[l1]A[/l1]nd speaking of the ubiquity of independent music, I’ve teamed up with 13 fellow singer/songwriters I met at FAWM and we’ve just released Handmade & Homespun—Premium Quality Americana.
Handmade & Homespun is a collection of 14 songs by 14 artists covering slices of Americana from almost traditional folk tunes to fairly assertive rock with stops nearly everywhere in between.
In February of 2008 we all met in the website forums of February Album Writing Month. FAWM has fostered our songwriting immensely (thanks, Burr!) and we wanted a way to celebrate how good it feels to actually accomplish something musically.
Every year, FAWM issues an official compilation which rather than a ‘best of’ is more of a snapshot of what happened (the compilation team considers themselves more akin to museum curators than disk jockeys.) Listening to some of the stunning demos posted, I was compelled to do something more personal; something I could nurture and guide. Although it’s not an official FAWM compilation, the 14 of us credit FAWM for bringing us together and helping us to have a way share.
During the eleven-and-a-half months it took to go from concept to completion, we met roadblocks, of course. Some artists disappeared; others had scheduling conflicts; still others had obligations to other band members to put their original projects ahead of this. Some songs were pulled by their writers and replaced by others; we songwriters are often as cautious about our songs as we are with our children.
In the end, this is, perhaps, less than it could have been. It is, however, more than we ever imagined, and that’s good enough.
Until next year, that is.