well, i suppose you wonder why i've called you all here?
As you know we have been trekking this country pretty religiously over the past year. Trying to get into the ear of every person out there in this great landscape of ours.
What you may not know, is that during this time we have been quietly whipping up hits and digging in the dirt to find a place to record them and more importantly someone to record them with!
After throwing around a few ideas for producers we decided on a whim to contact someone i have admired for quite some time.
Jim Dickinson has produced albums for a lot of our hero's (john hiatt, north mississippi allstars, big star, alvin hart) and has recorded with a who's who of musical awesomeness (Bob Dylan, The Stones, Aretha Franklin ). Needless to say that when we realized that he was available and interested we were over the moon.
We started to put the ball in motion and agreed that the first week of January would be a great time to head south and make an awesome record.
unfortunately, we were really bummed to find out that we wouldn't be eligible for Funding Grants from organizations like MID (Music Industry Development in NB), FACTOR or Canada Council (national) due to the fact that we would be recording the album ,in its entirety, in the United States.
we had a couple options to think about:
- find a new producer/studio in canada, Bring jim to Canada or throw it all in and find a way to raise the money.
after weighing our options we came to these conclusions:
The Producer we want to work with wants to work with us. obviously we aren't messing with that then. we kept jim onboard.
Jim likes to record at his studio in mississippi. It makes sense as he built Zebra Ranch specifically for recording a three piece band (North Mississippi Allstars) live off the floor, which is how we agreed to approach this album to keep it sounding as close to "us" as we can. Aside from all this, we believe that an integral part of the vibe we want on record is going to come from making the journey down there and then immersing ourselves in the atmosphere there, when we arrive. We are, after all, going to the heartland of the blues. I will be only a few miles from the fabled crossroads of highways 61 and 49. This is the fabled place where Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil. It is also the image I had tattooed on my forearm when I decided to dedicate my life to what I do. It was decided, then, that we would go "all in" and find a way to raise the money.
So that brings us up to speed.
Our first idea and attempt to raise money to pay for our recording trip to mississippi is nothing fancy but we 'spect it will be a hit.
This is a big ole invite to the first ever "Bastards Bottle Drive". Thats right folks. A good ole fashioned bottle drive.
If you have lived in a cave until now and don't know what a bottle drive is... well.... keep reading.....
It occurred to us one day what a pain in the ass it is to take bottles back. It also occurred to us that most people we know like to drink. A lot. We will be collecting empties. Cans, bottles both plastic and glass and juice cartons too!!
So....
If you live in the Fredericton area and could save up your empties for us we'll actually come to your house and pick them up. Thats right. we will come right over and take them away. We want 'em that badly. How can you donate your empties you ask? Simply email me at rossneilsen@gmail.com and we'll arrange a time and date to come pick em up.
We are really stoked that we have already had some of our friends who run and own bars and pubs let us know that they will be happy to donate some of the empties their business accumulates. If you own a business and want to help email me at rossneilsen@gmail.com and we can arrange the details.
We will also be making special trips to areas like St. Andrews for all you folks in the Charlotte County who want to help. If you live en route to one of our travel bottle destinations let us know and we'll stop on our way by.
If you drink em AND save em, we will come.
OTHER OPTIONS:
If this all seems rediculous to you or you live out of our travel radius but still want to help you can simply pre-order next springs release at the address below.
Send a check or money order for $10.00 to Ross Neilsen. In this case please specify that you would like to pre-order the cd.
I know that some of you would rather not have your empties laying around till we can get over for them and i also realize that our fans are some of the richest and most generous a band could ever ask for so.........all you folks who would rather just send us a donation to help us on our way can do so at:
Ross Neilsen
PO Box 31
570 Queen St
Fredericton NB
E3B 4Y9
We'd like to raise in the neighbourhood of $3000.00 .......So....if you've been looking for an excuse to have a party I would say this is it!........get drinking everybody.