mandolin, fiddle and vocals, with an occasional guitar part as well. In addition to his multi-instrumental prowess, he’s also a gifted songwriter, penning both scorching instrumental numbers and soul felt vocal tunes.

The song Frank has entered in the contest is Day to Day from his 2002 release I Am A Rambler. The song is currently available as a free mp3 from Frank’s website.

Be sure to visit Frank’s MySpace page for his touring and mandolin workshop schedule.

Randy Kohrs has been named the recipient of the Country/Bluegrass songwriting prize for 2008 from the International Acoustic Music Association in the 4th Annual IAMA Awards.

The award is for the song Rockwell’s Gold from his current CD, Old Photograph on Rural Rhythm. You can hear an audio sample on Randy’s web site.

A compilation CD with all of the winning songs will be distributed to radio stations worldwide. Stations/hosts interested in receiving a copy can contact IAMA online.

UPDATE 2/7: We should also mention that banjoist Jake Schepps was a runner up in the Instrumental category in this year’s IAMA awards for his song Todo Buenos Aires, from his Ten Thousand Leaves CD.

Chris Stuart is back in the studio this winter working on a new project. Like previous CDs with his band, Backcountry, it will primarily feature original songs written within the group, but in a first for Chris this new album will be a digital only release.

Crooked Man is expected to be available in early June, with eight new Chris  Stuart originals, a couple by banjo player Janet Beazley, and one from their teen aged fiddler, Christian Ward. Eric Ulum is on mandolin along with Austin Ward on bass and Stuart on guitar.

Chris shared a few words about the material on Crooked Man…

“The songs include one about Mary Surratt (hanged in 1865 as part of the Lincoln assassination conspiracy) and one by Janet called Lantern Bay Inn about a murder in the San Juan Islands off Washington state. I have a song about a murder that happened in West Virginia in 1931, and a song about a dog called Ofer and Yesbuddy . . . .another happy CSB recording!”

Chris told us that they will produce manufactured CDs for press and radio promotion, but will primarily distribute the project through digital download sites. A new band website will be created with album artwork, lyrics, studio photos and credits plus download purchases offered in either MP3 or AIF formats. It will also be available through download sites like iTunes and CD Baby.

Last year a raging battle ensued over the performance royalty rates for internet radio. That battle continues even now. The entity that established those rates is the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB).

The CRB is now preparing to adjust and establish mechanical royalties that would be paid to publishers and songwriters for the sale of both physical products (CDs) and downloads (both full tracks and ringtones).

ASCAP has sent out a letter to it’s members raising awareness that we are about to witness another fight over royalties. This times the team members will be a little different it seems. According to the ASCAP letter, the RIAA and the DiMA will be joining together to petition the board for lower rates. These two entities have been bitter enemies in the past.

Our friends at The National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA) will be representing the mechanical right interests of songwriters and music publishers in this hearing. They will be fighting vigorously to protect those mechanical right interests to ensure that musical compositions are compensated fairly. On the other side of this fight stands the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the Digital Media Association (DiMA). Both the RIAA and DiMA have proposed significant reductions in mechanical royalty rates that would be disastrous for songwriters and music publishers.

The letter continues to give details about the proposed rates for the various types of sales. The RIAA is proposing a rate of 6 cents per track for physical sales, that’s a reduction from the current rate of 9.1 cents. Digital downloads are where things get really bitter though. The RIAA is suggesting a rate of 5 to 5.5 cents per track while the NMPA wants the rate set at 15 cents “because the costs involved are much less than for physical products.”

Streaming services is another battle. The NMPA wants to collect 12.5% of revenue, 27.5% of content costs, or a “micro-penny calculation based on usage,” whichever is greater. The RIAA, on the other hand, is suggesting .58% of revenue, and the DiMA says zero for streaming services.

Clearly the songwriters do need to be compensated for the use of their creative works. Without quality songs, where would the music industry be? They deserve to be paid in the same way that you or I expect to be paid for work we perform for an employer.

It seems that each organization wants their slice of the pie to be the biggest. The problem is that the pie (income from the sale of music) appears to shrinking. Maybe someone should devote some time to discovering a new way to make money in the music business. Otherwise, everyone will be fighting over a cookie instead of a pie.

Jon Weisberger is not at all lonesome. The Nashville-based bass player of more than 20 years standing - and noted writer about bluegrass matters - was married only a short time ago.

He is also known for his songwriting, and as an active member of the IBMA Board of Directors. You can now add to his busy schedule, a job playing bass with Larry Cordle and Lonesome Standard Time.

Let Jon tell us how this arrangement came about …….

“Cord called me shortly after New Year’s Day to ask me if I’d like to join Lonesome Standard Time. My reply, of course, was “absolutely.” I’ve been a big fan of Larry’s music for many years, going back to when Ricky Skaggs first hit with Highway 40 Blues, and I’d written about him back when Murder On Music Row came out. I filled in with him on one date in Columbus, Ohio, just about a year ago, and had a great time - and last weekend’s dates in Fairview, Ohio and Milton, West Virginia confirmed that that’s the norm. Cord’s a great writer, a great singer, and a great front-man - he really knows how to get the audience on our side and keep them there.

The rest of the band is superb, too; Booie Beach (guitar) and Kim Gardner (Dobro ®) are both exceedingly under-rated instrumentalists, and it’s great to be reunited with Chris Davis (mandolin, vocals) - he had played and sung in my band, Union Springs, back in 1998, shortly before it disbanded. And, of course, it’s cool to have my frequent musical companion Ned Luberecki playing banjo for the rest of the month’s dates.”

