Posted on October 17, 2013 at 5:06 pm

Lynn Shore is a California guy. Did some shows, did some “General Hospital,” did some comedy at the Improv, lots of commercials. Plays the trumpet, the piano, emcees every now and then. About ten years ago, he decided to take it easy on the performing, he developed software, he lived by the beach with his wife of 23 years and his son. But after years away from the stage, the mid-life crisis hit and he determined to get back in the game. One night, he saw the posting for my karaoke competition and he got behind the mic to send this:

Erin Martinez is a music teacher and mom in Little Rock, Arkansas. She’s done shows all over the country but mostly focused on Central Arkansas, where she just won a “Ben-TONY Award” (for Benton, natch) for her performance as Miss Hannigan in the Royal Theatre’s production of “Annie.” She posts awesome videos of her gorgeous 5-year-old daughter singing my songs. She also posted this:

And out of 700 entries (almost all of which you can still hear on SoundCloud), Lynn and Erin are the WINNERS OF THE 2012 JRB KARAOKE COMPETITION!

Wanna hear them live? You can! I’m thrilled to announce that Lynn and Erin will be joining me and the Caucasian Rhythm Kings live on stage at 54 Below on Friday, November 22 and Saturday, November 23, two shows each night! Lynn and Erin will be capping off a full week of performances, and you can get more details and tickets right here on the 54Below website!

Sure, it took fifteen months to crown our pair of winners, but when you’ve got 700 amazing singers vying for the title, you have to be thorough. I have to thank my four stupendous judges:

MARK SIMON, casting director for 13 and The Last Five Years and head of the casting department at Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles
DAISY PRINCE, director of Songs for a New World and The Last Five Years and educator extraordinaire at Syracuse University
BRIAN LOWDERMILK, awesome young whippersnapper composer who, with his writing partner Kait Kerrigan, is rapidly threatening to make me irrelevant
GEORGIA STITT, composer, lyricist, arranger, conductor, vocal coach, and my best friend and, as of this coming Saturday, my wife for ten years.

Thank you to all of the incredible contestants, my superlative judges, and to LYNN and ERIN! Congratulations! See you in November!