5th Annual Dark Songs Boasts Largest Songwriter Turnout

This year marks the 5th annual Dark Songs songwriting event held at The Holiday Music Motel in downtown Sturgeon Bay. Songwriters converge upon the motel for a full week to write and record new original collaborative material in the spirit of the “dark” holidays of late autumn – Halloween and Día de Muertos (Day of The Dead).

This year marks the biggest turnout for The Holiday with 45 songwriters confirmed to participate, including Adam Mackintosh, Carley Baer, Charles Boheme, Chris Aaron, Elliot Goettelman, Jeanne Kuhns, Kory Murphy, Nick Hoover, Liv Mueller, Ruby James, David Woods, James Hall, and Lena MacDonald.

“Normally, we only need half of the motel for the writers and the other half is still open to travelers and tourists. We started off needing only one studio to accommodate the recording, then it grew to two. This year, the whole motel will be used to house the writers and we’ll have three studios in operation throughout the week,” said melaniejane motel manager and co-organizer.

pat mAcdonald, founder and creative director, is currently hard at work selecting songs for this year’s release of Dark Songs From The Holiday (the 4th volume released).

This year’s performances take place on Nov. 1 & 2 at Third Avenue Playhouse in downtown Sturgeon Bay.

This past August, the Holiday Music Motel and Steel Bridge Songfest family suffered a great loss when Billy Triplett (in-house engineer) passed away suddenly and unexpectedly after a long battle with congestive heart failure and diabetes. Having engineered every Dark Songs event, this year will be particularly difficult for the group. The entire event will be dedicated to celebrating Billy and his many contributions to the music community.

For more information and to see a complete list of participating songwriters visit HolidayMusicMotel.com/DarkSongs.