$300 PURSE FOR BEST NEW 'AUCTIONEER' SONG

LeMars, Iowa.....It was announced today that a purse of $300 is being offered for the best 'new' song about an auctioneer. Bob Everhart, President of the National Traditional Country Music Association, reported the purse was provided by an outside interest. "We've always had songwriting contests at our annual festival," Everhart said. "As a matter of fact, we have two.

...The songwriting contests take place on the weekend of the long-time acoustic music festival. Dates are August 29 through September 4,...

One is a Gospel songwriting competition, and the other is a songwriting contest created from stories about how Hank Williams, Sr., wrote his songs. Apparently all it took was a 'suggestion' and Hank could write a song, which supposedly that is how "Mansion On A Hill" was written.



 So, we used the same principle, we provide the 'suggestion' and songwriters have to create their songs during the festival we do of old-time country and bluegrass music. We've been doing this since 1976, so that's a pretty long span of some 36 years. Today, however we have one specifically different situation. An investor from California has taken a liking to the music of a Missouri recording artist, Clarence Hayden. The investor is also an auctioneer, and uses this ability to raise money for a number of charities in his hometown of Newport Beach.

It is his thinking that Hayden has the 'just right' voice for a new 'Auctioneer' song. He also said there are a number of new ways this could come about. Perhaps the auctioneer is selling off the final old memories in Grandma's attic; or perhaps he is selling Grandma and Grandpa's house, and at the very last minute finds a way to save it for them; or perhaps he just wants to be a girl-crazy auctioneer. Who knows, that's why we're putting up a $300 purse just to find that song. We also retain the right to be the first ones to record the winning song."

The songwriting contests take place on the weekend of the long-time acoustic music festival. Dates are August 29 through September 4, at the Plymouth County Fairgrounds in LeMars, Iowa. According to Everhart, "It's a lot of fun to listen to the songwriters work on their material. We record the proceedings when the songs are presented, and thereby make it a 'public' presentation, carefully recorded for future reference.

$300 probably doesn't seem like a lot of money for finding a song, but in the upper Midwest, where we are located, that's a pretty good purse, and we have some very good songwriters here in rural America. That alone makes us quite different than all those pseudo city recording artists who don a cowboy a hat and call themselves country.

They wouldn't have the slightest idea what the real word "country" actually means. It takes someone from rural America to understand that, and why country music was so popular through the years, and why it is not so popular today, especially here in the upper Midwest. The listeners don't care for just-about country, they'd rather listen to the 'real deal' even if it's played badly than listen to over-produced cowboy-hat music that has no relativity to rural America at all."

There are over 20 contests held at the event which is also the National Traditional Country Music Associations annual meet. "We're like a county fair," Everhart noted, except we don't have a ferris wheel and we don't cater to animals. We do everything else exactly like a county fair. What we cater to is a rural American lifestyle. The important things of living in the real country, not some passe back-yard that might have a little water trickling down the wall. Real rural American's live next to rivers and streams and creeks. They live in lots of space, and the music they like is far different than that which is called 'country' music today."

According to Everhart, there are over 600 performing artists attending the seven-day event from Aug. 29 through Sept. 4. "We have Jim Ed Brown, Helen Cornelius, and Jeannie Seely coming from the Grand Ole Opry to be inducted into America's Old Time Country Music Hall of Fame. It's quite an honor, coming from American's who actually live in the rural area.

Last year we had Bill Anderson and Patti Page, and you can be sure, there were tons of people who appreciate the work, the music, the creativity, and the appeal of both of those artists, one very country and one leaning toward pop-country, still the "Tennessee Waltz" is just as important to some listeners, as "Po Folks" is.

There are ten sound stages at this event, covering all aspects of rural music. "We've been doing this for 36 years," Everhart added, and just about everyone that has ever been with us, will tell you the same thing. As far as 'country' music is concerned, this is the real-deal."

More information is available at the NTCMA website atwww.orgsites.com/ia/oldtimemusic