Kickstarter

• Login
• Signup

About this project

Friends! Aw ni ce! A be cogodi? How's it going? My name's Adam Klein and I'm a singer/songwriter playing country folk and 'Americana' songs from the fine town of Athens, Georgia. Thanks for visiting my Kickstarter page.

Got some exciting projects in the making (next 'English' record, creative writing), and I'm thrilled to offer you an opportunity to work closely with me in accomplishing an important personal and artistic goal of mine... creating a Malian Mande-music album in Bamako, Mali (West Africa), with some of the finest musicians in Mali! Please join me in making this personal 'landmark' and special album capturing my love and familiarity with Mali (where I lived as a Peace Corps Volunteer from 2002-2004), the jewel of West Africa.. home to the great Niger River, Tombouctou (Timbuktu), Sundiata Keita and the great (former) Mande empire, the Sahara desert, and some of the most beautiful and powerful music found anywhere in the world!

In March I returned from a few months in Mali which were productive on the music-writing front. I have songs in progress for a Mande-music album. It will be 10-12 songs, the majority in the Bambara language and a few in English. It will have an acoustic, organic sound, featuring acoustic guitar, kora/ngoni, calabash, other Malian drums (djembe, dun dun, and tama, the 'talking drum' as needed), some bass and electric guitar, backup harmony vocals, etc. It's influenced by Aboubacar 'Kar Kar' Traore, Ali Farka Toure and Toumani Diabate's collaboration "In The Heart of the Moon", and Salif Keita's acoustic songs, to name only a few. Also think, in some ways, of Iron & Wine's phenomenal record "The Shepherd's Dog", which really had in part, among a panoply of influences, a West-African sound.

I will record in Bamako at Studio Yeelen with engineer Baru Diallo (bass for Ali Farka Toure and Afel Boucoum), with whom I've worked before (for a Peace Corps radio-musical program). My hope is to work with the following musicians: Baru, Hamane Toure on guitar (Oumou Sangare), Breman Kouyate on djembe (Salif Keita), and hopefully others will join (Djelimady Tounkara and maybe Toumani Diabate on kora for some songs if I'm lucky!).

The currently untitled album will be presented in an eco-friendly digipak format and feature photographs I've taken during my time and travels in Mali, a write-up about each song, information about the various instrumentation used, brief bios of the musicians involved, and a short essay about Malian music, what it means to me, and a list of further readings and suggested 'listening'.

In the way that my first album, "Distant Music", was a rustic, heartfelt collection of songs, so too this record will be a moving 'expression in sound' capturing the feel of life in Mali, particularly in the villages. I'll be sending out notes/blogs, of course, during the recording process from Bamako and other parts of Mali I visit.

One of the three main goals of the U.S. Peace Corps is for volunteers to bring back to the States knowledge and passion for the many places and cultures in the world in which volunteers live and work. I have many writing notes from my time in Mali which will be presented in some format in the coming years, either as a collection of stories, articles, or a book. This music project is a significant way in which I can share Malian culture and music (specifically Mande) with Malian, world music lovers, and new audiences both in the States and abroad. And yet this is not simply a record for 'the West', it's a love note to the land and people of Mali. It's for them. The lyrics, mainly delivered in Bambara, and like a great deal of important Malian music, consist of positive messages for the people of Mali and Bambara speakers everywhere. The songs encourage hard work, dignity, stress the importance of solidarity and supporting one another, praise women for their critical role and valuable contributions to society (sadly often under-appreciated or acknowledged), and community development, among other things.

A project such as this has numerous and considerable expenses. The pledges for this project will go toward the following budget lines: Paying for Studio time (recording)/ Mixing & Mastering/ Hiring the musicians/ Manufacturing the digipaks, or 'pressing copies' as they say/ Manufacturing the album on cassette tape for the Mailian market/ some Promotional costs/ some Travel costs.

Please see my bio and the associated links for more info on my music, praise for my two albums from various magazines and blogs in the U.S. and Europe, tour dates, etc. Definitely come say hey and let's talk music.

Please note: I will be in a rural area in Uganda from the 20s of June to mid-August with extremely limited access to internet and email. As such, I will not be able to actively post notes and updates on the site during this time. But believe me, I am here, with you, and I appreciate all the support you can offer!

Thanks for your time, support, and let's work together to make this album everything it can and should be!

Yours,
adam
www.adam-klein.com
www.myspace.com/adamkleinmusic
www.cowboyangelmusic.com

77

Backers

$7,684

pledged of $7,500 goal

0

seconds to go

Project By