The Fourth Annual New Jersey Songwriters’ Summit

The Fourth Annual New Jersey Songwriters’ Summit

Learn, Listen and Write Songs in the company of Master Songwriters.

Are your songs ready to go further?

A full day of immersive songwriting workshops with acclaimed songwriters:

Amy Speace, Susan Cattaneo, Carolann Solebello and Mark Aaron James.

Saturday, March 14, 2026

9:00am – 10:00pm

Full Day Songwriters’ Summit

• Full Day of Songwriting Workshops for all levels – Whether you’re new to songwriting or a professional yourself, you’ll learn from master songwriters.  We have designed the workshops to be immersive, interactive, hands-on and experiential.
• Lunch,
• Dinner,
• Snacks,
• Song Swaps,
• Journal,
• Enter the Songwriting Contest for a chance to play your song to open the evening concert – This is optional.  First, Register for the workshops and then send an mp3 and lyrics for one song to [email protected] with the subject line: NJ Songwriters’ Summit Song Contest Entry.  Deadline for entries: Sun, March 1, at 11:59PM.
• Evening Concert – Wrap up the day with a powerhouse concert from 7:30pm to 10:00pm, featuring performances by Amy Speace and Susan Cattaneo. (Plus: two openers who win the songwriting contest)
• are all Included in Your Tuition: $144

Evening Concert Only: $25 non-members/$20 members (Have your family and friends meet you after the workshops to join you for the evening concert.)

You can purchase separate

CONCERT ONLY TICKETS HERE:

👉 IN PERSON CONCERT and

👉 LIVE WEBCAST CONCERT TICKETS

Space is limited, reserve your spot today.

WE SOLD OUT LAST YEAR, WITH A WAITING LIST, AND EXPECT THE SAME THIS YEAR.

You can purchase your tickets for the Summit at

The top or bottom of this page.

The Songwriters’ Summit Faculty:

Amy Speace, an awarding winning songwriter, with an MFA in poetry, is a widely celebrated contemporary folk and Americana songwriter, heralded by Rolling Stone, Billboard, and The New York Times, and featured on NPR’s Weekend Edition for her deeply expressive voice and compelling songs. She has taught at The Rocky Mountain Folks Festival Song School, Swannanoa Gathering’s Contemporary Folk Week, Kerrville Song School, Sisters Festival Song School, Berklee College of Music, Northeastern College, and privately from Nashville and on Zoom.  She was discovered early in her career by legendary singer Judy Collins, who signed her to Wildflower Records and recorded her songs.  Amy brings a rare emotional precision and lyrical depth to her teaching – guiding songwriters to write with greater honesty, clarity and courage.

Link to Video: Weight of the World

Susan Cattaneo, an award-winning songwriter and Berklee professor, she is one of Boston’s most respected singer/songwriters known for her powerful voice, finely crafted lyrics, and a signature blend of folk, rock, blues, and country that she calls New England Americana.  She charted #1 on Billboard and Folk Radio Charts. As an in-demand songwriting professor at Berklee College of Music for more than 15 years, Susan has helped shape the craft of thousands of students and mentored well over 2,000 artists across genres. She is a master storyteller whose songs balance heart, grit and craft – an inspiring teacher who helps writers sharpen their voice and elevate their work.

Link to Video: In the Grooves

Carolann Solebello, performing songwriter and founding member of beloved harmony trio Red Molly, has had top songwriting placements at the Susquehanna Music & Arts Festival, SolarFest, Musicians on a Mission, and the Mid-Atlantic Song Contest, as well as official showcase artist slots at Folk Alliance International and regional conferences. With five solo albums to her credit (and a sixth coming soon), she has been on the folk scene for decades and is a longtime active member of the Jack Hardy Songwriters Exchange. Carolann is a sought-after contest and festival judge who can help you discover deep craft insight and add creative spark to your songs.

Link to Video: Hiram

Mark Aaron James, is a NY based award-winning songwriter, performer, musical theater writer is known for his inventive pop-folk-rock songs, sharp lyrical wit and deeply human storytelling. He is a beautiful musical theatre writer and composer whose musical, Peripheral, was selected for the Newport NewWorks Festival in 2025 and is slated for upcoming readings in New York City with NEWPORT NEWWORKS – AT Roundabout Underground. His work: HERO: An Origin Story was selected for the New York Musical Festival and later became a semi-finalist at the prestigious O’Neill National Music Theater Conference.  He is also a Kerrville Folk Festival judge.  Mark brings a unique blend of craft, curiosity, and joy to teaching -helping songwriters sharpen their voice, elevate their songs, and tell stories that truly land.

