Bud Bierhaus (Katy, Texas), Charlie Chamberlain (Nashville, TN), Karen Dahlstrom (Brooklyn, NY), Gabe Israel (New York, NY), Claire Kelly (Nashville. TN), Sidney Kenley (Austin, TX), China Kent (Lakewood, CO), Lia Menaker (Philadelphia, PA), Giulia Millanta (Austin, TX), Sarah Morris (Shoreview, MN), Amanda Murari (Ypsilanti, MI), Natalie Price ((Madison, TN), Teni Rane (Chattanooga, TN), Stephanie Sammons (Dallas, TX), and Alicia Stockman (Heber City, UT) were selected as semifinalists by a panel of judges comprised of Susan Gibson, Josh Grider, Kim Richey, and Walt Wilkins.

There were no fees to enter the annual competition that was established in 2007 to provide performing songwriters with a platform to showcase their skills before their peers, a panel of esteemed judges and an appreciative audience of Americana, folk and roots music lovers. Songwriters had to submit four songs in mp3 format that were written and/or copyrighted within the last three years. They were evaluated based on lyrics (imagery, story, creativity, and originality), melody (structure, phrasing and rhythm), and performing ability (vocals, musicianship). Stage presence/audience rapport will also be taken into consideration during the semifinals and finals.

Each of the 15 semifinalists will perform two songs before the judges and an audience from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Following an hour-long lunch break, seven selected finalists will perform one different original song between 3 and 4 p.m. Prize money will be awarded to all participants immediately after the finals, while an awards ceremony is slated for 4:30 p.m. Ken Gaines, an award-winning singer-songwriter and former longtime host of a songwriters’ series at Houston’s famed Anderson Fair, will be the event’s emcee. Public tickets for the concert may be purchased online at songwriterserenade.com, where more information also may be found.

In addition to prize money, the first-place winner in the Songwriter Serenade will open a concert featuring the judges that evening at the TR Ranch in Halletsville, TX. Tickets for the concert, slated for 7-9 p.m., also may be purchased online.

Free room and board at the ranch is being provided to all of the semifinalists over the weekend. They will enjoy a Friday night barbecue and participate in a songwriting workshop with the judges on Sunday.

NERFA (nerfa.org) is one of five North American regional affiliates of Folk Alliance International, a nonprofit organization that aims to serve, strengthen and engage the global folk music community through preservation, presentation and promotion — and the only one to host its annual conference both in-person and online this year. Southwest Regional Folk Alliance (SWRFA) and Folk Alliance Region Midwest (FARM) held in-person conferences in September and October, respectively, while Southeast Regional Folk Alliance (SERFA) held its 2022 conference in the spring and Folk Alliance Region-West opted not to host one this year.

As in years past, the NERFA conference will feature several jam-packed days and nights of music showcases, song swaps and jam sessions; open mics; one-on-one mentoring and peer group sessions; an exhibit hall; keynote speakers, awards; a community meeting; an open-sing; and lots of informal conversation and networking. The conference is designed to help attendees forge connections and build community, while also providing learning and performance opportunities that can help enhance their professional and personal lives.

Unlike previous NERFA conferences, all of the events will not take place in one location. While the Berkeley Oceanfront Hotel will be home to much of the in-person conference, Formal Showcases will be held at The Stone Pony — a venerable music club located just a few minutes away from it. NERFA Awards will also be presented there, as will two of the conference’s three nightly keynote addresses.

Artists Showcase Their Talents at The Stone Pony, the Host Hotel and Online

The juried formal showcases are considered the premiere performance opportunity during the conference. From among hundreds of submissions, 20 artists/acts were chosen to perform in-person at The Stone Pony, while another 20 were awarded virtual showcase opportunities. All will be streamed online for virtual ticket holders, while Saturday’s in-person formal showcases also are open to the public for $15 plus a service fee in advance via nerfaconference.org/tickets/ or $20 at the venue.

Virtual formal showcasing performers – each of whom submitted a pre-recorded live video – include Deidre McCalla, Emily Drinker, Genevieve Racette, Greg Greenway, ilyAIMY, Joshua Garcia, Justin Farren, Kray Van Kirk, Larry & Joe, Madison Violet, Natalie Price, Palmyra, Peter Calo, Rachael Sage, Rupert Wates, Sam Robbins, Shanna in a Dress, Taylor Abrahamse, and Travis Knapp. In addition to being screened online, all 20 virtual formal showcases will be presented on-site via a theater-sized video wall in the exhibit hall that will be open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on both Friday and Saturday.

Conference attendees will also have the opportunity to enjoy a Saturday afternoon showcase presented by Folk Music Ontario and the opening night’s Suzi Wollenberg Folk DJ Showcase that will feature short performances by seven artists/acts selected by folk DJs, along with a keynote address by Sarah Craig, executive director of Caffe Lena in Saratoga Springs, NY — America’s longest continuously operating folk club. Following the juried and folk DJ showcases each evening, a number of private showcases curated by conference attendees will be held in various hotel rooms from 10 p.m. through the early morning hours on Thursday-Saturday overnight. Some hosts may also livestream their in-person showcases, while others are hosting virtual showcases.

