Songwriters For Survivors Benefit

Everyone come out and join the Songwriters For Survivors Open Mic Benefit for the Sexton family. They lost everything they had during the tornadoes of last April and now the father, Michael, has terminal liver cancer. This family has an immediate need for your love and support.

Mrs. Sexton was pregnant at the time of the devastating tornado that destroyed everything they had. Thankfully, she delivered a healthy baby as you can see above. Now tragedy has struck the Sextons again. It is not expected that the Michael will be with them much longer. This is a heart-breaking situation and we need your help to help this family!

 

About Us

Songwriters for Survivors is a collaboration of songwriters and musicians in the Tennessee Valley of Alabama. Our goal is to organize benefit concerts to raise funds that will help meet the needs of the citizens of North Alabama who have been devastated by various disasters. Songwriters For Survivors is a non-profit organization. All funds collected will go directly to this family. Donations may be made through PayPal at http://sw4s.org/.

Meet Sean Patrick Adams

Not a “Homegrown Songwriter from Our Sweet Home Alabama” but a songwriter with an interesting story to tell.

Singer/Songwriter Sean Patrick Adams was born in Dallas, Texas, lived in the Panama Canal Zone for 17 years and now resides in Corning, New.York. He started playing guitar at age 14 but did not start writing songs until later in life.

“Well, I will say that the songs I write come from the heart. After losing my wife that I still loved very much to divorce, I started to write songs as a form of therapy for myself. I wrote down the good and bad feelings that I had and started composing songs that expressed the way I felt. This was a form of healing for me and I discovered purely by accident that my songs were a hit with all my friends. They could relate to the things I said. This was the beginning of an incredible journey for me!

Most of my first songs were about love, hate and hurt feelings…sad songs. I got past those feelings and started really learning how to write songs. I started exploring other genres and topics of expression in Christian Praise & Worship … songs about saving the planet… about life and death and the hurdles we sometime face by just living. I have survived and conquered depression, addiction and feeling that being adopted meant I was worthless.

Finally, I now feel that I’m coming into my own in life. I know who I am, what I want to accomplish. I’m still new to all of this but I’m very excited about what the future holds. I have been approached by a couple of music labels and producers to make my music mainstream.

My two best friends, who are awesome musicians, are in training for the ministry. I hope to work with them to help with suicide intervention for teens and young adults. I would also like to start or work with an organization or ministry to work with other adopted children who now feel as I used to feel. To help them understand that they are very special and God put them here for a reason.

Through deed or song, my goal is to reach as many people as I can to let them know that although life can be very hard never give up. There is always a way to change your stars if you try hard enough.” ~Sean Patrick Adams~

Please visit Sean Patrick Adams on ReverbNation and give his music a listen. He is also on Facebook and you may follow him on twitter @seanpatrickadams.

Jim Parker's Songwriters Series

Dear Homegrown Songwriters,

We had a last minute cancellation. Rebecca Lynn Howard found out today that she has to shoot a television show on the 6th! Karen Staley came to the rescue! Bless you Karen!

It's been an amazing year for JPSS and I owe every success to you, my fans and my sponsors for which I am deeply grateful. The first show for 2012 is coming up very soon, next Friday, Jan. 6th. I have a great lineup of performers: Rebecca Lynn Howard, Michael Anthony Curtis and Kurt Fortmeyer, with special guest Keith Elder, from Birmingham.Season tickets and a few tables are still available. If you're interested in a table contact me directly at 256-337-6006.

I hope to see you next Friday!

Wishing you a Happy and Healthy New Year!

Jim

 Weirton, Virginia, USA. Karen Staley is a singer-songwriter whose credits include a number of songs for Faith Hill (‘Take Me As I Am’ and ‘Let’s Go To Vegas’), Patty Loveless and Tracy Byrd (‘Keeper Of The Stars’). Raised in Georgetown, Pennsylvania, Staley claims to have been attracted to a career in music through the boredom she endured at the Methodist church meetings her parents took her to. In October 1984, she relocated to Nashville. Kathy Mattea recommended her to Bob Doyle at ASCAP, later Garth Brooks’ manager, who introduced her to various publishers. Within a month she had a staff publishing deal. Her first big hits came with Patty Loveless - ‘Lonely Days, Lonely Nights’ and ‘Wicked Ways’. After establishing herself as a songwriter she signed with MCA Records, but lost her way when the label was taken over by Universal. She moved to Warner Brothers Records instead, and received rave reviews for her 1998 debut for the label, Fearless. Karen is commited to charitable work and is a humorist as well as a hit singer/songwriter and performer.

Curtis was raised in Lewisburg, Tenn., but has lived most of his adult life in Alabama. He began writing songs at the early age of 12, and, by the time he turned 19, he was signed to ASCAP by Garth Brooks' manager Bob Doyle.

Curtis has written and co-written such great songs as "Drive Another Nail" by Randy Travis; "Father Knows Best" by Ricky Skaggs; "Get Up In Jesus Name" by Lee Ann Womack; and "Carpenters Son" by Sawyer Brown. He also wrote seven of the 10 songs recorded by Marty Raybon (former lead singer of Shenandoah), and began producing, which resulted in several No. 1 hits, that garnered Dove and GMA nods.

Kurt Fortmeyer was born in a barn and raised in a stable environment, or so he might tell an unwitting listener in one of his sillier moments. His life was changed irreparably at a tender and impressionable age when he was subjected to Roger Miller, Allan Sherman, Chubby Checker, and Trini Lopez.

His first solo show was at the HOLE IN THE WALL SALOON in Raleigh, North Carolina. In the late '70s, influenced by Jack Kerouac, Jesse Winchester, and Townes Van Zandt, he hitchhiked coast-to-coast...

Singer, songwriter, retreat leader--Keith Elder has spoken and performed for over thirty years in a wide variety of church, conference, and community settings. While serving local churches in North Alabama as a youth director then as a pastor, Keith continued to write and record, play small concert venues, and provide leadership for special events.