Featured Songwriters
Join us in welcoming these talented songwriters that will be joining us this year!
Phillip Lammonds
Phillip Lammonds is a songwriter and talented instrumentalist from the musically rich mountains of North Carolina. From his childhood in the mountains to his time in the South Carolina Lowcountry, it was this melting pot of sounds and rhythms that formed his musical sensibilities.
After college, Phillip was a founder of The Blue Dogs, a beloved and critically acclaimed bluegrass and rock inspired jam band. He then started his family in Pawley’s Island, South Carolina while working as a fishing guide, a falconer, and the co-owner of the islands Sotheby’s real estate company. All the while, Phillip wrote songs and traveled to Nashville to pitch them. After many years, lots of miles traveled to Nashville, and cuts on major artist -Phillip moved to music city to pursue songwriting full time. He stepped onto the scene with a publishing deal from Curb Entertainment. Phillip’s songs have been recorded by artists like Hootie and the Blowfish, Josh Turner, Lee Brice, Charles Esten, Kellie Pickler, Craig Morgan, Edwin McCain, Jerrod Niemann, Mo Pitney, and Dylan Scott.
After more than 15 years of writing literally hundreds of songs Phillip is releasing his first solo album Cowboy Things, The Lee Brice-produced project features heartfelt, plainspoken tracks from across Lammonds’ career. He boils the big picture down to bite-sized chunks of truth with help from buddies including Brice, Darius Rucker, ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons, Pam Tillis and actor Bill Murray.
Steve Azar
Steve Azar, a Mississippi Delta native, is a hit songwriter, recording artist, music producer, and author. He has released seven critically acclaimed studio albums, including Waitin’ on Joe, which rendered a hit title track and #1 music video, as well as the smash hit “I Don’t Have To Be Me (‘Til Monday)”, a recipient of four (4) BMI Million-Air awards. The hit single “Sunshine” (also a #1 video) and the album Slide on Over Here were featured in the 2011 “Oprah’s Favorite Things” edition of O Magazine. The Steve Azar & The Kings Men album titled Down at The Liquor Store is backed by veteran bandmates of B.B. King, Elvis Presley, and other icons of music with a feature documentary, Something in the Water, chronicling the making of the record. His latest, My Mississippi Reunion, winner of the 2021 Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters award for best contemporary album, features a collection of past and new songs inspired by Azar’s roots, including the song “One Mississippi” which became the new official state song of Mississippi 2022. Azar is the author of the # 1 Best Selling children’s book “One Mississippi”. He was enshrined on the Mississippi Country Music Trail as the trail’s 32nd marker in 2019. He is the recipient of the 2018 prestigious Mississippi Arts Commission “Governor’s Choice Award” and 2023 Mississippi Music Awards Lifetime Achievement award. In April 2024, Azar was featured in the Grammy Museum Mississippi exhibit “Celebrating Mississippi’s Influence”, alongside Marty Stewart, Faith Hill, Jerry Lee Lewis, Bobby, Rush, Charley Pride, Mary Wilson of the Supremes and Leontine Price. Azar’s recording of his song “Our Castle is Your Home” is featured on the Rock For Children, Vol 1 record, which is a full-length studio album headlined by legendary artists Alice Cooper, Rob Halford from Judas Priest, Guitarist Steve Cropper, and more coming out in summer of 2024.
Steve and his wife Gwen founded the Steve Azar St. Cecilia Foundation in 2006 which produces the annual Delta Soul Celebrity Golf & Charity Event raising funds for arts and educational organizations. An accomplished golfer, Steve has been ranked one of the top five musicians that play golf by Golf Digest Magazine numerous times, and he is a frequent guest at charity golf tournaments across the country.
Azar is the official Music & Culture Ambassador of Mississippi and is an in-demand keynote speaker. He hosts his own radio show and podcast titled In a Mississippi Minute with Steve Azar, available on SuperTalk Mississippi radio and all podcast platforms. He serves as a brand ambassador for the award-winning Dancing Rabbit Golf courses and Pearl River Resorts in the rolling hills of Choctaw, Mississippi, as well as Mississippi-based food company Sherin Foods. “Steve Azar’s Mississippi,” Azar’s resident show in his hometown of Greenville, is the Viking Cruise line’s number-one-rated show and event on the Mississippi.
