TAKE A BOW: Congrats to Chicago-based Jonas Friddle & The Majority for winning the Song of the Year at the annual John Lennon Songwriting Contest — a competition that attracted competitors from around the globe. The 7-piece bank, originally formed at the Old Town School of Folk Music, won the grand prize or their original track, “Belle de Louisville.”
Among the judges were Natasha Bedingfield, The Grateful Dead founding member Bob Weir, the Black Eyed Peas’ Fergie and The Bacon Brothers duo of Kevin Bacon and his rockin’ brother, Michael.
†A major salute to our longtime Sun-Times colleague Laura Emerick, who has been a key arts and culture editor here for the past quarter-century — long serving as Roger Ebert’s cherished editor — only one of the many jobs she performed with great skill.
Now, Chicago Symphony Orchestra president Deborah Rutter has just announced Laura will be joining the CSO this month in the newly-created post as digital content editor — an exciting new chapter in this extremely talented woman’s career.
