2024 GRFF Songwriter Finalists

The Mission of the Great River Folk Festival is to celebrate and cultivate folk culture rooted in the Driftless Region by uniting independent artists and community. In keeping with the GRFF mission, the annual songwriting contest strives to promote public appreciation and support for new and emerging songwriters and to celebrate the songwriting craft.

The Great River Folk Festival and the community who attends our festivals value diversity, equity, and inclusion. We strive for gender parity and actively welcome participation from individuals of all cultures, races, and religions!

Brennan Henry

Brennan Henry is an avid musician, educator, and farmer living in Decorah, Iowa. They have been studying, composing, and performing music in myriad ways for two decades - from performing at music festivals, creating an exhibit at an international artist residency, to performing in string bands for contra dances, or as a musician in the pit for small theatrical performances!

Dave Novak

Dave Novak played his first professional gig while still in middle school and was in bands throughout high school. After college, he returned to Austin, Minnesota to form the Route River Ramblers, a successful bar band that played throughout the upper Midwest. A career in computer animation that followed left Dave little time for anything beyond work and family. It wasn’t until after he left animation production and began a life as an animation professor at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design that he had any time to devote to music. It was then that he discovered songwriting. It combined his lifelong love of playing music with the love of storytelling that he honed while producing animations. One of the critical differences was that he could write a song by himself in a few hours or a few days, and an animation would take an entire crew of people weeks or months to create.

Emmy Woods

Emmy Woods (she/they) was born and raised on an old dirt road in rural North Dakota and currently resides in Saint Paul, Minnesota. With hints of country, folk, and blues, Emmy’s songs showcase her knack for storytelling, her strengths in musical artistry, and an impressive vocal range and ability. When asked to summarize her music in three words, Dr. Kyle Smith replied, “Queer Farm Vibes.” While Emmy has been writing songs for over 20 years, her first collection of songs, tristia bella, as well as her albums The Manifold and Delirium were not released until March 2023. Since then, she’s released three singles with a band and continues to gain momentum with their genre bending sound.

Ross Thorn

With a pastoral upbringing in northern Wisconsin, Ross Thorn’s music emanates as a warm and soulful hymn, waking up optimistically beside a snow-covered window. His sharply crafted lyrics—distinctly reminiscent to the likes of Jason Isbell—reveal internal struggles of empathy, questions of human character and virtue, and a search for hope, often finding solace in some unanticipated truth.

Simon Cropp

Simon Cropp (Slapdash Bluegrass) is a flatpick guitarist and country and bluegrass songwriter. His performance style is equal parts dive bar bravado and fireside introspection. His writing channels traditional country themes of love, heartbreak, and cheap beer, winking at cliche without bending to it

Stuart Stotts

Stuart Stotts is a songwriter, performer and author from LaFarge Wi. He's sung all over the world, most often for children and families. He's released several recording and written a number of books, including "We Shall Overcome: A song that changed the world" and "Curly Lambeau: Building the Green Bay Packers." Stuart lives in a solar home and tends a small woodlot and garden when he's not traveling.

CONTEST DETAILS & ELIGIBILITY

ELIGIBILITY

The GRFF Songwriter Contest is open to songwriters who are 18 years of age or older by the date of the submission.
For the purposes of the competition, a song must have both lyrics and music. All submitted songs must be original and have been written or co-written by the entrant(s).
Past grand prize winners of the GRFF Songwriter Contest are not eligible to enter the contest the following calendar year. All other previous entrants and finalists are eligible.
Artists must be within a 300 mile radius of La Crosse, Wisconsin.

JUDGING

Our judges will use a consistent set of standards to make impartial decisions as to the merits of the song(s) and performance. We will strive to make sure that the judging is fair and follows our mission of supporting and encouraging songwriters.

The judging and scoring, for both the online submissions as well as the finals, will be based on the following:

Song structure and composition
- The song has a clear theme or cohesive idea
- The song has clearly identifiable sections, verses, melody and chorus
- The song is between 2 to 5 minutes in length
Lyrics
- The lyrics evoke an emotional response from the listener
- The lyrics are singable and memorable
- The lyrics have an identifiable rhyme scheme or pattern (should it serve the song)
- KEEP IN MIND - this is a family friendly event - lyrics should be written and performed with the audience in mind.
Music & Melody
- The music and melody adds to the emotional impact of the song
- The music keeps the listener interested and engaged
- The music and lyrics fit together in a cohesive way
Originality
- Must be an original song.
- Songs and performances should express themes in a new or fresh way.

FINALS

The Finals are held at the Songwriter Contest Showcase during the Great River Folk Festival on Sunday, August 25, 2024.
From the Showcase performance, judges will select an overall winner, as well as two (2) honorable mentions.
The Grand Prize songwriter has the opportunity to play a full set of music the same day as the competition.

Past Winners

Here is a list of winners, and if you would love to hear them and/or buy a digital album with a song from each click the bottom LISTEN HERE

2009 - Mike Caucutt

2010 - Tim Fast

2011 - Casey & Joe Danielson

2012 - Tom & Barb Webber

2013 - Aric Sampson

2014 - Derek Olsen

2015 - Michael Monroe

2016 - Blaine Howard

2017 - Laura Joy

2018 - Greg Gilbertson

2019 - Russ Parrish

2020 - Shanna in a Dress

2021 - Siena Christie

2022 - Andy Baker

2023 - Sarah King

Listen Here

2024 GRFF Songwriter Finalists

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Past Winners