The Ballad of Molly Ivins Songwriting Contest is a competition designed to honor the legacy and spirit of Molly Ivins. Molly was a syndicated political columnist from Texas, who died Jan. 31, 2007, at the age of 62, after a long battle with cancer. Molly used powerful words and satire to speak truth to power with wit and style. She was beloved by her fellow Texans and her readers around the world.

This Songwriting Contest is initiated by "RaiseHellforMollyIvins.org" an anti-war campaign inspired by Molly Ivins' last column calling for people to "Raise hell... hit the streets to protest Bush's proposed surge... We need people in the streets, banging pots and pans and demanding, stop it now!"

In the tradition of folk music and singer-songwriters memorializing great Americans with ballads we are putting out a call to write the "Ballad of Molly Ivins." The winner of this songwriting competition will win a modest prize, and make history by honoring a great American journalist and hell raiser.

"Please click on the "Watch Video" link on the sidebar of this homepage to
see a Demo Song. The "Watch Video" link will lead you to 2 more links, click on the "Ballad of Molly Ivins Songwriting Contest - Introduction to the Contest"
link. This will give you an idea of the kind of song we are looking for. Of
course this is just a demo. Use your own creativity to write a unique "Ballad of
Molly Ivins" for the songwriting contest.

The songs submitted for the Songwriting Contest will be posted on the YouTube.com platform, where they will be showcased and judged.

The "Songwriting Contest" will be judged by a Award Selection Committee composed of musicians, authors and journalists. We are proud to announce our panel of judges - Musicians - Country Joe McDonald, Ronnie Gilbert, Kinky Friedman and Utah Phillips and Journalists and Authors - Charlotte
McCann, Publisher, the Texas Observer and Attorney, David Richards author of - "Once Upon a Time in Texas - A Liberal in the Lone Star State". The contest is open to amateur and professional songwriters.

We are asking for the song to be performed on at least one musical instrument with pots and pans as background percussion. We are looking for a ballad that is fun, irreverent, uses powerful words and satire to speak truth to power with wit and style. Something Molly would have liked. Something simple that people can sing on picket lines and at Texas bonfires for the next hundred years. This is about the music and the spirit of Molly that the song communicates. We encourage you to look at Molly's writings and videos on the web.

Winning this contest will not necessarily enhance your career, but it will make you and others feel good. All songwriters will retain all publishing rights to their own entries as will the winner. We encourage the winner to register their song as an open-source licensed song, but we leave it up to the winner. The contest began on July 19th and ends on October 19, 2007.

HOW TO PARTICIPATE?

First: Write your "Ballad of Molly Ivins" song.

Illustrations by Eric Predoehl of LouieLouie.net

For inspiration you can find plenty of information on Molly and copies of her newspaper columns on the this website ( ABOUT MOLLY ) and throughout the web. You can find many videos and interviews with Molly on You Tube and Google Video.

Second: Shoot a Video

Talk a friend into grabbing a camcorder, shoot some footage, and make a video.

You can shoot a simple little video of the performance with one camera that captures the essence of your performance.

You can produce a multi-camera concert performance with lots of professional effects.

You could create the cheapest, quickest video ever assembled...and wind up winning if your song is the best.

Third: Upload the Video

To enter this contest, you simply upload the to YouTube at
http://www.youtube.com/mollyivins

Upload it on to YouTube then email us at: balladofmollyivins@gmail.com

Add it to the Ballad of Molly Ivins Contest Channel at: http://www.youtube.com/mollyivins

In order to post your videos, you have to convert the file into a format that YouTube will allow. It has to be less than 10 minutes, under 100 MB, and in one of the the .WMV, .AVI, .MOV, and .MPG file formats.

Click Upload videos, which appears at the top right hand corner of all YouTube pages.

Enter as much description as you can (Title, Description, Tags, and Category) to make it easier for people to search for your video. Click Continue Uploading and find the video file on your computer.

Select Public, and click Upload Video, and you're done.

Fourth: Send us email with your contact information to:
balladofmollyivins@gmail.com

Final Step: Tell Your Friends! Tell Them to Subscribe to the channel - mark your video as a Favorite and give your Video a 5 Star rating.

This will not influence the judging of the contest, but it will greatly increase the viewing of your video. Hit the orange subscribe button in the upper right corner and if you want to keep your video for handy reference, and click the heart shaped save to favorites button.

Thanks for Entering the Contest!

Ballad of Molly Ivins Songwriting Contest
http://www.raisehellformollyivins.org/songcontest.html

YouTube Group: http://www.youtube.com/group/balladofmollyivins

YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/mollyivins