Local songwriter Richard Bassett has entered in the 11th Annual Unisong Songwriting Competition with his song 'Don't Try to Push The River'. The competition is open until August 14 and the winner will be announced the following day.

The public can cast their votes each day until then by visiting www.unisong.com. The song has already garnered some recognition.

Mr. Bassett said: "The song 'Don't Try To Push The River' has been awarded third prizes in the Gospel/Christian Song category of Unisong.

"It was recorded at Fun House Studios in Nashville, Tennessee. It was produced by Kim Copeland of Kim Copeland Productions and it features lead vocals by Rachel Williams."

The inspiration behind the song came from a sad event in the songwriter's life.

"The song was inspired by the death of my father in 1998," he said.

"The sudden death of someone often makes you think about the direction of your own life. I wasn't ready to write a song about that in 1998, but in 2005, I got the inspiration to write the song on a flight from New York to San Francisco I guess I can thank American Airlines for that one.

"I wrote the chorus for the song on that flight and I wrote the verses a month or so later. Verse one was relatively easy to write i.e. dealing with the death of my father.

"But there's a term which songwriters often use call 'Second Verse Hell'. It refers to verse two of a song without repeating info you included in verse one. It took some time and a few re-writes of the song but I managed to get it together."

Another song of his, 'My Best For You' received a Top 20 Finalist Award in the Country Song category of Unisong.

"On 'My Best For You', I would have to say that professional songwriters or songwriters who write for a living, will tell you that songwriting is 20 percent writing and 80 percent re-writing and this certainly was the case for this song.

"It actually started out as a song called 'Somebody' and the message was that homeless people and people down on their luck are often somebody's brother, or somebody's son, or somebody's father and so they should be appreciated for being 'somebody'."

Part of his Songwriting process involves getting critiques or feedback on his songs.

"One of my mentors, who is a professional songwriter, convinced me to rethink the message of the song and to do a re-write," he explained.

"I also teamed up with a co-writer from Wisconsin to do the re-write and that helped a lot. My co-writer and I decided to make it a song about the relationship between a father and a son and how that carries through life when the son becomes a father himself."

For more information on Mr. Bassett's music can be found at www.myspace.com/richardbassett or www.renascent.org. To vote visit: www.unisong.com.