North Bay Amateur Musician’s Song Soaring
Stan French reaches International Songwriting Competition Semi-finals
The International Songwriting Competition based in Nashville, Tennessee, just announced their semi-finalists; and Stan French’s song “Being a Boomer Ain’t Bad” is included in the ‘Comedy/Novelty’ category. The song will now be reviewed by established artists and music industry executives for judging to decide the finalists and the winner. Songs are judged equally on melody, composition, originality, and lyrics. There’s a grand prize of $25,000 USD that French has pledged to donate to selected charities if he wins. All finalists will also be included in public voting via the ISC website to determine the People's Voice Winner.
French entered his song in the competition to potentially help promote the song but also to see if it was as good as he thought. After hearing he was a semi-finalist French said, “My song Being a Boomer Ain’t Bad apparently... ain’t bad.”
“I knew I had a good song when I wrote it a couple years ago. Being in my 70’s, though, I also knew that I was not going to start a new musical career. I’m far too busy as a volunteer as president of BAYSAR and Chief Pilot with CASARA North Bay. The logical alternative was to record the song for charity. And given my position with BAYSAR that runs Project Lifesaver, I knew which charities I wanted to support: One Kids Place, the Alzheimer Society, and the VON Smile Program." stated Stan French "Once I decided why I was going to record the song, the how just fell into place. I had no problem recruiting volunteers to help with the project. Volunteer musicians agreed to help and formed the band The North Bay Boomers to accompany me in the studio. They included Pat O’Kane, Chris Clarke, Bob Bartlett, Neil Kennedy, Linda McCarthy, and Janis Herzog. In the end, thanks to Canadore who provided the studio, the Capitol Centre, the North Bay Granite Club, Osprey Links Golf course, and the many volunteers who helped in the video, my only costs came from setting up my website and distributing the song.”
French says, "As nice as it is to have this minor recognition, since I released the song to help raise money for charities that support people in need of Project Lifesaver, my hope is that this news will result in more people streaming the song or viewing the music video for the benefit of the charities." ‘Being a Boomer Ain’t Bad’ is available on all major streaming platforms including Spotify, YouTube Music, and Apple Music; and the music video is available on French’s YouTube channel and his website, stanfrench.org.
“Since the song’s release last May, the streams and views of the video have grown fairly steadily. Project Lifesaver continues to grow as a valuable service to North Bay and area and my song that helps support Project Lifesaver has become a success right along with it. Just getting this far is more than I expected. Any further success for the song will hopefully translate to even more success for BAYSAR and Project Lifesaver.”
