NBC Philadelphia Music Box Feature

If you like the video, consider checking out other episodes from the series and sharing your enthusiasm with NBC Philadelphia to ensure that other independent artists can continue being featured! Many thanks to Vincent Gabriel Antonini for producing the series. You can check out lyrics to “The Canonization of Margot Price” and “Back to Your Flat” on the lyrics page!

Thank you all so much for supporting independent music & the dreams of one little harpist/singer-songwriter.

I am so full of gratitude for each & every one of the 179 incredibly generous backers who pledged to bring this project into the world. Feeling very infinite & small tonight. What an amazing journey this has been!

Tomorrow morning, I catch an early plane bound for Bogota, marking the start of another adventure as I tour with the ESL Folk Project through Colombia, Peru, & Ecuador. Keep an eye on my blog for updates from my travels abroad. I’ll be posting more updates through Kickstarter to keep my backers abreast of the album’s progress over the next few months. I think that by the end of all this, we will have created together something very fine indeed.

But for now, it’s time to finally exhale. And perhaps have a glass of wine on the front door steps. And maybe write a new song.

With love,

Gillian

morning run by the golden gate bridge

I’ve been staying with some friends in Outer Richmond this past week to rehearse with the ESL Folk Project in preparation for our tour in South America. I met Matt, Brendan, & Jordan last summer in Tomsk where we began our first tour, bringing a special program using American Folk music as a cultural supplement for students learning English in Russia. The U.S. State Department loved the project so much, they decided to fund us again for a month-long tour in Colombia, Peru, & Ecuador. It’s the first time that we’ve all been together since Ufa last summer & the reunion has been sweet indeed. Tomorrow morning we’ll catch an early flight to Bogata the adventure begins! We expect to be doing some blogging updates from the road, but I don’t know how regular our internet access will be, so I wanted to write a little post sharing some of the highlights of my past couple weeks in California.

Oh, hey there, Hollywood

I flew to Los Angeles on April 29th to visit my dear friend Rosy, who had generously offered to host a house concert for me. We spent the weekend cooking & then celebrated May Day with music, a feast featuring dishes from all the countries I’ll be visiting on the ESL Folk tour, & over a hundred guests.

That there's 70lbs of onions. I cried.

On Monday, fellow Fellow Ted & I visited the Caltech campus to talk about our recent experiences as Thomas J. Watson Fellows on a panel for prospective applicants. Here’s hoping one of their many intriguing proposal ideas gets funded next year! We drove down to San Diego & spent a couple days learning ridiculous covers on harp & guitar, playing them for dear distant friends on Skype, & sampling the finest fish taco stands in the city. Ted also treated me with a breakfast of matzo brie, which is kind of like Jewish French toast (and totally delicious).

Ted! You made Matzo Brie!

I took the train up from SD back to LA (and, as always when traveling public transit with my harp, talked to lots of curious strangers) & then caught a rideshare to San Francisco with a woman who managed to fit me, my harp (in flight crate), & a young australian woman fresh from the airport into her Prius! I was dropped off in the Lower Pacific Heights neighborhood just in time to play another house concert for a super fun audience featuring a surprising number of AmeriCorps volunteers. By midnight, I’d made my weary way to Outer Richmond where the ESL Folk Project has been living & rehearsing this past week.

Brendan, Matt, & Jordan

We’ve been working hard, logging several 9 hour days of solid rehearsal, learning lots of new material & lesson plans for the students we are *super* excited to meet in Peru, Colombia, & Ecuador. This time around, the U.S. State Department is organizing several large public concerts in addition to our schedule with the schools, so we’ve put together an entirely new program! Some of my favorites to learn have been John Henry, Red Clay Halo, Old Joe Clark, In the Pines, & Casey Jones.

lots of lyrics-learning...

