Certificate of Recognition from Governor Abbott to the Fort Worth Songwriters' Association for 25 years of service providing, educating, and promoting music in Texas.
FWSA LOGO
30 YEAR ANNIVERSARY
JULY EVENTS
MONDAY: 7/1 - FWSA 2024 Song Contest
[Through 8/31]
THURSDAY: 7/4 - Fourth of July
[National Holiday]
WEDNESDAY: 7/10 - FWSA Board of Directors Meeting
[6:30pm - 8:30pm] No Frills Grill, 12846 South Freeway, Burleson TX
TUESDAY: 7/16 - FWSA OPEN MIC
[6 pm - 9 pm] | Fred's Texas Cafe, Fort Worth TX
TUESDAY: 7/23 - FWSA MONTHY WORKSHOP & GATHERING
[6:30 - 8:30pm] | No Frills Grill, 12846 South Freeway, Burleson TX
(NOTE: CHECK THE FWSA CALENDAR OF EVENTS FOR UPDATES/MORE INFORMATION)
FROM THE PRESIDENT
Hello FWSA songwriters:
I always thought the nursery rhymes and children’s songs we learned were sort of violent. The
girls at recess skipping rope while singing Lizzy Borden took an axe…Tom Dooley is going to die....Humpty Dumpty fell, and all the King's men couldn't put him back together again....Rock a bye Baby, that boughs going to break and down will come baby, cradle and all...
How did we drift off to sleep as children after hearing such scary tunes? Should we be teaching children that life is so cruel at an early age? Or is there some hidden meaning we didn't understand as children? One such recently posted rumor about the nursery rhyme “Rock A Bye Baby” made sense. It reads that Davy Crocket's older sister, Effie, was invited to a Muskogee tribe camp to see if she could help the mothers with their young.
A custom of the tribe was for the young mothers to wrap their young in a papoose and hang them on a tree branch to keep them safe from insect bites, animals, and out of the path of workers. The young were content to hear their mothers nearby and to swing on the tree branch while listening to birds sing and curious noises.
Effie at first laughed at such a tradition, then she heard one young mother sing an Indian lullaby with a tear in her eye. Effie wanted to know what was the song that touched the mother so much. The song translated into English: “Rock a bye baby on the treetop, when the winds blows the cradle will rock. When the bough (limb) breaks, the cradle will fall, and down will come baby cradle and all.”
Realizing that the limb will not hold the baby after the baby grows, the mother’s role will change and the child will leave some day to be the adult she raised.
Okay, I get it now. A deeper meaning than the scary nursery rhyme I thought it was.
Keep writing!
Rick Tate
FWSA 2024 Song Contest Begins!
On Your Mark! Get Set! LINK!
Enter your best songs in the FWSA’s
annual Song Contest starting on July 1st, with all entries
due by 11:59 PM, CDT, August 31st .
Contest categories, rules and additional information
can be found in your July FWSA Newsletter. Questions?
Please reach out to:
contact@fwsa.com or newsletter@fwsa.com
FWSA 2023 Songwriters Recognized Include:
2023 GRAND PRIZE SONG “WHY” WRITTEN BY DARREN WIEDMAN:
Bare Bones: Love/Relationship - Angel of Mercy (John Terry/Bobby Terry)
Bare Bones: Open Subject - Gilligan's Island (John Terry/Alvaro Villareal)
Holiday/Inspirational /Patriotic – What I Need to Do (Allan Peterson)
Humor/Comedy - Be Careful What You Pray For (Rickey Tate)
Studio Produced: Love/Relationship - A Lovely Rendezvous (Mitch Fenner)
Lyrics Only: Jack Daniels or King James (Darren Wiedman)
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