Kickstarter

There's music in the sighing of a reed;
There's music in the gushing of a rill;
There's music in all things, if men had ears:
Their earth is but an echo of the spheres.
~ Lord Byron ~

There's music in the alleys and the thrift stores,
There's music in the basement and the park;
There's music in forgotten things, if we will only hear:
Our days are singing notes ringing loud and clear.
~ Ryan Spearman ~

WHAT I WANT TO DO I want to produce a 100% local, “green” album. The recording will feature homemade, local instruments built from recycled, found, and purchased items from the St. Louis, Missouri area.
Ideas include cigar box guitar, cake pan banjo, washtub bass, oil can ukulele, and whiskey box fiddle. The album will be written, recorded, mixed, mastered, and manufactured in St. Louis, MO.

The goal of the project is three-fold:
1. To inspire others to experience the accessibility of music
2. To encourage sustainability
3. To raise awareness of the importance of healthy, local economy

HOW I PLAN TO DO IT With the help of Kickstarter.com and your generous support we can empower people to bring new music into the world.

I will raid basements and garages and scavenge in St. Louis alleys and junk shops to find the materials necessary for the construction of the various homemade instruments. What cannot be "found" will be purchased from local, independent hardware and music stores.

Every effort will be made to keep all aspects of the project as absolutely local and sustainable as possible. All services and found materials will be rendered from within St. Louis county.

All of the songs will be written by yours truly with possible collaboration from other St. Louis songwriters.

The album will be mostly solo with the possible inclusion of a few local musicians on a few tracks.

The origin of all materials used in the construction of instruments and the production/manufacture of the CD will be listed for all project backers and "Green Strum" purchasers to view.

After the CD is completed, I plan to conduct workshops in conjunction with performances.

The workshops will share information on homemade instrument construction, sustainable living, and the importance of healthy, local economies.

WHAT THE MONEY IS FOR With your generous support, I will be able to pay highly skilled St. Louisans for the following services:
Studio Time
Studio Engineering
Mixing
Mastering
CD Manufacturing

$2500 is, by my calculations, the minimum amount of funding necessary to produce a high-quality, meaningful album. If I'm lucky enough to raise more than this goal, all of the "extra" money will go towards the enhancement of the above mentioned services.