Many interesting things happened at the first annual Midway Folk Festival this past June, at Saint Stadium. Musicians played, bagpipes blared, clouds opened up and doused enthusiastic crowds -- and an unusual winner was selected for the first annual Singer Songwriting Contest.

Remarkably, the winner, Tom Robinson of St. Paul (actually, South Maplewood; originally from Winona) had never performed solo before.

"Well, I used to perform occasionally, several years ago, with a group that did Brazilian material. But this was the first time I ever played a set all by myself."

The contest pitted over 60 talented songwriters, each of whom has sent in cassettes of their songs, against one another. Judges winnowed the original down to 10. These 10 finalists kicked off the Midway Folk Festival, performing two songs each. Judges deliberated for two hours before naming Robinson the top songwriter.

They were especially moved by a folk-blues number called "John Estes' Hands," about a photograph he saw of the hands of blues giant Sleepy John Estes. They were the hands of strength, and skill, and determination -- the qualities every folk singer needs to survive.

Composer Tom Robinson, performing his first set ever.

Tom (in shades and white T-shirt) and his clan: (clockwise from left) wife Mary, himself, brother-in-law Ricky, son Andy, Mary's sister Joan, daughter Natalie and son Miles.

"What struck me as a judge was how deep the song cut, without going overboard," said contest judge John Van Orman, himself a singer of English and other folk styles (and board president for Folk Song & Dance of Minnesota).

"What struck me about Tom's songs was how consistent they were," said judge and longtime folksinger Charlie Maguire. "Tom's writing is what carried him. It's quirky, but always anchored to a narrative. His point of view seemed to come as much from a contemporary fiction writers as from folk song. I suspect he's a hell of a reader as well as a hell of a writer."

As reward for winning, Robinson was given a full 50 minute set on the second day of the Festival. So he had to deal overnight with the challenge of putting together an entire act -- hopefully without mistakes. (There were a few muffed lines and chords, but people understood.)

An added wrinkle to the story is that Tom works by day as a telemarketer, and he joked onstage about how he enjoys calling people at their homes -- though they may not enjoy being called. Seriously, he helps raise money by phone for organizations like the Special Olympics and the Science Museum of Minnesota -- causes people are usually happy to hear from.

And what was he before turning to telemarketing? A lawyer!

And what will he do now that he has a lifelong "winner-1999 Singer Songwriter Contest" line on his resume?

"I'd like to play, and let people hear my songs.

And he says he's thinking of adopting a stage name: Tom Zimmerman.