For more information visit steveazar.com
Shawn Camp
Some careers can be described with a couple of words, but Shawn Camp’s isn’t one of them. A bold and distinctive singer, a songwriter who’s provided material for artists ranging from Ralph Stanley, Del McCoury and Ricky Skaggs to Garth Brooks, Alan Jackson, Porter Wagoner, Loretta Lynn and Brooks & Dunn, with hits such as “Two Pina Coladas” (Garth Brooks), “Nobody But Me” (Blake Shelton), “Would You Go With Me” (Josh Turner), “River Of Love” (George Strait), and Billy Currington’s hit single “Love Done Gone”.
Along with being a hit writer, he is a gifted multi-instrumentalist who’s played as a touring/recording musician with everyone from Jerry Reed, Trisha Yearwood, Shelby Lynn, and Alan Jackson to the Osborne Brothers, Guy Clark and John Prine.
Camp also co-produced a compilation tribute album for his friend and hero Guy Clark, which was #1 on the Americana Charts for several weeks in the spring of 2012, and voted Americana Album Of The Year 2012. Entitled, Guy Clark: This One’s For Him, this Album was also Grammy nominated for Folk Album Of The Year 2012. It is a virtual who’s who of Americana/Texas/Country music including everyone from Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, Emmylou Harris, Rodney Crowell, Verlon Thompson, Ramblin’ Jack Elliot, Shawn Colvin, Lyle Lovett, Rosanne Cash, Steve Earle, Joe Ely, Ray Wylie Hubbard, etc… (too many to name, 33 artists in all)
Then Shawn co-produced and won the Grammy for Folk Album Of The Year (2013) for Guy Clark’s “My Favorite Picture Of You”.
Camp’s music sprawls across the lines that divide Country, Americana, Bluegrass, and roots Rock. His solo records, The self-titled SHAWN CAMP (Warner Bros), Lucky Silver Dollar, Fireball and 1994, further prove Camp to be one of Nashville’s most unique talents. He also just finished recording a project with his new band The World Famous Headliners; an All Star Band made up of Camp and veteran writers Big Al Anderson and Pat McLaughlin, along with Michael Rhodes and Greg Morrow. The World Famous Headliners new album “Now Appearing”, set for release in January 2016.
He is also the lead singer for The Earls Of Leicester, an all-acoustic band that consists of legendary Bluegrass musicians Jerry Douglas, Tim O’Brian, Barry Bales, Charlie Cushman, and Johnny Warren. The band performs and records only the music of Flatt and Scruggs and the Foggy Mountain Boys. They capture the essence of the sounds and that period of time in an effort to bring the old style back into the psyche of the modern world. The Earls Of Leicester won the Grammy for Best Bluegrass Album (2015).
Then, The Earls Of Leicester made a huge sweep at The International Bluegrass Music Association’s IBMA Awards Show in October 2016, winning Entertainer Of The Year, Album Of The Year, Instrumental Group Of The Year, Gospel Recorded Performance Of The Year withShawn Camp – Male Vocalist Of The Year & Jerry Douglas – Dobro Player Of The Year.
Shawn was the Entertainer of the Year in 2016 and 2017 and Male Vocalist of the Year in 2017.
Any time day or night, he is either writing songs, performing shows, or recording. His life’s work, speaks for itself.
Tiffany Goss
Tiffany Goss is a songwriter from Montgomery, Alabama. Known for her playful approach to writing and natural melodic sense, Tiffany never fails to draw out the best in her co-writers. Over the span of her career, she has had stops at EMI Music Publishing, Buddy Killen Publishing as a staff writer, and Curb Music Publishing as both Creative Director and a staff writer.
Tiffany’s songs have been recorded by artists like Brooks and Dunn, Darius Rucker, Brett Young, Clay Walker, and Chris Janson. Her talents have brought her into the world of television with placements on shows like The Bachelor, Hart of Dixie, Rachel Ray, and Martha Stewart. When Tiffany is not in the writing room, you can find her on adventures in National Parks, hiking the Appalachian Trail, and taking her 3-legged therapy dog on visits.
Opening Act - Michelle Loscalzo
Growing up in New York, Michelle was always around music, from school bands to enjoying Broadway shows in the city. Michelle attended Coastal Carolina University as a double music major and received her Bachelor of Arts degree in music.
One of the coolest experiences while attending Coastal Carolina University was sharing the stage with Keith Urban for his concert in Charleston. She played in the drumline for one of Keith’s songs. Michelle plays gigs around the Grand Strand year round, so you may see her! She is honored to have this opportunity to play for the Songwriters In The Round this year!