Panel Discussions and Workshops Explore a Variety of Topics

The conference’s programming committee has created a streamlined array of 60-90 minute panel discussions and workshops. These include “Artists & Presenters: Safe Expectations & Boundaries,” “Blurring the Boarder: Do’s, Don’ts and Musts to Ensure a Successful Crossing,” “Bringing Your Venue Online,” “Coming Back from Quarantine – House Concert Edition,” “A Crash Course in Cutting the Cord & Becoming a Full-Time Musician,” “The Current State of Marketing Yourself,” “Defining Success in Your Career,” “Editing Videos for Fun and Profit,” “Export Ready – Preparing Yourself for a New Marketplace,” “How to Return from the Pandemic Stronger,” “How to Seize Financial Opportunities,” “The Ins & Outs of Co-writing,” “Keep the Story Going (The Lifecycle of a Song),” “Lifecycle of Record Production & Release,” “The Reality of Touring for Working Artists,” and “Recording Remotely.”

David Amram (“the renaissance man of American music”) and Vance Gilbert (a veteran touring singer-songwriter and past keynote speaker) will conduct performance critique sessions, while Jean Rohe and acclaimed singer-songwriter Dar Williams present songwriting workshops. Ron Olesko (a veteran folk DJ and the creator & curator of Folk Music Notebook) moderates a Wisdom of the Elders panel discussion featuring Kari Estrin (a radio promoter and artist development & career consultant), Mitch Greenhiill (a musician, composer, producer, and president of the music agency FLiArtists) and Biff Kennedy (an artist manager and radio promoter).

Virtual Tickets Enabling Online Access to the Conference for 30 or 365 Days are Still Available for Purchase

Virtual tickets that afford you online access to all official virtual conference programming (including live-streamed panel discussions and workshops, formal showcases and keynotes, as well as virtual private showcases) for 30/365 days following the conference are available for $35/$50 plus service fees at nerfaconference.org/tickets/.

“Gathering in person after two years of making connections though our online events is going to be so lovely,” said Dalis Allen, SWRFA’s executive director and longtime conference coordinator. “Everyone is so excited! We have many new folks attending – joining our team of folks that have continued to make our SWRFA conference the welcoming event that it is.”

Prior to the official start of the conference on Thursday, folks will converge on Austin’s NeWorlDeli on Wednesday night for a party and meet & greet during which many registered artists will e afforded an opportunity to perform a song. Similarly, there will be an open mic during a pool party at the Holiday Inn-Midtown, the conference’s host hotel, on Thursday night, along with a meal courtesy of Berkalin Records. Prior to the pool party, there will be several panels during the mid-late afternoon.

Performing Artists Will Have Lots of Opportunities to Showcase Their Talents; Official Showcases are Open to the Public on Friday and Saturday Nights

A number of unplugged in-room showcases will follow the Official Showcases on Friday and Saturday overnight from 10:30 p.m. to 2 a.m. AcousticMusicScene.com’s in-room showcase on Saturday overnight will feature a Midnight Hoot preceded by several song swaps. Although the online publication for the folk, roots and singer-songwriter communities has hosted showcases at Northeast Regional Folk Alliance (NERFA) and Southeast Regional Folk Alliance (SERFA) conferences for many years, this marks the first time it is doing so during a SWRFA conference. A popular annual event at NERFA conferences since 2007, the AcousticMusicScene.com Midnight Hoot at the SWRFA conference will feature two-dozen artists/acts — each performing one song between midnight and 2 a.m. A house band is available to accompany any artists on request.

Here’s the AcousticMusicScene.com showcase schedule:

10:30 Song Swap: Catherine Miles & Jay Mafale, Shanna in a Dress

11:00 Song Swap: George Ensle, Tim Grimm

11:30 Texas Troubadours: Brian Kalinec, Randy Palmer, Joel White

12:00 AcousticMusicScene.com Midnight Hoot – Part 1
(One song per artist/act; order subject to change.)

Taylor Pie, Nancy K. Dillon, Michael Henchman, Libby Koch, Ken Gaines, Karyn Oliver, Jake Farr, Grace Morrison, Sarah Pierce, Kacey & Jenna, Roxi Copland, Erin Ivey

House Band: Merel Bregante (percussion), John Inman and Brian Kalinec (guitars)

1:00 AcousticMusicScene.com Midnight Hoot – Part 2
(One song per artist/act; order subject to change.)

Ryan Biter, Deidre McCalla, Carl Solomon, Carla Ulbrich, Vanessa Lively & Ben Bedford, Claudia Gibson, Alicia Stockman, Natalie Price, Carolyn Shulman, Dan Weber, Lynn McCracken

House Band: Merel Bregante (percussion), John Inman and Brian Kalinec (guitars)

The conference wraps up with an extended Sunday brunch during which songwriters who drew a random song assignment/topic upon picking up their credentials at the outset of the conference, will share the songs that they wrote over the weekend. “Getting to listen to the songs written during the conference from a prompt is still one of my very favorite things I do all year,” said Allen. Many artists and other conference attendees share her sentiments and have made the song-sharing event a longtime conference highlight.

