Well, today is the day, people. Today we push Save You From Yourself out into the big, wide world. Good luck, little album!
CDs are now available at Amazon, CD Baby, and directly from me via Paypal. You can also stream all ten tracks in the Store and pick up different digital formats there, too. (iTunes and the rest are running late, sorry.)
Demo Club members can get a big discount by logging in. As always, let me know if something goes wrong and I'll try to fix it ASAP.
The bonus goodies for buying more than one copy are still in effect! Amazon is not going to give up your email address to me, so if you purchase from them, you'll have to email me a copy of your receipt (just delete any private info first). CD Baby usually notifies me within a day or two.
Done and done. Thanks everyone. Time to get started on the next one!
On the eve of my new album release, I'd like to share something special with you: my first hate mail!
"I herd [sic] a few songs. What is your goal in music? Was not impressed. Another guy who plays guitar and thinks he is the next big thing. Is there anyone out there with their own unique style? You sound like to [sic] many other commercial artists. Stop cluttering the web with your junk."
"Some love em', some hate em'! Ugly? Maybe. Unique? Undeniably! Collectable? Unquestionably!! Read the acounts of how people felt back in 1958 about the original flying V, be honest now, don't you wish you had one of those?!? New, Unused Condition. Mahogany body, set neck, unique headstock shape, (2) 57 classic pickups, one volume control, a three way pickup selector switch."
Save You From Yourself is back in stock. In case you missed the email I sent out last weekend, I've put up a link on the Store page. Log in with your Demo Club email to reveal the link. If it happens to go out of stock again (which it looks like it might), use the instructions on that page to be notified when it comes back.
I'm happy that my CD is selling, but I still kind of feel like a doofus.
Some people have asked about MP3, FLAC and Ogg Vorbis formats. Those are coming next week when Save You From Yourself becomes available to the public. iTunes, Rhapsody, Emusic and the rest will probably come much, much later, so your best bet is to grab 'em from me, DRM-free. (Plus, nothing against iTunes and such, but I get to keep more cash that way.)
The first copies of Save You From Yourself went on sale to the Demo Club on Friday night and were sold out before the next morning. Normally I'd be all "yay!" but actually I'm a bit embarrassed since I totally underestimated the demand and now there's an order backlog. More CDs are on the way, and the discount and bonus items will be available through Februrary, so nobody will miss their chance. But still, ack, sorry about that.
On Saturday I attended my first Democratic caucus ever. I don't know if you heard, but the Washington state caucuses were off the hook this year. The WA Dem primary isn't determined by ballot but by the number of delegates each candidate earns during the caucuses. So if you wanted your vote to count this year, you had to caucus.
With no clear Dem frontrunner following Super Tuesday, Washington's primary suddenly became really, really important. 3000 people were turned away from Barack Obama's appearance at Key Arena due to overcrowding. Our little precinct in south Seattle saw a turnout of several hundred people, so much so that I think the organizers were overwhelmed. Jim described his precinct's caucus in north Seattle as a "madhouse." Crazy representative government all up in here.
Caucusing was cool except for the part where we stood around for an hour waiting for things to get started.
Then that same night, Jim and I performed an extra-long set at the Trabant in the U District. They're recently remodeled so there's a brand-new upstairs lounge area overlooking the stage below, and new wall-mounted PA speakers meant we didn't have to block tables with the huge speaker cabinets they used to have. Overall, the sound is much improved.
There are a few songs from Save You From Yourself that I'm not entirely comfortable playing live yet. "Not The One" is the hardest because I always get the lyrics backwards. Gotta work on that. But I also did a whole mini-set in DADGAD tuning, which I rarely do because I really hate re-tuning during a live set.
Okay everyone. The "official" release date for Save You From Yourself is February 19th. However, if you're a member of the Demo Club, you won't have to wait. You'll be able to get it in just a few days. I'll announce where and how over the weekend.
My hope is to sell a LOT of records, and get the music into the hands (and ears) of a LOT of people. So I'm offering special bonuses to people who buy more than one copy. You can give the extra copies to friends, donate them to your local library or school, send them overseas, give one to a radio station or newspaper in your town, resell them for cash -- heck, tie 'em to some balloons and let 'em go!
Demo Club members will get a special discounted price.
The first 20 copies sold will be autographed.
If you buy two or more copies, I'll email you a piano remix version of "You Are Loved" that Jim and I created during our mixing sessions, in 256k MP3 format.
If you buy four or more copies, you'll get the MP3, plus I'll mail you an autographed poster (shown below right).
If you buy six or more copies, you'll get the MP3, the poster, and the limited-edition bonus CD of acoustic tracks (I've got a few left over from the pre-order; they're numbered and signed).
You might have to wait a few hours for the MP3 to arrive, since I need to email those out by hand. I'll try to get those out at the end of each day, Seattle time. Posters will be mailed out ASAP.
Anyway, that's my plan. If you have any questions, please leave a comment below or feel free to contact me. Thanks everyone!
So remember Dennis, the drummer/percussionist I jam with every so often? He backed me up at my first Folklife gig, the gig with Artis the Spoonman, and lots of others (you can hear him in some of the live rehearsal MP3s). He also plays in a kabillion other bands around town.
A few weeks back some crackhead stole all of his drum hardware, right out of his bedroom. He still has the drums, but all the cymbals, stands and pedals are gone.
So tomorrow (Saturday) I and some friends are playing a benefit house concert to raise a little money to help Dennis replace his equipment. It's a semi-private party, but if you're in the Seattle area and want to attend, email me and I'll send you details.
If you're feeling generous, you can Paypal a donation to me using the button below, and I'll forward it on to Dennis. I'm sure he'd appreciate the assist.
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Okay everyone. The "official" release date for 
