To All Steel Bridge Songwriters and Musicians:

Deepest thanks for all you give to Steel Bridge!!!

Some good news:
Steel Bridge Songs Vol.4, recorded at last year's SBSF4,
is almost ready for release and it sounds great!
The song list and credits, as well as the tracks themselves
 are published on the Steel Bridge website
so please help check for any corrections that need to be made!
If you still haven't heard your songs or mixes and are dying to,
email me at: pat@sbsf5.com and i'll help with that.

Your invitation to return:
i hope EVERYONE is planning on coming back to play again this year (June 11-14)!!!
Maybe you've already been in touch with me and/or melaniejane, but if you haven't,
and you do plan on coming, please send your OFFER TO PLAY to:

play@sbsf5.com

i promise, if you've played Steel Bridge before, you will not be refused!
(unless you caused a whole lot of trouble last time:)
And one of us will get back to you ASAP!
NOTE:
The open slots are quickly being filled, and soon there'll be none left,
but there'll be venues with looser formats and ample opportunity to jam or sit-in,
so, if you missed being scheduled in, please still plan on coming and
"free-forming it" 

Another thing i'm very excited to tell you about is:
STEEL BRIDGE SONG DRIVE 2009!

We want to get a head start on the songwriting for this year's Construction Zone
and the making of Steel Bridge Songs Vol.5.
and, in order to send a message stronger than letters or names on a petition,
we want to present 1000 new bridge songs to Governor Doyle
on stage this year.
Those songs chosen for Steel Bridge Songs Vol.5 will be performed at
A Special Steel Bridge Songs 2009 Showcase,
Saturday, June 13th.

We're also looking for a THEME SONG for Steel Bridge 2009,
so please try your hand at coming up with something!
For more details, please visit SongDrive.org or SongTsunami.com
(they're the same website)
and JOIN!!!
In the future, i'll do most of my communicating with songwriters
(for both Steel Bridge and Holiday Motel projects)
through that website
(which will be linked to both the Steel Bridge and Holiday Motel sites)
It's a work in progress, so please give me suggestions for improvements etc.

Another important thing i want to mention is:
Due to tighter finances, this year's Steel Bridge might be scaled down a bit from last year's
(or it might be bigger than ever- it's still too early to tell!)
  and yet this year is so crucial to saving the bridge!
Technical or financial hangups could indefinitely postpone the rehab
so it's important that we maintain vigilence and ready our voices
for what could still be a fight ahead...

So, whether you can make it to the festival or not,
please plan to help in any way you can!

To those who are definitely planning to be here, thank you!
There might be difficulties catering to everyone's needs--
you might be a little more "on your own" for accomodations etc.
but some things are going quite well, and you never know,
despite having a few extra little hoops to jump through this year,
i'm feeling that this year's Steel Bridge will be quite amazing!

One thing i do know is:
We all really appreciate the help of ALL the writers and musicians,
especially those of you who really want to help save a bridge
and help Steel Bridge Songfest through this (perhaps difficult) year-
you are our HEROES and our FAMILY!!!

Thanks to our new event directors, Olivia and Eric,
and to Jenna, melaniejane, and the coming of spring,
there's been renewed energy and enthusiasm around here
and we're starting to move forward.
So please do check the SBSF5 and the SONGDRIVE websites regularly for good news.
And don't forget to JOIN SongTsunami!!!
And if you're near Sturgeon Bay, come to a Monday Steel Bridge meeting
(7pm, Steel Bridge office, 311 Pennsylvania Street behind Cafe Launch).
And of course, please feel free to contact me or melaniejane any time
with any suggestions or concerns you might have.
Thanks for everything you do!!! xo,p