Asheville Song Contest with Big Prizes!

https://AshevilleSong.com/

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

That's right, Asheville, North Carolina Song Contest with big prizes. I'm going to play the song for you here in a little bit. Of course, I'm talking about my hometown of Asheville, North Carolina. I am Joshua P. Warren, and here is the press release, April of 2026. If you perform music, you can win a lot of prizes if you record the winning cover version of the new song Asheville by the Joshua P. Warren Band. The contest is produced by Joshua P. Warren and the Haunted Asheville Ghost Tours. The winning performer will receive ten thousand dollars worth of national promotion, a free private haunted Asheville Ghost Tour, one hundred dollars of jewelry from the Lucky Butterfly Traveling Boutique, a hand carved turquoise laden walking stick from Ridgehoppers.com, a restaurant gift certificate, and other surprises. The song is at AshevilleSong.com. Of course, Asheville has that E in there, A-S-H-E, V-I-L-L-E. Asheville song.com. And all radio stations are encouraged to freely play the song as often as possible. And everyone in the world is welcome to freely share it on social media. Asheville native Joshua P. Warren, owner of the Haunted Asheville Ghost Tours, wrote the music and lyrics. And he says, quote, I created this song as a love letter to Asheville. It's absolutely free for everyone. There's no need to ask for permission from me. Just play it and share it whenever you like. And if you want to be in the contest, send me your version, your interpretation. I can't wait to hear all the creative versions that are submitted. Somebody might get famous from this. He goes on to say, quote, I recorded this original version of the song as an example. Now it's out there for everyone to play around with. This is just pure fun for me, end quote. The contest deadline is August 15th of 2026, and MP3s can be submitted through the website. For all the details, visit AshevilleSong.com. This is an exciting day. And uh, you know, I I wanted to record this to sort of give a little bit more clarification on why I decided to do this. Because I started playing composing and playing and even singing music when I was uh probably around middle school age. And uh I I've all after all these years, I mean, I've continued to create music. I I I I don't uh kid myself and think I'm some kind of a singer. I've only done karaoke twice in my life. I was extremely drunk both times. And I think that's one of the rules. You're supposed to be drunk when you do karaoke. Uh so you know, I can pull it off. I mean, you know, I I I can sing certain songs here or there, werewolves of London, oh, you know, I can do stuff like that. But um, you know, I I I I like to hire people to actually sing serious things. Uh, it's funny because by the time I was in my early 20s, I uh was actually good enough on the piano that uh lit growing up in Asheville, I was offered uh on uh numerous occasions jobs like being a pianist in a bar or something like that. But I just never wanted to um well, for one thing, I didn't think I was good enough for that. But I I also didn't want to sort of taint this little hobby that I had for fun by by taking money for it, you know, and turning it into a job. So I've just sort of made money my whole life uh on music here and there. You know, I've I've done some uh I've I've composed some scores to things, uh, movies and that kind of stuff, but uh I'm I'm not a professional musician at all. Uh but I did, however, recently uh release an album with years worth of some of my music and songs. Uh it's on Spotify and other places. It's called uh I'm a Little Bit Weird. So uh if you look that up, uh you might find that. And there are some times where where I sing. Uh and uh I I think I might actually sit down at some point and do a recording where I talk about the story behind each of those songs. Because believe it or not, anything you do in this world, there's at least ten people who are hardcore into it. Like there's there's ten hardcore fans somewhere who want to know more about it. You can be like, I'm into Prince Albert's, and boom, immediately you've got ten fans who are like, yes! That's why that there are so many people, you know. Uh look, I guess what I'm trying to say is that we live in a world where the good part is that you can find people who are into your whatever you're into, but if you're into something that's weird or maybe even negative, well then you go you also can attract people to that and you build like a little club of dunces or whatever. So at some point, however, for those people who are into my album called I'm a Little Bit Weird, I might sit down and do one of these kind of rambling podcasts where I just kind of tell the story behind each song. But I bring this up because this song, Asheville, is an example of me writing the music and lyrics and saying, Um, I I want to hire somebody to sing this for me. And so I I have a guy I've worked with twice now. And uh if you have if most people, I'm sure, have never gone out and tried to hire a singer to do something. But in a nutshell, there are people who work in this capacity who are often called like uh studio singers. They're then they're they're guns for hire. So you can you write something and you you tell them to sing it, and they sing it, and then you can get it, and then I will take what a singer does, and I will put it into my computer, and then I can maybe change the pitch or the pace and kind of manipulate it a little bit. And you know, a lot of a lot of musicians do that. It's it's actually quite common, you know. Fat Boy Slim, for example, a guy like that who has done a lot of techno and everything. I mean, he'll take uh samples from people and manipulate it and fit it in, and he's not the one singing the song necessarily. So that's what I did with this. Uh I wrote the music and the lyrics, and then I hired uh a studio singer and had him sing it, and then I got the music and the lyrics, and I mixed them all together, and I uh changed his voice a little bit and made it sound