Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers wins annual Lennon Award in the John Lennon Songwriting Contest

Date: May 07, 2009

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The John Lennon Songwriting Contest announced that “Fly,” a song by musician, author, and NPR contributor Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers, won the 2008 Lennon Award for top country song.

The annual Lennon Award, determined through an online vote, follows the grand prize awarded to “Fly” last fall by a panel of music industry veterans and recording artists such as Bob Weir, John Legend, and Natasha Bedingfield. The Lennon Award victory puts “Fly” in the running for Song of the Year--which comes with a $20,000 prize. The Lennon contest is one of today’s most prestigious international songwriting competitions.

The Lennon Award news continues a remarkable journey for a homespun song recorded in Rodgers’ basement, with a rhythm section anchored by a cajón (wooden box) and a plastic toy tambourine. The track, featuring country-pop singer Lisa Gentile on the duet vocal and Joe Cleveland on five-string banjo, can be heard on the Lennon contest site.

The CD Humming My Way Back Home, featuring “Fly,” was released on Rodgers’ own Words and Music label and is available at iTunes, CD Baby, Amazon MP3, and jeffreypepperrodgers.com.

The Lennon awards mark yet another way that Rodgers has combined his twin passions for words and music into a multifaceted career as a musician, writer, and editor. In addition to writing and performing his own songs, he reports on the music scene for NPR’s All Things Considered. He is author of The Complete Singer-Songwriter and Rock Troubadours (which features his conversations with Jerry Garcia, Paul Simon, James Taylor, and more), and founding editor of Acoustic Guitar magazine. He lives outside Syracuse, New York, where he hosts the Words and Music Songwriter Showcase.

More about Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers at:
www.jeffreypepperrodgers.com