Link to Video: Make Bad Decisions with Me

SCHEDULE:

• 9:00 – 9:35 AM: Registration/Sign in
• 9:35 – 9:45 AM: Welcome and Introduction
• 9:45 – 11:00 AM: Workshop 1
• 11:00 – 11:10 AM: Break
• 11:10 – 12:25 PM: Workshop 2
• 12:25 – 1:30 PM: Lunch
• 1:30 – 3:00 PM: Workshop 3 (Choice of 3 workshops)
• 3:00 – 3:10 PM: Break
• 3:10 – 4:40 PM: Workshop 4 (Choice of 3 workshops)
• 4:45 – 5:45 PM: Song Sharing Session
• 5:45 – 6:45 PM: Dinner
• 7:30 – 10:00 PM: Evening Concert

7:30-7:45: 2 song contest winners doing one song each,

7:45-10:00: Amy Speace and Susan Cattaneo in Concert (Open to the public)

Enter the Songwriting Contest for a chance to play your song to open the evening concert – This is optional.  First, Register for the workshops and then send an mp3 and lyrics for one song to [email protected] with the subject line: NJ Songwriters’ Summit Song Contest Entry.  The deadline for entries: Sun, March 1, 11:59PM.

Workshop Topics

Digging Up the Truth

In this workshop, Amy Speace leads participants through a powerful group exercise drawn directly from the method she uses with her online students. Designed to help songwriters move past surface ideas, and into emotional truth, this process encourages honest, exploration, unexpected connections, and lyric discovery. Whether you arrive with a fragment, a feeling, or nothing at all, you’ll be guided step-by-step through a method that helps uncover the heart of a song and translate it into compelling language.

Getting Unstuck

Every Songwriter hits creative walls. This workshop is designed to help you climb over them. Amy will offer a series of thoughtfully crafted prompts that invite momentum, curiosity, and risk, creating a supportive space to write without overthinking. Come prepared to write, experiment, and surprise yourself. This session is ideal for Songwriter, who feel stalled, over-edited, or unsure of their next move, and are ready to reconnect with the joy and flow of creation.

The Master Toolkit:  Overcoming creative paralysis in your Songwriting.

Struck by an unstoppable urge to write a song?  Maybe you have a melody, chord progression, or a snippet of lyric, but then something happens, and you just can’t write past it? And your inner critic is whispering to give up and try something much more fun like…accounting? Don’t lose hope.  Susan says there is help is on the way.. This master class focuses on practical tools and tips that will help writers get and stay inspired.  Great song ideas are all around you. Let me help you find and finish them! Come prepared to write.

The Devil’s in The Details…and so is a great song! 

How often are you stuck with lyrics that feel “generic” and uninteresting?  Join Susan as you as we explore ways to generate sense-bound imagery for your songs! I’ll start the clinic by showing you some in-class writing techniques to get you thinking about ways to “show not tell” your story. Some of the writing prompts we’ll learn about are focused writing, object writing, and writing through the power of metaphor and how it can transform any song into magic.

Exploring Outside the Comfort Zone

What’s your habitual writing process like? Do you write lyrics or melodies first? Do you begin with voice or instrument? Whatever your personal comfort zone, if you’re brave enough to step outside of it ON PURPOSE, then this is the workshop for you. Change your point of view and find new creative avenues to explore. Carolann uses prompts to begin, then follows the muse wherever she leads.

Writing a Five-O’Clock Special:  What if you HAD to? 

Can you write a song in an afternoon? Or better yet, in an hour? What if you HAD to? Carolann offers practical strategies to knock down psychological roadblocks and get to the good stuff on a tight deadline, self-imposed or otherwise.

