It’s a catchy tune that’s sure to catch on with voters and music industry experts.
Bob Johns of Chemainus has entered his song Sitting Here Drinking Beer – that captures attention for the mere title alone – in the CBC Searchlight contest.
“Some friends of mine have been in the contest before,” said Johns. “I happened to notice the ads on TV.”
His song has been doing well on streaming sites so “I thought I’d put it up for that,” reasoned Johns.
Sitting Here Drinking Beer is a country style classic song at its best. It has the lyrics you’d expect in what Johns calls a Honky Tonk version of the old story about drinking to cure a broken heart, a sample of which is included here:
“I’m sitting here, drinking beer, and I ain’t missing you
You went away and left me, you thought that I’d be blue
But I’ve found the way to feel okay, the cure for how I feel
I’m at this bar, a-drinking beer, my lonely heart to heal”
Click here for the full lyrics.
Johns has his own recording studio at home where he devised the song for streaming claim to fame. There haven’t been any public performances of it since COVID.
“I’ve had it kicking around for a few years, but I haven’t put it out anywhere except I released it online,” said Johns.
The song has now earned about $100 U.S. from various streaming services since being released in January of 2020. The payment from those services is around one-tenth of a cent per stream, Johns explained, so the song has been played about 100,000 times.
Leading platforms for his songs include: Spotify, Amazon Premium, iTunes, iHeartRadio, NetEase, TikTok, Resso, Youtube Music, Tidal, SoundExchange and sync-licensing revenue from Facebook.
Related story: Country music will be flowing with the beer at Riot Brewing Co.
The CBC Music Searchlight competition was revived earlier this spring, inviting musicians of any genre to submit an original song and compete for prizes.
The first and only round of public voting is underway but only continues until Monday, May 30 at noon Pacific Daylight Time to cast votes. Voting can be done once a day every day until then.
Click the link here to vote for Bob Johns’ song.
The top 100 will be announced Wednesday, June 8. Three artists will make it through the popular vote, with the other 97 spots determined by internal judging by industry experts.
@chemainusnews
don.bodger@chemainusvalleycourier.ca
Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
