Meet the 2004 yearly winning songwriters representing the ten musical categories of the competition. The winners include songwriters from Australia, Pakistan, The United Kingdom, and The United States.  Vocal ability and production quality was not taken into consideration. In fact, the Adult Contemporary winner placed with simple acoustic guitar and vocal recording while the instrumental winner place with a "piano-only" song without any accompanying instrumentation. The winning songs are based on song and lyric writing alone. Some of the songs have been produced again since placing in the contest.

Folk

Karin Brennan & Joel Douek - Kings X (New York City, New York, USA)

Karin Brennan is one singer-songwriter who refuses to blend into the crowd. With the heartfelt intensity of a Rickie Lee Jones and the vocal agility of a Sarah McLachlan, Brennan's distinctive sound may be the first thing that captures your attention, but her well crafted pop songs will leave you humming her choruses and craving a repeat performance. She has appeared live in New York venues such as The Bitter End, CBGB’s, The Living Room and Downtime. 

Adult Contemporary

Joan Batchelder - My Angel Without Wings (Norton, Massachusetts, USA)

Joan Batchelder was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and grew up with loving foster parents, Mr. & Mrs. James Larner of Raynham, Massachusetts. Like most people, she grew up listening to and enjoying all types of music. Although she has no formal training, she sang in the choirs at church and school. Joan began writing poetry about six years ago. This is how she came about writing song lyrics. Two poets that have inspired her the most are Robert Frost, for his love of nature and Mya Angelou, for her interpretation of the human spirit.

Joan reflects, "I remember the day I wrote this song very well. I was sitting on the couch, looking out at the rain coming down. I was feeling a little down and quite lonely. Picked up the pen and started to write. I found I was writing about myself. The words just seemed to flow as if I was telling someone my story, hoping to be heard." Joan got a professional recording of her song from Nashville with Laura Weber singing the lead track.

Some time after her song was finished, Joan was scanning the internet for new poetry and songwriting contests. That's when she found the Song of the Year songwriting contest. Upon finding out she won, Joan's reaction was one of shock and pure excitement, "When my name appeared, I couldn't believe it. I just sat there looking at the screen for a number of minutes. It was the first time I had won anything. I then proceeded to call my family and some of my friends to tell them the good news."

Joan concedes that she is not a performer. However, since her win in August, Joan's song has been optioned by a prominent recording artist in Texas. Song of the Year provided the song to Sheila Marshall, one of the USA Network's Nashville Star top 10 contestants in 2004. She has been singing Joan's song live at her concerts. "She has brought my song to life for others to hear. I am very grateful," remarks Joan. The song was recently performed in front of 10,000's of people by Sheila at the Houston Rodeo along with many other venues.

Joan currently reside in Norton, Massachusetts. Her family resides in Raynham and Taunton, Massachusetts. They've all heard her music and are very supportive. In fact, they are quite surprised that she had this ability. Her biggest supporters are her niece, Candace, and significant other, Joe. Joan hopes to continue writing song lyrics as well as poetry. She would someday love to publish a compilation of her poetry and, hopefully, write a hit song.

Christian/Gospel

Steven Liotta & Gary Hemmingstad - A Little Piece Of Jesus (Brooklyn, New York, USA)

Steve is a singer, drummer, & songwriter from Brooklyn, New York. He is also a vocal and instrumental music teacher in the New York City public school system. Steve studied drums and arranging at college. That is where he got into songwriting while and has continued to write through the years. Steve lives in Brooklyn, New York with his wife and two sons.

Gary is a lyricist from Woodbury, Connecticut, where he lives with his wife and three children. The idea behind Gary’s lyrics was of a man who felt something missing in his life, and he finds fulfillment and hope in receiving the Eucharist. The subject realizes during Mass that the missing piece is Jesus. Gary's subject receives the Eucharist and feels the body of Christ filling the void. He leaves church with a renewed sense of purpose and hope, and will devote his time to helping others who felt the same as he did.

Gary actually wrote this song while helping his son prepare for his First Communion lessons. He described how receiving communion was like receiving, “a little piece of Jesus." The line stuck with him for a few days, in which he played around with the wording. Eventually, the whole thing came together. A few months later, he sent Steve the lyrics to see what he could come up with. 

