American Songwriter

New Video: The Chieftains W/Los Tigres Del Norte, “Cancion Mixteca”

Kevin Richards — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 16:49:27 +0000

Happy St. Patrick’s Day, amigos! Check out this new video from The Chieftains, featuring Ry Cooder and Los Tigres Del Norte, for their boundary-crossing tune “Cancion Mixteca.” Stream the Chieftains’ new album, San Patricio, at MSN Music all week long, where you’ll also find fresh discs by Drive-By Truckers, The Whigs, Ted Leo, Dropkick Murphys, and [...]

Jack White And Jay-Z Let The Creative Juices Flow

Kevin Richards — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 16:36:04 +0000

Jack White has made good on his desire to collaborate with a famous rapper. “I just did a record with Jay-Z,” Jack White tells the British edition of GQ. “We did a song together a few weeks ago. It was incredible. I played him something that I’ve been kicking around for a while and he immediately [...]

SoundExchange Distributes Royalties To Unpaid Artists At SXSW

Evan Schlansky — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 16:18:13 +0000

SoundExchange is seeking to distribute nearly $1 million in unclaimed digital performance royalties to artists and copyright holders at this year’s South By Southwest festival in Austin, Texas. The pioneering non-profit performance rights organization has put out a list of artists and labels attending this year’s festival who are owed digital performance royalties, but have yet [...]

SXSW: Social Networking and Direct-To-Fan Marketing

americansongwriter — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 16:00:43 +0000

March 17 Panel discussions for SXSW kicked off Wednesday, featuring a host of cutting-edge topics that included social networking for artists and the power of direct-to-fan marketing. During one panel discussion, a Facebook employee offered tips to musicians on leveraging the site’s capabilities. “If you understand the Facebook environment as a user, use those same tools as [...]

Last Chance For May/June Lyric Contest

americansongwriter — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 14:46:46 +0000

Calling all songwriters! The deadline for the May/June Lyric Contest is Thursday March 18th at 7:00 PM CST so don’t delay. Send us your lyrics for a chance to be published in yours truly. One of the six bi-monthly winners will be selected for a Grand Prize trip to Nashville, Tennessee. We’ll schedule a “Dream Co-Writing [...]

How To Make The Whole World Sing: “Anytime”

David Mead — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 14:46:01 +0000

Crafting a good bridge is of the trickiest parts of writing a song. There are plenty of ways to do it well and just as many ways to screw it up, royally. The most important thing to determine is whether or not your song actually needs a bridge. Inserting a gratuitous passage after the second [...]

Sessions: Deadstring Brothers

Davis Inman — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 14:40:30 +0000

Photos by Laura Brown The Deadstring Brothers have somehow freakishly mastered the golden era sound of Exile-circa Stones. Though they playfully admit to their influences–guitarist Spencer Cullum, when asked about songwriting, jokes, “It’s stealing, really”–the fact that the band is made up of Americans and Brits, all weened on the same American blues, country and British [...]

Lyric Of The Day: “Pierre”

Kevin Richards — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 12:00:17 +0000

Prologue: There was once a boy named Pierre Who only would say, I don’t care! Read his story, my friend, for you’ll find At the end that a suitable Moral lies there (Chapter I) One day his mother said When Pierre climbed out of bed -Good morning, darling boy, you are my only joy Pierre said-I don’t care! -What would you like to eat? -I don’t care! -Some [...]

EMI Launches EMI Music Nashville, Seeks New Talent

Kevin Richards — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 16:05:30 +0000

EMI Music’s Capitol Nashville is launching a new imprint, EMI Records Nashville, to scout new, up-and-coming talent. It will serve as a sister label to Capitol Nashville, who’s roster includes Dierks Bentley, Luke Bryan, Eric Church, Lady Antebellum, Little Big Town, Darius Rucker, Keith Urban and Emily Wes. The first artist to be signed is Troy [...]

NPR To Webcast SXSW Performances By Spoon, Broken Bells, Sharon Jones And More

Kevin Richards — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 15:42:29 +0000

NPR Music will be webcasting some of the hottest shows of this year’s South By Southwest Festival in Austin, Texas. Tomorrow at 8 p.m. (CT), tune in to catch opening night performances from Spoon, Broken Bells, Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, the Walkmen, and Visqueen. The concert will be emanating from Stubb’s Bar-B-Que. The following day [...]