In our spare time, we’ve managed to share several delicious meals (Jordan’s a wizard with a cast iron skillet) & visit the Sutro Baths, a 19th Century swimming facility that now lies in ruins on the Pacific Coast, not far from the house where we’ve been staying. When not making a hootenanny in the living room with the guys, I’ve also been learning cover song requests from a kickstarter campaign for my next solo album, locking myself in the (acoustically pleasing & quiet) bathroom to make iMovie recordings, & posting them on YouTube. One of the covers, a version of The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind Theme on harp, was picked up by the online gaming community & went viral, making this one of the most viewed bathrooms in San Francisco! Big love & thanks to Reddit.com, RipTen.com, Kotaku.com, The Elder Scrolls facebook & twitter feeds, bit-tech.net, & thousands of individuals for spreading the video like wildfire. I stayed up late last night learning the Ultima Online Theme (which was one of the earliest follow-up requests from Reddit.com) & posted it on YouTube this morning as a gesture of my deep gratitude for the outpouring of support that’s come from the gaming community over the past few days.

over 42,000 people have seen this bathroom!

We’ve already started getting some press coverage in South America, like this article: Ramblin’ Across the Andes.. Time to get back to packing – looking forward to sharing our stories from the road!

Much love,
-Gillian

sorry, Pickles, you can't come...

P.S. My next concerts in the U.S. will be on Monday, June 13th at the Rockwood Music Hall in NYC & Saturday, June 18th at the Tin Angel in Philadelphia. The Tin Angel shows have been selling out, so if you’re interested in coming, be sure to reserve your tickets in advance!

On May 1st, the kickstarter campaign passed its $10,000 goal, covering the costs of professional radio promotion when The Hinter Haus is released. Yesterday, you exceeded expectations again by pushing me over the $12,000 mark & additionally securing a publicist! If we reach $15,000 by the close of funding at 11 PM EST on May 14th, I’ve promised to run pressings of the album in both CD & Vinyl format.

There are now 124 unbelievably generous & amazing backers involved in this project who are living in the United States, Canada, Switzerland, Senegal, China, France, Ireland, Italy, Sri Lanka, & Australia! It’s incredibly exciting to me that these songs, which were conceived during a time of international travel & exploration, are now receiving support from people in so many parts of the world.

I started posting the YouTube cover requests that have come through on the campaign this week. One of them – an adaptation of The Elder Scrolls Morrowind Theme – has gone viral with over 18,000 hits in its first day! There is a new, soft, warm place in my heart reserved for the RPG community. Thanks to Mike, Reddit.com, RipTen.com, & the Elder Scrolls fb & twitter pages for passing the video around!

Please continue sharing this project with your friends by posting the kickstarter link on your facebook wall, twitter feed, blog, or e-mail list. If you’ve already done this & haven’t yet received your copy of “Borrowed or Begged,” please just give me a heads up on facebook, twitter, or at gillian [at] gilliangrassie.com & I’ll send you the download link.

As excited as I am by the ambitious figure we’ve managed to raise together, it’s important to remember that this campaign is not only about fundraising, but also reaching new listeners. Every friend you share this with is another potential fan, which is every bit as valuable to me as each dollar contributed to this project.

It is thrilling (and a little overwhelming) to have had such a positive response to this record so quickly.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Love,
Gillian

I’m still picking up the pieces of my mind that were blown to tiny bits yesterday when we exceeded the $8000 goal in the first five days of fundraising – unbelievable. I made this video to explain what happens next. The kickstarter campaign will continue running until May 14th & I’ve outlined some new goals for this project.

If we reach $10,000, I can afford to hire a radio promoter to get the new album on airwaves across the country once it’s released. Another $2,000 would cover the cost of hiring a publicist for a professional PR campaign. If we make it all the way to $15,000 by May 14th, I will press the album in both CD & 12″ Vinyl formats & anyone who’s contributed $25 or more to this project can choose which version they’d like to receive. Backers who opt for the CD or the vinyl will also get a digital download version of the album, so your iPod’s earbuds need not fear.

I’m also working on adding some other new incentives to the campaign, like exclusive video updates from inside the studio for backers only. Please keep spreading the word about this project – let’s see what we can do!