The Craft of Re-Writing

Rewriting is where good songs become great, and where many writers get stuck. In this workshop, Mark Aaron James offers clear, practical ways to look at what isn’t working in a song and why. Through guided examples and discussion, he’ll share approaches for strengthening lines, sharpening focus, and turning an “okay“ moment into something exceptional, all while learning how to get out of your own way as a writer. Participants are welcome to bring a work in progress, but it’s not required; this session is equally valuable for anyone looking to deepen their understanding of revision and creative decision-making.

Brain Tricks That Make People Like a Song

Why do some songs lodge themselves in our heads and hearts so effortlessly? In this workshop, Mark Aaron James explores the subtle but powerful tools songwriters use to create connection and memorability. Through examples and hands-on exploration, he will examine techniques such as alliteration, repetition, internal rhyme, and other pattern-based devices that engage a listener‘s brain without feeling forced or gimmicky. This session is ideal for songwriters who want to better understand why certain songs resonate, and how to apply those ideas intentionally in their own writing.

Long Bios:

Amy Speace:

Heralded by Rolling Stone, Billboard Magazine and The New York Times and featured on NPR’s “Weekend Edition”, Amy Speace is one of the leading voices of contemporary Folk and Americana songwriters. She was discovered 2005 by Judy Collins, who signed her to her record label and has recorded her songs. Amy is the 2020 winner of the AMA UK’s International Song of the Year. Her 2025 10th release, a spare, solo acoustic album recorded in three hours, “The Blue Rock Session,” recorded at Blue Rock Studio in Wimberley, TX during a writer’s retreat, is gaining the best critical raves of her career. “The American Dream,” was released in 2024 and became the #1 record and the title track was named #1 song in the FAI Radio Charts for its first month out.

A “writer’s writer,” Amy’s debut collection of poetry, The Cardinals, will be published by Red Hen Press in September 2026. Her writing has been published by The New York Times, American Songwriter, Salon.com, The Guardian, No Depression, Working Mother, 2 River View and Eunonia. In 2025, she published To The Performer: A Singer-Songwriter’s Handbook, based on her 20 years of teaching performance.  In addition to her performance career, she teaches English and Writing at Cumberland University in Lebanon, TN.

Indeed, the critical comments Amy’s garnered over the course of her career attest to her prolific prowess. The New York Times raved, “What Amy Speace says – what she sings – she says with a confluence of poetry and honestly, of emotional specificity.” Billboard concurred, stating, “Amy Speace stuns on title track of her new album.” So too, Folk Radio in the UK declared, “Once again, Speace demonstrates why she’s one of the greatest artists in Americana today.”

As an educator and instructor, Amy’s taught songwriting and performance at The Rocky Mountain Folks Festival Song School for the past 20 years. She’s developed her own method of teaching performance and has conducted Master Classes at Berklee College of Music and other prestigious universities. In addition, she’s taught at the Kerrville Folk Festival Song School, the Sisters Folk Festival, the Americana Song Academy, and various others

She has taught at The Rocky Mountain Folks Festival Song School, Swannanoa Gathering’s Contemporary Folk Week, Kerrville Song School, Sisters Festival Song School, Berklee College of Music, Northeastern College, and privately from Nashville and on Zoom. In addition to her classroom teaching, Amy expanded her instructional outreach to include her “Songs From The Well” weekend songwriter retreats which began in 2012.

Amy Video: Weight of the World

Amy’s Website: https://www.amyspeace.com/

Susan Cattaneo

Susan Cattaneo is one of Boston’s most respected singer-songwriters. Rooted in tradition, but not bound by it, Susan blends rock, folk and blues with a healthy dose of country. Call it New England Americana with a twang.

Susan has also been teaching songwriting at the Berklee College of Music for over 15 years and performed all over New England with Western Mass trio The Boxcar Lilies.

In the New England area, Susan has won over audiences at venues such as: Club Passim, the Shalin Liu Center, the Me & Thee Coffeehouse, The Iron Horse Music Hall, Tupelo Music Hall, the Calvin Theater, the South Shore Music Circus and the River Club Music Hall.

She has opened for or shared the stage with Bill Kirchen, Jon Cleary, David Wilcox, Rose Cousins, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Ellis Paul, Paula Cole, David Wilcox, Huey Lewis and The News, Amy Grant, Melissa Ferrick, and The Pousette-Dart Band.

