Congrats to Charlotte Kendrick

Many congrats to my friend Charlotte Kendrick, who has won 1st place in the folk category of the 11th Annual Unisong Songwriting Contest. Her song, 'Thank You' has always been a favorite of mine, and it's a well deserved winner. She performs with her husband, Dan, who is a ridiculously nice guy, and also a great upright bass player/harmony vocalist.
I highly recommend checking them out if you have a chance, www.charlottekendrick.com.

Last Comic Standing and how it relates to song contests

So, I was watching Last Comic Standing tonight, and I had an epiphany. (I always thought an epiphany would hurt, and maybe require stitches, but it wasn't bad at all).
The judging process for the show is a lot like the judging for the song contests that I'm always entering. Tonight I watched a bunch of people who have worked at their craft for years and years have 3 judges determine their fate, and either tell them they were good, or to go home. The thing is, some of the people who didn't move on to the next round were absolutely hilarious to me. What makes the 3 judges opinions more legitimate than mine or yours? When you see a stand-up comic, you will either find them to be funny, or you won't. No "expert" can tell me whether or not somebody's funny.
Now, just for the record, I am in no way opposed to the judging of comics or songwriters or any other group of artists, it's just that there's no such thing as better or worse, it's just one person's opinion vs. another.
And, my opinion is, that dude on the show who was talking about being hero, and beating some guy up in the bathroom, was just phenomenally funny. Now, I just need to find out his name, and send him an e-mail, or maybe a check for $10, cause darn it, he deserves it.

My latest project

I'm starting a new songwriting project, thought I'd let you know about. I am going to do a full CD of songs about people, places and events in my home state of Alabama. Y'all probably already realize how much I love Alabama, I thought it'd be fun to dig into some specific characters and places that I don't yet know about. I am going to try and find something from every area of the state to write about, and do some interviews, and then travel around and get some photos of what the songs are about.
Don't know how long this will take, but hopefully by early 2008 I'll have this project ready, tenatively titled 'This Is Alabama'.
If any of you know of anything/anyone in Alabama that you think would make for a good song, please let me know.
Thanks!