The ninth annual Jimmy LaFave Songwriting is free to enter and open to unsigned Oklahoma songwriters. Each artist may submit one lyric-driven song in any genre online at https://forms.gle/QscWv6sm1Vmzwmfy5 by February 8. The contest winner receives a $750 cash prize, a spot in the Bob Childers’ Gypsy Café songwriting festival lineup and a day of recording at Tulsa’s historic The Church Studio.
Three contest finalists will be selected based on lyrics, melody, originality, form and musicality by a panel of judges, including renowned songwriters and recording professionals Audra Mae, Brad Piccolo of the Red Dirt Rangers, Ronnie Carlson of The Church Studio and Ryan LaCroix of KOSU and the Oklahoma Music Minute. Finalists will be asked to submit a video recording of their song (acoustic) for public voting online March 16-31. The judges’ scores of overall performance will be combined with public votes to determine the winner, with runner up and People’s Choice prizes of $250 each.
Contest information, submission link and previous winners’ videos can be found at https://www.reddirtrelieffund.org/jlfsongcontest/.
In 2017, Jimmy LaFave accepted the inaugural Restless Spirit Award at Bob Childers’ Gypsy Cafe in Stillwater. Not long after, he succumbed to a battle with cancer. The following spring, Red Dirt Relief Fund collaborated with Jimmy’s partner and some of his longtime friends to create this contest as an opportunity for young and emerging songwriters in Oklahoma. The hope was that Jimmy’s legacy could be, in part, passing on the opportunity he got in Stillwater decades before.
The contest’s first winner, Ken Pomeroy, was 15 years old when she took the stage at Gypsy Cafe to accept the award. In 2025, she performed at the historic Newport Folk Festival where Joan Baez and Peter, Paul and Mary got their starts, and where Bob Dylan famously “went electric” in 1965. Winners of this contest have come from every genre and musical background including a student of hip hop to a seasoned country singer. Finalists are selected blindly by a panel of songwriters and industry professionals, with prizes including cash, as spot in the Gypsy Cafe lineup and a day of recording at Tulsa’s historic The Church Studio.
The Jimmy LaFave Songwriting Contest highlights LaFave’s legacy of mentorship and musical discovery that have become hallmarks of the Gypsy Café festival. Previous winners of the contest include Ken Pomeroy’s “Sidewalk Song” (2018), Dallas Parker aka Faux Draco’s “Abilities” (2019), Joe Baxter’s “Romeo’s Girl” (2020), Ahna Jennings’ “Hope & Gasoline” (2021), Branjae’s “Free Facts” (2022), Brent Giddens’ “Shades of Texas (2023), Eric Hunker’s “When it all Ends” (2024) and Jared Hard’s “Any of Us” (2025).
The contest is organized by Red Dirt Relief Fund, Oklahoma’s nonprofit music safety net that has provided more than $1 million in emergency financial assistance to Oklahoma music professionals since 2012.
