Kickstarter

UPDATE:
We've reached the funding goal, now let's see if we can get a full pressing funded!

I'm so thrilled and emboldened by your support. And I think it may be possible to raise enough to fund a commercial pressing! I checked Discmakers and there's a special for 1000 CDs in Digipacks for $990 if ordered by December 31st. As I write this we could make that happen with just $500 more. Every pledge helps but there's only one day left. Think about it: I could write you a song about any topic you like, I could play a show in your home, you could use my songs in a film and you'd be helping me reach an even wider audience.

And, really, just for coming by this site and offering your support, you've made me very happy!

Happy Holidays!

WHAT'S UP:
I'm recording my sixth album this month, mixing and mastering the first week of December and I hope to have limited edition CDs and downloads ready by December 18. I need your help to complete it.

The past couple years I've traveled a lot around North America and even to India (where I got play a concert with Indian classical musicians in Kerala!). I also started writing and publicly reading more prose. It's been really exciting!

Obviously travel, expands your emotional and rhythmic palette. But the prose has helped in a couple interesting ways. One, of course, is simply in structuring stories. And the second is that a lot of this writing has been memoir, which has really liberated my music from my journal. So I've been able to delve into the characters in my songs in new ways. The songs are often still close to my life, and intimate in detail, but now, when they veer into fictional directions, I'm so much more open to the ride! And that applies to the music as well where I'm just falling more deeply in love with melody, harmony and rhythms that transport me to places even further away from my suburban bedroom! I'm really looking forward to getting the recorded version of this vision out to you! HOW I'M DOING IT:
This is the fourth album I've produced on my own and this time I've been given access to an amazing home with a studio in it through the end of the year. The catch is that it's basically just a live room where guitar maestro, Ted Norman, would teach and compose. (If you read up on Ted you can only imagine how amazing the energy is here!) Your pledges will offset rental costs for equipment (microphones, preamps, monitors, etc.) and fees for engineering, mixing and any musicians I bring in. I'm hoping that most of this will be done at a reduced rate (for instance, since shooting the video a friend offered me a loan of some of the microphones I was planning to rent so I'm asking for less then you'll hear me say on the video.) But I want this to be the best sounding recording of my career, so it will take a reasonable financial investment.

Back in my old days as a staff writer at EMI they used to give $500 per song for a demo. I'm going to get this done at a bare minimum of $150 a track for masters! Ultimately the goal is to raise $5000 for a full physical release ($2000 for replication, $1000 for promotion -- my "day job" is design, so there's little expense there). If we reach that goal this time, great! This campaign, however, is for the recording, mastering, the digital release (complete with digital booklet) and the special edition CDs that will be your gifts at various reward levels, which I've budgeted at a modest minimum of $1800.

THE REWARDS:
The fun part of Kickstarter.com is that you get to participate in the project from the beginning, through works in progress videos, demo and live recording packages and other personalized rewards at different levels. I may write you a song, sing in your house, or write a letter to your friend telling them how generous you are to support independent artists. This is all designed to be a fun way to interact with the music and even create some groovy personalized holiday gifts. But the catch is that none of this gets done if we don't reach our funding goals. Your credit cards aren't charged a cent if the pledges don't reach the funding goal. So please tell all your friends. Share this video on Facebook, Twitter, and wherever else you think it will engage people. Please stay involved with the project and let's make this the best album of my career to date. GRATITUDE:
Oh, yeah, the project title comes from a newer song of mine called "One Step (Everything Your Heart Desires)." The chorus is "Every little thing your heart desires / Starts with one step followed by the next / Every little thing your heart desires / Starts with one step, don't neglect the rest." I'm totally committed to this journey and grateful for all of you on it with me whether it begins now or it's been since the first Clues 45" I did when I was 16!