|
Dear friends,
So happy to share the great news: my song "Ballad of Zona Abston" took top honors at MerleFest's Chris Austin Songwriting Contest this weekend! This contest is one of the most prestigious in the world and has had some pretty impressive winners including Gillian Welch, Tift Merritt and Martha Scanlan. Take a listen below to the winning performance, joined by John Doyle on guitar!
All told, this is the 4th time I’ve performed at MerleFest, but the first that I’ve felt truly part of the spirit of Merlefest, as a finalist and ultimately winner of the storied Chris Austin Songwriting Contest. It’s a special way to engage with the festival because it honors a beautiful artist, Chris Austin, whose life was cut tragically short, and the competition carries weight of that. It also honors songwriting as a craft, as judged by some of the finest artists in the music industry today. Lastly, the finals draw a special kind of hard-core MerleFest fan, the ones that have attended annually for more years than they’d probably like to count. Being one of the finalists was like being in a sort of special graduating class of lovely and creative people that I respect tremendously.
I believe everyone was fairly nervous, and I was no exception. When I used to race bikes, winning meant crossing the finish line first. However in this arena, it just felt a bit unnatural to compete against another artist that poured their heart and soul and hopes and dreams into their song just like I had. However the competition atmosphere created an electric environment for performing, the whole place packed, everyone sitting on the edge of their seats, chins to knuckles, eager to hear every lyric.
On my way to the contest I had called Zona to tell her I was about to sing our song for the competition. She said OK honey I’ll be a-prayin for ya, that should help. But honestly the reason I called Zona was to help remind myself that the real power of this song is her story, which she had to live every day of. “We’ve had it rough, we STILL have it rough.” It helped get me into the right headspace to deliver the song to the audience and incredible judges, Cruz Contreras (The Black Lilies), Kenneth Pattengale and Joey Ryan (The Milk Carton Kids), and Radney Foster, who watched intently just a few feet in front of us. This is for Zona. This is for Zona.
I was joined onstage by John Doyle, the producer of Tellico’s recent album Woven Waters, who had helped to arrange the song for the album. John is a legendary Irish guitarist and master of groove, and it was a cool twist to have that feel up there for the bluegrass category! John’s support was tremendously helpful in bringing 120% of ourselves to the song and the audience, pouring love into every lyric, looking at each judge, at all my good friends that had come to support me, keeping Zona central in my mind. In my memory it seems like an hour.
It was time to announce the winners. I walked to the stage like I was entering a tunnel, noise went away, all breath was held. And after they had announced 3rd and 2nd place my heart soared to a place of pure joy that I so rarely experience: we did it! We did it! I called Zona as soon as I could. She said that’s great honey, that’s just great.
Thanks for reading and being a part of this crazy ride, and feel free to forward this to someone you know that might be interested!
All the best,
Anya
follow us on your preferred social media platform:
Facebook
www.facebook.com/tellico
Website and performance calendar
www.tellicoband.com
Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/tellicoband
Twitter
http://twitter.com/TellicoBand
is this email landing in your promotions folder (gmail) or trash? Simply drag this to your "primary" folder or email contacts to stay in touch! thanks!
|
