We're a loosely bound group of professional and non-professional songwriters who enjoy collaboration and would like to make a difference. A few of us originally got together at the Holiday Motel in Sturgeon Bay, Door County, Wisconsin for Steel Bridge Songfest 2006. Our objective was to take inspiration from Sturgeon Bay's endangered Michigan Street Bridge and write songs to inspire greater public appreciation for the historic structure. Over fifty songs were written and recorded that week and Steel Bridge Songs Vol.1 was released the following spring.
During Steel Bridge 2007, an expanded group of songsters wrote and recorded so many great songs, the best of them wouldn't fit on one disc. The double-disc collection, Steel Bridge Songs Vols.2&3 was released during Steel Bridge 2008.
Now Steel Bridge Songfest is an established annual event, and the festival's growing group of writers and collaborative pairings has spawned a large extended family of kindred spirits. Steel Bridge Songs Vol.4 is ready for release and the inspiration flowing from an old steel bridge still seems inexhaustible.
The "Construction Zone" songwriter sleepovers at the Holiday Motel have become so popular, the organizers have found it hard to accomodate the surplus of new writers who'd like to participate, along with past particpants wanting to return. So the event grows and grows, a bigger challenge each passing year. Compounding the challenge, the Holiday Motel has been closed for reconstruction since a devastating fire in 2007. Despite the generous hospitality of Beach Harbor Resort (our savior last year!) a change of venue has proven to be cost-prohibitive, and a reopening of the Holiday Motel in time for Steel Bridge 2009 is uncertain. But even if it can be reopened in time, the ever-expanding family of Steel Bridge songsters has outgrown its original home
Being bridge lovers at heart, we're not big fans of exclusivity. So why not increase the size of the venue? Why not embrace this state of uncertainty about whether the 2009 Construction Zone will have walls and a ceiling? Why not forget about walls and ceilings altogether and open up the venue to include all of Sturgeon Bay, all of Door County... all the world? Let's open it up to anyone who wants to write a song, wherever and whenever they might be inspired. How many great songs might be written if the venue were unlimited by space and time? What effect might so many inspired songs achieve?
This was part of the thought process that led to SongTsunami.
