Three Weeks

Three weeks remain until 'Redline Project - Thursday' is finally released. The album will be available for free! Anyone who wants to download the music may do so by following a link that will appear on this blog on October 31.

I am hoping that readers of this blog will help me promote the free download by using Facebook, Twitter, and Email-blasting the news all over the web. Thanks in advance.

Can't Touch This

This announcement has me straightening my bow-tie. Redline Project - Thursday is on its way to the Library of Congress, which means that all of the tracks I have worked hard to finalize are now officially copyrighted.

Two steps remain before I can pound the 'complete' stamp onto the Redline Project.

1) I need to create a small website from which anyone can download my album.

2) I need to figure out how to convince 10,000 people that they should download my album.

Step one is easy enough because it is within my control, and since the download will be completely free, I feel the second step is not entirely out of reach.

If I still have the honor of your readership on this blog, please consider helping me promote the free download at the end of the month. By using the social media outlets available to us, I believe we can wrap this up. Thanks in advance to all who will help me get the word out.

Project Title and Album Cover

You are looking at the official cover art for the Redline Project album. 'Thursday' is the recording's title, and it is named after its final track.

Wrapped Up

I spent the evening nipping and tucking the last little glitches of the Redline Project tracks. Sitting in a folder on my desktop are ten complete and final tracks. Ready to go.

Tomorrow they ship digitally to a friend from New England who has agreed to master the project. Once his work is complete, and after I officially copyright the materials, this project is ready for the world.

What a year; what a project. I am elated to wrap this puppy up. All I need is 10,000 people to download the music, and the Redline Project is a complete success.

Three Cheers For Redline

I spent the past four hours laying down the retake of "Commons." The result is good enough to make the cut, which means that the Redline recordings are officially complete. Yippee.

A few last tweaks and this project is headed to a mastering studio. If anyone has a lead on a good venue for this, please send a link along.

Working on Final Lyrics

Lest any readers wonder if the deadline of this project will come and go, as with most 365 initiatives, fear not. With the scant free minutes peppered thither and yon, I am putting the icing on the cake, and there will be a launch in just over a month.

Steps to completion:
1) Finish rewrite of 'Commons' lyrics.
2) Re-record portions of 'Commons.'
3) Revisit final mixes; make last-minute adjustments.
4) Hire a friend (TBD) to master the recording.
5) Apply for copyrights to all songs and recordings.
6) Release this thing!

With chisel in one hand and mallet in the other, I have been buffing and polishing the chorus of 'Commons.' Here's the old:

Black hand, white hand
Gripping each other
Dance in circles
Sister and brother
Leaping, glittered splash
Underneath the fountain
Fifteen miles
A world apart
There's plenty of time
For broken hearts
Drink the moment
At the barefoot Commons

And at last, my latest (and possibly final) revision:

Black and white
A spectrum of color
Up or down
One life or the other?
Is it dark or light
Underneath the fountain?
Fifteen miles
A world away
Dawn, the tale
Of night and day
Seek the moment
At the barefoot Commons.


I think I am going to chew on that over the course of the weekend. Feedback is embraced as always.

Back to Redline

In case you thought the Redline Project had failed, or that its proprietor had been abducted by the mother ship, fear not. This post and the last may have a month's worth of gap between them, but the Redline Project lives on. And I WILL make the album launch deadline that looms 92 days from the present.

It is hard to believe that well over half of this year now sits in our back pockets. I sharply dislike how time vanishes like water in the fingers, but I am delighted that its passing often brings monumental life change and fresh newness.

This is foremost a blog about a renegade music project pieced together with zero budget with potentially unattainable goal of 10,000 listeners at year's end. I have often forayed into personal matters, especially because so often they have been related to the Redline Project progress.

Many of my readers known that my absence is the effect of a worthy cause. Four weeks ago, my wife and I traveled to Seoul, South Korea to adopt a magnificent baby boy. Though early fatherhood is unparalleled joy, it has also managed to knock the wind out of my sails and leave me dizzy on the floor. I have not accomplished much of anything in the past month, including logging adequate sleep hours.

Becoming a parent is all I really have to discuss lately, and that is not pertinent to this blog. However, I have felt a rekindled passion for finishing the project over the past number of days, and I am pleased to report that I am digging into a song rewrite and a new (hopefully final) composition. Once those two pieces are tracked, it will be time to master the recording, send it off to the Library of Congress for copyrighting, and finally distribution.

I blogged nearly every day for half a year, and it was mostly delightful to send oodles of pontification into the digital abyss. With the responsibilities that fatherhood brings, it will be impossible to keep the same pace. So I will write when I can, and all the while I will continue crawl toward the finish line.

If anyone actually finds their way back this blog after my extended absence, you win the gold star of loyalty. You may redeem that gold star on October 15 for a free copy of the Redline Project final album. (And yes, everyone else in the world gets to download it for free as well).