Peter G. Olach is a product of the 1970’s Detroit folk scene who now lives in North Carolina. His songs are meaningful, story-driven, and incorporate elements of Country/Western, Southern Rock and Traditional folk music. Peter plays the guitar in a fashion that he deems reminiscent of mountain dulcimers, saying “I just happen to have more strings and frets than my mountain brethren do.”

Olach has been playing music for over 30 years, and has created a sound that is all his own. His love of music continues to drive him to create new music for the world to hear. Of his path, Olach says “My journey has brought me full circle and back to a place that I find so rewarding, the place where my heart belongs - the creation and performance of MUSIC.”

There are only two challenges still open for submissions in the 6-Pack Song Contest, so get them in! Can 5, the “Cover Can”, closes Thursday, 11/19 at 11:59 PM Central Time. Can 6, the “Two-Timer,” closes on Friday, 11/20 at 11:59 PM Central Time.

There’s still time to get songs in the competition. Once submissions close, you still have time to perform reviews. The first close date for reviews is for Can 1, on 12/6.

Mastering is the process of preparing and transferring audio recorded from a source containing the final mix to a data storage device (the master). It’s well known that quality mastering can make a huge difference to a recording. Now, Broadjam’s Mastering Service provides top-quality mastering exclusively to Broadjam members. All mastering is either done by, or supervised by, award-winning mastering engineer Craig Anderton. Learn More!

Here are a couple of Broadjam events that you might be interested in:

Nashville Songwriters Association International
- Roy Elkins, Founder of Broadjam presenting
Saturday, November 21st, 10:00 am - 1:00 pm Paradyme Studios

Roy Elkins, CEO of Broadjam, will be speaking to the local Chapter of the Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI) and talk about the music industry, music placement in film and TV, publishing, and other strategies for indie musicians and songwriters! This is an excellent organization and if you haven’t been to their monthly seminars, you should check one out. This particular event will be their holiday workshop, so there will be a luncheon as well. All workshops are held at Paradyme Productions, located at 636 W. Washington Avenue, in Madison, WI, directly above Kelley’s Market. You can send an email to Gerry Grothues at gerrylehr@charter.net for more information.

MAMAs Annual Kickoff Party
Tuesday, November 24th, 6PM at the Broadjam offices

Broadjam will host the annual MAMAs kickoff event at our office at 6401 Odana Road in Madison, WI. This is a great cause and we are looking to you to help us put instruments in the hands of children. This year’s MAMA awards show will be held at the Capitol Theatre in the Overture Center and will be the biggest and best event to date. Broadjam staffers will be on hand to help you register.

Broadjam has made some updates to the member profile menu. To make your edits and updates easier, we’ve moved the profile menu from the lower left-hand navigation of your profile page to a “floating” menu style at the bottom of the page. We’re hopeful that this will not only make accessing the many options for your profile easier, but also more intuitive and fast.

Please note: if you’re using Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 6 browser, or anything previous to it, this improved menu will not appear and your profile page will default to the old menu style. A newer version of Internet Explorer is available here.

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to contact us at customerservice@broadjam.com.

The 5th annual 6-Pack Songwriting Competition is coming to a close at the end of this week. The deadline for submissions to the first challenge is 11/15/2009 at 11:59:59 CDT, with one closing each after that until the last challenge closes at the end of 11/20/2009.

Get your songs in, keep reviewing, and watch as the leaderboard excitement picks up! It’s important to note that this year the leaderboard points are delayed by one week, so the results will not be final until December 18th, 2009.

Winners will be announced on December 18th, 2009. With over $100,000 in prizes on the line, you don’t want to miss out on your chance to take home some great prizes from Sony, IK Multimedia, Big Fish Audio, Yamaha and the rest of our great sponsors. Prize packages are awarded to the three winners in each challenge category as well as the top 20 finishers.

Attention MoB and Mini MoB’ers. Treat yourself to a Pro MoB membership upgrade!

Upgrading to a Pro MoB membership will save you money on contest and opportunity submissions, increase your media space for songs, pictures, videos and albums, and give you up to 4 free classified ads. Upgrade here.

Let the upgrade begin!

The music of Bill Gaunce has been described by Ninevolt magazine as “A tour-de-force of ceaselessly melodic folk-pop that would make the Band, the Wallflowers, and Wilco proud.” As you listen to some of Bill’s more recent tracks (see “Troubled Times”), it is hard not to be enticed by the melody and tempo-driven sounds that span genres from folk to more contemporary rock’n'roll. The former frontman for The Stationary Poets has a voice reminiscent of Bob Dylan and Tom Petty, and the instrumental backing necessary to complete a unique-yet-inspired sound.

Gaunce’s most recent release, “B Sides and Bums: 19 Songs of Questionable Character,” offers tracks that Gaunce considers ‘extras’ although their quality of production does not warrant such a modest title. You can find information on this recent release and much more on Bill’s profile.

Bill is constantly changing his free download song, keeping his listeners happy. Be sure not to miss out on the unique music of this promising indie musician, who can be quoted as saying he has “…experienced more than his share of cheap road-gig hotels, shady booking agents, sleazy bars, and major label deals gone up in smoke.” We’re sure that many aspiring artists out there can relate.

http://www.broadjam.com/billgaunce

The results are in for the Premier Guitar Challenge. Celebrity judge Marcus Henderson has named Daddo Oreskovich as the winner in the Electric category and Adam Scharff of The Scharff Brothers as the winner in the Acoustic category.

Daddo Oreskovich won the Electric challenge with his song, “The Temple.” This phenomenal Eastern European guitarist, producer, and composer has been playing guitar since the age of six. Daddo recorded his 2009 album, “The Other Side” in his Chicago, Illinois living room. The album contains ten original tracks and was received very well in the U.S. and Europe.

Adam Scharff of the The Scharff Brothers won the Electric challenge with the song, “Walking After Dark.” The Boston-area group lists its biggest musical influences as Elvis Costello and the Beatles, and its sound has been characterized as “…addictive hooks and strong sense of sibling harmony” (Creative Loafing/Atlanta, GA).

Broadjam would also like to congratulate Lee Oliver for winning runner-up in the Electric category with his song, “Just Kidding” and Jim Smith for winning runner-up in the Acoustic category with his song, “Gaudi’s Castle.”

The November contests have been posted! Submit your songs and compete with fellow Broadjam members to try and secure your place in Broadjam history (and for a chance to win great prizes!). There are five new contests ready for submissions: Bad Luck, Historical, Dedication, Blues and November Song of the Month.

Submit now for a chance to win prizes from Studio Devil, Modernbeats.com, Indie Venue Bible, and VocalDownloads.com. Check out the contests page to find out more.