During that weekend, BMI and the SCL hosted a screening of Enchanted with both Menken and lyricist Stephen Schwartz participating in a Q&A with journalist Jon Burlingame.

BMI’s Linda Livingston, Richard Kraft, Billboard magazine’s Tamara Conniff and Alan Menken.

Jesse Harris, Linda Livingston, Tamara Conniff; and Alan Menken.

The SCL’s Dan Foliart, BMI’s Anne Cecere, Alan Menken, Jon Burlingame and the SCL’s Laura Dunn.

Pictured at the New York screening are (l-r): BMI’s Samantha Cox, Jesse Harris, Dan Foliart and BMI’s Charlie Feldman.

Harris and Hawke assembled a group of artists including Norah Jones, Cat Power and Willie Nelson to record Harris’s songs for the soundtrack, performed in both English and Spanish. The soundtrack will be released through Hickory Records.

Shown in Los Angeles are (l-r): BMI’s Linda Livingston, Jessie Harris, Rocha and Dan Foliart.

Harris, who appears in the movie, has known Hawke since the early 1990s and has released six albums as a solo artist. His songs have been recorded by Madeleine Peyroux, Pat Metheny, and Lizz Wright, and, in 2003, he won a Song of the Year Grammy, for writing Norah Jones's "Don't Know Why." The Hottest State is an adaptation from Hawke’s own novel of the same name, which centers on the high and lows of first love.

Founded and directed by singer/songwriter Tina Shafer, The New York Songwriters Circle has been at the forefront of discovering songwriting talent for over 17 years. With over $10,000 in cash and prizes, it is one of New York's premier venues for new, independent songwriters from all over the world.

Deadline for submissions is September 30, 2007. For more information please visit www.songwriters-circle.com.

Born in Boston and raised in Kentucky, Colorado and South Florida, school brought her back to Cambridge. She started to sing as a child and spent years studying classical voice and piano, and in high school sang in everything from alt rock garage bands and Motown funk bands to jazz and classical choirs and church. At the end of high school, she taught herself guitar when an uncle gave her his old acoustic. But the sum of these parts wasn’t clear to anyone until she left home for college, where the truth was revealed on the streets of Harvard Square.

Mieka’s ability to captivate audiences first made her a favorite of Boston’s best clubs including The Paradise Lounge, House of Blues, Club Passim and Kendall Café - and next at New York’s renowned Bitter End, Living Room, Makor, Knitting Factory and Village Underground. In Summer 2002 she graduated from Harvard with a degree in Biological Anthropology, won BMI’s Rock Boat Song Contest, and placed top three at the famed Telluride Troubadour Competition. In 2003 she was invited to perform at four of the top music festivals in the country: The Newport Folk Festival, On The Bricks in Atlanta, Dancin’ In The District in Nashville and a return trip to The Rock Boat. 2004 included the month-long Citizen Cope Northeast Tour, the first ever BMI/NACA “See It Hear First” showcase, sharing a bill with Eric Clapton at Boston’s Tweeter Center, and winning the prestigious Rocky Mountain Folks Fest Songwriter Showcase. In 2005 she was nominated for a Boston Music Award, won the first ever Starbucks Emerging Artist Award, and recorded a new EP with producer John Alagia (John Mayer, Dave Matthews, Jason Mraz, Rachel Yamagata, Josh Kelly, Lifehouse, Liz Phair, Trevor Hall and others), due to be released in early 2006.

Over these first 36 months of her young career, she’s become the embodiment of the musician road warrior: A girl, a guitar, and a car - crisscrossing the country and playing over 450 club and college shows from northern Maine to southern Florida, from the Pacific Northwest to southern California, from the Colorado Rockies to the Tennessee valleys to the Great Lakes States and all points between - and back around the bases of street corners, cafés and clubs of Boston - even sliding into home plate at Fenway Park for a National Anthem. She has shared the bill with such artists as Eric Clapton, Wyclef Jean, Jason Mraz, John Legend, the Black Eyed Peas, John Hiatt, Blues Traveler, Martin Sexton, Jesse Harris, Mindy Smith, Edwin McCain, Citizen Cope, Shawn Mullins, Marc Broussard, Talib Kweli, North Mississippi All-Stars, Ben Lee, Tift Merritt and Erin McKeown, among many others.