the way I wanted it to sound. And I decided to put this out there, not only because that um of course I'm from Asheville, which is a musically rich place, but uh I thought it was a fun way of promoting my ghost tours there that I've had in Asheville for you know 30 years or whatever. Um, as a matter of fact, you know, I have a ghost tour in Boulder City, Nevada, which is right outside of Las Vegas, and I uh I had I wrote a song about Boulder City called Boulder City Life, and had him sing that as well. And this was a few years ago, I guess. And they uh Boulder City loved it so much that the history museum there is building an exhibit where they have an animatronic figure, uh, an old guy sitting there playing a banjo who is going to be performing my song. Uh that's that should be in the museum very soon. And uh that's pretty amazing. Boulder City happens to be the place where they make those Zoltar fortune-telling machines. So they're famous for their animatronic figures. And I I but I never it never crossed my mind that in my entire life there would be an animatronic figure that would have my words coming out of his mouth. Uh so that was exciting. And so then, of course, I turned to Asheville and I said, Well, Asheville's got a big music scene. Let's see how things fly in Asheville. And so I decided to write this this song called Asheville about my old hometown. And uh I just released the press release today, and everybody already is just so excited, and I'm it's it's already being covered by the media, and I really believe that um this is going to be a fun, fun contest. And I I don't know how many submissions that I'm going to get. So before I play this song for you, uh I'm looking at the website right now, ashevilsong.com, and it says no AI, just real traditional local talent. And obviously nowadays you have to include something like no AI because, well, anybody can just take the lyrics and plug it into one of these AI platforms and hit submit, and boom, you know, it spits out a song, and they send that to me. Well, that's not talent. I'm sorry, that's not talent. Uh, so we're we're verifying that the people who to perform this are real people and they're playing this the old-fashioned way. Uh there's a picture of me for the media to use if they want to. I'm standing there uh holding an Emmy. Uh, and that Emmy is an Emmy from work I did here in Las Vegas, where I live now. Uh years ago, I for a Halloween piece did uh a paranormal investigation of an oddities shop here in Las Vegas. And uh at that time, the fella who was working for the local TV station, Guy Finalesey, I believe is how you pronounce his last name, uh, he shot a uh he shot a really cinematic segment about that investigation, and that segment won an Emmy. So I didn't personally win the Emmy, but it I was the star of the segment that won the Emmy, and so I went to see him and uh and he gave me the Emmy and I'm holding um there's a picture there at AshevilleSong.com uh AshevilleSong.com of me holding the Emmy from the TV segment that uh that starred me. Uh so you'll find that there, and you'll also see that it says clearly, again, everyone in the world, including you, has permission to play, distribute, perform this song freely as long as you credit me and hauntedashville.com. You can use that picture. Um and here are the contest rules. No AI. Produce your own version of the song, a cover of what you'll find there, and email an MP3 no later than August 15th, 2026. You can also send a link to a video of your performance. Uh the judges, which is myself and a few other trusted folks, will pick the best cover by September 1st, 2026 and make a public announcement. Um, if for those of you who are more technically oriented with music, uh the original version is in G sharp. But this is important. Feel free to interpret the song however you like. And that is, I think, really the biggest thing that I want to point out here in this recording is that um the song is just an example. And I I don't care, you can do any kind of version you want, you can put it in any key you want, you can change the words around. Uh I mean, uh, you can do a punk rock version, you can wrap it, you can I mean, just do whatever your thing is. As long as it's original and it comes from you, you don't have to have a big band, it can be one person or you can't have a big band. Uh there, I my mind is wide open. There are no rules on this. And right now, if you uh recorded your version of this and you put it on YouTube and I saw it, I would love it. Okay. I I I do want you to credit me and Haunted Asheville uh because the main reason I decided to do this contest is because um it's a great way of publicizing my haunted Asheville Ghost Tours. But um you you just feel free to like take it and run with it. Just give credit where credit is due, but do this however you like, and and don't worry about feeling that you're stuck within some particular parameters. And you know, my my sister is Jessica Warren, and her fiance is Andrew Decker, and Andrew, he is a musician who plays a lot of gigs around Western North Carolina, and he's even uh he's a contest rep for this. And Andrew has said that if you're somebody who plays and performs music, but you don't really have a lot of experience recording it, well then you can contact him and and he'll help give you uh options to record it. You know, there he's he's even talking about setting up times at maybe some local uh establishments where you can come over at a designated time and he'll have a crew there that's set up to record, and they can record what you do. So if if that's something that's useful for you, then you can email me and I'll pass it on to Andrew and you can correspond with him about that. My email address is contact at joshua pwarren.com. There's no period after the P when you type that in. Uh contact at joshuapeewarren.com. And when it comes to the prize pack, you know, I I mentioned my sister, she has the Lucky Butterfly Traveling Boutique, which, oh boy, you sh I don't know how she sources all of these amazing and beautiful and rare pieces of jewelry from all over