• January 5 – Annual membership renewals are due.  
• February 2
• March 2 – Special speaker presentation this month!
• April 6
• May 4
• June 1
• July 6
• August 3
• September 7
• October 5
• November 2
• December 7

Check back regularly for date postings and announcements of special events.

Chas Sandford – Keynote Speaker

Sandford’s professional career includes success as a session/live musician, producer, engineer, songwriter, recording artist, publisher and studio owner.  Career highlights include opening for The Eagles on their “Hotel California” European tour.

As a hit songwriter and publisher, he is the recipient of twelve ASCAP “Most Performed Songs” awards, including John Waite’s Missing You (over 6,000,000 plays), Chicago’s What Kind of Man Would I Be and Stevie Nicks’ Talk To Me.

His songs have been recorded by Tina Turner, Rod Stewart, Melanie, Berlin, Brooks & Dunn, Alison Krauss, Rick Springfield, Sammy Hagar, Jimmy Barnes, David Wilcox, Tyler Hilton and Sheila B. Devotion to name a few. Chas is now a BMI writer/publisher.

Chas owns Secret Sound, a world class recording studio that has had incarnations in Los Angeles, CA, Kauai, HI, Nashville and now Franklin, TN. Scores of artists from all genres have recorded at Secret Sound over the years – from Harry Belafonte, Madonna, Joni Mitchell, Chicago, Def Leppard and Kiss to Keith Urban, Amy Grant, Wynonna, Faith Hill, Shania Twain & Tim McGraw.

Other Guest Speakers for the day include:

- Danny Wells –

With hits such as George Strait’s Check Yes or No, Rascal Flatt’s Everyday Love, These Days, and While You Loved Me, just to name a few, Wells certainly has a perspective on what it takes to be a successful songwriter.

His hit, Little Bit of Life, by Craig Morgan, was in the top 10 for several weeks in 2007.

Lead singer with the Holiday Band, award winning songwriter, keyboardist and guitarist – a “local” success story.

In both 2003 & 2004,Taylor was awarded the songwriter of the year for Carolina Association of Beach Music.

With over 30 years of experience in the music industry, Barton, owner of Studio 415 in Clayton, NC will advise on techniques

and share information that can result in improved recordings of your material.

2009 Songwriters Forum

 Saturday—August 22, 2009

Registration Opens at 8:00am 

 9:00am – 4:30pm

Long View Center / 1880 Hall / 118 S. Person Street, Raleigh, NC

Forum registration includes admission to the evening

networking reception with the speakers –

6:30pm – 9:30pm.

GREAT DOOR PRIZES!!!

$35.00 – Advance registration prior to August 19

$25.00— Students (with proper ID)

$45.00 – After Aug. 19 at the door

EARLY BIRD / ON LINE REGISTRATION EXPIRED AUGUST 19.

REGISTRATIONS TAKEN AT THE DOOR – CASH ONLY

Questions?  Call 919-269-6240 or 252-308-2437

Click here to download a printable flyer about this event.

As I accept the position to lead and guide the Central Carolina Songwriters Association for 2 years, I am reminded of the steady hand used by Shantel Davis to organize and form the organization we now enjoy. Taking the gavel from Shantel, Dawn Williams provided strong leadership and has taken our group to improved levels of performance following Shantel’s lead. Thanks to both Shantel & Dawn our group has increased membership while improving content.

Since I began as a member of CCSA in 2000 we have met at the Harrison Library, Sam Ash Music Store and now The Longview Center. Hopefully The Longview will be our long-term home. Thank you, Charles Owens for providing this wonderful facility for us.

My plan is plain. Expand leadership, spread our duties and responsibilities out evenly, increase our visibility as the premiere songwriter’s organization in central Carolina, improve our network information, and fine tune our focus on the craft of songwriting. Already we have expanded our board, more clearly defined our mission statement, created a set of organizational and meeting by-laws / guidelines, and have redefined officers’ duties while setting our calendar for 2008. I would like to see our group become more involved with sister songwriting organizations, their events and share our resources. It is our goal to be a support group that is not only a sounding board, but a source of valuable information for new as well as veteran songwriters. My desire and intent is to work with each and every member of the group, in order to become partners in what can be a relationship that will benefit both the member and the group at large. Within our group there is a tremendous talent and experience pool that we have yet to expose. Engineers, designers, producers, graphic designers, promoters, musicians, as well as webmasters are members of our organization. I want to be sure that everyone is aware of and given every opportunity to share talents, services and information with the group at large.

I thankfully accept the position of president and will do my best to deliver results that will take the group to the next level. Let me say thanks for all the hard work that our board of directors has delivered. Each and every member of our group is valuable. We will not forsake content in order to satisfy growth.

Working together we will all improve and make 2008 a year to look back at next year and say, “it was a great 2008”.

Thanks, and we grow and share because we care.

Tony Dickens

• January 6th — Annual membership renewals due
• February 3th
• March 3th
• April 7th
• May 5th
• June 2nd
• July 7th
• August 4th
• September 1st
• October 6th
• November 3rd
• December 1st

Check back frequently or subscribe to our RSS feed for announcements regarding dates for other events.