Dallas Songwriters Association 2022 Winners - Comments, thanks to Judge Roy Elkins
It was another outstanding year in the DSA Songwriting Contest. It is always a highlight of my year to listen to the songs and I am thankful to be a part of such a good organization. Congrats to all the finalists and everyone at DSA. Here are my thoughts.
In the contest this year, it seemed every song had a great hook, so the difference was the strength of the lyric, originality, truth and melody, as well as the structure. I don’t remember having this many great hooks in one competition. It was extraordinary and not easy to judge. There are songs that didn’t make my top 10 that might have on a different day of listening or a different year in the contest. Judging is a very subjective process and my mind changes several times throughout this competition. With that said, this is the first year I remember the winner seem to emerge on the first listen. With every pass through the song list, I still had one song at the top and the melody stuck in my head. This year, the top spot was a little easier to pick, but I am never really sure until I finish. And usually the song that is #1 after the first pass is never the winner. But the most difficult part of the process in the 2022 contest was selecting second and third. I had nine songs in positions 2-10 that all could have placed second. Although I don’t consider production while evaluating the songs, I have noticed how much better the production quality has been in more recent years. Kudos to everyone who has worked so hard on crafting and producing amazing songs.
The DSA provides a great judge's form to analyze the songs. Here are some of high points using the suggested categories.
Lyrics – 2 Exceptional songs – Snacks and Naps and I’ve Been Thinking. Other high scores - Some Goodbyes, Open Road, Zipcode and Skin Time.
Melody – Exceptional - Redemption, Zipcode, Between Heaven and the Ground and Frostbite Heart (Loved this melody.) Other high scores - Snacks and Naps, I’ve Been Thinking, When the World Begins Again, Live Where the Love Is, Graffitti Heart and Painted Sky Café.
Hooks – So many good hooks, but one song was at the top – Redemption. Others scoring high are When the World Begins Again, Snacks and Naps, Graffitti My Heart, Some Goodbyes, Between Heaven and the Ground, Live Where the Love is, A Vagabond Wind, Mes Series B, Christmas Tonight, Holding On, Don’t Forget You’re A Child of God and Open Road. With the exception of three songs, all of the hooks were rated 8 or higher.
Structure – Like most years, this is the hardest category to judge as almost every song has a solid structure to it. This year all but two were rated 8 or above. Redemption and Painted Sky Café were graded the best. Others scoring high are Between Heaven and the Ground, When the World Begins Again, Mes Series B, Don’t Forget You’re A Child of God and Heaven or Hell.
Truth – Like the previous category, Structure, this is also extremely hard to evaluate. Exceptional - Some Goodbyes and Your Daddy’s Name. I’ve Been Thinking, What Love Needs and All Right With Me are songs graded high in this category.
Originality – Three exceptional songs, When the World Begins Again, Snacks and Naps and Graffitti My Heart. Others scoring high are Some Goodbyes, Your Daddy’s Name, Redemption, I’ve Been Thinking, What Love Needs, Soothing Times, Between Heaven and the Ground, Live Where the Love Is, Frostbite Heart, Zipcode, A Vagabond Wind and Ballad of Wally Funk.
Ok….Here are the winners. Let’s start with 3rd place. In the number three position is:
3rd - Between Heaven and The Ground
I enjoyed this a lot as the melody and “feel” of the song is amazing and Between Heaven Hell is a great hook. The melody is simple, pleasant to listen to and married well to the lyric. You can hear someone singing this around the campfire or sitting on a stool in a club. As I listen to this, I hear a potentially much larger song. I only say this from a commercial perspective, as I love the song exactly how it is. While I love story about flight, I think modifying the lyric to a vague reference of being high on love “Between Heaven and the Ground.” This could make a strong hook in a unique way to say the same thing writers have been saying for years, but with different words. If this was my song, I might experiment with a little “less about flight and more about love” approach and I don’t think you’d have to change many words around. It’s very good as is, my suggestion is for a broader commercial market and the ability for other genres to cover it I graded this very high. Hope this helps! Production note: Excellent, great recording of the vocal.
Second place is:
2nd - Some Goodbyes
A great hook. We all hear lots of songs about leaving, but this one is different. The singer is a son leaving home and talking about the advice his mother gave him as he was getting ready to go. She tells her son he’ll find love with this advice “You’ll swear that she’s your forever love, but the first one almost never is.” An excellent line. As he’s leaving, he sings, “We both laughed a little, when she said, I’m too tough to cry.” This song is filled with so many lines that could be hooks in other songs and is an example of a lyric that is perfectly coupled with the melody. If you read the lyric by itself, it is good. But with the melody it’s fantastic. My guess is this song was worked on and crafted as this is certainly done by a writer who has many songs under their belt. Congrats on this awesome piece of music.
