The Song Doctors Will See You Now:
Songwriting workshop with Joe Newberry and Jon Shain
JOE NEWBERRY is a Missouri native and North Carolina transplant who has played music most of his life. His powerful and innovative banjo playing, as well as his songwriting, guitar skills, fiddling, and singing has delighted audiences around the world.
Joe grew up in a family full of singers and dancers. He took up the guitar and banjo as a teenager and learned fiddle tunes from great Missouri fiddlers. He came to North Carolina as a young man and quickly became an anchor of the incredible music scene in the state. Still going strong more than 30 years later, he does solo and studio work, and plays and teaches at festivals and workshops in North America and abroad
Joe's songwriting is characterized by the same clean, elegant style as his banjo playing. Musicians in the folk and bluegrass world often record his songs. The Gibson Brothers' version of his song ‘Singing As We Rise’, featuring guest vocalist Ricky Skaggs, won the 2012 IBMA "Gospel Recorded Performance" award. In 2013, Joe shared co-writing honors with Eric Gibson for the IBMA Song of the Year, ‘They Called It Music’.
JON SHAIN is a veteran singer-songwriter who’s been turning heads for years with his words, his fiery acoustic guitar work, and his evolved musical style – combining improvised piedmont blues with bluegrass, swing, and ragtime. He is the 2019 winner of the International Blues Challenge in the solo/duo category. Shain’s most recent solo disc, ‘Gettin’ Handy with the Blues: A Tribute to the Legacy of WC Handy’, was released in 2018 and with in a year, also as a guitar tab book published by Mel Bay. This was quickly followed by a second Mel Bay book on finger-style guitar using Jon’s original songs to teach this technique. Shain’s latest releases, recorded along with long-time collaborator FJ Ventre, are the gorgeous roots album, Tomorrow Will Be Yesterday Soon (2019) and Never Found Way to Tame the Blues (2021). He’s in the studio right now working on his next album of original songs.
GIVE YOUR SONGS A TUNE UP!
Got an original song or two that just doesn’t quite yet work the way you think it could? How frustrating this can be! Two of the best songwriters and teachers in the Triangle area, Jon Shain and Joe Newberry, are exactly what your songs need. At this workshop, students will take turns playing a song song that needs some attention, and get suggestions from Joe and Jon on how to take it to the next level. Besides getting personal feedback from the Song Doctors, you’ll see Jon and Joe work with the other students and get even more ideas and techniques for crafting great songs. Joe and Jon's expertise and insights on melody, lyrics, and accompaniment, will make the workshop a great experience for anyone interested in what makes a song truly sing.
DETAILS
When: Saturday, Dec 9, 2023, 10:00 AM-4:00 PM
Where: Succotash, 3219 Old Chapel Hill Rd., Durham, NC
Registration is limited to 12 attendees
Cost: $140; click the Registration button above to sign up and pay online
Levels: All levels of songwriting experience; all instruments or a capella
Includes:
Review of 1 or 2 of your original songs; you play and sing the song, Joe and Jon apply their expertise
Gather even more insights by seeing Joe and Jon work with other students on their songs
1 hour break for lunch, food provided by Succotash’s fine Southern kitchen
Coffee, tea, water available for free; soda, beer, and mixed drinks can be purchased at the bar
Contact if Jon Shain you have any questions about the workshop
WHAT TO BRING
An instrument (if needed to accompany yourself)
For each song you bring, 3 paper copies of the lyrics with chords or a chart; after you register we’ll send instructions on how to give us your lyrics and share them during the workshop
Capos, tuners, music stand, instrument stand, etc.
Notebook and pen/pencil for taking notes
Phone or other recording device (audio and/or video) and a charger to capture what you learn