never when i started

[solarbird]

Oh guys seriously I did not think Cracksman Betty could sound this good. Not what’s online now; the re-engineered/re-mastered version that’s in progress. It’s always going to be a bit of a jumble as an album, having been originally just a place to put all my trad-o’-the-week/fortnight/month songs, but it’s so much better a jumble than I ever thought it would or even could be.

And I don’t mean just individually as songs, I mean as an album. It’s actually starting to hang together as a work. I don’t know what to call it – Alternate History Folk, maybe? But that’s awfully long. Regardless, it has a form now. It is shadowy and rough, but it is a beast, of genus undetermined.

I’m even thinking of asking Kickstarter if it wants to pay for mastering. No lie.

Did I mention there’s a new track? I don’t think I mentioned there’s a new track. There is! “Song for a Blockade Runner/High Barbaree.” I’m really excited about it.

Of all the reset-in-Cascadia traditional folk, this is the most changed from its original; it makes “Columbia” sound unedited. “High Barbaree” is about taking down pirates; “Song for a Blockade Runner” is the other side of that story, in 1973, during the Cascadian War for Independence, a goddamn hardscrabble pirate and smuggler anthem. It’s new music, too – not so much a traditional-song rendition as a long-lost fraternal twin, come in from the cold Salish sea.

12 tracks on the CD, if I print one. 13 tracks online, with “S-100 Bus,” which has to be online only for licensing reasons. Eleven songs, plus two “radio edit” versions as bonus tracks.

None of this is going live quite yet – I’m still twiddling bits and I want to redub another line of vocals. But – it’s coming. Soon. :D

PS: Anna’s fantasy novel Kickstarter just hit 45% and she’s dropped an excerpt from “Blood of the Land,” another Warder universe story, as a teaser. She’s really hoping to hit 50% this weekend. Check it out!

Mirrored from Crime and the Blog of Evil. Come listen to our music!

Comments

[oh6]

Glad to hear the album is coming out so well. Certainly the concept is intriguing - I don't think I'd really been aware of the alternate history aspect of it before.

[solarbird]

Thanks! I never expected this to be a real album at all, much less an alt-history album. It didn't start out that way - it really was just a way of organising "trad o' the [whatever]," a way to practice things and stuff.

So some of the songs are straight traditional, since that was the original idea.

I'm kind of thinking I'll maybe make a 100% alt-history Cascadian Trad album at some point. But first things first!

[403]

Yay!

Since I bought the original version off of Bandcamp, will I get access to the re-engineered version? (I'd totally chip in for the kickstarter mastering fund, too.)

[solarbird]

Oh, so you were the one! >_< Sure! Want to beta listen? Email me.

[403]

I'd love to!

The other day I figured out why it's so fun to sing with your music, rather than just listen. We seem to have a similar range, so I don't have to strain high or low to stay in key.