Hi everyone,

Just wanted to say a final, incredibly heartfelt thank-you for all your support! My Kickstarter campaign will close in a couple days, and I'm so grateful for your help in donating and spreading the word so that my album can exist. THANK YOU!

I've already been back to the studio to listen through what we got down, and soon we'll move along with the final stages of the album-making process. I plan to throw a CD release party sometime in the late summer and hope you'll be there!

In the meantime, I'm migrating my updates to my new music blog: http://juliabarrydoesmusic.blogspot.com. Hope you'll join me there so I can let you in on musicky news before anyone else ;)

Bazillions of thanks and virtual hugs. (Rewards coming soon!) You are truly fabulous.
Julia
p.s. And just for one last hurrah...If anyone you know's been wanting to chip in or tell some friends who want to chip in, now's the time! May 5th is the last day (unless you want to mail me a check, which of course, is timeless ;)

Holy canole banjole, all the live tracking is done!!!

Today we ended on a high note ::sing it!:: with some incredible violin, viola, and cello playing by talented pros.

I think I'm luckiest girl alive!! (Quick, someone call the Guinness Book.)

**Thank you** so much for supporting my project, it's onward to editing, mixing, and mastering! I can't wait to share the disc with you...for now, check out the pics below :).

Recording's been a whirlwind but it's going really well! Just sharing some pics before I crash for the night and do it all again tomorrow.

Yay. :)

From the anonymous "friend" donor to newbies who I have no idea who found me, who *are* all these incredibly generous people?! I'm so curious, thrilled, and grateful to everyone who not only pledged but also to everyone who's spreading the word or who's stumbled across my page and found it worthwhile.

Today's full band rehearsal flew by, and we're at it again tomorrow. This is it before we hit the studio! The more this project progresses, the more excited I get about it. I'm finally recording with live, talented musicians (as seen in accompanying low-qual phone camera pic) and not settling for anything short of the our best shot. I'm also loving working with the producer, Ben Lindell--it's truly so helpful and inspiring to have a coordinating brain and all-seeing eye (or should I say all-hearing ear?).

I know I keep saying thank you, but I'm saying it again...thank you so much! Every additional $250 we raise will add a track to the album set list, so let's keep this "Turn the EP into an album" contest going!

xoxo

p.s. If you're in the NY area, come say hi at my next gig! It's this Wed. 3/17 @ 8pm, Sullivan Hall [http://sullivanhallnyc.com]

Here's the beginning of the final song... (and no, Dunkin' Donuts is not an official sponsor, if you caught their logo on the to-go cup ;)

Hey there, hope you've been having a good week!

Since last weekend's rehearsal I've been into the studio, working with Meredith and Ben (the engineer and producer) to set up mics and work on song arrangements. Every step has me feeling even more excited about the project!

Just now I got the idea to share some rehearsal footage so you can get a sense for how the band and I work together and groove, boogie, slip n' slide, and stop drop n' roll together. (What? I dunno, folks, my brain is obviously fried from wrangling these low-quality videos into even lower-quality uploadable format for way too many hours...)

Bon appetite!

p.s. For some reason Kickstarter will only attach one video per post, so the video with the tightened-up version of this song will be in a new post shortly.

Somehow I always seem to be getting around to my Kickstarter updates at 3am. What's with that? So my apologies, you are really getting the most goofy, raw, true version of Julia. Welcome to my office.

I am so thrilled at how the fundraising is going. On Tuesday, my music and Kickstarter campaign was covered by MyDailyThread.com, and the pledges continue to come in from all corners of the globe. Amazing!

We have only about $450 to go until this EP can be safely made, and I'm starting to think that if we can keep spreading the word and encouraging friends, relatives, colleagues, pets, plants, long-lost fifth cousins, couch surfers, frenemies, and whoever else to pledge, I could actually make an album with *TEN* songs on it, instead of just 5 or 6. As we used to say in the 80's when we were all hip grade-schoolers....YES!!! (Don't be embarrassed to do the arm-pump, I know it's tempting--)

To get from EP to album world, I’ve decided to throw an aptly named “Turn the EP into a Full Album” contest. Here's how it works:

1) You suggest my Kickstarter campaign to as many people who don’t already know about it as you can, CCing me on a [not blind] email or taking a screenshot for me of who you’ve sent it to on Facebook, Twitter, etc. (Photographs of you flyering New York City from a small plane are also acceptable ;)
2) I tally up who’s put the most elbow grease into spreading the word (I’m a sucker for creativity, so go nuts!)
3) When you win, I’ll record my own version of whatever cover song you request and send it right to your inbox.

Hooha. It’s that easy.

So let’s get cracking, and thank you again in advance for all of your help and enthusiasm! I'm totally overwhelmed and ecstatic about all of this. (And now I'm going to bed.)

I'm just getting organized after a weekend-full of rehearsing for the album with Jon, John, and Dan (aka the band). WOW!

If you can imagine walking around with a coloring book full of outlines for 8 years and then one day color, details, and meaningful expressions magically start seeping into the pictures, you can understand how cool it feels to hear these songs finally taking shape with a band.

I'm so lucky to be playing with the most talented--and funny!--musicians I know. We had a great time working hard and being creative this weekend, and my endorphin-releasers seem permanently set to stun. This album just might be the best thing I've attempted in my life thus far. Or maybe that's just the caffeine talking. In all seriousness though, I'm pumped, and extremely grateful that this really may happen.

Thank you bajillions for continuing to help spread the word! Let's do this thang!!

Wow, I am so excited at how well this fundraiser is going! I've been getting serious about album plans and have a rehearsal with the full band this weekend. Yow!

So at this point we have $752 to go to reach the goal, and 76 days to do it in. Amazingly, that means that only $10 needs to be donated a day for the goal to be reached. Or a group of people who can each give a few bucks. Or 10 people who can each give $1. So if you know anyone who might be willing to put their morning coffee money, their oops I dropped some change money, their pack of gum at the register money toward my putting music into the world, please encourage them to check out my Kickstarter page.

As always, thank you! I don't mean it any less just 'cause I say it a lot. :)

It's official, the amount of money we've raised so far has a *comma* in it. Whoo we broke $1000! and then some--we are actually more than halfway to the goal. I've never been so thrilled about a punctuation symbol in my life ;) Thank you all so incredibly much, let's keep this going!!

I'm meeting with the producer today and feeling very excited about getting this project started...

I've always felt icky about asking for money, dealing with money, the fact that money influences humanity so much....but I have to say, in just a few days, this Kickstarter fundraiser has been touching, human, and emotionally incredible. I can't believe the outpouring of support and I can't say how grateful I am! (And if we keep this going, I might actually be able to make a full album rather than a dime-budget EP! I'm already dreaming :) Thank YOU!

Ok everyone. It's 3am and I've officially launched my Musicking! project. I'm excited! (And slightly tired and nauseus, but you know, that's the perfect state in which to get stuff done!)

Thank you so much for even looking at my page. I know in this fast-paced world it's hard to even take a second for things like this, no less to help spread the word or donate. So I appreciate every step of everything you do!

Please if you can let absolutely anyone and everyone you know who might even sneeze on this project know about it. Strength in numbers, people!

I've even created a Facebook event to make inviting people that much easier. You can Tweet it, you can share it on MySpace, you can even go to the top of a big hill in your neighborhood and shout about it. Whatever works. Really.

If you have any questions, send me a note on Kickstarter or Facebook.

And have I said THANK YOU yet?!

Ok, I'm punchy. Dreaming big (and staying up late to pursue that dream) will do that to a girl. 'Til next post...