the world, but she does. And uh there at AshevilleSong.com, you'll see her logo and just one little snapshot of the types of uh things that she sells. Uh, the winner gets a $100 uh jewelry gift certificate from the Lucky Butterfly traveling boutique from my sister. You're also gonna win and get a free private haunted Asheville Ghost Tour for your group, no matter how big it is. Uh my dad is a professional wood carver who he does all kinds of wood carvings, but he's especially well known for his sticks. Danny Warren, my father, is a master woodcraftsman, and he has some of his walking sticks and like really high-end stores for I mean, and they sell them for insane amounts of money. But these days, I mean, it's harder than you think to find somebody, you know, like my dad's an old mountain man, okay, and he really knows how to sit down and carve a piece of wood, and uh that's a talent that's being lost. And my dad, he has uh yeah, some of these pieces in these shops that go for big, big bucks, and he is going to create a one-of-a-kind hand-carved Appalachian walking stick that has the word champion on it, and it's going to be laden with genuine Nevada turquoise that I myself have gotten here from a mine in Nevada, tumbled a little bit in my garage. I mean, I'm telling you, this is some rare stuff from uh ridgehoppers.com. And if you go to ridgehoppers.com, which is the the website for my my dad, Danny Warren, and my mom Peggy Warren, you'll see uh not only sticks, but he he has a toy that he makes, uh, he has books that he's written. I'm gonna give you a gift certificate to your favorite restaurant. And see, also, this is open to anybody anywhere in the world. Now, you're gonna be able to make the most of this if you live in Western North Carolina, but this is this contest is open to anybody anywhere in the world. And so uh basically, whoever wins, I'm gonna say, like, well, what's your favorite restaurant? You tell me your restaurant, and I'm gonna get you a gift certificate. Now you might say, well, why don't you just give them some money? Well, you know how that goes. If you give somebody money, then they might just turn around and pay the light bill, and that's okay. But it also is kind of cool to give people an excuse to go out and treat themselves and have that steak and have that glass of wine or whatever it is they're into, and uh so it's it's it's a different kind of vibe when you get a gift certificate. It forces you to go out and do something that makes you sort of appreciate you uh being a champion. I've got all kinds of other surprises, but the main thing, the main thing, I'm going to give you ten thousand dollars worth of national publicity on my platforms. I'm talking about on my podcast, on social media. I don't even do that much stuff on YouTube, but I've been on YouTube for a long time, and I checked the other day, and my YouTube channel has had 4.6 million views, and I'm gonna take the winner and I'm gonna create a video, I'm gonna put it on my YouTube channel, I'm gonna put it uh in my Instagram, on X, Facebook. I have a newsletter that goes out to tons of people all over the world. That's gonna go out. Um, I literally have a $10,000 promotional package, so you can either come to me right now and pay me $10,000 and I will consider doing all this promotion for you. Or you can produce the best version of this song and win the contest, and you get that along with everything else. So this is I consider this to be, you know, uh it's a grassroots organic local song uh speaking to people who are in Asheville. I was born and raised in Asheville and uh lived in Asheville most of the first 40 years of my life. I'm going to be fifty this year. And so uh, you know, I I like I say I I now live in Las Vegas, but um a lot of that is also just because of the work that I do, you know. Being out west gives me more access to some of the uh productions in Los Angeles and all that. But I'm very much an Asheville man, and uh my family has been in Asheville in the in the in west North Carolina at least, on both sides, going back to the 1700s. So I'm deeply rooted in Asheville, and I'm delighted to tell you that my uh haunted Asheville Ghost Tours uh they they have always been the number one tours. It's Asheville's oldest and original ghost tour. And if you just go to TripAdvisor and look at the reviews, I think we have I think we recently topped like 2,000 reviews, and it's almost five out of five stars. So uh if you are in the Asheville area, go to haunted Asheville.com and take the tour and tell your guide that you listen to me and that you're a huge fan, and say all kinds of nice things about me, and maybe they'll give you some special VIP treatment. Now, every we treat everybody well, but if you really say you're a huge Joshua P. Warren fan, you never know. They they might they might have a sucker for you, they might have a breath mint or maybe uh uh Hershey Kiss or something. They might who knows what they'll do for you. I tell 'em to really treat people well. They might take you into the underground, you know, take you down into the tunnels. You know, you don't know. But anyway, I think you get the picture. Go to Asheville Song.com for all the details for the contest. If you're in the Asheville area, go

unknown 22:36

Dreaming of Ashville.

SPEAKER_02 22:41

I spill purple and blue. I spill dreaming of Ashville. I spill purple and blue. Ashville dreaming of Ashville. I shill that I always knew there is no other summer like you. Chris Bottom leaves an uncle. The moss is green, and the air is always clean. The icy streams wash over you, and you and you and me. Ashville, dreaming of Ashville. Ashville, purple and blue. Asheville, dreaming of Ashville. Ashville, I always knew. I feel the wind, ancient eyes upon my skin. I am within amidst the mystic mountains move my soul. Ashville, dreaming of Ashville. Ashville, purple and blue. Ashville, dreaming of Ashville. Ashville, I always knew that.

SPEAKER_01 26:34

Ashville, dreaming of Ashville. Ashville, purple and blue.

SPEAKER_02 26:48

Ashville, dreaming of Ashville. Ashville, I always knew.