As I have said so many times before, it is difficult for an instrumental to win a songwriting competition. In the past, I think I have only picked one to win and very few have placed in the top 5. I listen to all of the songs about 10 – 15 times while evaluating. This year, one song stuck in my head through the whole process from the first listen to the end. I kept humming this tune over and over again. The winner is:
1st - Redemption (The Last Waltz)
Easy, genius, humble, intellectual and respectful is how I would describe this piece. The song starts with a minimal drum beat in 6/8 time. At 12 seconds a simple melody begins on a B note on the 1 and easily plays to the 5th below on every note of the measure. Then the rhythm is repeated beginning on the D below playing a similar pattern. For the most part, the rhythm is repeated throughout the entire piece and one feels it building each time. But at 55 seconds it comes to a sliding mechanical stop, then repeats the rhythm pattern with another tasteful selection of notes. Some other effects are added in, eventually a violin with a counter melody. Then the arrangement picks up a little steam at 1:35 and the listener feel it’s ready to take off at any moment. Beautiful arpeggiated strings enter at 2:11. The listener continues to wait for it to explode as it grows a little more, then another mechanical stop, followed by sopranos that could have come directly from a Carl Orff rehearsal to this session. It never does detonate like I thought it might. It was disappointing, no wait a minute, it was genius. Clearly this writer has some training, coupled with natural talent as I feel they could have taken this to a whole different place, but the magic of this piece is “what they didn’t play.” Sometimes we writers want to cram as much in as possible, but this is a patient writer who knows how to captivate with simplicity. Brilliant work and I would love to hear more from him/her. Although this is not my favorite genre, it will be in my personal collection. Although the sound selection was brilliant, especially the sampled chorus, one could probably replace any of these sounds with any other sound and it would still work as the melody is so engaging. It’s a high quality melody and why this song is one the best in this competition.
Others that ranked high.
When The World Begins Again
A really nice song that reminds me of the writers of 60s, and one could easily hear Nat King Cole, Karen Carpenter, Neil Diamond or any number of great voices singing this. Lyrically, has an interesting turn about rekindling an old love or maybe even finding a new one. It’s very hard to write about “love” with a new variation on it, but this writer nailed it. I love the chord progression underneath the melody. It was unexpected, but pleasant and very easy on the ears. A polished writer wrote this one and I would love to hear more from their catalog. Great work!
Zipcode
(Review repeated from last year) - This is an awesome song in the voice of a kid whose father has recently passed and whose mother died during birth. While it’s an upbeat fun & strong melody, it really is a sad song. But it works well with a kid singing it. By the way, this was a brilliant production decision to have a kid sing it. The opening line is very memorable and has a great connection between the lyric and melody. I went back and forth on this song, listening over and over again and it continued to grow on me. It would be very easy to hear this on a Broadway stage or in a children’s show. A strong melody and a memorable lyric. The song starts with the chorus and the verses are meaningful. It is an exceptionally original song and is clearly written by a talented writer.
Snacks and Naps
Laughing and listening to the tone of the lead rapper, it sounds like he’s laughing as well. At 56 seconds in this song, the skill of the writer is evident. Normally, I would denote this as the interpretation of the singer, but this was clearly written this way as it is repeatedly flawlessly in other spots in the song. This is an amazing way to make a point in a lyric. Although it’s a little goofy as it’s intended to be, this probably the best lyric and most original song in the competition.
I've Been Thinking
An extremely original song with a strong lyric about a lost love, wishing they were back. Love the lyric and obviously filled with truth.
Live Where The Love Is
A good simple song where every line in the lyric points to the hook. Good clean songwriting that gets right to the point. The song is repetitive, which is a strength, but it may also be a weakness. Production note: Vocals, especially background, were quite loud in the mix on a small set of speakers.
Your Daddy’s Name
A nice story with a heartfelt lyric. “I reached out and touched your daddy’s name” is a powerful hook. Nice little key change at 2:05 that added a little flavor at the of the bridge. Nice melody.
Others in no particular order:
Christmas Tonight - Beautiful Melody and one could easily hear a choir singing this. “You make it feel like Christmas tonight” is a good line and hook.
A Vagabond Wind - Another good feeling song, melodically and lyrically. Love the melody and lyric in the hook, “On The Vagabond Wind.” Very well-crafted song with an interesting hook. Upon the first listen, it was one of the contenders. This didn’t move down, others moved up.