Lyrics Only

Chris Taylor - In You (London, England, UK)

Traditionally, lyricists have suffered the fate of obscurity unless attached to a collaborative effort. Chris hopes to change that. After years of writing poetry, Chris could always imagine how his poems would sound as lyrics to a song. After a few structural changes, he decided to enter "In You" into the Song of the Year songwriting contest. The rest is history. 

Lacking any formal musical education or training with any instrument, Chris felt his limitations when it came to composing music. Although some of his earlier efforts did include scoring, Chris noted that most of this composition work always ended up sounding entirely too much like another well-known song. And for good reason. In order to define lyrical structure, Chris tends to find inspiration in a familiar melody or beat pattern. "A song or melody I hear usually gives me the inspiration to develop a line or phrase that sticks in my head. Attach the inspiring element, and the rest of the words just flow." Chris states "I am amazed by some of the contacts I have made through Song of the Year about my lyrics. Its amazing that people have came across my lyrics and feel that same sense of inspiration."

Dance/Electronic

Sajid Ghafoor & Zeeshan Parwez - King of Self (Peshawar, Pakistan)

Sajid and Zeeshan live in Peshawar, Pakistan, a place where merely writing music can be regarded as an immoral thing. Though artistic endeavor for the rest of country has changed for the better in recent years, their province N.W.F.P with its capital of Peshawar still lives in a traditionally and religiously oppressive climate. They have seen times when musicians were not given the respect but at least were given the opportunity to perform, but only in specific venues. Now, the general acceptance for music, musicians, and artists has raised a little higher. Still, their local government has recently put a ban on performing arts at all public venues and during any private functions held at those venues. It seems like no sooner do the people find their creative soul, when their right to feed that soul is taken away. Musicians in their community are thought of as a rebel. In describing their plight, Sajid and Zeeshan stated, "Why blame the lungs to breathe when it depends on the air it breathes in? It lives on it; it has no choice, even if we minimize the oxygen intake. The shortage of it makes a person gasp for air. Right now we’re gaspng for air. We’re doing all we can to feed our soul and of those people who understand the importance of this magical phenomena of rhythm and melody and its harmony. We can not turn away from the fact that every thing in this universe is in sync with each other and losing harmony would only lead to destruction. Music is a force, even if not understood properly by the conscious mind can be felt and understood much better by the soul/subconscious mind. Now that is something most of us can feel here but consciously can not do much about it. Keeping all these circumstances in mind, (that really do play a major role in our lives) we opted to pursue music and we try to do it with the same passion we feel on the inside. We feel it is the right thing to do and we hope we can slowly and gradually serve as a tool, if nothing else, to bring about this change where music can get the same respect it deserves, be it on the part of the people or the government."

They have always enjoyed playing music, landing a few gigs and playing for the foreign communities in their area. At first, they were an under ground band called “Still”, the name making reference to their creativity being “static” but not yet dead. After a few years, their bassist left for England and their Drummer left for Congo. In the end it was Zeeshan and Sajid who were left to their own devices. For some time, they remained quiet, until one day the creative urge returned and started off with this project. They wanted to make an album in English and that actually initiated the whole process. Breathing suddenly got a little smoother than usual.

Sajid and Zeeshan came on the public scene when they noticed too many local music channels showing many artists from other parts of the country but rarely ever saw one which belonged to Peshawar. They wanted to ensure that Peshawar was represented in the Pakistan music scene, so they took a risk and came out with their debut track titled “King of Self”. Fortunately, it got a positive response from all over Pakistan and, surprisingly, a good response from Peshawar too. Considering that music, especially an English tune, had a slim chance of being accepted in Peshawar, their song still got the recognition it deserved under the given circumstances. "We were very happy, but like mentioned earlier, we’re still gasping for air. We want to keep on making more music, good music and want to keep doing this with all the love and passion we have for it. We do have the will, all we need is appreciation," notes Sajid.

Sajid and Zeeshan's first album is now under development. Both intend to release their album sometime before the end of this year. In closing, Sajid comments, "We’re nervous but yet hopeful."

Instrumental/Jazz/World

Marvin Ford - Atmosphere (Rockville, Maryland, USA)

Rock

Matthew Bair - Celebrity (Seaford, New York, USA)

Bandcamp is a song driven rock band powered by the catchy tunes of songwriter Matthew Bair. Matt's material has been described as songs that " bridge the gap between cool and commercial... hitting the commercial nail on the head without losing any street credibility." Bandcamp was the winner in the Rock category in the Song of the Year contest in January of 2004. The good news kept coming when Bandcamp caught the attention of Atlantic Records. The band signed with E.V.L.A./Atlantic Records and is currently recording their debut album. 

