LA Music teacher, Lanita Smith wins the Guitar Center Singer-Songwriter4 competition. By Patrick O’Heffernan
Recent LA-transplant Lanita Smith, a music teacher originally from Memphis TN, took last night’s top prize in the Guitar Center Singer-Songwriter 4 finals Friday night at the legendary Troubadour club in Los Angeles. Competition judge, superstar producer Don Was told the packed – and heavily female crowd at the venue that this was a very tough decision, noting that New Yorker Joe Marson took best command of the stage with his two songs written for the competition, “My Luck Stays the Same” and “Someday Soon” but that his favorite song for the night was Kat McDowell’s “A Little Rain”. However, it was Smith’s heartfelt lyrics and emotion-loaded voice and lyrics that took the grand prize – $25,000 cash, a spot on the Jimmy Kimmel show, a 4-song EP with Don Was, a songwriting session with Colbie Caillat and a truck load of music hardware. The other finalists won $10,000 in music equipment and album distribution plus the honor and publicity of being one of the five to emerge from thousands of entries from around the [Read More]
