157
Backers
$14,795
pledged of $12,500 goal
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Funding Successful
This project successfully raised its funding goal on August 3, 2010.
Pledge $10 or more Pledge $10 or more
a link to 3 downloads of currently unavailable (anywhere) studio tracks! PLUS a thank you on my website 'thank you fans!' board!
Pledge $25 or more Pledge $25 or more
the downloads and thank you's listed above PLUS **a personally autographed copy of "American Standard" delivered BEFORE the official release!
Pledge $50 or more Pledge $50 or more
the prizes listed above PLUS: ***an autographed copy of my live DVD "Postcards from Amsterdam" PLUS ***an autographed copy of my EP "Beautiful Yesterday Sessions" with 3 tracks unavailable on "Beautiful Yesterday"
Pledge $100 or more Pledge $100 or more
ALL of the gifts offered above PLUS ***a copy of "Songs for Hazel -Dayna Kurtz and Mamie Minch sing songs for Hazel Dickens" a limited edition, hand numbered white vinyl (free CD enclosed) signed by Mamie and myself.
Pledge $500 or more Pledge $500 or more
ALL GIFTS offered above PLUS: ***a copy of Steve Almond's book, "Rock and Roll Will Save Your Life" in hardcover and signed by the author (there's a chapter in there about me!)
Pledge $1,000 or more Pledge $1,000 or more
ALL GIFTS mentioned offered above PLUS **I will home record any cover song you want to hear me play (including your original songs) and send it to you on CD with personalized artwork made from my own hand.
Pledge $1,500 or more Pledge $1,500 or more
ALL GIFTS mentioned above PLUS **a private house concert for you and as many friends as you can cram in your house (USA EAST OF MISSISSIPPI ONLY!)
Pledge $3,000 or more Pledge $3,000 or more
ALL GIFTS mentioned above PLUS **the private house concert can be anywhere in North America or western Europe! (please include mailing AND email address when donating to receive gifts!!)
Pledge $5,000 or more Pledge $5,000 or more
ALL GIFTS mentioned above (not including house concert unless in US) PLUS: ***the sister painting to the portrait created for the album cover (it's very similar) - an original Leslie Staub - you can view this almost finished portrait at www.daynakurtz.com/kickstarter. Check out her other portraits at: http://www.lemieuxgalleries.com/artist_staub_ChurchSoul.html
Pledge $10,000 or more Pledge $10,000 or more
All the other rewards (including painting if no one has snatched it by the time the fundraiser is over! first come, first served there) PLUS: **an original song, written and recorded by me about any person or situation you'd want (or I can turn your lyrics or poetry or short story into a song if you'd like!)
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Would you even know me since I’ve been away? Dayna Kurtz begins, in the plaintive tune “Invocation” that opens her new record, American Standard. The tune’s refrain is a plea – Mama, let me come home. Dayna explains: “I was asking for help from the gods at the start of a marathon writing session that birthed half this record, and most of the next record’s worth of originals. I may be an atheist, but I’m a writer first, and we’re a superstitious lot. I think the writing gods and goddesses are a lot sexier than your run-of-the-mill deities, though. And a lot more frightening.”
American Standard may open with a nervous prayer, but then it comes out swinging hard with a rockabilly homage to an unnamed aging legend of the genre, “Good in ’62.” followed by a deep Mississippi grind called “Billboards for Jesus.” Co-produced with longtime drummer Randy Crafton, he and Kurtz recorded half the disc in his award winning analog studio “Kaleidoscope Sound” in New Jersey, then hit the road to lay down the rest: first to Ardent Studios in Memphis to record with Sun Records legend Sonny Burgess and his band, the Legendary Pacers. Dayna laughs out loud at the memory: “That was a hoot! The last time that band had a personnel change was in 1961 – all 5 of them, in their late 70’s and 80’s, playing together and just kicking ass for that long. It was a gas!” And from there to New Orleans to record “Election Day” with the brass band the Nightcrawlers. (with help from pianist John Gros and guitarist Paul Cebar) “I really wanted to capture the relief and joy we all were feeling on the streets on election day. And a brass band is an instant street party. It’s hard NOT to dance when a great brass band is playing.”
