New Orleans’ the Cardinal Sons win grand prize of the 12th Annual Mountain Stage NewSong Contest.

Monday, October 21. New York, NY. New Orleans-based band of brothers the Cardinal Sons were awarded the top honor in the 2013 Mountain Stage NewSong Contest Finals, held this past Saturday at Lincoln Center’s David Rubenstein Atrium in New York City.

Despite very strong performances and compelling original material presented by all ten finalists, the Cardinal Sons – led by frontman and oldest brother John Shirley – were announced this year’s grand prize winner.

The Cardinal Sons. From left to right, brothers Joe, John and Dave Shirley performing an encore at Lincoln Center’s David Rubenstein Atrium on Saturday night, after being announced this year’s grand prize winner of the Mountain Stage NewSong Contest.

 

As winners, they’ll soon head into the studio at Asheville, NC’s Echo Mountain Recording with producer, musician and songwriter Charlie Sexton to make a new record, which will be released by NewSong Recordings.

They’ll also return to New York City’s Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts to play their own show, as well as perform at the Sundance Film Festival’s ASCAP Music Café and appear on NPR’s Mountain Stage show.

Other prizes include a Little Phatty analog synthesizer from Moog Music, and a handcrafted, made-to-fit Sonus Musician’s Chair from Brian Boggs Chairmakers in Asheville, NC.

“It was a complete shock when our name was called. There were so many talented artists in this competition and it’s quite surreal that we were chosen,” said Shirley. “We’re really excited about working at Echo Mountain with Charlie Sexton and making some killer music. We’re just really lucky to be a part of this and to win is unbelievable.”

Charlie Sexton was unable to judge the finals due to a touring conflict in Europe with Bob Dylan. Here’s the video message he sent to the audience and finalists at this past Saturday’s NewSong Contest finals at Lincoln Center.

Originally from Jackson, Mississippi, the Cardinal Sons are brothers John (guitar, vocals), Joe (piano, vocals) and Dave Shirley (drums, vocals). As contest rules allow no more than two performers per act in the finals, the youngest brother Dave had to watch his brothers from the crowd. When the announcement of the winner was made, he was then invited by NewSong Director Gar Ragland to join his brothers on stage for a two-song, full band encore. The Cardinal Sons were one of five finalists selected by the judges in the afternoon semifinal round to advance to the evening award round set, where they were joined by artists Eliot Bronson (Atlanta, GA), Breagh Mackinnon (Sydney, Nova Scotia), Clarence Bucaro (Brooklyn, NY) and Boris McCutcheon (Albuquerque, NM). This year’s judges were NewSong Director Gar Ragland, ASCAP’s Marc Emert-Hutner, Lincoln Center’s Jill Sternheimer and Jerimaya Grabher and JW Johnson, the managers of Charlie Sexton, who is currently in Europe on tour with Bob Dylan and was unable to attend.

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