"Louisiana Hold My Baby" is nominated for the John Lenon Songwriting Contest best R&B song for 2014.

Hey it looks like one of my songs was nominated for best R&B song in the John Lennon songwriting contest!  Pretty cool - if you haven't heard it yet, it's up on their site as a stream in it's entirety.  Check it out, pass it on and let me know what you think about it.   First time I've even come close to winning something so it's pretty cool.  And hey, even though it didn't get 1st place, the process was really interesting and I'm just glad to know that this song is at least a part of a bigger piece of the puzzle out there now.   The link  is here:

http://jlsc.com/winners/2014b/finalists.php

And a video of the band performing Louisiana Hold My Baby live:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL0jwNa780Vajs55szI7elv6mtk7aoDNvS&v=OefNotPtMjs

I thought I'd post the questions and answers I wrote about the song for the contest, too:

1.  How was the song recorded?  What equipment did you use?  Who is singing? - The song was recorded in Lafayette, LA at Evangeline Studios.  We started with the vocal and the acoustic guitar with the Drums and Bass live in the other room.  Later I went back and redid the vocals, acoustic guitar and added electric guitars. I wanted to have as much live as possible but not lose any quality in the vocals.  The backing musicians are Frank Kincel on drums and Lee Allen Zeno on Bass.

2.   What inspired the creation of your song?  Many of the people in the Acadiana area around Lafayette either work offshore or have family members that do.  After the Deep Water Horizon explosion it really shook me how much was lost in an instant in the lives of the 11 men that died.  I know that after the explosion, the national focus was on the environmental damage which is incalculably disastrous but I could not and can not stop thinking about how that must have felt to be there on their last day and what they may have left behind.  The song came about one day like it was a story of someone I knew but I didn't know who it was.  The lyrics and refrain all came together in the one sitting.  There was actually a lot more to their story but basically the couple in the song are in the middle of a fight.  The man works on an oil rig and often uses his two weeks offshore to basically run from the pressures of their marriage.  In the song he is about to come home and he's made up his mind to make things work and stop running away.

3. What are your backgrounds and influences?  I'm very influenced by writers and singers with a  Blues/Soul/Country blend in their styles – mainly from (or influenced by) the 60's and 50's Blues and Soul scenes - such as: Arthur Alexander, Sam Cooke, Ted Hawkins, Ray Charles, Otis Redding.  Also, a wide range of Louisiana artists like: Percy Mayfield, Guitar Slim, Dave Egan, Clifton Chenier, Earl King and Irma Thomas. I became heavily influenced by using the combination of the acoustic guitar and voice while building guitars for Collings in Austin, TX.

4. What are your goals as a songwriter? To write a variety of songs and stories that talk about people in the world who need their story told. Hopefully these songs will be heard by more people someday. But I will continue to perform them wherever I can for whoever I can no matter what the outcome of the business end of these songs.

5. Is there anything else we should know or that you can tell us about yourself that
makes your “story” unique? Much of my interest started in Cleveland through the Blues radio shows but was inspired more through my stay in France where I started my first band. Later, when I first moved to Austin, TX to listen to the great musicians from Antone's, I started my own Blues-based bands there in 1997 and eventually was drawn to Louisiana in 2003 when I joined up with a Zydeco band. Since moving to Lafayette, I have written material for and released four original CD's. I've also recorded with Henry Gray and the Cats, Carol Fran and Thomas Fields. Since moving to Louisiana I have felt at home with the combination of French, roots music, great musicians and supportive fans.

---