Boston Folk Festival Songwriting Contest - Sat, Sept 15th

The finalists for the 2007 Boston Folk Festival Songwriting Contest have been chosen! This year there are five finalists in the adult category and four finalists in the youth category. These finalists will be performing their songs for an audience at Lipke Auditorium in the Science Building at UMass Boston on Saturday evening, September 15, 2007, beginning at 6:00 pm. The guest judges for the finals competition, Mark Erelli and Catie Curtis, will be there to choose the winners and will also be performing themselves. The winners will be performing the next day on the Field Stage of the Boston Folk Festival. Proceeds from the songwriting contest help support the Folk Festival, so our deepest thanks to all the participants. You can purchase tickets to the Songwriting Finals Competition here now

	Kevin Connolly	Writing and performing for almost twenty years, Kevin Connolly has carved out his own way of writing American songs and earned a reputation as a passionate performer. Connolly has toured extensively in the U.S. and Europe while maintaining a strong presence and tie to his New England roots. Working the college and coffeehouse circuit solo, Kevin has also played major festivals including Newport Folk, SXSW, Kerrville Folk and Bumbershoot. He has opened up for a long list on notable artists including Indigo Girls, Huey Lewis, Todd Rundgren and Joan Osborne. Locally, Kevin plays solo acoustic and from time to time with his 4 peice band. Kevin's songs have also appeared on network television in episodes of NBC's "First Watch" and in films like Danny Aiello's "Mojave Moon." Raised on Boston's South Shore, Kevin comes from a musical family with composer/brother Jim Connolly a fixture of the West Coast "New Music" scene. Early influences like John Prine, Tom Waits and Bob Dylan remain inspirations and guiding forces. Writing descriptive songs that capture something about regular life in America today has been a running theme and preoccupation.
	Marie Duprey	Marie Duprey focuses a keen eye and an open heart on the connections between people and the timeless nature of human relationships. Whether conjuring from her own pen, in collaboration with her music and life-partner, Michael Ross, or covering the work of other musicians, Marie presents the human condition with a singularly beautiful voice. Originally from Pennsylvania, she is the daughter of an accomplished playwright/novelist and a prize-winning craftswoman. She was raised with a firm foundation in music and the visual arts. Her musical influences range from the Clancy Brothers and Theodore Bikel to Sloan Wainwright and Phoebe Snow. Marie has been singing and writing in and around the Boston folk scene since the mid 90's. She has performed as a member of the band Folk Medicine, sung with Gail Rundlett, Mark Dix, Blackbird Junction and many others, most recently with her partner, Michael Ross. Marie's debut CD, Watch the Tide, was produced by Robbie O'Connell and released in the spring of 2007.
	Peg Espinola	Peg Espinola has been playing guitar and singing, mostly traditional American folksongs, since the early 1950's. She did not begin writing her own songs until her third session at WUMB's Summer Acoustic Music Week, in 2004, under the tutelage of Bob Franke. Now she says she can't stop! She has one CD out, Danish Modern (available on CDBaby). Peg is a clinical social worker in private practice, after many years of agency work. She is widowed, lives in Sudbury, MA, and has two children and two grandchildren.
	George O'Connor	Originally from Dorchester (St. Ann's parish), George O'Connor grew up mostly in Norwood, Massachusetts and has been a Dick Pleasants fan for more decades than he cares to admit. He studied guitar with Orrin Starr in the early 1980s before turning his focus to the mandolin with a little songwriting on the side. He currently performs with the acoustic jazz quartet Wicked Pickers (www.wickedpickers.com) and the bluegrass band Jumpin' Willie, both based in the Boston area. While waiting to become rich and famous as a mandolin player and bluegrass songwriter, he is keeping his day job as a university faculty member at the suggestion of his wife and two sons.
	Larry Plitt	Larry Plitt is a native New Yorker now living in Wenham Massachusetts. Larry has appeared with numerous local bands, including the Neptunes, Cakewalk, and Snowdonia. He currently sings and plays guitar with The Squeezebox Stompers. Larry picked up a guitar at age 13 and was instantly hooked. He loves singin' the blues and his playing is rooted in the Piedmont and Delta blues styles, but also peppered with Cajun, Zydeco, Celtic and Classical influences. As a veteran of the San Francisco folk rock scene of the early 70's, he played in a number of interesting but obscure bands. During the day, Larry owns and manages Fort Point Framers in Boston.

