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Short Summary
In Billy Lord's first full year as a musician after more than a year as one of the working homeless in New York City, and as the result of a fundraising campaign just like this one, he was able to record his debut album American Music, shoot a music video for the song On a Summer Night, earn an opening gig with Uncle Kracker on the west coast, become a featured artist on New York rock radio Z100, win the honor of Best Rock Song by YouTube Rising Star competition voters on Twitter for Fighting Back, and has his own radio station on Pandora. One reviewer called American Music "one of the best releases of 2012."
This year, with the daunting task of writing and recording his breakthrough second album, Billy is throwing caution to the wind and searching for songs in the people he meets and the places he goes, as he winds his way across the country.
Ride along with Billy, as he journals his travels daily on his website, telling the stories of America in 2013 through photos, videos, the written word, and ultimately through his new songs. Those songs will become Billy's sophomore album, National Anthem.
With television networks already showing interest in Billy's National Anthem journey as a reality series, it is a critical time in Billy's music career... The rubber is literally meeting the road.
Billy will be heading out on the road on April 15th, starting at the recording studio working on demos. From there, he will throw his guitar on his shoulder, hop on a borrowed motorcycle and head to Fort Bragg to tell the story of a soldier's family and play a concert for the troops. From there, Billy will be heading southwest across the country, playing acoustic shows at small venues along the way for gas money and food and interviewing at local radio and tv stations along the way.
In his daily journal, Billy will tell the stories of the people he meets along the way in a unique photojournalistic way, posting entires on his website and across social media platforms like Tumblr, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest. Billy will share American stories of hardship, triumph, love, celebration, and freedom... the central themes of his new album.
Never before has the making of an album been so personal and allowed viewers to take the creative journey with the artist, while taking them on a cross country tour of the United States. Fans and supporters will see inside the creative process, see the stories behind the songs and hear them... as they are being wirtten.
This Indiegogo fundraising campaign will provide the iniitial phase of funding for Billy to afford the production costs of a video trailer for the National Anthem project, the studio time for the theme music (The album's title track National Anthem, which has already been written) and a few demos for a third album to follow National Anthem, motorcycle insurance, and hopefully a little left over for a tank of gas to get him started on his quest.
Please join Billy on journey of the making of this historic album and journal of truly American stories as they are being written.. town by town... story by story.. and song by song.
What We Need & What You Get
We are hoping to raise a minimum of $8,000 which will pay for studio time to record 4 demo songs, and for a film crew to film and edit a 3 minute trailer that will tell the story of the National Anthem project, so radio and tv stations across the country can understand the project, and ultimately support it.
The trailer will also be sent to major television networks in hopes that the journey may ultimately become a full production series, though we feel strongly that this project is just as powerful as an organic, homegrown project.
Your donation will help us uncover meaningful American stories that we hope will change lives and perceptions of what it means to be an American in 2013. Our treatment of these stories will take a humanistic view towards journalism and use music to bring these stories to a unique audience.
Your donation will also help Billy continue on his own personal journey... one of the American Dream lost, reinvention, and his relentless, heartfelt pursuit of a seeminglingly impossible dream.
Ride along.
Contributors will recieve great perks, too.... Unreleased demos, signed limited edition posters, and the full album before its official release.
Other Ways You Can Help
If you cannot donate monetarily, you can still help.
• SHARE! This foundraising campaign with everyone you know. Take the time to tell them about this special project and why it's so worthwhile. Indiegogo makes it easy... just hit the share button. The campaign is only a month long. Share weekly, or even daily...
• GOT A COUCH? Billy will need lodgings along the way, the donation of a couch for the night would be greatly appreciated. If I'm not coming through your part of the country, please contact friends and relatives who are! I'm leaving without any money in my pocket, so a warm bed and hot shower will be very welcome.
• FOLLOW... Whether it's Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr or Pinterest or all of the above... The more followers we have, the bigger and more impactful the project becomes! A great place to start is at www.billylordmusic.com where we will have a live feed rolling daily, click the RSS feed or find us on any of our social media sites... Links are on the websites.
THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR CONTINUED SUPPORT! WE'VE COME A LONG LONG WAY IN ONE YEAR... Skyward bound!