Larry Cordle and Lonesome Standard Time has a recently released CD, Took Down And Put Up on the Lonesome Day Record label (LDR 011), a collection that has just figured in the Top 15 Bluegrass Albums chart in The Bluegrass Unlimited Natural Bluegrass Survey listing for January.

You can check the band’s tour schedule online for a chance to catch them live.Weisberger concludes by telling us about his other activities and his hopes for this year. He certainly leads a busy life…..

“In the meantime, I’ll continue to perform with Chris Jones & The Night Drivers, the Harley Allen Band, Radiola, Roland White, et al, as I’m able to - so far the dates seem to be working out OK for that. And I’m looking forward to a good song writing year; I’ve got a co-write with Tim Stafford and Bobby Starnes coming out on the new Blue Highway album, and a couple of other songs of mine look like they’re going to get recorded this year, too.”

The Bluegrass Guide will launch their 2008 Songwriter Chat season tomorrow night (1/15) with noted songsmith Tim Stafford as their guest. This year’s host for Songwriter Chat will be Eric Gibson, half of the bluegrass singing/songwriting duo, The Gibson Brothers.

You can join Eric and Tim at 8:00 p.m. (EST) on Tuesday evening by logging into the chat room on The Bluegrass Guide web site. Chat participants can pose their own questions to Tim, or simply read along.

To participate, visit the Songwriter Chat page and log in. No registration is required.

Transcripts from previous sessions with Larry Cordle, Brink Brinkman, Chris Stuart and others can be found on the site as well (scroll to the bottom of the page).

Look for Donna Ulisse on XM Satellite Radio’s Bluegrass Junction today between 3:00 and 6:00 p.m. (EST).

She will join host Kyle Cantrell for an in-depth interview and a debut airing of music from her CD, When I Look Back. They will talk about her contributions to the project as a songwriter and the stories behind the songs.

The CD was produced by Ulisse and Keith Sewell and features a backing band that includes Scott Vestal on banjo, Randy Kohrs on dobro, Andy Leftwich on fiddle, Byron House on bass and both Jesse Cobb and Andy Leftwich on mandolin.

Bluegrass Junction can be found on XM track 14.

This post comes as a contribution from Dixie Hall, one half of the songwriting powerhouse Tom T. and Dixie Hall, who manage both Good Homegrown Music and Blue Circle Records.

Several years ago, we were enjoying a visit to Bluebird Hill (our Clinch Mountain home in Hiltons, VA) and received news of a mysterious fire at the church. A candle had somehow self-ignited and smoldered for many hours creating much cleanup work of smoke damage.

As hard as I tried, I could not get Tom T.’s interest in this subject as a song idea until later that week when we received a phone call from Linda Lay & Stony Point requesting a Christmas song p.d.q.

Although a totally different story, the candle thought came through for us and we worked out Oh, Christmas Candle. Since then it has also been recorded by Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Whisperin’ Bill Anderson may not be among the first names which come to mind when you start talking bluegrass. His success came as a country singer and songwriter, and he has managed to thrive as a songsmith in the modern era of mainstream country music when many of his 1960s contemporaries can’t get a meeting on Music Row.

Earlier this year, Bill released a bluegrass recording, Whisperin’ Bluegrass, with 8 of the 16 tracks being Anderson originals. The instrumentation is bluegrass all the way, and the material and arrangements show how closely modern bluegrass and old school country music are related.

On Monday, The Post Star newspaper in Glens Falls, NY ran a lengthy interview with Bill which covers a wide range of topics. He offers a good bit of commentary on where the music business is headed, and how he has stayed viable as the music market has changed.

Post Star writer Doug Gruse also brought up Anderson’s bluegrass CD, which prompted this exchange:

This year he released ‘Whisperin’ Bluegrass,’ a CD and DVD featuring tracks with Vince Gill, Dolly Parton, Jon Randall, Willie Nelson and Jan Howard. Anderson is glad to see the recent interest by younger generations in the bluegrass tradition.

“A lot of these young kids are learning to play guitars and mandolins. They’re bringing a whole new interest to the genre,” he said. “Mainstream country music has drifted pretty far from the shore, and bluegrass music is somewhat of an alternative.”

For Anderson, who was born in Columbia, S.C., and spent his youth in Atlanta, the msuci has always been a part of his life.

“When I grew up, the music wasn’t even called bluegrass. It was called hillbilly music then,” he said.

The new recording is a way for Anderson and his Nashville friends to reconnect with their roots.

“For me to go back and do a bluegrass album, it’s going back to where I started,” he said.

You can read the entire article online, and find audio samples from Whisperin’ Bluegrass on Anderson’s web site.

We hear from Hadley Music Group that Donna Ulisse was recently back in the studio with producer/guitarist Keith Sewell and Andy Leftwich on fiddle and mandolin laying down some basic tracks on new songs she had written.

Ulisse discussed this in a recent interview…

“I like to do pre-production work on everything I write that I am considering for a future project - just to get a feel for all of the possibilities of the song with more instrumentation. Sometimes a song will take a whole new direction with the creative energy of the musicians involved. Plus, it gives my publisher a good demo for our song plugger Matt Lindsey to pitch to other artists because as a songwriter, it is a thrill for me to have other artists record my songs.”

Donna is currently promoting her first release, When I Look Back, to bluegrass radio, and has been writing for her second bluegrass project, which will get underway early next year. Hadley Music Group says that a summer ‘08 release is expected.