So much love & gratitude for you all,

Gillian

Early Friday morning, I launched an official Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for the recording of a new album, with the bold goal to raise $8,000 for the project in one month. Within the first 24 hours, the project reached over $3,000 in pledges. As of today, the campaign has received support from 44 amazing & generous backers from the United States, Canada, Ireland, Switzerland, and China, exceeding the $8,000 goal in the first four days at $8214 & counting. There are still 25 days left before the May 14th fundraising deadline to get involved in the project.

What is a Kickstarter Campaign, you may ask?

Kickstarter.com is a website that facilitates “crowdfunding,” a newfangled term that is an evolving business model where creative projects are financed collectively with small individual donations from an artist’s fanbase & supporters. You could think of it as highly organized pre-ordering – in exchange for your pledge of $20, I will send you a signed, advance copy of the physical CD once the recording process is finished, & together, we pool enough money for me to see the project through to its completion. But pre-ordering the CD is just one way you can get involved in this campaign. I’ve put together a special collection of services & goods for those who agree to back the project at donation levels ranging from $1 to $5000. These “incentives” include everything from exclusive digital downloads to limited edition handstitched lyric books, private houseconcerts, T-Shirts, & song cover requests performed on YouTube. I’ve tried to put together rewards that offer something for everyone in terms of interest & financial ability.

These campaigns work best when the cost of the project is distributed among many, many backers, so even if you can’t afford to support this project financially, I’m counting on your help spreading the word about this campaign to as many people as possible. E-mail some friends about this project, repost the video on your facebook wall or twitter feed, share the link in your blog… If you do any of these incredibly important things, I’ll send you an exclusive download of an unreleased song that only supporters of this project will have access to. Just get in touch with me via e-mail at gillian@gilliangrassie.com , let me know you helped spread the word, & I’ll send you the download link. More than just a fundraising campaign, this Kickstarter is a wonderful opportunity to help get the word out about my music & reach new listeners, so please do forward the video to as many people as you think might be interested.

Much love,
Gillian

I spent the last weekend of January in NYC working with Jazeel Gayle on a music video for Silken String. We built an enormous tent out of satin ribbon, kind of like a may pole sans the phallic fertility symbol. In case you were wondering what 50 yards worth of ribbon looks like, this is it:

I don’t want give too much away before the video comes out, but here are a couple other images from the shoot:

The other shoot I did was a taping for a new NBC Philadelphia series called Inside the Music Box. Gabriel Antonini invited me to come by the NBC Philadelphia studios, play a couple songs and give an interview. Filming always makes me nervous, but I really had a blast working with these guys.

I’ll let you know when the final products are posted online and ready for prime time.

P.S. Notice anything different? I’ve started playing standing up!

Here’s a nifty google map marking the stops on my journey:

(You can view a larger version of this map with all the cities listed & twitter excerpts narrating each location!)

I thought it’d be fun to break down all that travel by modes of transport. The mile estimates, especially in terms car travel, err on the modest end of the spectrum. I actually put 16,000 miles on my car during the three months of the North American tour, but for the purposes of this blog post I was only calculating direct distances between cities. I didn’t feel that I could accurately track the miles I logged by autorickshaw in India, so, sadly, the long, hot, stinky, noisy, fume-filled hours I spent squashed under my harp & fearing for my imminent demise in those three-wheeled, two-stroke wonders of modern transport are not included.

miles traveled in various modes of transport. Notably, most of those bus miles were logged in Indonesia.

