Challenge #5 and Giveaway! "We Will Rock You(r State)"

Welcome to the most successful songwriting challenge EVER. Prepare to be delighted, enthralled, wowed, and rocked.

I feel like this one is going to need an introduction for the uninitiated since we have a few new participants this time and possibly new voters. So here goes.

The Songwriting Challenge works like this:

1) The previous winner issues the challenge which is a song prompt (e.g., "write a song about X," "write a song titled X," "write a song containing X")
2) The undaunted awesome elite (aka participants) write a song with words and music, using their instrument of choice (or maybe no instrument? no one's tried that yet) to answer the prompt
3) Everyone records a digital version of his/her song as a raw one-track, one-take (eh ... more or less) with no massaging via production tools (except maybe just to adjust volume)
4) Everyone emails their file by the deadline (more or less)
5) I post all the songs
6) The public votes for their favorite with nobody voting for their own song because that is lame.

Then the whole process starts over. It's pretty much just for fun and to have an opportunity to be awesome.

The current challenge, which was due on summer solstice 2010, is to
write a song about the state you are from or the state you currently live in.
I think only little brother and I chose to write about our current states as we come from a band of traveling gypsies and so always live in the now. When all was said and done and everyone lobbed in their entries at the buzzer, or after the buzzer but close enough - I'm no killjoy - we had NINE total entries. This is all thanks to peer pressure. I do believe everyone that has ever participated in this contest has returned for this one and two new competitors were up for the challenge as well.

It's fun to talk trash and all but on a serious note all the competitors should know that they are all take-action winners. Rather than people that sit around and watch the Bachelorette and talk about how they could be awesome, you actually are. But now it is time to feast your ears on this:

Ballad of Wm Weld
Bob Uecker
harry orchard killed the governor dead
Las Vegas
Old (Northern) Dominion
old virginia
phoenix, az
Sweet Home Arizona
Welcome To Utah

I am experimenting with this new file hosting thing so sorry if it's weird.

Also, I know it is overwhelming and difficult to vote out of such surely awesome competition (okay I haven't heard most of the songs yet, but I know from past experience that they will be stellar). Also there are nine. Nine songs. Which is going to take a while just to listen to. So, take your time. Voting will go on for the next couple weeks. Also, there are some additional voting categories, to spread out the love a little. The winner will still be THE winner though. Happy listening!

Oh yeah, just kidding, there is no giveaway. Suckers.

8 about states is great

Eight is the probably final tally of entries into challenge #5. More details will emerge when I get time to upload them onto some generic audio storage site, probably by this evening (fingers crossed). I haven't listened to the recordings yet (besides the ones that were made in my house), but there has been an awful lot of enthusiasm and a lot of "stepping up to the plate" so this should be fantastic. Once we GO LIVE, please get the word out to all your friends. We're going to have to have a lot of voters for there to be a clear winner who will feel entitled to the bragging rights he or she deserves.

By the way, I heard that some people were not able to make recordings. If you have any sort of microphone on your computer, you can always download free software for recording music (e.g., audacity). Or for the iphone-obsessed, like a certain person that lives in my house, there are a number of apps that allow you to record right on your iphone. I'm not super knowledgeable in this area so consult your local smarty pants for more ideas.

SEVEN CONTEST ENTRIES!

YYYYYEEEEEEAAAAAAHH. I have received four entries in this eleventh hour and I'll still accept more within a reasonable time for a current and likely final total of seven awesome songs about states. I can tell you I just heard my very own husband record what is definitely the most spirited (and only) love song to Northern Virginia I have ever heard. As soon as I can figure out where I am stashing all this lovely music, I will tell you, the people.

One entry so far

It's time to step it up, folks. Either that or it's time for me to push back the deadline. What say you, little brother and anyone else that cares to chime in?

To re-cap, the challenge this time is to write a song about your home state or the state in which you currently live. As always, keep the recording cheap and simple (one track if possible) as it is not a contest to see who can best use pro-tools, but just to see who can write the best song (whether that be most epic, most transcendent, cutest, funniest, most bad ass, cleverest, or some random criterion of the people's choosing).

UPDATE: Now two entries. It's really happening so get with it, I say to myself and others.

State Songs

Write your songs! Songs about the state you live in or are from are due solstice, which is soon if I recall correctly.

I knew there was something I was supposed to be doing tonight.

A New Home

It was getting a little weird to host the songwriting contest on my blog alongside baby photos, so I decided to port the contest on over to a new location, complete with a whole new look created by the imitable me on PowerPoint. This is a step up from Paint, where I created my other blog's logo. Now I just need to figure out where to host the audio files since Google has decided to add some governance to their content management and I can't figure out how to randomly store stuff on the phased out googlepages anymore. Current contest is still on! Send your state songs to Rocktastica at gmail dot com.