096 MTSU WELCOMES ‘NASHVILLE SONGWRITING DIVAS IN THE ROUND’

FOR RELEASE: Sept. 29, 2006
EDITORIAL CONTACT: Assistant Professor Hal Newman, 615-898-2949

Talented Trio to Spill Hit Single-Writing Secrets at Oct. 18 Event

(MURFREESBORO)—Pull up a chair, settle in and get ready to be amazed and educated by three women who work right alongside the boys who make the noise on 16th Avenue.
On Monday, Oct. 2, at Middle Tennessee State University, award-winning songwriters Lisa Carver, Stephony Smith and Shelly Fairchild, also known as the “Nashville Songwriting Divas in the Round,” will share their secrets for writing songs like “Don’t We All,” “It’s Your Love” and “You Don’t Lie Here Anymore,” as well surviving and finding success in a challenging industry.
The free public event, held at 7 p.m. 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.
Carver, who’s written for Reba McEntire, Tim McGraw, Julie Roberts and Willie Nelson, has four cuts on the new Sugarland album, set for release Nov. 7. Smith, Broadcast Music Inc.’s 1997 Songwriter of the Year, has seen artists like McGraw and Faith Hill, the Dixie Chicks, Trisha Yearwood and Kenny Chesney take her work to No. 1. And Fairchild, who’s also performed the title role in the musical “Always …. Patsy Cline,” released her debut CD, “Ride,” last year on Sony’s Columbia Nashville label.
The trio’s appearance is part of NSAI at MTSU’s ongoing songwriter workshop series aimed at giving student writers an insider’s view into the industry.
“We’re grateful to these great writers for giving their time and talent to the student songwriters of MTSU,” 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.
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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