Photo by Steven St. JohnTribune

Tribune

Roger Eaton (left) and Terry Clements rehearse original songs in a back hallway before the start of the open-mike session at O'Niell's in Nob Hill.

Photo by Steven St. JohnTribune

Tribune

Electric cables connect guitars to amps in the performance area at O'Niell's. "Everybody's got open-mike nights, but most people do covers or blues jams or something like that," says musician Martin Rowell. "So we thought we'd do one for songwriters - people doing original music, stuff from the heart."

Photo by Steven St. JohnTribune

Tribune

Sounds from an acoustic guitar fill the air at O'Niell's Irish Pub in Nob Hill. The venue's Tuesday open-mike sessions have spawned a citywide songwriting contest.

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Songwriters are tweaking their lyrics and tuning their instruments for a shot at winning the Albuquerque Songwriting Contest.

E. Christina Herr and bandmate Martin Rowell of Herr's Wild Frontier band are hosting a first-time citywide competition with a top prize of five hours of studio recording time.

"Since I am a singer/songwriter, I feel like I appreciate what people of my ilk go through," Herr said. "We really want to try to build more connections between the songwriters and other people who are in musical-oriented situations — whether they be clubs, or city or state music organizations."

The contest evolved out of the weekly open-mike nights Herr and Rowell began hosting in May at a coffee shop. Now, with a new location at O'Niell's Irish Pub, the timing seemed right to raise the stakes.

"Everybody's got open-mike nights, but most people do covers or blues jams or something like that," Rowell said. "So we thought we'd do one for songwriters — people doing original music, stuff from the heart."

Contestants of all ages and genres may enter as many songs as they like into the contest, but they must perform original material.

Prizes will be given in seven categories, ranging from Americana to rock — although Herr and Rowell know all too well that many songwriters have their own unique styles that don't fit into traditional genres. They call their own music Western Gothic but group it in with Americana.

"Categories are limiting in a way," Herr said. "But then sometimes having those boundaries helps you define what you're trying to do."

Brian Romero, 32, and his band Bartender 4 Mayor have been playing together for six months and are regulars of the weekly open-mike nights. Romero will be entering numerous songs in the contest.

"For what we've written, there's not much of a venue," Romero said. "So we are playing open-mikes until we can fatten up our set list. It gives great experience playing in front of people."

Romero defines Bartender 4 Mayor's music as alternative country, but he and his band members work off such diverse influences as traditional country and punk rock.

"We've worked really hard to get to the point where we can do something like this contest," Romero said.

Herr said she expects to see musicians with different levels of professionalism.

"We want to get people to push it to the next level," Herr said. "We want what would be considered amateur musicians to stand back and look at how they can make the song have more of an impact on the audience."

Rowell said during the three nights of the preliminaries, two finalists in each category will be chosen by a popular vote. The organizers will then select one finalist from each category. This means the more nights the musicians play, the more votes they will get for the People's Choice prize.

The 21 finalists will then perform in the finale Feb. 9 at Grandma's Music and Sound, 9310 Coors Blvd. N.W. The judges will recognize an act in each category and then pick an overall winner. Prizes, which are yet to be determined, will be awarded to the winners of each category.

When selecting the judges, Herr and Rowell said they looked for people who could appreciate the range of musical styles that will be in the contest.

"These are the people I felt, like, really had a passion for music and were open enough to respond to different types of music," Herr said. "Each one of these people is so devoted in their own way to promoting music."

The judges are KOB-FM (93.3) personality and singer/songwriter Leah Black; Daniel Boling, who has won the Woody Guthrie songwriting contest; Jim Terrell, who heads the Albuquerque chapter of the Nashville Songwriters Association International; and Tom Frouge, music liaison for the city of Albuquerque.

In addition to his city job, Frouge — a songwriter himself — has experience running record labels and is co-founder of local world music festival, Globalquerque.

"When people put on things like this (the contest), they allow people to see other kinds of music," Frouge said. "The more people that come out to these things and support them, the more business people turn their heads. It also allows people to be judged by their peers, which is essential in music."

Frouge said he knows each of the judges and is confident that they are able to be fair to each song within its own genre. He said the contest provides songwriters a place to showcase their work regardless of the type of music they play or of their experience in the business aspect of the industry.

"There's really much more to the music scene in Albuquerque than the Downtown club scene," Frouge said. "There are so many musicians and writers that really have no place to perform or limited places to perform."

Nonetheless, Herr, Rowell and Frouge said they are certain the quality of songs in the contest will be worthwhile listening.

"Albuquerque's got a lot of great talent," Rowell said. "You know, all these people are sitting at home writing these great songs and no one is hearing them."