In 2018, she was nominated for Best Americana Artist in the Boston Music Awards, and she performed and won the Connecticut Folk Festival.  Her latest album The Hammer and The Heart charted #1 on the Billboard Heatseekers chart and yielded a #1 song on folk radio and a top 10 album of 2017. The album reflects her love for collaboration the record features 40 local and national artists including Mark Erelli, The Bottle Rockets, Bill Kirchen, Jennifer Kimball, Dennis Brennan and Jenee Halstead just to name a few.

Over the past three years, she was an Emerging Artist at Falcon Ridge Folk Festival and a finalist or winner at some of the country’s most prestigious songwriting and music contests including: Kerrville’s New Folk Contest (2018 and 2015), the Philadelphia Songwriters Project and at the Wildflower Festival Songwriters Contest, the International Acoustic Music Awards, the Independent Music Awards, the 5 Unsigned Only Song Contest, the USA Songwriting Competition, the Mountain Stage New Song Contest and the Mid-Atlantic Song Contest.

“Cattaneo has been playing around Boston and its environs for a while, sometimes solo and sometimes with stellar players. She rocks with the best of them and also sings ballads so sweetly and lovingly that it can bring tears to the eyes of those listening” – No Depression

“Ultimately it’s rare to find an artist so willing to invest her psyche so fully into her songs, but the return on Cattaneo’s commitment also makes for a compelling set of songs.” – American Songwriter

“She’s able to blend gritty semi-confessional bluesy sounds with poetic conversational lyrics” – Austin Daze

“Her voice is somewhere between national treasure and weapon of mass destruction” – Daily Vault

Video: In the Grooves

Susan’s website: https://susancattaneo.com/

Carolann Solebello

CAROLANN SOLEBELLO is a performing songwriter born and bred in New York City. Best known to folk audiences as a founding member of Americana trio Red Molly, she now tours as a solo troubadour and with modern folk foursome No Fuss and Feathers. An award-winning songwriter and proud member of AFM Local 1000, Carolann has five solo albums to her credit and is working on a sixth.

In the twilight of the 20th century, Carolann’s urban mind was blown during long-term theatrical acting jobs in the mountains of East Tennessee and on the Kansas prairie, where she encountered Appalachian music – and the bluegrass and country that grew out of that tradition – for the very first time. Tunes and techniques learned from musicians she met in both places forever changed her approach to songwriting and guitar playing, and ultimately re-charted the course of her career from theatre to music.

Carolann’s smooth, compelling voice and warm acoustic guitar style nod to rural folk traditions while her rhythmic precision and sophisticated phrasing plant her firmly in the urban present. Her lyrics, always sharp and incisive, delve deeper and wider than ever before on her latest release, Shiver (2018), produced by Joe Iadanza. In each of twelve well-crafted songs, the songwriter digs into existential truth, revealing imperfect, uncertain, frightened, nostalgic, vulnerable, and sometimes unreliable narrators, whose stories – by design or by accident – occasionally intersect with her own.

“Shiver is perhaps my most intimate album to date,” Solebello says. “Though some of these songs feature characters who are purely products of my imagination, each narrator, real or imagined, whispered to me from some unswept corner of my psyche, asking to be heard. It’s not exactly confessional songwriting, but these songs are definitely a window into the room where I keep everything I am afraid of.”

Shiver took shape in several months of pre-production, as producer and songwriter sorted through more than thirty songs written during the past few years to find those that cut closest to the emotional bone and vibrated in sympathy with each other. The dozen that emerged were then polished and arranged to allow each to whisper or howl or plead as it wished. Recorded live in only three studio sessions, Shiver is immediate and real as it gets.  Featuring the considerable talents of Craig Akin (upright bass), Jagoda (drums and percussion), Eric Lee (fiddle and mandolin), Paul Silverman (accordion), Catherine Miles (harmony vocals), and Joe Iadanza (producer, acoustic lead guitar), Shiver invites the listener into an intimate concert space with enough room for songs and souls to breathe together.

Before Shiver, Carolann released four solo CDs – Steel and Salt (2013), Threshold (2011), Glass of Desire (2009), and Just Across the Water (2000). In 2016, she collaborated with her No Fuss and Feathers bandmates Jay Mafale, Catherine Miles, and Karyn Oliver to release Traveling Circus. With Red Molly, Carolann released an eponymous EP and three full-length albums: James (2010), Love and Other Tragedies (2008), and the live-before-a-studio-audience Never Been to Vegas (2006).