Bandcamp features drummer Kris Mazzarisi, guitarist Sean Gould, bassist Steve Ruchelman and Matt on guitar and vocals. While earning the respect and the support of the industry and their peers, Bandcamp's increasing popularity is evidenced by the heavy rotation airplay of their winning song on WLIR 107.1 in Long Island and its rave review that appeared in Billboard Magazine

Hip-Hop/R&B

The Latino Saint & Krystel - U Don't Know (Nashville, Tennessee, USA)

Tyler Ramos, a.k.a. Latino Saint, and co-writer Krystel, have set out to light a fire under the Hip-Hop scene with an entrancing blend of rap and vocals. Their winning song “U Don’t Know” stays true to Hip-Hop, while expressing a very honest, yet inspiring vision of life through their masterful rhymes and lyrics. The smart blend of rap and vocals apparent in the chorus of “U Don’t Know” show a complexity that reflects their combined talent. This sheer talent is already catching the eyes and ears of some of the top names in the Hip-Hop community and is placing the duo on a fast track to success, both as writers and performers.

Tyler Ramos & Krystel placed in the Song of the Year contest in early 2004. Since Tyler Ramos first broke onto the music scene, he has performed all across the Midwest and in the South. Ramos has partnered up with Krystel and a host of other talents, including Kakaty, Digg-Dugg, to open for such acts as G-Unit, Snoop Dogg, Chingy, B2K, L.L.Cool.J, Dream, Blu Cantrell , Amanda Perez, Fat Joe and more.

 Country

Danny Hooper - Dream Land (South Australia, Australia)

Pop

Jenna Drey & Kevin Churko - Just Like That (Hollywood, Florida, USA)

“If you want to be a singer, then you better learn to write your own songs,” as spoken by Jenna’s mom when Jenna was only 12 years old.  It has been an interesting journey for the pop singer/songwriter, Jenna's winning song was recently produced by the legendary Nile Rodgers (Madonna, Diana Ross, David Bowie). This song has now been re-mixed into a theme song for the Boston Red Sox.  Jon Lander, the main DJ at 98.5 WBMX has been spinning the single on Boston’s #1 top 40 station, and even had Jenna back for three live on air interviews. And working with a producer such as Nile Rodgers didn’t happen overnight either.  Jenna remembers submitting demo tapes to Nile’s office as a teenager.  To her dismay at the time, the response was “Give it up, girl. This is one of the worse tapes we’ve ever heard.”

Jenna laughs about it today.  “As a child, my desire always overshadowed my talent. But this desire is what makes me strive toward improving my craft as an artist and songwriter.”  Now, with over a 3-octave vocal range, singer/songwriter Jenna Drey soars over pop melodies with the sensual, yet silky voice which has been compared to only the greatest female singers. Her voice has often been compared to having the timeless beauty of a Karen Carpenter. Her music would be classified as Hot A/C, but many of her songs have been remixed into great dance songs too.

What also sets Jenna apart from other artists is a distinct musical style which incorporates great melodies, musical hooks, and excellent lyrics within a contemporary arrangement.  Compared to having a slight retro-80’s flavor, Jenna really focuses on creating songs that are excellent, whether played on an acoustic piano, or with a live band. Jenna states, “If you listen to today’s radio stations, you’ll notice that most station’s song lists are predominately comprised of old hits of the 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s.  This is because people still want to hear real songs with depth, and not something canned out of a box. When you buy an album today, it’s sad to say that so many songs sound exactly the same on a record. I’m trying to change that.  To create music where each song has its own unique flavor.” Jenna was also awarded the "Most Prolific Songwriter Award" by Song of the Year in 2004.

Kevin Churko

Kevin "thewolfe" Churko has worked with Jenna on many songs and his input has been an essential element to making the songs commercially friendly as well as adding a unique flair to the overall "feel" of the songs. Beyond his talent in songwriting, Kevin is also a notable producer. He has continually used his production skills to add a distinct appeal to his songwriting. 

Kevin was involved in music lessons as a child but left formal school in 9th grade to hit the road full time. His music experience began while he was in a family band. Along with this mother, father, brother, and sister Kevin comments "The Partridge Family had nothing on us except mabye a cooler bus and a better tamborine player".  Kevin is from Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada and now resides in L.A.