Luke's newest recording project has been a painstaking process, recorded over the course of 2+ years, with 20 stellar musicians and 8 of the industry's finest engineers coming together to offer their talents to compliment Luke's one-of-a-kind songwriting. Several thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours have been spent making this record stand sonically toe-to-toe with anything else in the industry today, a remarkable feat considering Luke isn't on a record label or independently wealthy. This has been a labor of love, and it is now ready to be shared with the world. Luke needs just a few more hundred dollars to press this album. Please contribute whatever you can and feel good about supporting the arts, and more specifically, independent artists. Because Luke isn't on a label, he has no entity behind him, thus his friends, family, and fans have this incredible opportunity to serve as his catalyst.

Where is the money going?

The production value of this record is worth at least 4 times the modest goal of $1500, which was set low because CDs have to be pressed in time for the Release Party on March 9th. If the goal is far surpassed, the leftover money will go toward pressing vinyl records, paying Luke's bandmates at the release party, promotional campaigns, and future recording projects. 

Why should I get involved?

1. You love Luke's music and by pledging $10-$20, you are essentially pre-ordering his new album.

2. You love supporting independent artists and want to feel good about helping another one realize his dream.

3. You have an abundance of cash sitting around and could use some good music at your upcoming house party (see $1500-$2000 pledge marks).

Press release:

Vintage folk with accents of alt-country, indie rock and weird Americana, Luke Redfield's expansive sophomore LP Tusen Takk is a musical journey from the bloodstained shores of Normandy, across the rural plains of Huck Finn boyhood, through the saguaro-haunted Southwest and off into the Pacific promise of vast nothing. Reveling in the mystery alongside a panoramic all-star band sharing members with Peter Wolf Crier, Bon Iver and Andrew Bird, the Duluth-born sojourner seeks not answers, but ever more wonderment.

In 2010, Chris Riemenschneider of the Star Tribune mentioned Redfield's landmark debut Ephemeral Eon in the company of Iron and Wine, Bright Eyes, and circa-'67 Bob Dylan, while City Pages suggested a soundtrack to Kerouac's wide night beneath the Big Sur sky: "Redfield's tales resonate with a sense of lived-in truth that comes from living on the road, not reading On the Road." A bona fide vagabond, Redfield, 28, has already busked his way through Europe and lived in ten U.S. states, while staying in at least 30 different houses and apartments. His songs, fittingly, embody his lifestyle in as much as they have been written and recorded all over the map.

Integrating parts of a never-released EP recorded with/by Brett Bullion (Dark Dark Dark), Redfield teamed up with Jeremy Ylvisaker (Andrew Bird) in Minneapolis, MN, and Gary Calhoun James (All Smiles) in Austin, TX, to produce what would become Tusen Takk, a collage of textural sound worlds fit for the archetypal odyssey of a lyrical hero. From opening incantation "Don't Care," featuring a soulful JoAnna James and howling Peter Pisano (Peter Wolf Crier), to the Tom Waits-channeled "Ides of May," performed on an old, off-key piano in a rickety Duluth attic, Tusen Takk blazes the backroads of a forgotten America and invites all lionhearted people to come along for the ride.

During "Cowboy Song's" rollicking, dusty ramble through John Ford's Wild West and "Eden's" poignant recollection of D-Day, Redfield wanders the cinematic landscapes of Great Depression America. On these stand-out tracks, Ylvisaker's electric guitar mimics a quick-draw shootout between ghost town bandits and the stark flash of bombs exploding over Omaha Beach — "All the while I dream of you," sings Redfield, backed by songbird Haley Bonar, crying out to a love lost in Hitler's war. On the former, an epic western, bassist Mike Lewis (Bon Iver) howls at the Texas moon alongside Ylvisaker and Redfield, who pines like Edward Abbey for the simple life of a vanishing panorama: "Our lives still mean something where the desert and the mountains meet." 

Making love the mantra of the record, Redfield again enlists Bonar to sing harmonies on the pen-ultimate "Walk in Love," a mellifluous folk anthem citing John Lennon, Mother Theresa and Gandhi as humanitarian exemplars, while urging the listener to "Think of what this world would be if we all walked in love." Accompanied by the incomparable drumming of JT Bates (The Pines) and gospel-tinged organ by Joey Kantor (Rogue Valley),"Walk in Love" is a timely summer hit and a timeless cry for world peace. Redfield remarks of the song: "If I only released one song my whole life, this would be it."

Mixed by Brandon Eggleston (Josh Ritter, tUnE-yArDs) in Portland, OR, Tusen Takk is a stunning follow-up to a stellar debut. Whereas Eon came out of nowhere, showcasing Redfield's prolific musical output, Takk was a delicate, slow process. "I must've tweaked these songs a hundred times each before getting it just right," the mercurial Redfield says of the 10 tracks which made the final cut. Borderline obsessive, yes, but the fruits of his labor now cometh.

Not your typical singer-songwriter record, Tusen Takk is a true collaborative triumph, in which Redfield and his band of indie stalwarts — plus a slew of riveting cameos: Bill Baird (Sunset), Dan Zamzow (Cloud Cult), Geoff Dolce (Cursive), Dan Cantrell (Tom Waits, Joanna Newsom), and Martin Dosh — have crafted an indelible folk odyssey to the crossroads of the American Highway and a mythical turnpike beyond country and culture, where John Wayne and Aphrodite become one in the spring blush of 2012.

Tusen Takk releases March 6th on Minneapolis music junkie Josh Swenhaugen's imprint, Dream Song Records. The release party is March 9th at the Varsity Theater in Minneapolis, followed by several showcases at SXSW, in Austin, March 13th-18th.