066 MTSU WELCOMES ‘ME & WILLIE’S GUITAR’ WRITER TO WORKSHOP

FOR RELEASE: Sept. 14, 2006
EDITORIAL CONTACTS: Assistant Professor Hal Newman, 615-898-2949
Gina E. Fann, 615-898-5385

Singer/Songwriter to Offer Tips, Techniques to Students at Sept. 18 Event

(MURFREESBORO)—Singer/songwriter Ray Stephenson will open his tool chest of knowledge at Middle Tennessee State University during a special songwriter’s workshop set for Monday, Sept. 18, at 7 p.m.
The free public event, held in Room 104 of the John Bragg Mass Communication Building, is sponsored by the National Songwriters Association International at MTSU—the first student chapter of the Nashville-based NSAI.
Stephenson, whose new album on the Universal South label is scheduled for release later this year, began writing songs as a teen-ager and put himself through college playing in bands across Georgia, north Florida and Alabama.
After earning a degree in painting and sculpture and working briefly as a graphic designer, Stephenson moved to Nashville in 1998 and began playing clubs and performing on the road with artists like Vern Gosdin, Steve Holy, Sonya Isaacs and Steve Macanally.
He signed a publishing deal with EMI Nashville and East Valley Music in 2001 that led to songs cut by Holy, Isaacs, Guy Clark, The Wilkinsons, Wynonna Judd and Dean Miller, among others. Most recently, Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard and John Anderson recorded Stephenson’s “Me and Willie’s Guitar.”
“We are fortunate to have Corri Peck as our program chair this semester,” said Assistant Professor Hal Newman, a veteran musician who teaches commercial songwriting and music publishing at MTSU and serves as faculty adviser to the student NSAI chapter. “She is acquainted with many Nashville songwriters and has lined up an all-star cast of writers for our workshops this semester.”
MTSU’s Department of Recording Industry recently joined forces with the Nashville office of ASCAP (the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) to create a new commercial songwriting program called “Partners in Craft.” The program, which began this fall at MTSU, formalized a long-standing partnership with ASCAP that matched veteran industry songwriting and publishing mentors with exceptional student songwriters. The new program provides opportunities and specialized courses tailored to students’ career goals.
The department, which is a part of the university’s College of Mass Communication, is one of the largest and best equipped in the country. Undergraduate recording industry students choose between two concentrations: music business or production and technology. The department now also offers a unique graduate program in recording arts and technologies.
For more information about the workshop or NSAI at MTSU, please call 615-898-2949.

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