January 2013
Guild Tidings
The official publication of
The International Songwriters Guild
Volume 18, No. 1
NEXT MEETING - 5:00pm Sunday, January 6 2013
Officers:
Newsletter/Articles
Jeff Mason, jeffrey_mason@me.com
Meeting Coordinator/Critique scoring/CFMA Liason
Matthew Campbell, matthew_sax77@yahoo.com
Membership/Certificates/Contact
Susan Foster-Trewick, susiecool2001@yahoo.com
407-760-2153
E-mail Contact, isgorlando@gmail.com
Website
Carlos Colon, videosaysitall.fl@gmail.com
352-267-5911
Treasurer
Asli Goncer, asli@cfl.rr.com
Secretary
Jacquelyn Gould, songsuite@gmail.com
The International Songwriter’s Guild meets at 5 PM on the first Sunday of every month at the
Central Florida Musician’s Union building, 3020 East Robinson (at the extreme east end of
Robinson, near Orlando Executive Airport ) in Orlando.
Songwriters, composers, performers, publishers, and the curious are encouraged to join us. Non-
members are invited to attend a meeting or two to get a feel for our group and what we do. For
more information, visit our website at www.isgorlando.org or myspace page at
http://www.myspace.com/internationalsongwritersguildorlando
The meetings will be structured as follows: 5:00 to 5:30, business and introductions. 5:30 to
6:00, presentation by a guest speaker (when scheduled), 5:30 or 6:00 to 8:00, song critiques.
Please bring a CD or mp3 player or perform your song live, and bring 10 or more lyric sheets.
If we have at least 5 songs by members who wish to be scored, and 6 members scoring, then we will
have them entered in the Monthly competition. Everyone is encouraged to write constructive
comments on the lyric sheets.
All I Want for Christmas Is a Big Fat Royalty Check
By Jeff Mason
In his book The Craft and Business of Song Writing, John Braheny states that getting
a hit with a Christmas song is a very long shot. He’s probably right, but it’s not impossible. My edition
of Braheny’s book was bought over twelve years ago. That was before smart phones and tablets.
Now we have powerful musical software and studios in our homes. The big record companies no
longer monopolize the music industry. It’s possible to sneak through the back door and with a little
bit of luck and hard work to achieve that dream. Now we have YouTube and the chance of our song
going viral. It’s still a long shot, but it’s better than rushing down to your local convenience shop and
buying a Powerball ticket. At least we can have the comfort of trying to control our destiny by working
hard at our craft.
John Kehe is a staff writer for the Christian Science Monitor. Last week he wrote an article
asking why there were no new Christmas carols.
http://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Music/2012/1212/Why-no-new-Christmas-carols
He has a good point because most of our favorite Christmas carols were written a long time ago.
Songs like Away In A Manger (1885); Silent Night (1818) and We Three Kings (1857) are hardy
perennials. Even the newer songs are old; White Christmas (1942) and Rudolph The Red Nosed
Reindeer (1948). Mr Kehe later concedes that Mariah Carey’s upbeat All I Want For Christmas
Is You (1994) is on it’s way to becoming a Christmas standard. Perhaps it takes eighteen years
for a piece to become a so-called standard. I like Kehe’s description of today’s music business
as a “digital free-for-all.”
The life of a song can take many unusual and unexpected twists and turns. Sometimes
a song is released and lies dormant for many years. Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah (1984) has
traveled from obscurity to being recorded by over three hundred artists. Alan Light’s new book,
The Holy Or The Broken: Leonard Cohen, Jeff Buckley And The Unlikely Ascent Of Hallelujah
is dedicated to the song’s unusual journey.
In 1941 Katherine Davis wrote a song that she titled The Carol of the Drum. Imagine
her surprise when eighteen years later a friend called to tell her that her carol was being played
everywhere on the radio. Davis’s song had become a hit with a new title and some small changes.
There was no mention of her as composer and lyricist. Katherine was able to prove authorship
and secure credit and royalties for her newly titled song The Little Drummer Boy. A song idea is
like a seed and a song is like a plant. Sometimes it takes a while for that song to truly bloom.
Leigh Haggerwood is a pianist and composer from London, England. He was
lamenting the absence of new Christmas music and decided to take matters into his own hands.
Unable to get major record company backing for his song My Favourite Time of the Year (2010)
he paid for it’s production with funds from his own savings account. The accompanying video
reminds me of a Victorian Christmas card and was shot at Blists Hill Victorian Town in Shropshire.
It has a genuine feel good quality to it and through social media has amassed over a million hits on
YouTube. People are calling it a future classic. The music production was recorded at Trevor Horn’s
Sam Studios and has a large ensemble of musicians and singers collectively known as The Florin
Street Band (www.florinstreet.com),
Although it’s not as big a video favorite as Korean pop star’s Park Jae-sang’s Gangnam
Style it gives me a reason to be optimistic about the future of music. We are surely living in a time
when songs about peace and goodwill are needed. Happy Christmas and I’ll see you next month.
ISG Bulletin Board
Videography and website management services at a price you CAN AFFORD. Capturing your wedding or
event on video may not be in your budget but you’re hoping that you may have something left over
to hire a videographer. I will fit your budget. My goal is to offer my services to those who
otherwise would have to pass because of funds. This is your special day and you most definitely
want to capture those moments. Visit my website at http://www.videosaysitall.com . Thanks and
call me anytime (352-267-5911)…Carlos Colon
Meeting space graciously provided by Central Florida Musicians Association, Local 389. You are
invited to join the largest union in the world, representing the interests of the professional
musician. Visit their website at afm389.org for more information. You may reach them by phone
at: 407-894-8666.
We’re always looking for material for the newsletter. If you have any information that you would
like to see added to the newsletter, please see Jeff Mason at the meetings or email him at
jeffrey_mason@me.com . Please keep your articles brief and to the point. Print deadline for the
newsletter is approximately two weeks prior to the monthly meeting.
Classified advertising may be placed free of charge to members in good standing with the ISG.
For more information on display advertising and/or classified advertising for non-members, please
contact Jeff by the print deadline (usually the Friday 16 days prior to the monthly meeting);
email is best ( jeffrey_mason@me.com ).
Why isn't your gig announced here? Call us with your appearance schedule!
Open Mic Night hosted by Matthew "Sax" Campbell
Thursdays, 7-10pm, sign-up starts at 6:45
Quokka Coffee
131 Broadway Ave. (corner of Broadway & Monument)
Kissimmee, FL 34741
free music
Organic fair trade coffee, beer, wine, sandwiches, salads, and pastries with specials
Full P.A. and 6 string acoustic guitar provided
family-friendly atmosphere
Rain or shine
Matthew
Jeff Mason Gig Schedule
Tijuana Flats,
444 S. Hunt Club Blvd,
Apopka, Fl, 32703,
407 774 0402
Tuesdays from 6 p.m.
Weather Permitting
Current members please send us your website info if you would like your site to be listed in the
ISG members page. Also if you have any songs that have placed first in the monthly critiques,
please send the mp3's to isgorlando@gmail.com if you would like to have them featured in the ISG
MySpace page. http://www.myspace.com/internationalsongwritersguildorlando
Past Certificate winners can be found at
https://sites.google.com/site/isgsusiecool/home/resultslist-2
No Critique competition for December.
New members always welcome!
© 2012 ISG