Crowdfunding Campaigns of the Week: Radney Foster and Alicia Witt
It’s hard to believe it’s already February, but here we are. With the news filled with disturbing stories, it’s a great time to get lost in some good music. Fortunately, February is prime time for crowdfunding campaigns, so there’s plenty to choose from. But with multiple crowdfunding platforms and thousands of acts running campaigns, how do you find the best without spending hours browsing through listings? That’s where I come in. Each week I do spend hours browsing through the newest crowdfunding campaign listings to find a selection of roots-oriented campaigns to find you a selection of the most interesting or unique. Think your group’s campaign deserves a look? Send me an e-mail with a link to your campaign, a press photo, and a sample of your music and I’ll pick the ones that stand out each week to feature here.
Radney Foster- Sycamore Creek Book and CD
I don’t get a lot of book campaigns in this space, but in the end, a great Americana artist is just a storyteller. So it’s interesting to see what Radney Foster is doing with Sycamore Creek. It’s an experiment in multimedia storytelling, with the companion CD relating to but not retelling the stories in the book. If anyone can pull it off, Radney Foster is it. A fixture on Nashville’s country and Americana scene since the ’80s, Foster’s songwriting has always been stellar and in recent years he’s branched into acting and short fiction (in the interest of full disclosure, he’s also a pretty dynamic speaker and a “career day” talk at my high school is a lot of the reason I’m in music journalism now). Backer rewards include the book and album in both physical and digital formats, a ticket to one of Foster’s tour dates in support of the project, and an original autographed manuscript.
I hadn’t really intended this week to be themed “not my day job” but it seems to have turned out that way. Most know Alicia Witt as an actress, who has appeared in The Walking Dead, Nashville, and Twin Peaks. But, even though she found a career in acting, Witt has been an accomplished musician since childhood, playing piano and writing songs since age 9. Witt released her debut album in 2009 to critical acclaim and collaborated with Ben Folds on a song in 2013. Now she’s back with what was originally a campaign to release an EP called 15,000 Days, but because it hit its goal so quickly, has turned into a stretch goal campaign for a full-length album. Backer rewards include a signed 8×10 photo, a meet and greet at an upcoming show, and signed scripts from The Walking Dead and Supernatural.