Well, I'm nearly funded for this project. I've raised $1500 by saving my gig money over the past year or so. With a few more July gigs on deck, I'm going to hit my goal of $2000 to put into the record!
Recording isn't cheap. I was lucky to find Jeff Gillhart, the engineer recording me. He is a very well credentialed engineer with a lot of experience and the best news is that he very reasonably priced: $50 an hour for session time and $200 for his mixing fee. I have enough money to pay a band, book two follow up overdubbing sessions, and still have some money left over. Tentatively, I'm hoping to finish the recording process by August 1st with a release date of October 20th. We'll see how it all plays out...
How to spend my money isn't the difficulty the title of this posts suggests... it's deciding what songs to put on the record. Don't get me wrong, it's a good problem to have. This year has been my most prolific year as a writer. I'm writing songs way faster than I can record any of them. They keep getting better, so I keep holding out for one that'll come in the next two weeks that's the best of them all. Idealistic, maybe, but you never know.
Here is the current list of songs that will likely make the cut:
- Picture of an Indian
- Blankets
- Naked Bourbon
- Flower City
- Life on Wheels
- This Won't be the Last Song
^ I wrote that last one last week. It's a good. Good enough to make the cut if I can swing it. I can probably get it on there as an acoustic guitar/vocal track only. I'm going to debut it this Friday at the Skylark Lounge.
So these are the songs I think best show case my writing, are marketable, catchy, and wholesome enough to represent me. I have many other good choices: Monroe County, Ibuprofen, Didn't Use All my Love on You, Pair of Queens...so hard to decide! I've based a lot of this decision on how they are received at gigs, and so far these have been popular. It's possible my mind might change in the next two weeks, but I made the lead sheets yesterday... As far as production goes... you'll just have to wait and see.
For those who receive my newsletter, I offered a pre-release copy of the CD and a personal invitation to a barbecue prepared by yours truly for anyone who donates $20 or more to production costs. Contact me through my contact page, facebook, or instagram for more information!