Carolann is a proud member of the Jack Hardy Songwriters’ Exchange in New York City, and has garnered a number of songwriting awards.  She placed first at both the 2011 Susquehanna Music and Arts Festival (MD) and the 2015 Musicians on a Mission Songwriting Contest (NJ), third at the 2014 SolarFest Songwriting Competition (VT), and earned both a Silver Award (Folk/Acoustic category) and the Director’s Choice Award at the 2016 Mid-Atlantic Song Contest (DC).  Carolann also performed as an Official Showcase Artist at the Folk AIliance International (FAI), Northeast Regional (NERFA), and Southeast Regional (SERFA) conferences in 2012, 2016, and 2019, respectively.

During her six years with Red Molly, Carolann was privileged to perform at numerous festivals, including:  Merlefest (NC), Kerrville Folk Festival (TX), Falcon Ridge Folk Festival (NY), Woody Guthrie Folk Festival (OK), New Bedford Summerfest (MA), Musikfest (PA), and Philadelphia Folk Festival (PA).  She’s since performed solo at Falcon Ridge Folk Festival (NY), Woody Guthrie Folk Festival (OK), Black Potatoe Festival (NJ), Clearwater’s Great Hudson River Revival (NY), and Muses in the Vineyard (NJ).

With No Fuss and Feathers, Carolann has appeared at Kerrville Folk Festival (TX), Roots on the River (VT), Muses in the Vineyard (NJ), and New Bedford Folk Festival (MA).

Carolann lives in Brooklyn, New York with her husband and son.

Video: Harim

Carolann’s Website: https://carolannsolebello.com/home

Mark Aaron James

“It’s my favorite song about a kleptomaniac girlfriend…Aquaman…The Antiques Roadshow. I hope it’s yours.” That’s how New York–based songwriter and playwright Mark Aaron James tends to introduce himself—equal parts quirky, heartfelt, and unexpected. Borders News once called his work “some of the best and most introspective pop music we’ve heard in years,” and he’s spent a career proving them right.

Raised in Cocoa Beach, Florida, Mark found himself an unlikely fit in Nashville’s songwriter scene—until he wasn’t. At Vanderbilt, he went from porch parties to “in the round” sessions with hitmakers, quickly learning that in Music City, you’d better write songs strong enough to keep people from heading to the bathroom. The lesson stuck: his songs have since been performed by everyone from Jimmy Buffett to the World Peace Choir.

His early albums earned him back-to-back wins as “Best Local Songwriter” and “Best Up-and-Coming Band” in The Nashville Scene reader’s poll, topping names like John Hiatt and Lucinda Williams. Radio airplay, CMJ chart success, and PBS appearances followed—but Mark eventually traded country’s backyard for New York’s stages. Since then, he’s headlined clubs from Rockwood to the Bitter End, earned UMO’s nod as one of the “Top 14 Singer-Songwriters in Greenwich Village,” and even landed a song placement in Lost.

The journey didn’t stop there. In 2008 he moved to London on a rare Artist Visa, releasing Live in London, Simple Ingredients to glowing reviews while hosting the “On Stage” acoustic showcase and making his West End debut alongside Alan Cumming. Back in the States, his animated video Aquaman’s Lament went viral, he released multiple acclaimed albums (Throwing Shapes, Play Harder), toured internationally, and even performed at a White House Christmas concert benefiting the Red Cross. He was also shortlisted for an Oscar for his song “The Piece/Peace That You Are Missing,” written for the documentary Fighting Spirit: A Combat Chaplain’s Journey.

More recently, Mark has expanded into musical theater. His first show, HERO: An Origin Story, was selected for the New York Musical Festival and later became a semi-finalist for the O’Neill National Music Theater Conference. His second, Peripheral, premiered at the Newport NewWorks Festival in 2025 to sold-out audiences, with New York productions on the horizon. His third, We Can Fix It, begins readings next year.
From porch parties to Playwrights Horizons, viral videos to the White House, Mark Aaron James continues to blur the line between humor, heart, and craft—always with a twist you didn’t see coming.

​

Video: Make Bad Decisions With Me

Mark’s Website: https://www.markaaronjames.com/