Songwriting and works in progress
by Jay Howlett with Blah Blah Woof WoofA brief workshop on approach, style and crafting songs, focusing on your personal strengths. This will be a combination of Q&A, discussion and writing. Works in progress are welcomed as time permits. This workshop is for anyone who wants to write or is writing songs and is geared toward the beginning and intermediate levels. Please come share with the group.
Now living on the coast of Northern California, Jay has been touring since he quit his day job in 1998 when he released his second CD "Jay Howlett". Selections for appearances at festivals like Sisters Folk Festival in Oregon, Kerrville Folk Festival in Texas, The Founders Folk & Bluegrass Festival in Utah and South Florida Folk Festival in Florida put Jay in position to start touring the country doing what he does best, telling stories in a song.
2003 marked the release of Jay’s third CD “American Ghost Town” and he toured the Eastern and North Western U.S.. 2004 will be even busier playing music on both coasts of the United States, with a few stops in between and even a little north to Canada. Festivals, clubs, coffee houses, bars and two clothing optional resorts will all be part of Jay’s stops this year.
Jay has taken songwriting workshops from Carol McComb, Steve Seskin, John Gorka, Dar Williams, Patty Larkin, Greg Brown, Lucy Kaplansky and many others. He has run Works in Progress groups for Northern California Songwriters Association (now West Coast Songwriters association) where he has won the Song of the Year award. He has been a songwriting finalist at the Kerrville Folk Festival in Texas, The Sisters Folk Festival in Oregon (twice), The Founders Folk and Bluegrass Festival in Utah and The South Florida Folk Festival. He has earned numerous other honors and awards.
In groups, and as a solo performer, Chuck McCabe has played in Disneyland's Golden Horseshoe Saloon, Nashville's Bluebird Cafe, L.A.'s Troubadour and Ice House, toured Viet Nam, Thailand, Japan and the Philippines for the USO.
In 20 years on the road, he played more summers on Cape Cod, winters in Vail, Steamboat Springs, and Bear Valley than he can remember... more coffee houses, ginmills, Holiday Inns and Ramadas than he'd care to admit.
An award-winning songwriter (American Song Festival, Music City Songfest, Sisters Folk Fest , Napa Valley Music Festival, Tucson Folk Festival, Wildflower Festival, and the Woody Guthrie Songwriting Competition), he has to his credit numerous independent releases. He has also recorded his songs on the ABC, Capitol and GRT labels in L.A. and Nashville, and was a staff writer for ABC. He wrote the Pet Rock song with the Rock's inventor, and was supposed to get rich... all he got was a big phone bill.
His first book was published in 1993, and sold not only to musicians and songwriters, but to countless colleges and county libraries across the country, following a buy-recommendation by the American Library Association.
In addition to his work as a solo performer, he currently plays bass in an Irish group, lead guitar in an oldies band, and 5-string banjo with some folkies. He is working on a second book, and runs a popular workshop for the Northern California Songwriters' Association.
Despite numerous close-calls, he has managed to elude both fame and fortune.