A recent Boston Globe feature on her perhaps said it best: “While the eyes may be the windows to the soul, Mieka Pauley lets you in through her voice (as unstoppable as a flood) and through her lyrics (as personal as diary entries). She’s making her voice heard, and not just on the streets of Harvard Square.”

Georgia-born Peyroux was raised in Paris and New York, and honed her performing talents playing on the streets of Paris before recording Dreamland . The album showcased a style that reaches back to the torch songs of Billie Holliday and Bessie Smith and then invests them with contemporary currency. She soon landed on the line-up of Lilith Fair as well as a slew of jazz festivals, and opened shows for artists like Sarah McLachlan.

"I could've kept running with it," Peyroux says, "but instead I stepped back and took a breather." She continued to perform in clubs and on the street, further honing her style.

Her artistic maturity shines on Careless Love , a set that mixes smoky blues ballads and French cabaret. It features songs both old (blues founding father W.C. Handy's title number and Hank Williams's "Weary Blues") and newer (Leonard Cohen's "Dance Me to the End of Love" and Elliot Smith's "Behind the Bars"), as well as her songwriting collaboration with her producer Larry Klein and Grammy-winning songwriter Jesse Harris, "Don't Wait Too Long," which was featured in the movie Monster-In-Law .

Tracks from the album have also been featured on NBC's "Crossing Jordan," HBO's "Family Bonds" and Showtime's "Queer As Folk." As with her last release, Peyroux has won high critical praise with Careless Love , which has already spent some six months in the Top 3 of the Billboard Traditional Jazz charts.

Melding the venerable torch-song style with acoustic blues, country ballads, folk and touches of pop, Peyroux enjoys making music that transcends trends and eras, noting that "I feel lucky to be part of a tradition of songwriting that stands the test of time."]]> 2005-08-02T18:00:00-05:00 http://www.bmi.com/events/entry/500002 Artists, Harris, Jesse, James, Brendan, Schiavo, Adriano, Shafer, Tina, Awards, Musical Styles, Pop, Rock, Singer-Songwriter, Regions, New York, Showcase, Showcase Templated

Photos by David Bills and Michael Boeser

Pictured after the panel are composer/producer/engineer and record company executive Ernie Lake, ArtistShare president Brian Camelio, Bad Boy senior VP Francesca Spero, AOL Music executive Michelle Fiddler, XM Satellite Radio DJ Billy Zero and BMI's Robbin Ahrold, who moderated the panel

The day's activities began with a panel of top professionals who shared their experiences and described the challenges of their careers both on-stage and behind-the-scenes. Students then broke into smaller groups for hands-on, job-specific workshops, master classes and in-depth discussions about the career paths that interest them most. Opening the program was BMI Grammy Award-winning songwriter Jesse Harris ("Don't Know Why" by Norah Jones), who performed two of his original songs.]]> 2005-03-22T17:00:00-05:00 http://www.bmi.com/news/entry/234317 Artists, Harris, Jesse, Jones, Norah, Loshak, Rachel, Musicworld, Feature BMI singer/songwriter Norah Jones will headline a benefit concert for ailing guitarist and friend Jason Crigler, who suffered a brain aneurysm last year. The line-up will feature Jones and her Handsome Band, along with fellow New York musicians and friends Dennis Brennan, Amy Correia and Rachel Loshak at Irving Plaza on Tuesday, January 25 at 7:30pm. Tickets are $60 and are available at the Irving Plaza box office or online at CC.com. All proceeds will go directly to Jason and his family.

One of the most sought after musicians in New York City, Jason is one of the founding members of Goats in Trees and has played alongside renowned artists such as Linda Thompson, John Cale, Marshall Crenshaw, Teddy Thompson, Juliana Nash and Edison Woods, among many others. His first solo CD, Down Like Hail, recorded before his illness was discovered last summer, features Paul Bryan (Aimee Mann, Graham Parker, Sleepy LaBeef) on bass and Dan Rieser (Jesse Harris, Norah Jones, Marcy Playground) on drums. This is the second benefit concert for Jason; the first was held in October at the Living Room and raised over $15,000.

Here's what Norah Jones has to say about her good friend Jason Crigler: "Everyone who has ever had the pleasure of playing with Jason will know how special he can make it feel and sound, and what a magical cast he helps to create within all the music he plays.

"Jason's upward musical path was interrupted last August 4th, when a bleeding in his brain was discovered. Jason has been in the hospital since then, and has endured many ups and downs in his recovery. Jason is in rehab now, after spending several months in the intensive care, and is starting to heal and regain his strength.

