Best Songs of the DSA Meeting: November 2009

Meeting Critiques

Each month songs of members are critiqued at the 1st Thursday workshop. Winners each month are published in Songwriters Notes. Members only may enter up to 2 songs per month (or more if time allows) by going to this link https://dallassongwriters.org/song-critique/ to enter the lyric and audio file or you may upload the lyric and perform the song live at the meeting. Time is limited to the review of 8 songs per meeting on a first come basis. (If we run out of time, the songs will be moved to next meeting). Members will have until the end of November to rewrite and record their song before it is sent to the judge. At the end of each year, the songs are judged by industry pros and the Song of the Year is awarded to the songwriter whose song garnered the most points from the judges. Also, The Vern Dailey Songwriter of the Year Award goes to songwriter who has the most songs with the highest points in the top ten. Winners are announced at the Virtual Awards Program in February which include performances by the finalists.

Thursday, November 5, 2009

BEST SONGS OF 2009

Announced at our July 13th meeting.....

Songwriter of the Year, Vern Dailey
(Songwriter with most winning songs in 2009.)
Read about Vern here: http://dsapress.blogspot.com/2010/08/legend-in-his-own-time.html
and Song of the Year, "It Was Easy For You" by Ray Phillips and Richard Davis. Second place was "You Shined on Me" by Phillips and Davis, and third was "Good and Faithful" by Stephen Blackwell.

Our Song of the Year judge this year is Terri Jo Box
Box was blessed with 3 top 10 singles on the Christian Country Charts, nominated for 1999 Female Vocalist of the Year and her single "Faith" was voted one of the top 15 Songs of the Year in 2000. With a dream of still "making it" in the Country world, she loaded up the U-haul and left Nacogdoches, Texas for Music City. TJ has been focusing primarily on her writing in the last couple of years..."its such a rush to finish one...they're all my favorites" She still has a dual passion for writing the song and then singing it to see how the audience reacts. She also books and hosts two weekly singer/songwriter nights, McGuinness Girls Night on Monday nights, at Dan McGuinness right on music row and Tuesday nights at the "The Rusty Nail" in Hermitage. http://www.myspace.com/terrijobox

JANUARY
Cross My Heart by Vern Dailey

FEBRUARY
Easy For You by Ray Philips and Richard Davis

MARCH
Shined On Me by Ray Phillips and Richard Davis
Look Beyond by Jerry Dobson

APRIL
Our Heaven On Earth by Vern Dailey
Always A Day Behind by Roger Russell and Bill Amos

MAY - no critiques

JUNE
First Place...Cross My Heart by Vern Dailey and Leslie Brooks
Tie for Second Place...Wishing In One Hand by Jerry Dobson and Daughter of Texas Wind by Morri Hartgraves

JULY
Which Side of My Heart by Vern Dailey

SEPT
Things I Don't Mind by Bob Paterno (The Stitts brothers proclaimed this one a hit)
Futile Attraction by Vern Dailey

OCT
Good and Faithful by Stephen Blackwell

He Was A Soldier by Justin and Jennifer Marler

NOV

I Can't by Justin Marler

Kissed You Goodbye by Vern Dailey and Sheryl Caddick

Ray Phillips- 2008 Songwriter of the Year

Ray Phillips- 2008 Songwriter of the Year
by Buck Morgan

September on My Mind

is winning song of 2008 DSA monthly song critiques

With a hand in writing half of the 16 winning songs in the DSA monthly song contest, Ray Phillips, excuse me, the amazingly talented Ray Phillips is the runaway DSA Songwriter of the Year for 2008.
In addition, independent judges have recently chosen Ray’s song, “September in My Mind,” as DSA Song of the Year.
Clearly a favorite among DSA members, Ray faced stiff competition with the judges. You see, his songs had to beat out his songs in independent judging for Song of the Year. Ultimately the judges chose Ray and writing partner Richard Davis’ “September in My Mind,” beating out another Phillips/Davis tune, “She Loves to Infinity”.
Other songs among the judges’ favorites were “We Don’t Eat Together Anymore” by Bob Paterno and, yes, Ray Phillips, “A Man’s Gotta Do” by 2007 songwriter of the year Ed Williams, and “Dancing Feet and Honkytonk Hearts” by Vern Dailey, who’s won songwriter of the year numerous times.
“Finding great songs by DSA members is never a problem, but it’s always a challenge to find good judges,” said Steve Sullivan, DSA president. “That’s one reason we’re a little late in making this announcement. However, we’re very pleased to have found three music industry professionals to listen to and rate our songs.
Judges were: Mark Mason, a writer’s representative for BMI in Nashville. Mark listens to hundreds of songs every month and is a well-respected member of the Nashville writers’ community.
Steve Leslie is a professional songwriter with multiple Darryl Worley cuts, including two on his current album. George Strait has also covered one of Steve’s songs. In addition to songwriting, Steve runs a publishing company in Nashville and enjoys teaching songwriting.
Louis Lofredo is a long-time industry insider, producer and publisher and a good friend of DSA.
Those of you who regularly attend monthly meetings know that on most months DSA members submit songs for panel critiquing and membership scoring. The two highest scoring songs each month become nominees for Song of the Year. On months with fewer than six song submissions, only one song is nominated.
The DSA is proud of Ray and all the monthly winners and submitters. To hear some of Ray’s songs, please visit http://www.myspace.com/rayphillipssongwriter From there you can leap to Ed and Bob’s pages. If you want to know more about Vern Dailey, just Google him. He’s a Texas treasure.

BEST SONGS OF THE MEETING CRITIQUES

Each month songs of members are critiqued at the 1st Thursday meeting. Songs that are critiqued each month are published in Songwriters Notes. Members only may enter by uploading lyric and audio file to https://dallassongwriters.org/song-critique/ or you may upload the lyric and perform the song live at the meeting. Members will have until the end of November to rewrite and record their song before it is sent to the judge. At the end of each year, the songs are judged by industry pros and the Song of the Year is awarded to the songwriter whose song garnered the most points from the judges.

Also, The Vern Dailey Songwriter of the Year Award goes to songwriter who has the most songs with the highest points in the top ten.