Artese N Toad

Winners Announced!
“2022 Pennsylvania Heritage Songwriting Contest”
Smoked Country Jam Bluegrass announces the winners of the 2022,
14h
Annual Pennsylvania Heritage Songwriting Contest (PHSC).
This year’s winners are:
First Place: Perry Artese and Tom Dimeo, Garnet Valley, PA
for the entry:
“Altoona”

Second Place: Perry Artese and Tom Dimeo, Garnet Valley, PA
for the entry:

“Ghost on the Track”
Third Place: Bruce Hoffman, Munhall, PA
for the entry:

“Homestead Revisited”

Songs can be heard on the Facebook page: “PA Heritage Songwriters”.
A mere twelve points out of a possible three hundred separated the top three
finishers in the 2022 event with the third runner up only seven points out to the
running. Once again, entrants hailed from all over PA with Pittsburgh being a
strong hold. Finishers reside east and west in southeastern and southwestern PA.
Steel, rails, ties, and track was the dominant theme this year, not only among the
finishers but serval other entrants as well. Another first for PHSC; in 2022, both
First and Second place have been awarded to a single songwriting team.
Winners are invited to perform their work at the Smoked Country Jam Bluegrass
Festival, June 16th – 18th, at the Quiet Oaks Campground, Cross Fork, PA.
Pennsylvania Heritage Songwriters perform on the main stage at 5 pm Saturday
kicking off the final evening of great music.
2022 Top Finishers
Perry Artese and Tom Dimeo, known regionally as Artese N Toad submitted songs
from their project "They Don't Write Songs About Trains Anymore." The songs
were written as a tribute to the great history of the Pennsylvania Railroad. Artese N
Toad perform at festivals and have performed at Nashville's Bluebird Cafe,
MusikFest and the Roots and Rhythm Festival in Honesdale, PA, and more recently
at a show at ArtsAltoona for a big audience of train song fans. They have been
writing and performing for over 30 years now. You can find them on Spotify,
Apple Music, Amazon and all streaming platforms under our name Artese N Toad.
The first-place entry, “Altoona” captures the history of the town, its founding,
growth, and eventual decline as the home of the Pennsylvania Railroad.
Poignant lyrics from refrains:
“Altoona, you can hear the whistle blow
Altoona, lived and died with the railroad”
“Altoona, the money flowed like wine
Altoona, was the heart of the railroad line”
The bridge:
“Some lost their lives, for it was dangerous work.
But Pennsy took care of its own.
They knew how to play and built a town to entertain,
everybody rich and famous came”
“Ghost on the Track” took second. An excerpt:
“They say he likes freight cars and he cries an eerie tune
Picks a four string banjo and howls at the moon.
I never was afraid ‘till a cold hand touched my back
There’s a ghost on the track”
Bruce Hoffman holds the third spot this year with the entry “Homestead Revisited”.
Bruce, (aka Cool Papa Boo) is an award-winning songwriter from Munhall PA, and
a member in good standing of the Pittsburgh Songwriters Circle. “His songs use the
tools of traditional music to try to make sense of this crazy world”.
In the work, “Homestead Revisited”, Bruce lays bare the history of the Homestead
Steel Works built by Andrew Carnegie along side the Monongahela River in
Homestead, PA - another tale of the rise and fall of an industrial giant and the long
term impact on workers, and the surrounding communities.
The Chorus:
“And back here in Homestead, they’re fixing the bridge
Where the shoppers and tourists and dollars roll in
I can’t tell you why, and I can’t tell you how,
But the old Homestead Mill is a shopping mall now.”
Honorable mentions for 2022 include Mike Clemmer of Green Lan, PA for the
entry “Ridge Road”, and Dan Hrvatin of Pittsburgh, PA for the entry “Ballad of the
Monongahela”.
In addition to performing their work at the Smoked Country Jam Bluegrass Festival,
winners are awarded a cash prize, a framed certificate and two full festival passes.
Winners are selected by a panel of three accomplished Pennsylvania songwriters
and musicologists through a double-blind scoring system heavily weighted on
lyrical content and the strength of tie to the state.
About PHSC:
The Pennsylvania Heritage Songwriting Contest (PHSC) was launched in 2008
to celebrate the State of Pennsylvania, its people, its places, and its history in song.
It is a non-profit event intended to provide a venue for amateur songwriters to
display their talent and artistry while fostering appreciation for, and study of
Pennsylvania’s Heritage. The contest was created, in part, to become a funding
source for the Craig A. “Bubba” Bowman Memorial Scholarship Fund. Bubba was
a celebrated PA regional musical performer who lost his life in a car crash in 2006.
Although the event has not yet generated revenue, it does keep Bubba’s memory
alive.
The contest welcomes amateur songwriters of any genre to submit songs having a
PA theme or reference. The top three finalists are invited to perform their entry on
the Main Stage at the Smoked Country Jam Bluegrass Festival and are awarded
cash prizes and full festival passes.
As the event progresses, recordings will be compiled and produced for fundraising
and a Pennsylvania Heritage Songwriters tour of performances in schools and
communities will be organized. To achieve these goals, the event welcomes
sponsorship from individuals, civic organizations, and Pennsylvania Heritage
branded businesses and corporations.
The Smoked Country Jam Bluegrass Festival takes place the third weekend in June
at the Quiet Oaks Campground on a picturesque mountain top near Cross Fork, PA
(just inside the Clinton County line). -