Bios
Kalamazoo, MI NSAI Group
My name is James Leo Oliver and I am one of four regional workshop coordinators working with a great group of local songwriters through an organization known as the Nashville Songwriters Association International. The Kalamazoo, Michigan NSAI Regional Workshop serves individuals coming from the cities of Battle Creek, Grand Rapids, Holland, Marshall and of course Kalamazoo. I founded the workshop over ten years ago and have since been joined by fellow co-coordinators Rene Meave, Jane Oliver and Susan Harrison. Brown and Brown Recording Studios has allowed us meeting space during the fall, winter and spring months and during the summer we meet at the Palamazoo Barn. This venue has a stage and is where we have an annual “Putluck and Pull†which is a meal and performance by and for members, family and friends of the organization. We have a group of about eight to twelve writers and visitors that come to the meetings each month. The Kalamazoo workshop has the blessing of an NSAI Adopt-A-Shop Pro Walt Aldridge who meets with us occasionally in Michigan, offers us input on songs and allows us to visit him if we are in Nashville. We have a regular monthly program or guest speaker, do song evaluations at each meeting and encourage co-writing among the membership. Our group has had numerous single song publishing deals, have songs featured on a number of indie albums and have released musical projects of our own. Thanks for the opportunity to introduce ourselves and we appreciate your support.
Nebraska Chapter of NSAI
I am Robert DeBusk the Coordinator for the Nebraska chapter of the NSAI. I have met Susan (perhaps she remembers). I am sure you meet a lot of folks.
I got really excited when I read your e-tips (which I use a lot in our meetings) about the group offer for getting a free Demo.
I started our chapter 4 years ago. Our first year was a smash,writers came out of the woodwork.We gained a lot of new members but in time this has fallen some.
We have approx. a dozen writers from across the state who regularly attend.
We were doing a freewill donation concert (with special guest each time) every other month at the place we have our meetings. They recently remodeled so they don't have room any more there. But the money we raised went to various charities.
We are just finishing our 4th compilation CD. We sell these to make money to bring in special guest to do seminars. We have had Rick Beresford, Jerry Vandiver, Steve Seskin, Terry Smith and Brad Colerick, to name a few.
We have played many venues across Nebraska including the State Fair and we will play there again Aug. 31st.
As an aside, at last year's State Fair Songwriting Contest, 4 out of the top 5 were from our group and my song took 10th. So we were very happy about that. There were over a hundred entries.
Thank you so much for all that you folks do and please give us a consideration for this offer.
Songwriters of Central Ohio (SOCO)
What an incredibly generous offer you’ve made to the songwriter groups out there! Thank you, too, for all of the great things that you do for songwriters—including The Songwriters Connection and your many presentations to songwriters. I enjoyed and gained a lot from the information that you shared at last year’s Songposium and look forward to seeing you again this year. I was also extremely impressed when I had the chance to observe your masterful production of three song demos for friends last year, using top musicians and demo-singers. This certainly makes me particularly aware of the incredible value of having the opportunity to have you produce a demo—no less for free.
I would like to submit SONGWRITERS OF CENTRAL OHIO for your “ALL FOR THE GROUP” free song demo consideration. I am the founder and facilitator of SOCO, which was started slightly more than four-and-a-half years ago, to build a strong songwriting community in our area and give songwriters a “home” to learn about all aspects of crafting a song, as well as about the music business. Central Ohio has many wonderful and experienced songwriters and it has been gratifying to see them come together within our community.
Our monthly meetings focus on various elements of great writing: lyric development-- rhyme schemes, cadence, conversational lyrics, story-telling, digging deep and painting word pictures; music theory; contrast and variation; song structure, and prosody. In addition, the music business and how the pieces fit together are important components of our workshops. The critique session ends each meeting and is considered a cornerstone to advancing our songwriting skills. Each attendee understands that they remain “the king or queen of their songdom”, but that the feedback we receive from each other is critical in assessing whether we have accomplished our goal of evoking emotion and interest in our listeners. The group is a wonderful support team, encouraging on-going growth and improvement, while setting the bar at “excellence”. Individual goal-setting is strongly encouraged and recognized, as an important step in designing a roadmap to success.
SOCO has no dues. At each meeting we pass an envelope and those in attendance (generally 10 to 20 songwriters) put in what they feel they can afford. A number of our attendees drive 30 to 50 miles each way, and we understand that this is a tremendous commitment in and of itself.
