Happy 2013!
The holidays are behind us and a significant snowfall is serving as a reminder that winter will be keeping us company for a while here in Upstate NY. Hope you had a wonderful holiday season and rang in the New Year in a satisfying and celebratory way (even if that way involved getting a jump start on hibernating long before midnight!)
Thanks to everyone who came out to the Snowday holiday shows last month- it was great to see some familiar faces again and meet some new ones too. Hope you’re enjoying the CD!
Speaking of CDs, January is a good time for hibernating, but also songwriting, recording and getting the nose back to the grindstone on the forthcoming Daisycutter release, so that’s what I’m doing! It’s also a good time for eating vast quantities of popcorn- my favorite winter pastime, so that's something I'm also doing. (If you’re looking for a wine to pair with your popcorn, I highly recommend pairing a very oaky Chardonnay, such as Toasted Head, with a big bowl of buttered popcorn. Then try to avoid annihilating the entire bowl … or not.) I’ll be posting new dates and music soon, but my fingers are a bit buttery now, so I’ll sign off here!
Stay warm and have a peaceful and creative start to the New Year!
Preorder copies of the new Daisycutter record and help support farmers too!
The new Daisycutter record is reaching critical mass and to get through the final push we are launching a pre-sale campaign. As you music lovers are probably well aware, it’s an enormous undertaking for an independent artist to create high quality recordings (not garage or basement recordings) without the support of a record label or other patronage. Just the cost of mixing, mastering, CD duplication and promotion can easily run thousands of dollars upfront- and that’s after the hours spent making the actual recording (for which many other talented musicians and engineers need to be compensated for their hard work.)
Rather than use a crowd-funding platform like Kickstarter or IndieGoGo, we’ve decided in the true spirit of DIY to cut out the middleman (most sites charge between 4% and 9% in their own fees on top of credit card processing etc.) and run this campaign from our own website right here, accepting orders through Paypal like we do with all our other CDs and merch. The campaign will be running from September 27th through October 31st, and our goal is to raise $10,000 (but we sincerely appreciate any support that comes our way!)
We have some fun and interesting rewards beyond the standard “presale” copies of new music, so I hope you enjoy perusing what we’ve cooked up to get this record finished and out into the world.
I’m sticking with music as my life’s work because no matter how challenging it is, it’s still easier than farming (a lesson learned on the family farm)! With some farmers in the Northeast still struggling to recover from the devastation of last year’s hurricanes Irene and Lee, and others hit with the worst drought in decades, the margin of survival for many farmers has never been slimmer. So as part of our CD campaign, we are donating 10% of the pre-orders we receive to Farm Aid, so that by helping us make the record you’ll also be helping family farmers stay in business.
Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU in advance- and I can’t wait to cross paths with you again to celebrate the record’s release and thank you again in person!
In other news, I’m excited to announce that my song, “Newsprint”, has been selected as a semi-finalist in the Show Me The Music Songwriting Competition. I’m looking forward to playing it at the upcoming shows.
Speaking of shows, on September 29th, I’m proud to be taking part in Voices United Concerts- a benefit for Americans United for Separation of Church and State. Our concert at UU Fellowship of Northern Westchester in Mt. Kisco, NY, is one of 79 concerts in 72 cities, encompassing all 50 states and DC- a nationwide weekend of musical events to celebrate – and defend – the vital principle of church-state separation and individual freedom. www.voicesunitedconcerts.com for more info on this concert and the Voices United concerts in general.
We’ve also got a full Daisycutter band show coming up at Caffé Lena in Saratoga Springs, NY on October 13th, but that’s officially fall, so more on that later!
Enjoy the golden days of late summer- and hope to see you soon!
Sara
New CD Pre-order Options:
(Everything will be delivered before the official release, which will be Spring 2013)
$1 - digital download of single
$10 - digital download of album
$20 - signed copy of album with handwritten thank you note
$30 - signed copy of album with handwritten thank you note and seed bomb (clay balls with Shasta Daisy seeds for all your guerilla gardening desires!)
$50 - Everything at $30 level plus a Daisycutter T-shirt (specify size in notes when ordering, please)
$100 - Everything at $50 level plus Sara's entire back catalog ("Traditionally, Sara" cassette, "Mrs. Ippy Fiddle" CD, "Forward in All Directions" CD, "Goodbye to the Snow" CD, "Daisycutter" CD)
OR
$100 - Everything at $50 level plus a 1 hr fiddle lesson (must be located in NY state)
$500 - Everything at $50 level plus a house concert by Sara and Greg and a dozen farm fresh free-range eggs from Sara's "girls" in upstate NY (must be in NY, NJ, CT, MA, VT)
$1000 - Everything at $500 level but Sara and Greg will travel anywhere in the continental US
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