I'm thrilled to announce the Working Songwriter Forum.

After about 10 years of our podcast, nearly 300 episodes, millions of downloads, we're

preparing to host our inaugural festival.

It'll happen this May in Chicago, Illinois, at the Old Town

School of Folk Music. It's a weekend of concerts, live podcasts, and most importantly intensive

songwriting workshops. We've got some amazing special guests lined up. We have Craig Finn of his

solo work, of the hold steady,

of his wonderful podcast. That's how I remember it. We have the legendary Courtney Hartman

coming to join us all the way down from Wisconsin to play a concert. We have Chicago rising star

Nathan Graham. We'll have a concert from yours truly one of the nights. I'll be playing a show.

We're also going to be taping live podcasts, an episode of Craig Finn's podcast. That's how I remember it.

And also a live episode of The Working Songwriter with another special guest.

The Heart of the Weekend, though, is going to be a series of intensive songwriting workshops

taught not only by the world-class staff at the Old Town School of Folk Music, but also a master

class from Craig Finn and a master class from Courtney Hartman. I'll be your host the entire time.

I'll be bouncing around to work on songs with you, to introduce you

to your fellow attendees, to introduce you to our special guests, to just generally talk shop

with you while you're around this weekend. A lot of people have been asking what skill level

you need to have as a songwriter to attend this. The answer is any skill level. You can be a

grizzled veteran that's been writing songs for decades. You can be a scrappy upstart that's never

written a song before, but you just want to get started. This would be the perfect place to do it.

I am thrilled to be hosting this inaugural festival for our podcast, The Working Songwriter Forum.

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