gabrielkelley:

So for the last 3 years,  I have waited to make my first real record.   I tend to be a perfectionist, to a fault at times, and I knew that there were certain ingredients I need to have in the pot before I began cooking up this vision.   Over the past years, I’ve struggled regularly with the walking the tight rope of creating honest music.   I shuffled through band member and business partners over and over trying to find a community of people who were in line with the core of why I do what I do.   I wanted to find people who needed music for survival, and couldnt help but let their process be worn on their sleeve.  In my experience, those types of musicians are hard to come by.    Well now after quite a journey I have found a team of people who I can call family.  A group that embodies the essence of my work, and I can openly say it is such a breath of fresh air.   With that all said the gears are now in motion for this project to begin.  I am scheduled to begin recording in early April my first record “It Dont Come Easy”.

The proposed plan is to record in Nashville at the amazing House of David Studio with Grammy Award Winning engineer Neal Cappellino beginning the first week of April.  We are set on recording the record analog to 2 inch Tape and mainly tracking live with few overdubs.  

The Band for the record is obviously extremely important for the tones, taste, touch and emotion of the record, so the process of finding the right musician is never easy.   After a chain of events and connecting on some real honest levels,  I became friends with a number of incredible world class musicians who have worked in a similar vein of music to my own,  and the idea of working together just made sense.  

The musician who will be working with me on this record are 3 former members of the Cardinals (backing band for Ryan Adams via Easy Tiger, Jacksonville City Nights, and Cardinology.   

Jon Graboff- Pedal Steel

Neal Casal- Guitarist

Brad Pemberton- Drums

Dave Jacques-Bass (whose credits include performing with the artist John Prine)

It is truly an honor to work with such amazingly heart driven musicians whose playing and taste has even inspired and influenced my writing of the years.  I am grateful beyond belief.

With all of the details more in place, I am getting quite excited about this important time in my creative process. 

The only aspect of this record that is a large mountain to climb is the funding of the record.  In order to make this album possible there are many inferred costs.  Professional records aren’t cheap and for me this process is a completely independent grass roots effort, meaning we are raising this money on our own.

The Cost of a record of this scale is slightly over 20,000 dollars to produce.  Due to the timeframe restraints of the record we will only have 60 days to raise this money.

The cost inferred include 

● A Commercial Recording studio● Engineer and Producer Fee● Professional Musicians Hire● Analog Tape ● Overdubbing Sessions● Mixing Sessions● Mastering services● manufacturing of the CDs.● Album graphic design

In order to raise these funds we are asking for the help of family, friends, and fans of this project.  

Our main way of funding this record will be through a program called Kickstarter, which will be launched this friday.  Kickstarter is a program where people can donate funds towards the making of the record in return for a large selection rewards ranging from the pre- order of the cd to spending time in the studio during the tracking of the record.  

We are very hopeful of the Kickstarter project and hope everyone following the blog will be encouraged to donate to the cause.  I will be updating the blog regularly about our goal and our current status on reaching it beginning this Friday. 

Once we go public on Jan 28th please help us pass on the word to as many people as possible who may be interesting in giving to the cause.   

Here’s to a great few months

Thanks ahead for all of your help.

also here is a demo of a song planned to be a part of the record.  hope you enjoy it.

Much love-

Gabriel Kelley

You lucky bastard… Have fun with the Cards… Jon Graboff is hysterical and his taste in foot wear is unmatched.. 

streaming from SoundCloud..