It has been more than 3 years since her last full length recording, (Another Black Feather) was released, and she’d taken more than a year off heavy touring. Why so much time? Dayna explains: “I don’t think I’d ever had more than a month off without having to pack up or lock myself in a studio in more than a decade. I applied and was accepted into some Masters level classes in poetry writing at the New School in New York, something I’d always wanted to do. I also took a few guitar lessons – my first ever - because I’d fallen in love with early rock and roll and rockabilly and wanted to learn to play like my new heroes. I got to know the great guy I married a little better. I cooked, I gardened. It was pretty dreamy.”
It wasn’t all play, though – Ms. Kurtz kept busy producing records for other artists as well. She and long time collaborator Randy Crafton produced a top 5 record for dutch Universal Recording artists Room Eleven called “Mmm…Gumbo,” named for the traditional Louisiana stew Dayna makes to kick off all her recording sessions. (She says: “I’m a big believer that excellent food helps make excellent records. Especially first day in.”) She recorded (and produced) a 10 inch vinyl tribute to Hazel Dickens with fellow Brooklynite, Mamie Minch, as well as a couple of upcoming 7 inch vinyl singles with other pals Keren Ann and My Brightest Diamond. Dayna is excited about all of it: “It was a pretty brilliant time. I feel rather lucky I have that kind of freedom, that I could drop out of old patterns, learn how to do some new things, have some fun and recharge.”
Recharge, indeed. American Standard showcases Dayna’s most direct, most muscular writing to date. And, oddly, the word that best describes her often startling covers is original. She turns an obscure later Elliot Smith song, “Don’t Go Down,” into the howling desperate blues song it seems suddenly meant to be. On the Replacements’ ode to the drunk and lonely, “Here Comes a Regular,” the industrial clank of Crafton’s drums in the background underscores the drowsy warmth of Dayna’s vocals and lap steel (and some particularly spooky ‘human hammond’ backing vocals by Dayna and the French/Israeli chanteuse, Keren Ann). And Dayna breaths some fresh cigarette smoke into a dusty old rockabilly nugget, “Lou Lou Knows, ” turning a little tune written for a man to sing about a girl into a woman’s playfully snarled and cocky boast Lou Lou won’t be second choice/Lou Lou’s this town’s biggest noise/Lou Lou’s takin’ this town!” - You can practically see her strut across the stage with a switchblade tucked in her boot. Dayna will be taking your town shortly. Best not to miss her, lest she decide to take some more time off to learn a few more tricks.
Did I miss the download links to the unavailable (anywhere) studio tracks?
Loving 'American Stanard'. Congratulations, and thank you, and love.
Dear Dayna,
congrats with this result!! You're very worth it. Hope to see you again soon, in Amsterdam of some other part of Holland. We always enjoy your concerts very much! Keep on doing what you do. It makes people happy.
It was a pleasure to support your new creative endeavor. Thank you for the opportunity. I look forward to hearing the CD - even more so, I think, because I have had the anticipation through the gestation period! Best of luck with it.
Looking foward to hearing your latest stuff. Hope to see you again sometime soon down here in Baton Rouge. The Red Dragon is the place to play now that M's is gone; good size audiences and everyone listening.
Dan Mulligan
hey lady, i was *jus*t talking about you the other day. congrats and check out my odetta project on here when you have a chance. hope you're well. much love as ever, dr
Whoops-- that was www.fromcorey.blogspot.com. My overzealous autcorrect pulled a fast one.
Thanks to Steve Almond's newsletter, I discovered what I'd been missing all these years during which I'd not heard Dayna! I'm now a devoted and awe-struck fan. I posted a response on the update page where Dayna wrote a beautifully articulate response to a someone sadly confused about the real life of artists in the USA. I've also put short appeal and link to this site on my own blog (read by at least 9 people) at www.fromcorey.bloodspot.com. Any chance of getting to the SF Bay Area, Dayna?
