Finishing the album (with your help)

Hello everyone.

Happy new year. I had a great holiday. Played a lot of music in Toronto while I was there, and did some co-writing too. Ron Sexsmith even helped me to polish off a song that I was blocked with - 'Corner of the World'. The Toronto show at the Tranzac was really off the cuff and fun for that reason. Thanks to everyone who came out. I hope you all had a wonderful New Year.

I'm heading back down to Nashville in March to finish off the new album with Brad Jones and the musicians down there. We're all super excited to get back to it. We're hoping to have the record mixed by the end of the month.

In September/October I raised $6000 to pay for the initial recording trip. All of this came from you guys - Mike Evin's Dreamers. I appreciate it immensely. Now to finish the record I will need an additional $13,000 to get the rest of the album recorded and mixed. That's a lot of money to raise, I realize. But I'm hoping to raise as much of it as possible from you guys. Any and all contributions are so important. Even if you just donate $10, that's gonna make a difference. Please please please don't hesitate to get involved, no matter how much you feel like donating.

Here's where you can donate and read about the project: http://www.mikeevin.com/dreamers




I believe in this album so much and I want to finish it properly, so I'm going to need all the help I can get. Please spread the word.

Here's a photo of my good friend David Celia at his home studio in Mississauga while we were recording a nylon string guitar part for the song 'Real Tight' last week. The song was inspired by him.




















I can't wait to share the album with the world and start playing concerts in earnest.
I love you all!

Mike

holidays

happy everything to all of you!

i'm in montreal right now, but in a few days i'll be heading to my family's country house in the laurentians north of montreal for a few days, then it's off to toronto to play a show and do some co-writing with one of my heroes (i hope that works out). i'll tell you more soon.

i hope you guys are all feeling grounded in this crazy time....

it's been a challenging time for me. started a new recording project (and having to wait a number of months before i can go down and continue it) has brought out a lot of self-conscious and anxious feelings inside me. i've been awakening to a lot of patterned behaviour that i didn't realize was so self-destructive until only recently. nothing too heavy. just a tendency to abandon things that i start because of fear. so i'm making sure to not abandon this new project. it's definitely an adjustment, and i want to not back down as much as i have in the past. i hope for 2010 that i'll be able to follow through with my projects more and not be afraid to go after what i really want. but most of all, i want to continue my journey of self-discovery and to be more centered and happy. to live in the moment. nothing really different from what all of you want, i'm sure.

sometimes i can sound so corny.... and earnest.

i was watching some interviews with randy newman on youtube yesterday. he's one of my early influences!! i love him.

so, it looks like i'll be heading back down to nashville at the end of february to start recording again the 1st of march. i'll get back to talking about that soon.

happy holidays everyone!!!

love,
mike

nashville (videos, photos and music)

i got back from nashville a couple of weeks ago (i've since been away for a week in toronto and sherbrooke playing shows). let me tell you a bit about my nashville experience!

it was fantastic.

here's a video of highlights from the 4 days of recording. folks that are in it are:
brad jones (producer, bass, moog synth, banjo, percussion), jason cheek (drums, percussion), will harrison (guitar), bill davis (handclaps, vocals), melanie collins (photographer) and jay coyle (friend and mentor).



PLEASE!! IF YOU'RE STILL THINKING OF GETTING INVOLVED AS ONE OF MY 'DREAMERS' AND HELPING TO FUND THIS PROJECT, DON'T HESITATE TO DONATE. VISIT THE 'DREAMERS' PAGE AT WWW.MIKEEVIN.COM/DREAMERS AND I'LL BE FOREVER GRATEFUL. I'LL NEED SOME MORE LOVING FROM THE FANS TO CONTINUE THIS ALBUM.

Okay, the capitalized portion of this post is over.

things really clicked with brad jones, the musicians and me, and everyone had a great time. we started 6 songs:

the bach family sing-a-long (listen to the rough mix so far HERE)
real tight (listen to the rough mix so far HERE)
bound to be okay (listen to the rough mix so far HERE)
seagull spell
the magical tape
shuffleboard prince

the bed tracks were recorded over 2 days and the remaining 2 days were spent doing a bit of editing and overdubs. overall, it's given me a taste of what the album process will be like. fun.

it's just the beginning and i'm probably gonna spend a good couple of months in nashville early next year to continue working on the record. but it feels great to know that we've begun. i'm being careful not to thwart the process by being too critical this early on in the game. i'm working on allowing it all to unravel in its own way.

there's lots more action to come.

here are some photos:













































































































































(ps... it's not allowing me to type normal type to describe what's in the photos... so, most of the photos were taken by Melanie Collins on the last day of recording. that's will playing guitar. the guys with the longish hair is morgan the intern. the guy dancing with me is bill davis. and the dark photo of three guys making funny gestures was taken after the first day of recording and is of me, brad, and jason. the photos of me wearing headphones were taken while singing harmony on Real Tight)

so, this is the start of what looks like a really cool journey. i hope to share a lot of it with you and i can't wait to go back down to nashville for the next round!

thanks for all the love and speak to you real soon.

love,
mike