Our Songwriters of Central Ohio members are active in a range of songwriting organizations such as Nashville Songwriters Association International, SongU.com, TAXI, Tennessee Songwriters Association International, and others. At least eight of our monthly attendees are members of a Performing Rights Organization. A number of our group make periodic trips to Nashville for co-writing, workshops, pitching and having songs demoed-- actively pursuing songwriting as professionals. As workshop leader, I attend at least thirty national workshops a year (including NSAI, TSAI, ASCAP, BMI, TAXI), by some of the most-respected names in songwriting and the music business, so that our group always has the freshest information from the top thinkers in the industry.
One of the most exciting aspects of building “community” is discovering the exceptional talent of writers within our group and area, and taking advantage of their expertise. Many highly acclaimed songwriters have been very generous in sharing their experience and knowledge with our songwriting group. At our most recent meeting, Rj Cowdery, a winner of the 2008 Kerrville Folk Festival, talked to our group about her songwriting and performing career, then stayed to offer insightful comments during the critique session. At this meeting, not only did we have a Kerrville winner, but one of our members, Keith Larsen, was the 2007 CMT/NSAI Song Competition “Listeners’ Choice” Winner (by 44% of the vote--out of 15 finalists), as well as another member, Rita Case, who was a previous Merlefest finalist, as well as a runner up in Unisong.
Cliff Cody, a wonderful songwriter currently signed with EMI Nashville (and who had a song on Julie Roberts’ Men and Mascara CD) has spoken to our group twice, and has been a delightful resource for us. Our July SOCO meeting featured a panel presentation, with four performing songwriters with CDs for national distribution, on “Building Your Own CD—the Whole Enchilada”. Another member, Dave Preston, has been presenting an on-going series on “Guitar Chords for Songwriters” as part of our meetings, with a focus on music theory. We’ve had several major workshops with Nashville songwriters and the next one is scheduled for October 25th with Brian White (“I’ve Been Watching You”), who has also been a presenter at NSAI Symposium and the upcoming Songposium.
As part of our community-building, we started our Songwriters of Central Ohio Yahoo! group several years ago, and currently have 73 songwriters on this site. It is open to all Central Ohio songwriters, but is by invitation only to insure that our focus remains on songwriting and the music business. Our folks are encouraged to use it to share information about songwriting and songwriting events, to ask questions, to network and even to post lyrics for feedback.
Thank you again, Kim, for providing this wonderful opportunity! I’d love to see the conscientious and hard-working songwriters in our group be selected for this honor. I am delighted to have this exceptional local community of creative songwriters with which to share our love of both the muse and the editor.
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Kudos for Kim Copeland Productions
"Hi Kim,
Thank you so much for the opportunity you provided in demoing Chris Yarber's and my song yesterday. It was an unbelievable education getting to watch the whole process and hear it all come together at the end of the day. I knew I was watching total pros working and I could tell you had a great grip on the songs and knew how to capture the best possible performance. It was obvious you were in your element!!
I knew of Tim Buppert's reputation for being one of the very top demo singers in town and was surprised and happy to see that he was doing the vocals. Again, it was amazing to see the level of professionalism he brought to it, how dead on he was with the phrasing, and how much more he was able to add by virtue of a such a great voice.
I know I only saw the "tip of the iceberg" and realize there is a whole lot of behind the scenes effort on your part, both before and after the session, and I want you to know how appreciative I am of everything you did to make this session possible. I also want to thank you and Susan both, for everything you've done and continue to do for developing writers like myself. I'll give a full report to the SOCO group and Jacque Morgan at our next meeting, and highly endorse your demo service and the educational opportunities provided thru the Songwriter's Connection.
Best Regards,
Keith Larsen"
"Kim,
I just listened to the demo that you produced for Songwriters-of-Central-Ohio member Keith Larsen, of his "All for the Group" winning song, "Everything". Wow! It sounded absolutely great! You, the musicians and Tim Buppert's super vocals were a perfect mesh with Keith's excellent song!
I had already shared with my group what a fantastic and professional job you do in the studio and how much I enjoyed spending a day there watching several songs come together beautifully under your skillful direction.
Thank you and Susan Tucker so much for this wonderful and generous opportunity for members of songwriting groups everywhere! As founder of Songwriters of Central Ohio, I am very proud of the songwriters who participate in our group, who are striving to hone their songwriting skills, and who participated in your "All For the Group" competition!
Best wishes to you!
Jacque Morgan"
"Kim,
I am a member of Songwriters of Central Ohio and wanted to thank you and Susan for the contest opportunity and also give you some feedback. Being new to many aspects of the music business, I had not seriously considered the value of a producer to a singer/songwriter demo, as I have heard good demo results without an "official" producer. But you have been successful in establishing that value for me. There is a lot to be gained by allowing creative expertise to enrich a song's creation.
I look forward to working with you in the future when I have that special song!
Thanks again,
Kimbal Robbins" |