While my carbon-guilt is great for having flown over 13,000 miles, I was slightly mollified to learn that I actually logged MORE miles by public transport (those 600+ miles spent on boats & ferry’s really sealed the deal). The grand total for miles travelled in 2010? 39,155

Other Facts & Figures

Continents Visited: 3
Countries Visited: 9
Cities Visited: 79
U.S. States Visited: 28
Languages Spoken (mostly very badly): 8
Currencies Held: 8
Hospital Visits: 2 (one for rabies post-exposure treatment in Indonesia, the other for a mystery virus in India)
Passports Stolen: 2
Consular Interventions on My Behalf: 1 (Thanks for getting me out of Russia, Wilma!)
Human-sized Hampster Balls oggled in Tyumen: 1

Now, I know this is a far cry from the wizardry of an OkCupid Trends post, but cut me some slack, okay? I was a Comparative Literature major! That said, if there are other calculations you’d like me to try and approximate, I’m open to giving it all of my XKCD-loving spirit.

Happy New Year!
-Gillian

From September through November, I’ll be driving all over this great land, from coast to coast, to play for you in venues, coffee shops, bookstores, cafés, art collectives, basements and living rooms.

I’ve booked part of this beast, but there is much that remains to be confirmed. Anyone enthusiastic enough to organize a concert in their town/college/home, put me and my harp up for the night, or help with promotion will have my everlasting adoration. Also, I make excellent gratitude-omelettes.

Here’s my itinerary (details for confirmed dates are under the SHOWS tab):

SEPTEMBER

9/5 New York, NY – Joe’s Pub – 7 PM
9/6 Cambridge, MA – Club Passim (Campfire Festival!) 4: 15 PM
9/7 North Kingstown, RI – Beach Concert! – 6 PM
9/8 Danbury, CT – Cousin Larry’s Café – 9 PM
9/11 Montpelier, VT – Langdon Street Café – 7 PM
9/12 Burlington, VT – Parima – 7:30 PM
9/19 Toronto, Canada – Tranzac – 10:30 PM

OCTOBER
*updated

10/1 Philadelphia, PA – House Concert – 7 PM
10/3 Washington, DC – IOTA Club & Cafe – 8:30 PM
10/5 Lynchburg, VA – The White Hart – 7 PM
10/7 Greensboro, NC – The Greenleaf @ Guilford college – 8PM
10/9 Lexington, KY – Common Grounds – 7 PM
10/11 Nashville, TN – The Bluebird Café open mic – 7 PM
10/13 Gainesville, FL – The Civic Media Center – 9:30 PM
10/14 New Orleans, LA – Neutral Grounds – 11 PM
10/16 New Orleans, LA – House Concert – 7 PM
10/18 Austin, TX – House Concert – e-mail for details
10/19 Norman, OK – House Concert – e-mail for details
10/23 Los Angeles, CA – Genghis Cohen – 7:30 PM
10/28 San Francisco, CA – The Red Poppy Art Center – 7 PM

NOVEMBER

11/2 Portland, OR – The Knife – 9 PM
11/3 Victoria, BC, Canada – opening for Kuba Oms – details TBA
11/4 Seattle, WA – Hibdo – 8 PM
11/10 Aspen, CO – House Concert – e-mail for details
11/10 Boulder, CO – Cafe Sole – 5-7 PM
11/14 Chicago, IL – Northwestern University Masterclass & Concert – 5 PM
*****11/17 Philadelphia, PA – World Café Live NYSC Showcase – 7 PM*****
**UPDATE! Due to extenuating personal circumstances, I will NOT be hosting the SongCircle showcase on November 17th, but Suzie Brown will be covering for me and the show is definitely still on. I’ll return to host the next showcase on January 12th**

As you can see, there is much of my itinerary that is still, shall we say, malleable? Take a look at the accompanying Google Maps and if you’ve got an idea that fits the general trajectory, I’d love to discuss it! Please share this with your friends and family and help spread the word. This is an independent, grassroots, fan-fueled (ad)venture, and I can’t do it without you.

fill my heart, fill my gas tank, fill my belly… I’ll see you on the road!

Love,
Gillian

* *Europe! I’m coming for you in the Spring, darling. I plan to pass some of those long hours on the highway this fall spinning German tapes and trying to learn the language of Rilke and Marlene Dietrech (hence the tour title). Quiz me when I’m back!

September

October

November