Steve Romig of Australia, is awarded First Place in the Blues category

The ISC in the USA have just announced the winners of their prestigious songwriting competition.

The press statement reads:

13 April 2006

The International Songwriting Competition (ISC) is pleased to announce the winners for its 2005 annual competition. ISC received almost 15,000 entries from 82 countries in its fourth year, and has been called "the songwriting competition to take note of" by the New York Times. ISC prizes include more than $150,000 (USD) in cash and merchandise shared by 50 winners in 16 categories.

"Way Down Homeless Blues," by Steve Romig, is awarded First Place in the Blues category. This Melbourne singer/songwriter has come a long way since the novelty songs of his earlier songwriting days. In the midst of stints in a top-notch function band in the '90's, a jazz band in Japan, and lending backup vocals for Oz stars Kylie Minogue and Tommy Emmanuel, Romig had two songs covered by the legendary John Farnham in 1999 and 2003. Apart from a couple of months recuperating from a broken neck in 2005, Romig has been performing solo or with his band around Melbourne and at festivals. The ISC win comes at a great time in anticipation of the release of his new album, tentatively set for May, 2006.

Second Place honors have been awarded to Jody C. Getz, from Cleveland, Ohio, for her song "Old Fashioned Guy;" and Third Place honors have been awarded to Sam Taylor from Islandia, New York, for his song, "Someone To Hold."

In addition to these winners, nine other Blues songs garnered placement in the top 1.4% of the competition.

A complete list of Blues winners includes:

First Place "Way Down Homeless Blues" -- Steve Romig -- Melbourne, VIC, Australia

Second Place "Old Fashioned Guy" -- Jody C. Getz -- Cleveland, OH, USA

Third Place "Someone To Hold" -- Sam Taylor -- Islandia, NY, USA

Honorable Mentions:
"Baby, I Am Your Crime" -- Richard Stuart Coburn - Albrightsville, PA, USA

Papa George receives an Honorable Mention for his song "Blackjack" - click to enlarge

"Blackjack" -- Papa George - London, England "Déjà Vu All Over Again" -- Keith Dunn - Rotterdam, Netherlands "I'm Good To Go" -- Rick Fines - Peterborough, ON, Canada "Leave It Gone" -- Mojo Stu, Mitch Goldfarb - Thorndale, PA, USA "Missing You" -- Lene Strøyer Sørensen - Værløse, Denmark "Move A Little Faster" -- Andy Logan - Nashville, TN, USA "Poor Man Blues" -- Paul Oscher - Santa Monica, CA, USA "Southern Comfort" -- EG Kight, Tom Horner - Dublin, GA, USA

Judges for the 2005 competition include: Tom Waits; Loretta Lynn; Sonny Rollins; John Scofield; Steve Vai; Macy Gray; Joss Stone; MercyMe; Amy Ray (Indigo Girls); Darryl McDaniels (Run D.M.C.); LeAnn Rimes; Isaac Brock (Modest Mouse); Jeff Stinco (Simple Plan); BeBe Winans; Peter Hook (New Order); Benji Madden (Good Charlotte); Charlie Musselwhite; The Donnas; Monte Lipman (President, Universal Records); Keith Wozencroft (President, Capitol Music UK); Glen Barros (CEO/President, Concord Records); Bruce Iglauer (Founder/President, Alligator Records); Cameron Strang (President, New West Records); Dan Storper (President, Putumayo World Music); Michael McDonald (President, ATO Records); Alexandra Patsavas (Owner, The Chop Shop Music Supervision - credits include The OC, Grey's Anatomy, Without A Trace, Carnivale, Rescue Me ); Darrale Jones (VP A&R Urban, Atlantic Records); Chris Parr (VP Music Programming & Talent Relations, CMT); Barbara Sedun (VP Creative, EMI Music Publishing Canada); Tara Griggs- Magee (Executive VP of Gospel/Urban Music, Sony Records); Leib Ostrow (CEO, Music For Little People), Thomas Brooman (Co-Founder/Artistic Director, WOMAD); Cory Robbins (Founder/President, Robbins Entertainment); Emily Wittmann (Vice-President, Nick Records); Patrick Moxey (President, Ultra Records/You Records/Sequence Records/ Escondida Music/Empire Mgmt.) and Danny Epstein (Music Supervisor, Sesame Street/Sesame Workshop).

2005 Sponsors include: Epiphone, ASCAP, Berklee College Of Music, L.R. Baggs, Disc Makers, Alphabet Arm Design, FYE, Cakewalk, Fishman Transducers, ADK Microphones, Moog Music, Sam Ash Music Stores, Sibelius, Planetary Group, Hear Technologies, Music Registry, Mediaguide, ArtistMonitor, Onlinegigs.com, Musician's Atlas, Sonicbids and Performer.com.