Global Songwriters Connection is a career mentoring and talent building organization whose desire is to build authentic, artistic and sustainable careers in the music business. This process takes time and we are so honored to share some of our members GSC stories in this section called “MY GSC STORY!” This week features Mitch and Diann Hammer.
Song Contest and Awards:
- 2016 John Lennon Session II, “Tidal Wave” grand prize winner in country category. Currently in contention for the 2016 John Lennon Song of the Year.
- 2016 Mid Atlantic Song Contest: “No One Knows” second place Silver Award winner in pop category; “Magic” honorable mention in pop category, and “Sunset View” honorable mention in the open category.
- 2016 Song Door ICS: “Night Ride” and “Tidal Wave” honorable mention in the country category and “No One Knows” and “Feeling You Everywhere” honorable mention in pop category
- 2016 Pensacola: “No One Knows” placed 4th
- 2015 Pensacola: “Tidal Wave” placed 5th and “Magic” placed 7th
- 2015 Frank Brown: “Magic” placed 6th; Night Ride placed 9th; “Tidal Wave” honorable mention
Our Journey
Our musical journey grew out of having fun singing duets with each other at our local karaoke bars. We loved the stories that country songs told and we thought it might be fun to see if we could write a country song. Things started moving towards that direction when Mitch bought a keyboard to see if he could retool his piano skills. From there we crafted a few songs (lyrics only) but did not know the next steps. After a search on the internet we located several song associations in Nashville (NSAI and Taxi) that sounded promising as they offered song evaluations and we saw that as a starting point.
Sometime around 2012, Mitch joined both NSAI and Taxi and sent in our songs for evaluation. We receive some positive feedback and words of encouragement! So, we looked at the videos on the NSAI website, subscribed to American Songwriting Magazine (where we found and ad from William Sherry, Jr. to demo some very early versions of our songs), went on Amazon and ordered all types of books on song writing. We bounced around a bit but did not seem to be getting to where we wanted to go with our writing and William suggested we join Global Songwriters Connections.
This was the best decision for both Mitch and Diann and in December 2014 we had our first mentoring session with Sheree’. It was life changing and the real beginning towards learning the craft as songwriters. We continued to take advantage of all the many GSC services available including song evaluations, bio development, continued mentoring and the POP events. With Sheree’s guidance and advice, our songwriting continued to improve.
However, as lyricist we struggled to find someone to work with to put music to our lyrics or to cowrite with. In June 2015, Sheree’ graciously connected us with Clayton Jones who breathed life into our lyrics with his melodies and voice. The ability to work with such a gifted singer/songwriter provided us a tremendous opportunity to stretch out of our comfort zones. Since that time, we have continued to work with Clayton and have co- written several songs together (some placed in the top ten in song contests, with “No One Knows” receiving a Silver Award in the 2016 Mid-Atlantic Song Contest). Having the opportunity to co-write songs from the ground floor up with Clayton is a lyricist’s dream.
By GSC invitation, Mitch and I attended our first FOCUS event in September 2016. What an amazing growth experience! Being part of GSC has connected us to some very talented members and we now co-write with several songwriters and we now make more frequent trips to Nashville. We are convinced that without the help from the entire GSC team we would still be spinning our wheels instead of living our dream to be songwriters.
