Keith Rust and Pete Miller from Crystal Clear Studios to Speak at May 14th Meeting

Have you ever wished you could go to Nashville or L.A. and demo your songs in a professional studio with great session players? Save your money and do it here in Dallas! Keith Rust, studio manager at Crystal Clear Sound, a fixture on the northern Texas recording studio scene since 1979 will speak at the May 14th 2nd Tuesday Meeting.

http://www.crystalclearstudios.com/songwriterdemo.php

Aside from its recording and mastering studios, Crystal Clear Sound also provides CD, DVD and cassette duplication, music distribution, band wear and other services. For more information,

visit the company online at

http://www.crystalclearstudios.com/

https://www.facebook.com/petemillermusic

Musicians Museum Curator to Speak April 9

THOMAS (TK) KREASON, who is the curator of the Texas Musicians Museum, as well as, a promotor of guitar shows and concerts.
Last year he produced the Texas Music Expo at the Irving Convention Center. Here's what the Irving Rambler had to say about the show.  http://www.irvingrambler.com/index.php/newsx/682-texas-music-expo-may-be-just-the-start-of-something-big 

Texas Musicians Museum is currently working on a deal to relocate to downtown Irving,” TK said. “We are working with the City, and hopefully we will be able to open sometime in the beginning of the year or by early spring. The City and most of the people with the City are real excited to have us. We are planning to do a lot of live music events at the museum.”
    Formerly located in Waxahachie, the museum has been homeless since a fire last July. The museum boasts the world’s largest collection of Texas music history on display anywhere in the world. Its archives contain almost $1 million in stage outfits, record awards, recordings and other music related items. http://www.utsandiego.com/uniontrib/20080127/news_1t27texmusic.html

Cary Cooper Announces Song of the Year on March 12

 Cary will share her whirl-wind year, which included serious camera time on Troubadour, Tx and a Kickstarter program that has gained almost $30,000.

After she speaks, about her year, we'll break, then come back for the Song of the Year revealing. Cary is going to give comments on the top 5 songs, which we will also play. Of course, we will recognize the winner with a nice tee shirt and, later, a certificate. 



http://www.carycooper.com

Kevin Deal to Speak at the 2nd Tuesday Workshop on February 12th

Kevin Deal from Guitar Center

Kevin is one of the Sales Representatives for our GC Pro office at the North Dallas store. As a GC Pro associate he consults and assists clients in discovering audio/video solutions for their needs. Music has been a part of his life for as long as he can remember.  Before life at Guitar Center he ventured across the US and Europe touring, scoring films and video games under the music project Bexarametric. He graduated from Texas State University in 2004, and started his career at Guitar Center 2005.

We'll also be celebrating Fat Tuesday, so bring your party self. Prizes for person who gets the baby from the King Cake.

Critiques will follow. Bring your best love song.

We'll be meeting a a new location, The Point Center at CC Young, 4847 West Lawther  • Dallas, Texas 75214 • 214-827-8080 • http://www.ccyoung.org/site/409/The_Point.aspx

DSA 2nd Tuesday Meeting, January 8

Dr Terry Fansler will be our guest speaker.

One of the leading music industry analysts in the country,  Dr. Fansler makes some exciting and insightful predictions about where the Music Industry is headed and how you can make its cataclysmic changes work for your career.

Dr. Fansler is the Director of Studies in Music Business at Dallas Baptist University, one of the most exciting music programs in the country. DBU offers many degree programs in music -- all of which are infused with an emphasis on "entrepreneurship." For more about Terry, click on link belowhttp://www3.dbu.edu/fine_arts/Faculty/MusicFaculty-TerryFansler.asp 

2nd Tuesday Meeting Location moved to Tino's for Open Mic Christmas Party

Christmas Party - Open Mic - Food - Door Prizes

DEC. 11, 6:30 - Location moved for party

Come out and celebrate the season with fellow members. There will be an open Mic at Tino's Mexican Cafe inside Collin Creek Mall. We'll do a round of carols, round of covers and a round of original christmas songs. Buck Morgan will be the host and he says, 

        "We are starting off with cover tunes, a real change of pace from us songwriters.  I'm hoping we'll have folks with songs that represent all the decades from the 40s to present. Hope you'll bring your cover. It might be fun if it's a familiar one that we can all sing along to."

