We have among us people who have been performing professionally and semi-professionally for many years, people who have never been in front of an audience, and every variation in between. Some of our members have many albums to their name, and some have never set foot in a studio.
Some of our members have sold songs to famous artists. Some play multiple instruments, and some don’t. We have singers and non-singers. Some of us focus on melody and harmony, and some on lyrics. Our group includes younger folks, and more “experienced” folks. Our musical styles and influences include folk, Americana, blues, rock, jazz, zydeco, pop, country, bluegrass.

Covid-19 has affected our group, just as it’s affected everyone on the planet. For a time, we met via Zoom sessions. But we are once again meeting in person every 4th Wednesday of the month, starting at 7:00 PM, in the L.L. Rice room of the Jefferson Center, in Roanoke. The meeting starts at 7:30.
If you are a member, you will get notification of this meeting via our Google group. If you are interested in visiting us, tell an SVSA member or hit the “Contact Us” button on this site, and we’ll send you an invitation.
The meeting generally starts with a brief summary of club business, then sometimes some sort of short workshop or presentation, and then we get down to the business of critique-ing songs. Members submit recordings of their songs, including lyric sheets. There is a short setup, then the recording is played (or sometimes the song is performed live), and then members comment, and write other comments on the lyric sheets.
Members are coached to be honest, thoughtful, gentle and supportive, and you are virtually guaranteed that your song will come out better on the other end, if you’re open to the idea.
