Dear Dust Bowl Faerie friends,
thank you so much for visiting this site and helping us make an album! We have raised over $10,000 thanks to all of our incredible supporters. The Dust Bowl Faeries Album is done, you can listen to it and purchase it here:
http://cdbaby.com/cd/dustbowlfaeries2
But don't go away! We still need your help, you can still make a contribution...
DUST BOWL FAERIES STORY
I'm Ryder Cooley - I play songs on accordion, ukulele, and singing saw.
In 2013 I started the band Dust Bowl Faeries with two wonderful musician-friends, Karen Cole and
Sara Ayers.
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Dust Bowl Faeries, 2014 (photo by Abigail Cole)
Since then the band has evolved, and we now have two new band members,
Jen DuBois and JoAnn Stevelos.
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Dust Bowl Faeries, 2015 (photo by Noah Fowler)
Dust Bowl Faeries plays gothic folk songs on lap steel
guitar, six string ukulele, keyboards, percussion, accordion, and saw. Hazel,
a disembodied sheep who now exists as a taxidermy ram's head, performs with us as spirit-animal go-go dancer.
Dust Bowl Faeries is not just a band, it’s a ritual. We perform with archival film and projected imagery. We love to dress up in fanciful costumes, light candles, tell stories, and cast lyrical spells.
In 2014 the music critic
Seth Rogovoy reviewed a Dust Bowl Faeries concert. Soon thereafter, Seth offered to produce a
Dust Bowl Faeries album. We spent many hours discussing how to
create a recording that would capture the unique sounds of this ensemble, and after a successful fundraising campaign, Dust Bowl Faeries began recording in the fall of 2015.
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Seth Rogovoy & Hazel (photo by Noah Fowler)
The Dust Bowl Faeries album is an enchanting dark dream, layered with mesmerizing vocals, instruments and sounds. With creative direction by Seth, in collaboration with the musicians, engineers, and our special friends (including Hazel), the album is a unique work of art.
Ryder & Hazel (photo by Thomas Nie)
Over the years, I've recorded several albums, mostly in friends’ homes and make-shift studios. These recordings are so important to me as both archives of my work and as musical offerings for the world. However, they are low-budget, bare-bones recordings that have not garnered the benefits of more sophisticated studios and recording techniques. After years of doing everything by the seat of my pants/skirts, I’m excited to be working with a team of artists and musicians in creating (and distributing) a professionally recorded, mixed and mastered album, full of magical, aural wonders.
how
We worked with two local studios to record our album.
Bobby Previte has a recording
studio called Three Horses in a Wood nestled on a hilltop in
Columbia County, N.Y. We recorded the main tracks of the album in September 2015 with Bobby. We completed our recording with Tommy Stinson at Bipolarbear Studio in Hudson N.Y. in October of 2015. Then we worked day and night to edit, mix and master the album with
Rachel Alina at her Allen St. Studio in Hudson. Rachel has worked with big names in pop including Katy Perry, Pink, Rivers Cuomo, and Stephen Marley, but her true love is working on more alternative, independent projects such as ours. Rachel really resonates with what we hope to accomplish sonically. Her contribution has been essential – plus this makes our entire recording a New York/Hudson Valley project. Think globally, hire locally.
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Rachel Alina
With this team in place, we recorded a full album of 12 songs featuring a stunning array of guest musicians including Melora Creager (Rasputina), Luis Mojica, Fredo Viola, Pete Toigo, Cameron Melville, Elric Walker and Tommy Stinson (Replacements).
Our bare bones budget for this project was $10,000, which helped pay for recording, mixing, mastering, and musician fees. We are still raising money to help cover our post-production expenses, including CD manufacturing, album distribution and promotional materials.
you
You are an integral part of our music. We write and perform songs to share with you, and you bring our songs to life by listening to them. You can help support this recording by ordering the album via CDBaby (link below), or by making a donation here on this page.
CDBaby Link:
http://cdbaby.com/cd/dustbowlfaeries2
If you want to make a contribution, you can still receive a variety of special Dust Bowl Faeries gifts ranging from original artwork to concert tickets to commissioned music
to private concerts to combinations of all of these and more. ??At
whatever level you choose to contribute, you are taking part in supporting this very special work of art.
thank you
Thanks so much for taking the time to read about this campaign. Please contact us if
you have any questions!
it's nice to share
Whether or not you can make a donation, please share our album and/or campaign with your friends and
followers or anyone you think will appreciate our music – you can use the
built-in tools here to share on Facebook, Twitter, other social media
Speaking of sharing, since you were wonderful enough to read all the way to the end, I want to share a free download of my album, "XMALIA, Songs of Extinction." with you. Just click here to stream or download.
Thanks again so much.
love from Ryder (and Hazel, and the Dust Bowl Faeries)
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