Jim Thorpe resident and local favorite musician Matt Filer has taken second place in the Pennsylvania Heritage Songwriting Contest this year.

The competition began 11 years ago as part of the annual Smoked Country Jam Bluegrass Festival in Cross Forks.

Filer learned about the contest from a friend who had attended the festival in previous years.

“It’s a songwriting contest for singer-songwriters who write music based around the state of Pennsylvania. I had entered the contest online months prior and never thought I’d hear anything back,” said Filer.

“I was definitely surprised and honored to have placed second.”

Filer performed his award-winning song “Carbon County,” at the festival last weekend.

“I wrote it last summer. It was one of those songs that came fairly natural and immediately stuck,” he said.

“I choose the song ‘Carbon County’ because it is about the physical surroundings and environment of my home in Jim Thorpe,” Filer said.

“The mountains feed the gully and the gullies feeding me. I thought of the idea for the song while playing guitar down by the Lehigh River,” he said.

“Strings down by the stream. Willows in the breeze. I had a sense that being grounded is all I really needed. It’s the simple things.”

Filer said his songs start with a melody or guitar hook and the lyrics tend to follow, but for “‘Carbon County’ they kind of both fell into place. I knew what I wanted to say and knew how I wanted it to sound,” he said.

The acoustic guitar player and singer is currently working on recording a new desert/folk/jazz” album to be released in the near future.

Filer performs throughout the Lehigh Valley and in New York City. With just an acoustic guitar and a harmonica, his music breathes new light through classic hits with unique segues and original style.

The Pennsylvania Heritage Songwriting Contest was launched in 2008 to celebrate the state of Pennsylvania, its people, its places and its history in song.

It is a nonprofit event intended to provide a venue for amateur songwriters to display their talent and artistry, while fostering appreciation for and study of Pennsylvania’s Heritage.

The contest was created, in part, to become a funding source for the Craig A. “Bubba” Bowman Memorial Scholarship Fund.

Bubba was a celebrated Pennsylvania regional musical performer who lost his life in a car crash in 2006. Although the event has not yet generated revenue, it does keep Bubba’s memory alive.