Don’t Forget You’re A Child of God - A wonderful Faith-Based Song that will lift you up, whether you’re a believer or not. If you aren’t smiling through this song, see a shrink. You can feel the passion of the writer coming through in the melody and lyric. Production note: Kudos to the piano player, loved those 4 finger octave arpeggios in the bridge. And to the organist and harp player as well.
All Ways Together - Good song with a memorable hook. Another uplifting song that engages the listener and brings a smile to their face.
Heaven or Hell
Destination “Heaven or Hell” is a strong hook. I think the lyric and progression work well, the melody is where I would focus my efforts, if it was my song. Production note: Good high energy delivery of this song.
Frostbite Heart - Beautiful melody in the set-up to the hook beginning at 44 seconds. Production note: While the production is recorded and mixed well, the offbeat rhythms are little distracting to this beautiful melody. If it was my song, I would re-think the rhythm of the verses and re-cut as I think this is an extremely strong piece.
Mes Series B - Interesting intro to this tasteful instrumental. Kind of feels like the artist is just playing around until a rhythm forms. Groove kicks in at about 33 seconds. Slowly developing lead guitar, supported by a myriad of background sounds including the wind and a strange metallic sound at around 1:42. Sometimes these types of songs, slow and deliberate, are very hard to pull together, but this was well done. I found it to be interesting at about 3:02 when the sax kicks in. Then a countermelody is created by sound effects and light guitar. If this was my song, I would experiment with throwing a melody over the top and see what happens. As it stands, I believe this would work well as a backing track in a film. At 3:39 the song feels like it’s coming to a stop, but comes back a few seconds later after a few seconds of silence. I would re-visit this as well.
Graffitti My Heart - Great hook, “Graffitti My Heart, Tattoo my soul.” Very original, strong hook and melody.
Soothing Times - Beautiful piece of music that mesmerizes the listener in a similar way to George Winston. Love the arrangement and structure of this.
SkinTime - Good lyric and concept. With a different lyric, it sounds almost like a Xmas song to me. If this was my song, I would give the lyric to multiple writers without letting them hear the melody and ask them for a co-write. It’s a great lyric that needs melody at the same quality as the lyric. Production note: the players on this are fantastic, love the piano and guitar.
The Moments Lost – Very nice melody in the hook. Excellent song concept.
Holding On - “I’m Holding On to the promise you made me” is not only an excellent line in the song, but it’s an excellent hook as well.
Open Road - Saber Tooth Llama - Good melody that works well with the rhythm.
What Love Needs - Great concept for a song, and definitely a strong lyric to match. It’s clearly from the heart and meaningful to the writer.
Come Rain Come Shine - This is a good song, with a good hook. I have listened several times and haven’t changed in my mind. It sounds like the writer “felt” this and wrote it quickly. Sometimes they just come to us and we have to get them out. I don’t think the lyrics in the verse are as strong as the hook and could probably use a re-write. With that said, I like it and kudos to the writer.
I Like It Right Here – A good lyrical hook, “I Like It Right Here,” wrapped into a nice melody in the chorus.
Painted Sky Café – Good song about a café in West Texas. Very heartfelt, a well-structured song with a good melody.
Ballad of Wally Funk - The lyric is unique and the melody is good. The progression and arrangement are fantastic. The writer might have two songs here as the lyric seems to struggle with the melody and progression. If this was my song, I might hand the lyric to a producer, and the production to a lyric writer to see what they come up with without hearing the originals. I’m just not hearing this lyric with this melody and progression, but I think they are all strong in their own right.
All Right With Me - A song about child abuse. A hard topic to write about, but clearly done well here. Very emotional lyric that is clear to the listener. Congrats to this writer on tackling a near impossible task.
Before I wrap, I just want to mention that Andre Kerek of Miami has passed this year. Most of you reading this probably didn’t know Andre. He was a brilliant songwriter who entered the DSA contest several times over the years. His song, Come Sundown, finished 2nd in the contest last year. It’s a beautiful piece of music that I would highly recommend listening to. You can read my review of this song on the DSA 2021 results page for this contest. I didn’t know Andre well, but met him once at a conference in Florida about 15 years ago and talked to him a few times on the phone after that. He was a kind, gentle soul who loved writing and listening to music. R.I.P. Andre.
Here is a link to his obituary - https://everloved.com/life-of/andre-kerek/obituary/
Thanks again to the DSA for including me in this process. Congrats to all of the finalists and have a great 2023!
Roy
Thanks again to the DSA for including me in this process. Congrats to all of the finalists and have a great 2023!
Roy