SWRFA (swfolkalliance.org) is a regional affiliate of Folk Alliance International, a nonprofit organization that aims to serve, strengthen and engage the global folk music community through preservation, presentation and promotion. SWRFA includes the southwestern United States and Mexico.

Editor’s Note: Besides hosting a late-night song swaps and a midnight hoot during the SWRFA conference, I will assist PuffBunny Records (an indie label for which I provide PR counsel and services) with its in-room showcase and Taylor Pie with a Q & A following the screening of Nobody Famous, an award-winning documentary about her and the 1960s folk-pop trio Pozo Seco Singers of which she was the lead singer and a founding member (along with Don Williams and Lofton Kline). I also will take part in a panel discussion on showcasing and offer some mentoring sessions on various PR, social media and strategic communications topics. I am a board member of Folk Alliance International and NERFA.

The regional events provide useful and enjoyable learning and networking opportunities, not to mention plenty of listening and performing opportunities for artists, presenters, agents and managers, DJs, and others engaged in the folk music field. Booking gigs is a primary objective of some performing artists who attend these annual conferences, while many presenters and folk DJs come primarily to scout out new artists and those who they have not previously heard and seen in live performance. However, these conferences are much more than that – they are really about forging connections and building community.

FARM Gathering in Illinois to Feature 14 Official Showcase Artists/Acts

The 14 artists/acts slated to perform during Official Showcases at the 2022 FARM Gathering on the evenings of October 21 and 22 are (listed alphabetically by last name or group name) Basset, Buffalo Rose, Sienna Christie, Djangophonique, Gina Forsyth, Ben Gage, Tim Grimm, House of Hamill, Jordan Hamilton, Donna Herula Trio, Spencer LaJoye, Annie Mack, Steam Machine, and Rupert Wates. Named as alternates were Tret Fure and Kelly Hunt featuring Stas Heaney. They were chosen from among nearly 170 entries. The FARM Gathering extends from October 20-23 at Doubletree Lisle Naperville in Lisle, Illinois -– near Chicago. Conversations and workshops during this year’s gathering will focus around themes of inclusion through song, storytelling, and community building. Grammy Award-winner Dom Flemons, The American Songster, will deliver a keynote address. While last year’s conference took place solely online, the 2022 Gathering will feature a combination of in-person and virtual content. For more information, visit farmfolk.org.

SWRFA Taps 16 Artists/Acts for its Official Showcases in Austin, Texas

SWRFA will host eight official showcases on Friday night, September 23 and another eight on Saturday night, September 24. The showcasing artists are listed below in order of performance (subject to change if needed). Sept. 23: Jean Rohe, David Starr, Karyn Oliver, Noah Zacharin, Deidre McCalla, Grace Morrison, Javier Jara, and Violet Bell. Sept. 24: Vanessa Lively, Erin Ivey, George Ensle, Shanna in a Dress, Abigail Lapell, Catherine Miles & Jay Mafale, Natalie Price, and Justin Farren. The Official Showcases will be held in the ballroom at the Holiday Inn-Midtown in Austin, Texas. In addition, an Alternates Official Showcase featuring Alicia Stockman, Beth//James, Ryan Biter, Leeann Atherton, Jason Erie, and Wild Ponies will take place in another room at the hotel following a pool party on Thursday night, September 22. The 23rd Annual SWRFA Conference extends from September 21-25. For more information, visit swfolkalliance.org.

A Bit About FAI, NERFA and Other Regional Affiliates

Northeast Regional Folk Alliance (NERFA.org), which draws the largest number of people to its annual conferences of any FAI region, will announce its juried Formal Showcase artists in August. Its conference is slated for November 10-13 in Asbury Park, New Jersey, with Formal Showcases at the legendary Stone Pony. A hybrid event, much of the NERFA conference will also be livestreamed. Although NERFA is no longer accepting applications for its in-person formal showcases, conference attendees (in-person and virtual) may still apply for virtual showcases until August 15. Artists must be registered for the conference in order to do so.

Folk Alliance Region-West (FAR-West) has opted not to host a conference this year, while Southeast Regional Folk Alliance (SERFA) annual conference attendees converged on Black Mountain, North Carolina in May and will again.

Folk Alliance International (folk.org) — which hosts its 35th annual conference, February 1-5, 2023 in Kansas City, Missouri — is a nonprofit organization that aims to serve, strengthen and engage the global folk music community – traditional and contemporary, amateur and professional – through preservation, presentation and promotion. Its conference theme is Facing the Future: Sustainability on Folk Music.

Editor’s Note: I serve on the boards of directors of both Folk Alliance International and NERFA and am a past president of NERFA. I have been a workshop presenter, moderator and/or mentor at FAI, FARM virtual, FAR-West, NERFA and SERFA conferences and will be participating in this year’s SWRFA conference. I am not involved in the selection of juried showcase artists, although I host late-night showcases under the banner of AcousticMusicScene.com at conferences.