Our Campaign
The Horsenecks are in the midst of recording a brand new duo album and need your support to bring it to completion! We are recording over the space of just five days in a great new studio in Astoria, OR and need to cover recording, mixing, mastering, CD and vinyl printing costs. We have a stack of original and traditional songs that we are really excited to share with you. We plan to make an album that will showcase what we do when we're playing as we do most of the time- as a duo. The album is taking shape and will be among other things a celebration of traditional ballads, a showcase of the songs we've written, and the results of our explorations into the vast and rich catalog of the American Old Time, early Bluegrass and Country music traditions. Both our first self-titled album and our second album, Fiddlehead featured mostly our take on traditional songs and fiddle tunes and a couple of originals, all with that big full Old Time stringband sound. Since then we have been writing a lot and have decided to depart a little from what we've done on the last two albums and make our own songs a focus, with the pared-down, sparse feel of a duo. Going into the studio is always a valuable and massive learning experience. It's exciting, motivating, humbling, inspiring, and expensive. And we need your help to be able to make it happen. We will be offering pre-orders of the album and other packages that include music lessons, both of our previous full-band albums and The Horsenecks live at your party or event. If you pre-order the album we'll make sure you get it before it officially comes out.
A Little Background Information
The Horsenecks are Barry Southern and Gabrielle Macrae. The band was formed in 2012 when they met at a music festival in England and started playing music together within the hour. Since then they have toured and performed around the USA and in Great Britain, Ireland and Europe at festivals, venues, folk clubs, pubs, dive bars, porches and backyards as a duo as well as with a full band. They recorded two albums with a four-piece stringband that included Brain Bagdonas on bass and Kevin Sandri on guitar.
What We Need & What You Get
We are hoping to raise $3,500 to record this album. You might be thinking, "Hang on, that's a lot of money! What are you going to spend all that on?" Here is what we'll be using the money for.
Studio time: We are recording at The Rope Room, a new studio here in Astoria, that was started by a group of musician friends of ours who decided to pool their resources, talent, hard work and time to design, hand-build, and create a beautiful, affordable, great-sounding studio in a charming rundown warehouse space in downtown Astoria. Professional mixing and mastering: Apart from being able to play your instrument, this is what really makes an album sound good. It's a magic we don't really understand but can't do without. Printing Costs: We'll need to pay for printing for CD's, vinyl records, and covers. We feel strongly about using local, independently owned companies for all of these steps in the process. Shipping and Distribution: Then we'll need make sure it actually gets into the hands of people that will listen to and enjoy it. This all adds up really quickly, and even with amazingly generous deals from friends and doing all our own artwork and design, it ends up being lot of money.
We appreciate your contributions SO much, and we want to make sure you're getting something you value in return. Here's what we'll be offering in the various packages:
The new album in CD or Vinyl form, our two previous albums, your choice of music lessons on banjo, fiddle, or guitar, available over skype or in person in the Portland or Astoria areas, and/or two hours of live music at your private party or event from The Horsenecks (in duo form) in the Portland or Astoria areas. You are also welcome to make a flat-out donation if you don't have any use for these things but want to help out. Thank you!
Other Ways You Can Help
If you can't contribute monetarily we totally understand! We already receive incredible support from our extended musical family in so many ways, and are so grateful. But if you can't donate, it doesn't mean you can't help in other ways.
You can help us get the word out about this campaign by sharing this with anyone you think might be interested, posting it on your social media page, forwarding it to your email lists, and just telling your friends about it. You can also go to the youtube video at the top of this page and listen and share it. Or, go to our Spotify page and put one of our albums on repeat. We get fractions of one cent per listen, so it helps to leave it on overnight with the sound down!