"This concert is an effort to show support for Jason, and help him and his family deal with the huge financial hurdles they are facing now, and those still to come in the future, while Jason is on his road to recovery. As friends and musicians who have worked with Jason, it is a chance to give back with our music, a little of what he has given to us from his heart."

To make a gift, please click here.]]> 2005-01-19T17:00:00-05:00 http://www.bmi.com/musicworld/entry/234121 Artists, Fuel, Harris, Jesse, Jones, Norah, Nelson, Willie, Nirvana, Parton, Dolly, Musical Styles, Country, Jazz, Pop, Rock, Musicworld, Feature Authentic, warm, understated and old-fashioned aren’t adjectives that are often attached to top-selling recording artists in the “whoever shouts the loudest wins” world of contemporary music.

Big production values and even bigger marketing campaigns usually help fuel top-selling artists in the digital age. What makes Norah Jones the industry’s feel-good story of the new millennium is the fact that she’s managed to sell massive numbers of albums without the benefit of advertising hype, image mongering and grandiose musical offerings.

Jones’s 2002 debut album, Come Away With Me, has managed to sell an astonishing 18 million + copies worldwide and capture eight Grammy Awards. Her follow-up album, Feels Like Home, shot out of the sales gate like a bullet, selling more than a million copies in the United States during its first week of release.

Musically, Jones is very much a throwback to a time when songs and performers were far more soothing and unpretentious than they are today.

The signature song from Come Away With Me illustrates the Dallas native’s appeal. The lushly romantic “Don’t Know Why” feels like it could have been written in the 1940s, though it was penned by a contemporary songwriter and friend, Jesse Harris.

The 24-year-old Jones hasn’t been marketed like so many young female singers. The fact that the vocalist-pianist hasn’t been targeted to any one or two demographic groups has arguably helped her appeal to a very broad audience. She’s the extremely rare artist who is capable of wooing everyone from seven-year-olds to septuagenarians. Jones represents a lesson to the youth-obsessed music industry: She’s proof positive that there are vast numbers of music consumers out there that aren’t between the ages of 12 and 30.

Feels Like Home arrived with major expectations and the inevitable chatter about a possible sophomore jinx, but the album has been an unqualified hit, with several cuts showcasing Jones’s songwriting skills. She also recorded songs written by the other musicians in her band.

In addition, the album includes three cover songs: Townes Van Zandt’s “Be Here To Love Me,” Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan’s “The Long Way Home” and Duke Ellington’s “Melancholia,” which Jones wrote lyrics to and retitled “Don’t Miss You At All.” Guest musicians include Levon Helm and Garth Hudson of the Band, while Dolly Parton duets with her on “Creepin’ In,” a tune penned by Alexander.

Jones’s grandparents were fans of Parton and Willie Nelson, but she initially rejected country music while growing up in Texas. As an adolescent, she instead gravitated toward the very unsubtle sounds of heavy metal and grunge groups like Motley Crue, Guns N’ Roses and Nirvana.

But this rock phase only lasted between grades five and eight, and she subsequently fell in love with jazz. She attended a performing-arts high school in Dallas and studied jazz piano for two years at the University of North Texas in Denton.

Jones spent the summer after her sophomore year in New York City. After landing a few gigs, she decided to stay. She initially played in Italian restaurants and theater-district lounges.

The day after her twenty-first birthday, she auditioned with Bruce Lundvall, the president of Blue Note Records, and he signed her to the jazz label. When Come Away with Me was released in 2002, she was still waitressing. But the album sold 10,000 copies its first week and Jones was soon out on the road, opening up for small acts and then major ones like the Dave Matthews Band.

For an artist who would have been content if her debut album had only sold 25,000 copies, the continually escalating sales figures surrounding the work made her uncomfortable. Lundvall recalls Jones asking him if he could possibly slow down the seemingly unstoppable commercial momentum of Come Away With Me.

An introverted performer, Jones seems unimpressed with the trappings of fame and fortune. She continues to seek comfort and normalcy with Alexander and their tight knit band. A visitor to her tour bus is more likely to encounter a Scrabble tournament than anything resembling decadent partying.

Jones’s compelling vocal prowess, single-minded dedication to her craft and disdain for celebrity all point to an artist with a long and rewarding career in front of her.