Crowdfunding veteran Amy Speace has launched a campaign to fund a new album. (Photo by Amos Perrine)
While I strive to feature a variety of projects in this space, in the end it usually comes down to artists promoting a new album. That’s the core of Kickstarter and Indiegogo’s music crowdfunding platform. But this month I’m doing something a bit different, featuring a full multimedia range of projects: a traditional album campaign, a book, and a documentary feature film, each with its own connection to roots music.
Amy Speace – The American Dream (click here to view campaign)
As soon as I saw there was a new Kickstarter campaign from Amy Speace, I knew I had the anchor for this month’s column. I came to Speace through her roots music supergroup Applewood Road (with Emily Barker and Amber Rubarth) but soon became enamored with her solo work, which ranged from quiet and introspective to more broad and rock-oriented. Speace is a veteran crowdfunder, having run several Kickstarter campaigns for past albums, so her ambitious $30,000 funding goal seems realistic, given her experience on this platform. To reach that goal, Speace has a number of interesting campaign perks on offer. The album is available in digital, CD, and vinyl formats, the latter limited to just 100 copies. Other perks include an 8×10 picture signed by photographer and longtime Speace producer Neilson Hubbard (Mary Gauthier, The Orphan Brigade), a copy of Speace’s poetry book The Cardinals, a lifetime spot on the guest list to any of her shows, and a signed Baby Taylor guitar used by Speace to write songs for The American Dream.
Ballad of the Lost Dogs of East Nashville by John J. Thompson (click here to view campaign)
I rarely promote books in this space, leaving that task to my fellow columnist Henry Carrigan’s The Reading Room, and I’ve never promoted a novel. But then few novelists have the kind of roots music credentials that John J. Thompson has. Along with being an acclaimed author, Thompson is director of Music Industry Studies at Nashville’s Lipscomb University and a roots musician himself with his band The Wayside. Additionally, if Thompson raises enough money during the campaign, he’s set out a stretch goal of recording a soundtrack featuring some of his East Nashville artist friends. He’s already recorded one song alongside folk legend Phil Keaggy and percussionist Steve Hindalong that will be available to backers of all levels. Other campaign perks include the novel in ebook, physical, and audiobook formats; a two-night East Nashville getaway that includes a tour of some of the locations mentioned in the novel; and tickets to the book launch event.
A Quiet Revolution: The Story of Windham Hill Records (click here to view campaign)
Windham Hill is such a unique record label that “Windham Hill music” is almost a genre in itself. Formed in a time when disco and loud guitar rock dominated the airwaves, Windham Hill focused on quieter, acoustic, and mostly instrumental songs that usually get lumped into the New Age genre but have at their core jazz and folk music. Now award-winning documentarian Tal Skloot is bringing the story of the creation of this label to the screen and including interviews with founder Will Ackerman and Windham Hill artists like Phillip Aaberg, Darol Anger, Barbara Higbie, and George Winston. Backer perks for this campaign include the film in streaming, downloadable, and DVD formats, the latter with filmmaker commentary; a ringtone; a signed film poster; and a Zoom call with the filmmakers.
