"His voice is reminiscent of Teddy Pendergrass, Michael Bolton and George Benson. Derrik Jordan is a powerful performer who has a real gift for writing songs. His music lingers long after it stops." -Jan Best, RadioMuse "Sit back, grab that glass of white wine and that special someone, light the candles. This is radio-ready rock that's done so well it's gonna topple the Michael Bolton's and the Peter Ceteras. I wanted to hate it, but it's just done too well." - Northeast Performer Derrik Jordan Wins International Songwriting Award!!! Well known southern Vermont musician, Derrik Jordan, has won 2nd place in the 2004 USA Songwriting Competition, known as the world's leading international songwriting competition. His song, "Speak Through Me," co-written with Stephanie Lewis and Lorraine Ferro won 1st place in the Gospel category and 2nd place overall out of 32,500 songs considered. The song, from his first CD, "Expecting A Miracle," will be featured on a compilation CD put out by the organization and sent out to radio stations. It will be played on NPR's popular show Acoustic Cafe which has 1,000,000 listeners and also on XM radio. The prize awarded to Jordan and his co-writers totals $9000 in cash and merchandise. You can see the other winners and read more about the USA Songwriting Competition at http://www.songwriting.net. "I'm delighted and deeply honored to have placed second in such a large song contest," says Jordan. "I've always felt that 'Speak Through Me' was a very special song. Hopefully this win will help my songs reach a wider audience and perhaps I'll even get some popular recording artists to record some of them, which is every songwriter's dream. I've been writing for 35 years but have never entered a song contest before this one. Maybe I should enter another one...." *************** Living in southern Vermont and working in NYC and New England, Derrik has sung national jingles, played in many bands and had his songs recorded by other artists, but what really excites him is writing, recording and performing his original music for people. "Creating music is a sacred trust. That moment of ecstatic communion when performer and audience become one is truly one of life's greatest experiences," says Derrik. As a multi-instrumentalist, singer-songwriter, producer and anti-nuclear activist, Derrik is used to wearing a lot of hats. On his debut CD, "Expecting A Miracle," co-produced with Tom "T-Bone" Wolk (Hall and Oates, Carly Simon and Saturday Night Live Band), Derrik sings and plays guitar, piano, violin, percussion and steel drum. He is joined by a stellar cast of top NYC studio musicians including Marc Shulman on guitar and Ben Wittman on drums. In 1992, he made his national debut as a recording artist on "Right As Rain", a compilation CD sponsored by Ben and Jerry's to benefit the Rainforest Action Network that also featured such artists as Jerry Garcia, Paul Winter, Mickey Hart and Beausoleil. **************** Derrik Jordan's first instrumental CD featuring his electric violin, "SuperString Theory - Exotic Duets and Improvisations" is also available on CD BABY. Featuring duets with Lisa Sokolov (vocalist extraordinaire and winner of the Downbeat Magazine's 2004 Jazz CD of the Year), Steve Leicach (balafon), Nebulai (didgeridoo), John Hughes (kora), Jared Shapiro (cello) and Barry Hyman (sitar) plus many other exotic and wonderful pieces. And you can hear it right here on CD BABY at - www.cdbaby.com/superstring ***************** Derrik Jordan records on Worldsoul Records which gives 10% of profits to the planet.