THE WAY WE FEEL - Celebrations of Lightfoot music will have a CD produced!! Jory Nash has announced the project!!
Read about it and support it at:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects...-feel-lightfoo
About this project
THE WAY WE FEEL: A Continuing Celebration of the music of Gordon Lightfoot began in January 2003 with standing room only concerts in Toronto & Ottawa. The concerts were founded by songwriters Aengus Finnan & Jory Nash with the idea of showcasing a variety of contemporary Canadian Roots, Jazz, Folk & Blues artists all gathering together to perform songs by Gordon Lightfoot, one of Canada's greatest songwriters. Over the years the show has played soft seat theatres across Ontario, in addition to the annual shows at Hugh's Room in Toronto. January 2017 will mark the 15th anniversary of the concerts with a 4 night stand at Toronto's legendary Hugh's Room. Since inception almost 100 different Canadian artists have participated in the concerts.
I have always wanted to to make a studio recording featuring some of my favourite performances and arrangements from these magical concerts. A recording that would both showcase the talents of the individual artists but also highlight the amazing songwriting diversity of Gordon Lightfoot. I would curate and produce the recording and it would feature a cross section of the artists who have appeared in the concerts over the years, performing their unique versions of Lightfoot songs. Hopefully this crowdfunding campaign will help make that dream a reality.
Artists who have conditionally agreed to participate in the recording include: Ron Sexsmith, DALA, The Good Brothers, Oh Susanna, CADENCE, Jory Nash, Lori Cullen, Kevin Fox, Justin Rutledge, Peter Katz, Suzie Vinnick, Rick Fines and more TBA. The recording will hopefully feature approx. 15 songs. A backing band featuring Jason Fowler, David Matheson, David Woodhead & Burke Carroll has been contracted. Additional backing musicians will be contracted as required. Please note that the line-up is subject to availability of the artists during the recording sessions and may not be 100% finalized until we begin recording.
The greatest obstacle to the recording of such a record is financial. The MINIMUM estimated costs associated with making such a record are as follows:
Recording Studio rental (recording & mixing): $15,000 Mixing Engineer: $4000 Artist Fees (featured artists and backing players): $14,000 Securing the Rights to record 15 Lightfoot songs: $3,500 CD Artwork & Design: $2,000 CD Manufacturing (2,000 copies): $4,000 CD Mastering: $2,000 Liner Notes commissioning: $500 HST & Kickstarter Fees: $5,000
Liner notes will be written by award-winning geographer and long-time WAY WE FEEL emcee David Newland. CD Design & Layout will be done by Juno Award-winning designer A Man Called Wrycraft. The recording studio I plan to use is Toronto's Revolution Recording Studio A, with additional overdubs in several smaller studios.
This will be an ALL OR NOTHING crowdfunding campaign. If we reach our goal of $50,000+ the album will get recorded in Spring & Summer 2016 and will be released in January 2017. If we do not succeed all contributions will be returned to individual contributors at the conclusion of the campaign.
If we are able to raise more than $50,000, additional artists will be hired and more time can be spent in the studio recording and mixing. A videographer would also be hired (additional minimum cost of $5,000) to document the recording process for a potential future documentary.
Risks and challenges
The biggest challenge is raising the considerable money needed to make the recording. I will be doing many promotional press releases once the campaign is underway to raise awareness. Reporting of the campaign on various CBC Radio programs is critical. Spreading the word of the campaign through social media will be key. Many of the artists involved have high profiles and considerable fanbases, and engaging these fanbases will also be key.
After the project is successfully funded the greatest challenge will be logistical. Arranging for 14 individual artists from various parts of the country to be in Toronto for the recording sessions will prove the hardest part, and the ultimate final line-up of performers on the recording will be partially determined by artist availability.
As producer of the WAY WE FEEL concerts for 14 years I feel I have the organizational skills to balance all the scheduling, artistic and financial components of this intricate project. As mentioned, the only hard part will be to raise the money needed to make the recording a reality.
KICKSTARTER fund for CD of LIGHTFOOT APPROVED Tribute shows
