Share This Campaign:
The Idea
We've lost something somewhere. This whole idea about making music and playing it for others... it just seems that we're missing something. All of us. Music ain't what it used to be. And I'm not just being nostalgic here - most all the music that really makes me feel something was made before I was even born. I don't know if it happened because of money, or popularity, or just what. I think it was mostly because we're human and that's what we do. We find something beautiful or great and instead of just enjoying it we have to own it, and package it, and frame it, and try to make it belong to us. On some level, I think that's what we've done with music. And as a songwriter, I can feel this. There's pressure to be popular and to make money and to make people feel good so they can call the song their own. But I think its supposed to be more, and I know that it certainly used to be. And all of this music, this whole idea of rock n' roll or r&b or any kind of music we make in this country, it all finds its way back to one starting point - The Mississippi River Delta. Those Delta Blues musicians had something that every musician in this country has benefited from. But I'm afraid we're losing that. And as a musician, I want to find out what that is. I don't know if I can define it or put a word to it, but there's a metaphysical quality that I want to recapture. So I'm gonna go back to the Delta.
The Project
I plan to go down to an old church somewhere in the Mississippi River Delta and record an album the way they used to. I'm hoping something might still be lingering in the air down there and maybe it'll get inside me. We're gonna record it just like they used to way back in the day - just a tape recorder in a room. One take, no editing, no mixing, just completely raw and authentic. It'll mostly just be me and my steel resonator guitar. I'll have some help from a couple friends, though, doing some background vocals and extra guitar work. But we're gonna keep it real simple. We plan to get the whole thing done in one day if possible.
What We Need
We're gonna keep the cost low, but there is still expense. We need to buy some vintage ribbon microphones. We also need to buy plenty of tape to record on. We need to provide food and gas for the people helping out. We also need to pay a videographer and photographer to help document it all, because that's going to be an integral part in learning from the whole process. And then the major expense is physically making the record. We want to press it to vinyl, copy it to cassette tape, and put it up for download online. Pressing vinyl gets kind of expensive. Anyway, those are the expenses, and we have budgeted that all out to be around $5500.
Where You Come In
We see this as a partnership. We're not looking for pre-orders necessarily (though that is in effect something you can do), but rather we are looking for co-producers. We want partners on this journey who are hungry to regain whats been lost by coming alongside us through this process. We want to learn from doing this and we want to share the learning process with you. So by investing in this project, we are not trying to sell you something. Rather, we are asking you to come along beside us and rediscover what music is capable of. We are not so arrogant or naive to think we'll solve it all by recording a few songs, but I wholeheartedly believe this project will at least point us in the right direction as we search together. We've got a lot of different levels of involvement. And in all seriousness, every dollar is tremendously appreciated. We look forward to working with you and seeing what we can make together. So look over there to the right and find a contribution package that works for you.