Thanks to Steve Almond's newsletter, I discovered what I'd been missing all these years during which I'd not heard Dayna! I'm now a devoted and awe-struck fan. I posted a response on the update page where Dayna wrote a beautifully articulate response to a someone sadly confused about the real life of artists in the USA. I've also put short appeal and link to this site on my own blog (read by at least 9 people) at www.fromcorey.bloodspot.com. Any chance of getting to the SF Bay Area, Dayna?
I'M EXCITED!!!! Can't wait to have a copy of this record!
I'm still hoping for a concert in South Florida someday! So glad you made the goal. Maybe someday we'll meet on the meet on the Edisto again!
Told you I'd put you over the top! Congrats DK....we love your music and we love you!
Hey Dayna, you know, your music has a soul and a life all of its own once it leaves your hands, and has incredibly powerful messages that should be heard by as many people as possible. I am proud to be able to say that even in my small way, by being a backer I could have helped this happen! I hope you will get the full funding, because there are still enough people that care about you and about your amazing music to get you there! I will also do my damndest to get even more people to sit up and take notice, to back the release... seriously, you need more than to just cover your costs... you deserve to have the space to relish the fact that your music has made wonderful waves in peoples' lives! All the very best, Charl
It is really sad that one of the nowadays greatest American voices can't get her albums released in the States. There must be something wrong in the world when this kind of things happen. or me, one of the most annoying moments in this year was when I couldn't make it to one of your shows in Gran Canaria (Spain) this last winter. At least I hope that my small contribution can make the release of 'american standard' in your country possible. Artists like you are one of a kind and you know here in Spain most people (99% of us, the other 1% you can figure who they are) really love you and your art. Hope to see you in Tenerife soon. Best wishes
To my opinion, Dayna Kurtz deserves all the support. True music, made with craftmanship, integrity and passion is rare these days. I'm glad I discovered Dayna's music and was happy to buy all 4 cd's (and the extra vinyl-one) and visit several concerts in Amsterdam and recently in Utrecht (the cousin's birthday-concert). Unfortunately, a growing number of 'music-lovers' tends to get the music for free, by making illegal copies. I am happy to support this project, also in my own interest; I'd love to hear more of Dayna's songs in the future. See you in Holland!
the "videoclip"that promotes this project touched me.
I believe that what you hear and what you see is the essence of Dayna's music.
The clip brings me back to september 2009,to a day i was riding on the I40 from Fayetteville to Amarillo, straight thrue Oklahoma in pooring rain.
Listing to and singing with Dayna's cd's.
Couple of weeks later i saw her concert in Groningen.
In a complete different set-up.
In a complete different atmosphere
Diversity is sometimes hard to handle.
Sometimes even hard to accept .
But if someone who's music you like is looking for boundries and diversity, you have to support that.
Therefore i support this project.
And i hope you too !!
thanks, all of you. especially erika. and yes - east of the mississippi river. though if milwaukee area is west of the mississippi, i could totally make that work. (i'm there a lot!)
Dear Dayna -
I have every one of your records and have come to see you play any time I was anywhere near the city you were in. Now, however, that you are expressing that you expect to make money doing what you do, I'm too horrified to ever listen to you again. How dare you think that music and art have value and are worthy of the support of the people whose lives are enriched by them? I am so out of here. You should do everything you love for free and your family should not eat. That's how I feel.
I'm currently grilling your cd's in my George Foreman grilling machine.
So there.
Erika Higgins Ross
ps - hee hee. hee hee hee hee. Psyche. I'm listening to you right now.
House concert east of Mississippi? You mean the river, right?
dear dayna -
i hadn't heard of you until sxip shirey posted a link to your hatemail reply on twitter.
i haven't heard your music.
but i can't help but support a passionate, honest, struggling artist.
please keep making music.
thank you,
scarlett
p.s. long live the punk cabaret.
I wish I could give more. You are worthy of it. I respect and love your work- you are an artists artist.
I wish I could give more. You are worthy of it. I respect and love your work- you are an artists artist.