CROWDFUNDING RADAR: New Projects from Grant Peeples, Phast Phreddie, and Stringus Khan

I will admit to never really “getting” the tradition of New Year’s Day, at least the reflection/resolutions portion. Unless you’re dealing with or working for the IRS, the difference between 12/31 and 1/1 is no different than the difference between 6/30 and 7/1, except the former causes you to write your checks incorrectly for a couple of weeks. But, to slightly modify a quote from Dickens, “The wisdom of our ancestors is in the tradition; and my unhallowed hands shall not disturb it, or the country’s done for.” So in the spirit of the holiday, I’m featuring projects that touch on the past, present, and future, including a new project celebrating a historic milestone, a reissue from an underground punk legend, and a debut album from an Ohio-based group with a well-known producer.

Grant Peeples – Bad Wife (click here to view project)
2020 marks the hundredth anniversary of the 19th Amendment, which granted women the right to vote. One person planning to celebrate the occasion is songwriter Grant Peeples, who called up some of the women he’s worked with to ask permission to record some of their songs for his new album, Bad Wife. And, oh boy, has pulled from a deep well of talent. Bad Wife includes songs from Ali Holder, who wrote the title track, Wild Ponies’ Telisha Williams, Eliza Gilkyson, Caroline Spence, Myshkin, and more. In addition to the usual preorder of the album in digital and CD formats, Peeples has several unique backer rewards on offer. His theme for the album, “Listen to Women” is featured on stickers, license plates, and shirts. You can also get an icepick/kitchen tool engraved by Peeples with your name, an unreleased set of three duets with Audrey Auld, and signed copies of all Peeples’ past albums.

Phast Phreddie and Thee Precisions – Limbo: The Complete Martian Recordings (click here to view project)
I recently read a story about a Jason & the Scorchers exhibit at the Country Music Hall of Fame, and it reminded me of just how thin the lines between punk and Americana have been and were even before the genre had a name. While Jason Ringenberg and company were blurring those lines in Nashville in the early ’80s, Fred Patterson, aka Phast Phreddie, was doing the same in Los Angeles with his band Thee Precisions. The band was short-lived, recording an EP in 1982 and an LP in 1984 for Martian Records. Both have long fallen out of print and have never received a CD release. Now Patterson is running a Kickstarter campaign to change that, as well as assembling rarities, demos, and live tracks, and their self-released 1986 single “Only Lovers Left Alive.” The two-disc set will be called Limbo: The Complete Martian Recordings. Backer rewards include a DVD with two full live performances, tickets to their reunion show in February, and a limited-edition poster.

Stringus Khan – Colorado Speedbump (click here to view project)
Crowdfunding, at its core, is a New Year’s resolution all year long. Bands resolve to record an album and take to crowdfunding sites to raise the funds to do so. It’s kind of the musical equivalent of joining a gym on Jan. 2 (although hopefully with more lasting power). That’s especially true for artists who have resolved to release their very first album, as is the case with Ohio-based stringband Stringus Khan, who are running a Kickstarter campaign for their March debut Colorado Speedbump. They’ve enlisted Jeremy Garrett from The Infamous Stringdusters as producer for the album. They’re already a third of the way to their modest $3,000 goal, and have a limited selection of backer rewards available, including the album in digital and signed CD formats, Stringus Khan stickers, an album artwork poster, and a house concert for patrons in the Ohio area.