More than two dozen musicians from across the globe submitted impressive entries to The Verve Pipe frontman’s unusual contest. View some of them here.
The Winning Video: Kari Newhouse plays “And Then We Fell”
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As Brian Vander Ark put it, the winner of his video contest “knew that the best acoustics are in the bathroom.”
Portland, Ore.’s Kari Newhouse also knows how to sing, which put her over the top in winning Vander Ark’s unusual contest, challenging musicians to submit videos of themselves performing one of his songs or a tune by The Verve Pipe.
The online contest — announced last month by East Grand Rapids’ Vander Ark as a fun way for artists to promote themselves as well as his solo music and that of The Verve Pipe — netted Newhouse a first-place prize of $200 and posting of the video on the brianvanderark.com website for a full month.
“This contest ended up being awesome,” Vander Ark told me of the competition that drew more than two dozen video submissions. “A ton of entries and we had to narrow it down to one. Very difficult.”
Newhouse is a singer-songwriter and former Michigander. Learn more about her by visiting her website.
Other entries included what Vander Ark described as “a killer version of my song, ‘A Million Things,’ ” by Grand Rapids’ Karisa Wilson, a video of “Another Good Man” from fan Chris Smith, a soldier stationed in the Middle East, and a submission by Brent Hinson, with the video portraying his family driving home to Michigan in a mini-van from Tennessee.
They also included a pretty sophisticated and rocking rendition of The Verve Pipe’s “Villains,” submitted by an artist known as musicide.
“I was very surprised,” Vander Ark said of the inventiveness of fans. “I encouraged people to think outside the box and give me interesting variations on it, and many did. I didn’t expect that. It was great to hear these versions. In fact, I’m thinking of trying the songs in different ways now.”
Here are some of those video entries. You can see the rest by clicking on this Facebook link.
Email: jsinkevics@gmail.com
Copyright 2013, Spins on Music
Thanks for sharing these, John. Great stuff!! I really wanted to submit too, but found out a little late. Hope Brian does this one more time 🙂 Love your blog.