2009 Beaners Songwriting Competition

Okay, I know it's old news. So last year. But Christa Lawler (Duluth News Tribune) was at the 2009 Beaners competition and I hear is the wonderful lady who recommended me for the "Ladies We Love" event that happened last night. I did a little searching, and she did a write up about the songwriting competition last year. Here's what she had to say:

Jill Zimmerman, a young musician from St. Paul, won the Singer/Songwriter Competition on Wednesday at Beaner's Central. She was one of two performers to bust out some music on a keyboard, and then performed her second song on guitar. Her style, lyrically, has a sort of stream-of-consciousness to it. She a little poppy, a little folky, really fun.

There were 16 performers, and they played two songs each. They were judged on Lyrics, Melody, Stage Presense and Originality. (I was a judge. My second songwriting competition in a month. So fun. Although I'm an erratic judge with little rhyme or reason to what catches my ear from minute to minute).

Lance Benson was the runner up. He's got a bit of an alt-country folk sound and seemed pretty comfortable on stage. Third place was Emily Jayne of Duluth, who went Tori Amos all over the keyboard. She was fantastic. Totally reminded me of one of my favorite musicians/celebrities/people to follow on Twitter, Amanda Palmer of Dresden Dolls.

The People's Choice Award went to a fine, fine young guitar player, Lucas Ollanketo. It looks like he is from St. Paul-ish area. He brought about three rows of entourage with him to the show and got a lotta love from the audience.