• Facebook
  • Youtube
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • Mail
Contributor Login
  • 0Shopping Cart
FolkWorks
  • Home
  • Events
  • Features
  • Resources
  • About Us
  • Archives
  • Contact
  • DONATE
  • Search
  • Menu Menu

A Still Small Voice 4U 2021 Songwriting Contest Awards

By Ron Cooke

A Still Small Voice 4U 2021 Songwriting Contest

Award Announcement

A Still Small Voice 4U is pleased to announce the winners of the 2021 Songwriting Contest. The songwriters were asked to create a new song in the response to the theme which was “Louder Than The Guns” from the Phil Ochs song “When I’m Gone.” A Still Small Voice 4U Inc. provided $2500 in awards to the contest “winners” although all the songwriters were truly winners. Twenty two songwriters submitted entries.

Criteria:
The primary focus was on the lyrics – did they tell the story, paint the picture, were they creative and well crafted, and did they address the theme? Second, did the music support and enhance the lyrics? Overall, was the song compelling? Did it have an emotional impact? Did I want to listen to it again? And finally, did I want to play it for my listeners? Was it “Music They Don’t Want You to Hear”?

Award Winners

$500 Awards

Linda Sussman | We Will Rise
Linda had this to say about writing her song. “What moves people to stand up to those in power? A child without hope, lost connections to the past, poverty and inequality drive people to resist, even in the face of overwhelming odds. “We Will Rise” celebrates the belief that right is always stronger than might and when the pain of injustice becomes too great, people’s voice of resistance can indeed be louder than guns.”

In the final frames in the video for this song Linda adds this stanza:
Speak Up, Push Back
Stand Up Together
Together, A Better World

The video amplifies the powerful message of Linda’s song through a series of images that captures the essence of the struggle for peace and justice in America.

Laura E Zucker | Louder Than The Guns
For Laura the issue was very personal: “As the mother of three, my heart aches for those parents who have lost their children to gun violence. Add to that number the brothers, sisters, spouses, friends who have suffered an untimely, PREVENTABLE loss. I absolutely cannot fathom that even the slaughter of a classroom of 5 year-olds has not moved our nation to adopt common sense gun control. I despair that we seem to have accepted this as normal.

There are days that I wake up and think what it would feel like if I lived in a country were gun violence was the exception, rather than the rule. Mass shootings are now reported along with the weather, and road construction. I am heartsick and how inured we have become to the loss of life at the hands of people who should never have had guns in the first place. No ordinary citizen needs an AK-47 with a high-capacity magazine. Too many mothers and fathers have lost their children to senseless gun violence, while our elected officials do nothing.”

 

Tret Fure | Louder Than the Guns
Tret expressed a frustration that many of us feel about people who refuse to take simple steps to protect their community. “I wrote this song out of frustration towards the people who choose not to mask or get vaccinated. Masking should still be mandatory and vaccinations as well until you have medical reasons. I know we don’t all agree on this but we have lost too many people needlessly due to the carelessness of some.

This is a song that has been shouting to come out. The frustration I feel just doesn’t go away and the insensitivity of some people who care more about their so called ‘rights’ than the greater good of humanity is just baffling to me. There is an undeniable rage swirling around us that is louder than any gun.”

https://folkworks.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/01-Louder-Than-The-Guns-1.0-2021-1.mp3

$1000 Award

Aidan Quin & Christine Stay, Friction Farm | Louder Than Guns
Christine had this to say about writing this song. “Where we live in the rural south, guns are seen as a symbol of strength and conviction. Guns are decisive, focused, and active. Ready, aim, fire. How do we offer another point of view? How can we give an alternative to violence, desperation, or fear without attacking their core beliefs? We think the best way is to communicate kindness and compassion, to demonstrate tolerance and hope. Those can be powerful and effective as well. But we need to overcome some of our own fear and judgment to walk the walk not just sing the song.”

Congratulations to our awardees and to all the amazing singer songwriters who submitted songs. All the songs and their associated artist statements can be heard on Mixcloud at:

 

Share this entry
  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Pinterest
  • Share on LinkedIn
  • Share by Mail
https://folkworks.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/FrictionFarm-Photo.jpg 234 399 Ron Cooke https://folkworks.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/FolkWorks-logo-large.png Ron Cooke2021-11-23 15:55:032021-11-23 15:55:03

A Still Small Voice 4U 2021 Songwriting Contest Awards

By Ron Cooke

Categories

FolkWorks Partners

Join our E-mail Community

As a valued member of our e-mail community, you will receive updates on events, stories, performances and more in our monthly newsletter, along with the occasional special announcement to give you the latest news in folk/roots. We promise your e-mail is safe with us.  We don’t sell or share our database with any third-party vendors.

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

  • LIKE US ON FACEBOOK
  • JOIN THE FOLKWORKS FACEBOOK GROUP
  • BECOME A FOLKWORKS DONOR
  • ADVERTISE WITH US
YOU TUBE INSTAGRAM TWITTER EMAIL PRIVACY POLICY

All Material Copyright © 2001- 2021 FolkWorks. All rights reserved. Website by: Integritive

Scroll to top

This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website, analyze site traffic, and show event times in your timezone. By continuing to browse the site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies.

Accept

Cookie and Privacy Settings



How we use cookies

We may request cookies to be set on your device. We use cookies to let us know when you visit our websites, how you interact with us, to enrich your user experience, and to customize your relationship with our website.

Click on the different category headings to find out more. You can also change some of your preferences. Note that blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience on our websites and the services we are able to offer.

Essential Website Cookies

These cookies are strictly necessary to provide you with services available through our website and to use some of its features.

Because these cookies are strictly necessary to deliver the website, refusing them will have impact how our site functions. You always can block or delete cookies by changing your browser settings and force blocking all cookies on this website. But this will always prompt you to accept/refuse cookies when revisiting our site.

We fully respect if you want to refuse cookies but to avoid asking you again and again kindly allow us to store a cookie for that. You are free to opt out any time or opt in for other cookies to get a better experience. If you refuse cookies we will remove all set cookies in our domain.

We provide you with a list of stored cookies on your computer in our domain so you can check what we stored. Due to security reasons we are not able to show or modify cookies from other domains. You can check these in your browser security settings.

Other external services

We also use different external services like Google Webfonts, Google Maps, and external Video providers. Since these providers may collect personal data like your IP address we allow you to block them here. Please be aware that this might heavily reduce the functionality and appearance of our site. Changes will take effect once you reload the page.

Google Webfont Settings:

Google Map Settings:

Google reCaptcha Settings:

Vimeo and Youtube video embeds:

Privacy Policy

You can read about our cookies and privacy settings in detail on our Privacy Policy Page.

Privacy Policy