January 6th, 2026
A huge thank you to all of the songwriters, musicians, and music fans who made 2025 a phenomenal year from start to finish. From our delayed 2024 finals and our LEAF Songwriter Competition to NewSong Recordings projects in the works at Citizen Studios and our amazing end-of-year 2025 finals, it’s been a year made magical with songcraft and sound.
Lindsay Foote from Boston, Massachusetts, was the 23rd annual NewSong Grand Prize Winner. During the Saturday, March 15 performance and competition finals (rescheduled from the fall of 2024 due to Hurricane Helene), Lindsay showcased six songs with tender emotionalism and dreamy melodies that highlighted her lithe voice. Her grand prize package included a fully funded six-song EP, recorded and mixed at Citizen Studios, with vinyl records pressed at Citizen Vinyl.
“I’m so honored to have won this competition,” Lindsay said. “I’ve been at this for a while, and this industry can be tough. So, it’s really encouraging to get a little validation on my songwriting! And I can’t wait to get working on my next project at Citizen Vinyl!”
The LEAF Songwriter Competition — celebrating 10 years in 2025 — is a collaborative effort between NewSong Music and LEAF Global Arts. It aims to identify and recognize exceptional performers and songwriters from across the country.
This year’s winner, Jackson Grimm, has immersed himself in traditional Appalachian music, from studying with Wayne Erbsen and Kevin Kehrberg and Warren Wilson College to enlisting Grammy-nominated multi-instrumentalist and storyteller Josh Goforth as the producer on his album. Onstage at the LEAF Performance & Songwriter Competition, on Saturday, May 10, at the LEAF Global Arts Retreat, Jackson’s songs contained elements of old-time and bluegrass — but were also wholly original and fresh; surprising yet relatable.
“I am incredibly honored to be selected as the winner of this year’s competition,” Jackson said “There were many talented songwriters on that stage throughout the night and we had an attentive and full crowd up there at the barn stage.”
Natalie Price, the grand prize winner of the 2023 NewSong Music Performance & Songwriting Competition, started to work on a full-length album with producer Gar Ragland. Part of the NewSong prize package is the opportunity to record an EP at Citizen Vinyl.
While still exploring what shape this album might take, Natalie knows she doesn’t want it to be a break-up album, though, “whatever album I do will always have relationship songs represented,” she says.
Natalie has been playing acoustic guitar on the scratch tracks — something new for her that she says has her feeling empowered. For the recording, she hopes to lean into Asheville’s musician community to find players. “It’s always exciting — and a privilege — to be in a studio,” she says.
Lindsay Foote, the 2024 NewSong Music Performance & Songwriting Competition grand-prize winner, has been working on an album at Citizen Studios. Part of the NewSong prize package is the opportunity to record and mix a six-song EP at Citizen Studios, produced by Gar Ragland and released on the NewSong Recordings label.
Lindsay brought her Boston-based band (Noah Harrington on bass; G Rockwell on guitar, banjo, and mandolin; and Russ Sternglass on drums) to Asheville for a multi-day recording session. “I wanted us to collaborate and make an album together,” Lindsay says. By including her band, instead of working with session musicians, she’s able to bring the group’s palpable chemistry to the project.
The quartet tracked six songs during their session. While none of the songs has been recorded before, Lindsay did play three tracks from the forthcoming album during her winning NewSong performance earlier this year. The group rehearsed together in Boston prior to heading to Asheville and, in studio, “we’ve made something that sounds really good and polished,” Lindsay says, “but at the same time it breathes.”
AC Sapphire, the 2022 NewSong Music grand prize winner, has been working on her forthcoming album Heavy Flowers. The project is currently completed and being mixed by Jonathan Wilson (Father John Misty, Angel Olsen, Dawes, Margo Price, Conor Oberst and Billy Strings).
“The album speaks to the wanderer’s heart,” says AC. Themes include mental health, self love, unapologetic nostalgia, unhealthy love, corporate greed, climate change, as well as “feeling the cards stacked against us [and] yearning to see your dreams reach the surface.”
Artists on the project include Julie Odell, Jobi Riccio, Kendall Lujan, Claude Coleman Jr. of Ween, Dave Hartley of War on Drugs, John James Tourville of The Deslondes, Kramer (pictured above, with AC), Ian Wade, Lynx DeMuth, Clay White, and Travis Wetzel.
• Reclamation by Crys Matthews
• Avec la Courant by Dustin Dale Gaspard
• Every Godforsaken Morning by Mel Bryant & the Mercy Makers
• Morning and Midnight (dual albums) by Ezra Vancil
• Consider Me a Lighthouse (EP) by Admiral Radio
• Saltwater Country by Grace Morrison
• Dog Days (EP) by Finn O’Sullivan
• Appalachia Forever by Philip Bowen
• I.A. Volume 1 by Indus Adams
• Do It Myself by Olivia Ellen Lloyd
• All Throughout the Day by Wilder Adkins
• Atmosphere by Alexa Rose
• Echo Mountain Sessions by Susan Anderson
Dustin Dale Gaspard appeared on “The Voice” this fall, beginning with a four-chair turn when he auditioned with a version of Sam Cooke’s “Bring It On Home to Me”, switching to Cajun French mid-performance. Dustin was a favorite on the reality competition show (we’re not surprised) but was knocked out on November 25 after missing a rehearsal due to a bout of Covid.
Congratulations to Olivia Ellen Lloyd whose song “Do It Myself” was an NPR Music song of the day. The song appeared on the websites of more than 20 public radio stations across the country. “Do It Myself,” the title track of Olivia’s most recent album (which dropped in March) debuted on Paste as part of a set recorded live at The Jalopy in Red Hook, Brooklyn.
Erika Lewis makes a brief cameo with her band, Tuba Skinny, as New Orleans buskers in the film Spinal Tap 2.
During the Thursday, December 11, finals — the 24th annual NewSong Music Perfornace & Songwriting Competition, held this year at The Grey Eagle in Asheville, NC — Susan Anderson shared five compositions that showcased her virtuosic violin playing, expansive vocals, and haunting lyrics. She was accompanied onstage by Isaac Hadden on electric guitar, who provided a tasteful sonic palette over which Susan painted her spellbinding songs. Susan’s grand prize package includes a fully funded six-song EP, recorded and mixed at Citizen Studios, with vinyl records pressed at Citizen Vinyl.
“I had so much fun performing my songs, meeting people in the audience, and laughing with the other contestants backstage. It was an incredible night from every angle,” Susan said. “Winning this competition feels like the door I’ve been knocking on for years has finally opened. I am so thankful for this chance and ready to run full speed into what comes next.”