DSA will provide appetizers. Cash bar. FREE Bring a friend.

DALLAS SONGWRITERS ASSOCIATION WISHES YOU A ROCKIN' HOLIDAY SEASON

Tuesday November 13, Annual Membership Meeting, Elections and Guest Speaker, Helene Cronin

DSA will hold it's annual membership meeting and elections on November 13, at the Center for Community Cooperation, 2900 Live Oak, at 7PM. Please plan to submit your nominations for your governing Board of Directors.

Following elections our guest speaker will be Helene Cronin, who has a song called LUCKY ME that has been played on YouTube over 120,000 times! 

LUCKY ME--SOLDIER SONG BRINGS ADMIRATION, AND MAYBE A HIT?

Suggested story for week surrounding Veterans’ Day Nov. 11.  Story idea is two-fold: 1) The creation of a song that movingly portrays the relationship between civilians and soldiers, and 2) Its journey and struggle, along with countless other great songs, to become a hit. Will it happen for “Lucky Me?”

News element: Helene Cronin will speak to the Dallas Songwriters Assoc. Nov. 13 to discuss “Lucky Me—I Might Have A Hit.” Doors open at 6:30 pm, program starts at 7 at the Center for Community Cooperation, 2900 Live Oak, Dallas.

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It happens this way sometimes to songwriters. A chance meeting at an airport counter in Nashville. A soldier in desert camo and a woman in line strike up a conversation. He tells her he's returning to active duty “somewhere in the Middle East.” As the conversation winds down, he asks, “Where are you headed?” Tired from her trip, she shrugs, “Home.” He smiles back and quietly says, “Lucky you.”

Helene Cronin was living a moment in a song, and she knew it. She had no idea that the gestation period would take more than a year before she sat down with a yellow pad and told the story. When she did, “It just came out,” she says.

I thought lucky me, he’s right

I sleep in my own bed at night

I lie there safe and warm

When he’s wide awake in a uniform

Lucky me, while he fights a war

I live the life he’s fighting for

He is the brave, I am the free

…lucky me

Copyright Helene K. Cronin

Helene’s sister liked the song. She made a video and put it up on YouTube. So far, on YouTube, CNN iReports and on Facebook, “Lucky Me” has been viewed more than 150,000 times.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4t0mJAUGESQ

The YouTube community responded:

“My boyfriend of a year and a half is halfway around the world :(   I miss him very much, but I’m proud of him for choosing to fight for our country. I love my Marine. Thank you for this song, it gets me by when I’m feeling lonely. It makes me realize how lucky I really am, not only to be one of the millions of people he dedicates his life to save, but also to be honored to be the one who he falls back on when he needs the saving :) ”

ElevenThirteenNine

“i have spent 42 months deployed... and this song SAYS it all... the pain and regret i feel... reflect in this song... all my ‘peers’ that didnt serve, that met the girl of their dreams while attending college, and i was over there... lucky you”

thrillmill4

YouTube popularity of “Lucky Me” led to a performance on the Mike Huckabee show on Fox. (Huckabee, “a great man, immediately put me at ease,” played bass.) Helene has played the song at veterans’ events that included actor Gary Sinise (who gave “Lucky Me” a standing ovation), country star Darryl Worley and pop star Tony Orlando. She’s played it at Nashville’s Bluebird Café.

Where is the bridge from YouTube to a Nashville hit? The song is still great, still timeless, but what’s next? “I try to stay optimistic,” Helene says. “Someone will stop to tell me how the song has affected him, and how he’s shared it, and those people love it, too, and that is what matters most. It could still happen. ‘Bless the Broken Road’ became Song of the Year 10 years after it was first cut. You can’t quit on a good song. That’s quitting on a gift.”

So, she drives, every month to Nashville, to touch base with her publisher, to stay active in this mysterious, hit-making community, this unfathomable industry that consumes thousands of songs, and sometimes spits out a good one to share with America.

Lucky us.