	Matt Borrello	Matt Borrello is an exceptional young performer from Dighton whose joy in and devotion to music are clear in every word he sings and chord he plays. Watching Matt grow as a singer/songwriter and musician over the past two years has been one of the most gratifying experiences in local music. During his early teen years, Matt became interested in music performance and began taking guitar lessons. Matt performs weekly in the Southeastern Massachusetts/Rhode Island area as a solo acoustic act. He credits Neil Young, Johnny Cash, and especially Bob Dylan as songwriting and musical influences. An equal dose of inspiration comes from local folk musicians he often sees and performs with. Matt also entertains at local nursing centers and assisted-living homes, playing sing-alongs and traditional folk songs. At the 2006 Newport Folk Festival, Matt ended up on stage sitting in with the French-Canadian zydeco band, Blou. Matt has opened shows for Rick Fetters, Don White, Polly Fiveash! & Anand Nayak, and Kevin So at local venues including Steve's Backstage Pass, the Union Coffeehouse, and the Soule Homestead Folk Concert Series. Despite his age, Matt has made quite an impact on the local music scene. Observes Steve Toli of Steve's Backstage Pass, "Watch this kid - he's going to the top! Only 17 years old and everyone loves him. Solo acoustic or with a band, this guy loves playing and it shows!!!"
	Sarah Borrello	Very seldom does extraordinary talent and creativity sprout from an individual who has barely entered high school. That is far from the case of Sarah Borrello. Sarah's personality fills up the stage with emotion-driven lyrics powered by a set of lungs that Alanis Morrisette and Fiona Apple would both be jealous of. There's no doubt this singer-songwriter is going somewhere," says Robin Santos of Rick's Music World where Sarah has been both a student and a frequent performer. Though only sixteen years old, Sarah is more comfortable on stage than many performers twice her age. Her love of music goes back many years, though her formal training began at the age of six when she started classical piano lessons which she continued with for nine years before picking up a guitar. She lists her major musical influences as Janis Joplin, Fiona Apple, and Kurt Cobain. Sarah has been performing publicly in the Southeastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island area for more than two years. Most recently Sarah has performed at both The Narrows Center for the Arts and the Soule Homestead Folk Music Series. Currently, she is writing and performing original music for both guitar and piano. Sarah will begin work on her second full length cd in the Fall of 2007.
	Holly Howes	Holly Howes, a junior at the Waring School in Beverly, has performed music during the last ten years at several local establishments including Club Passim in Cambridge, the Chelsea Solders Home, King Hooper Café in Marblehead, and the Front Street Café in Salem. Writing music is natural outgrowth of both her success as a young poet and her experience performing music on stage. Her writing career began in the fourth grade when some of her poetry was published in a book of nationally noted student work. She has since had several other pieces chosen for local poetry contests. As the singer/guitarist for her band RED TAPE, Holly started experimenting with writing her own songs a couple of years ago. She has written six songs so far. This summer at ART WORKS summer camp she co-taught a song writing elective to young children. The combination of her years of guitar, her experience in a madrigal choir, and her natural poetic talent come together when she performs. Her musical style speaks eloquently of the heart of human emotions.
	Casey Sullivan	My name is Casey Sullivan. I'm from Saugus. I'm 16 years old and I'm entering my junior year at Austin Prep. I have playing guitar for a little over 2 years and I've been singing all my life. I just started writing my own songs about a year ago. It's what I love to do. My favorite artist is definitely Bob Dylan. He's influenced me a lot and I've been a fan for as long as I can remember. I write lyrics mainly about situations I'm going through, so they're all very personal. Music is a huge part of my life and I hope to make it a huge part of my future.

The 2007 Songwriting Judges are Mark Erelli and Catie Curtis