Songwriters Showcase

Upcoming Showcase- August 6th

Here is the lineup for this Wednesday August 6th.
susan

Susan Urban will be going on first and will be joined by side man,Phil Cooper, on guitar and vocals.

Susan Urban's songwriting influences are the old traditional ballads and such 20th Century story song masters as Harry Chapin, Malvina Reynolds, Stan Rogers and Steve Goodman. Sometimes funny, sometimes heart-wrenching, sometimes inspiring, Susan's performances weave a tapestry of humor, passion and reflection as rich and varied as life itself. Her clear, deep voice has been described as "Like fire!" Susan plays six and hvelve string guitar in varied tunings, six string banjo, mountain dulcimer, Native American and African Drum and (on ONE song) kazoo. Susan's mission as a songwnter is to help people to reclaim their attention spans!

jay

Jay Einhorn

I was a jazz guitarist in high school--many years ago--playing at the Exit Coffeehouse and the Cotton Club, when I heard folk music, later became a poet for awhile, and a long process of music and poetry blending started way down somewhere that eventually came out as original songs. Starting over is an important theme in my life and music, and "Start Over" is the title song of my studio cd. Political and social hypocrisy bothers me, so I wrote "Appearance of Virtue" and some other songs. "Market Price" is about Emily Dickinson and her poetry. "After Our War" is an anti-Iraq war song, on my Myspace page. I'm a psychologist, so there are themes like cult-thinking ("Wrong Way Home"), non-verbal communication ("Honey, What You Trying To Do?"), making a life of your own when others have tried to take it away from you ("From There to Here"), facing a hopeless love that is partly an illusion that one created ("Out of the Fire"), and our nearly bottomless potential to regenerate ("Never Underestimate the Power of a Heart.")

sam

Sam Ortega

(Sam writes in the vein of Bruce Cockburn, John Mayer and Bono) After spending two years working on my music in California (mostly writing, performing and collaborating) I recently moved to Chicago hoping to meet my personal mile-stones in the Windy City and launch my career to the next level. So far I've had a great response and good (honest) feed-back to my music and I've found out that Chicago is one of the friendliest places in the world! I'm hoping to do good music here and get to meet/collaborate with other local artists. (Lance Brown will be joining Sam as a sideman playing outside his comfort zone)

Introduction

In collaboration with the Baked Tomato Restaurant, 4358 N. Elston Ave.
Chicago, IL 60641 773-777-6434, I am developing a venue for showcasing
Chicago Songwriters. It is in its infancy but I thought we might have
some folks out there that would want to participate. Unlike jam
sessions, this won't be open to everybody. Participants don't have to be
professionals but I would like to have people who are proven to an
extent. Therefore, I would like to hear their work before accepting them
for a guest appearance.

As you might have guessed, at this early stage there is no money
involved but we are looking toward a possible appearance of the best of
the best on the stage of the Skokie theater down the line. I currently
perform there in various capacities as both a musician, actor and
graphic artist. For my credentials you may want to check me out at
www.lancestunes.com - www.lancebrownfineart.com - www.willrogers.net -
and give some thought to who you might know that might enjoy the
exposure and networking with the community I hope to build around this
endeavor.

Other Participants

Chicago Songwriters Collective - Sandy Andina former co-president has
responded positively to my outreach. Her organization has about 20
seriously committed songwriters. I will be talking to her to see how
strong the interest is from her membership.

The Old Town School of Folk Music - Bau Graves, the director, is an old
friend of mine of 30 years. They have extensive song writing class. I am
approaching three teachers of songwriting from their faculty about
involving their more advanced students.

Columbia College - My friend and bass player in my band is Doug Lofstrom
- professor of music at Columbia. He is putting me in touch with the
songwriting professor at that school. Doug himself is a composer of
modern classical and world music whose pieces have been played and
recorded by community orchestras nationwide. Instrumental songwriters
are welcome as well.

The Skokie Theater - Al Curtis has shown interest in doing a showcase on
his stage of the best performers to come out of this project. I am
performing as a painter on this stage throughout the summer. My band
"Archtop Brownie" is doing a CD release concert there August 1st. And I
will being two weekends (Fri Sat and Sun matinee) of "Will Rogers Now!"
there at the end of August.

Sam Ash Music Store - Buffalo Grove - My friend, Kevin Sender, is the
manager of this store which sponsors groups and may have an interest in
sponsoring this project. In return for displaying a banner at the
performances and on my web site there may be in-store coupons worth cash
amounts available to participants or perhaps the opportunity to buy
merchandise at special discount prices . This all remains to be seen.

Promotion

I have a local newsletter of my activities that goes out to over 100
people. Each participating songwriter/composer will be letting their
followings know of the project. The Baked Tomato does a robust pizza
delivery business and puts a flyer in every pizza box that goes out the
door. Plus, owner Steve Riordan has an email mailing list of 250 and he
is connected into the WFMT program "The Midnight Special" that broadcasts down the
street from the restaurant. His connection to that program makes it
possible to encourage those audience members to come to our events.

Philosophy

This is not an open mike situation. Rather than having an audience full
of musicians who are just there waiting for their turn to play, the
intention here is to get an audience from the general public. Jam
sessions and open mikes abound around the city but venues where proven
songwriters are featured do not. "Proven" doesn't mean they have to be
professionals. It simply means they will have to submit a recording to
me so I know that they can play and carry a tune. We want this to be a
forum for serious songwriters. I plan on interviewing each performer on
stage before they do their 3 or 4 songs. I may be wrong but I'm betting
that songwriters that stay away from open mikes might come to this. A
well lit performance space with a good sound system, an elevated stage,
a focused audience and an MC intent on featuring their work should be
attractive to artists that wouldn't otherwise participate. ... and of
course they would be free to sell their CD's.