Give this poor looking fool the greatest birthday gift EVER!As my wife continues to remind me, in about 9 days I'll be officially entering my plural 30s.  But I don't see this as something to cry about!  Instead, i'm using it as a call to action for all of you in need of a reason to jump on the Abolitionist Hymnal Backer Wagon!

So, I'm writing here to ask that if anyone is interested in doing something for me for my birthday on February 12th, please consider pledging to the Abolitionist Hymnal (click the picture for the link).

Now, February 12th sounds familiar, you may be saying?  Well, yes!  My whole life I've shared a birthday with Abraham Lincoln - the signer of the Emancipation Proclamation and the original Kickstarter Backer for the Aboltionist Hymnal!

So join me, Honest Abe, Anna, and my friends in welcoming in my 3rd decade by helping make it possible for someone else to celebrate their next birthday as a freed person!  And thanks for all the good wishes.

Carl

Ladies and gentlemen it has been a BIG week for the Abolitionist Hymnal! I was quite surprised last Sunday as the 611 Community at Clarkston UMC said they were pledging $.611 x 3000 toward the project. They along with the other large gifts we were pledged really show the "church of God waking!" Now we are only $517 away from the goal!

Of course, with still over 40 days to go, we have even more opportunities to extend the runway underneath this project. Remember, there is no maximum that can be pledged, and any community that wants to see this project happen to its fullest (and beyond!) can still pledge.

As for the debut concert tour, it looks like we've at least 5 stops to make and we're really looking forward to that. Hopefully at each stop we can entice another group to join us on stage for a little preview of the remix album!

Again, so much thanks to 611 for getting us so far this week and to the rest of our great backers making this project happen! You all truly have earned the name "Abolitionists!"

Carl

Friends, we had a great start this week to the Abolitionist Hymnal kickstarter.  If you haven't visited the kickstart page, please do so here.  Tonight I just wanted to give you a sense of the steps we've made toward making this benefit album for enslaved persons today:

8 Backers and 10% Funded - With some generous pledges in many of the reward categories, we've gotten a jump on the $3,000 goal to make this project happen.  With each level of giving Backers receive a fun reward for their participation.  We've now got supporters who will receive handmade abolitionist buttons by Anna Stroud Gladstone, supporters who will get advance copies of the bound Abolitionist Hymnal lead/chord sheets, and communities who've signed up at the "Church of God Waking" level who have secured their place on the debut Abolitionist Hymnal tour (for just $100!).

The Musicians are Rallying - As an artist I am most excited about the ways in which this process is engaging talented musicians in world-changing ways.  Nick and Trista Dymond, friends of the 611 Community in Clarkston, MI, have been scheming to get studio time.  Local church music leaders are signing on to receive this project.  And, even Derek Webb of Caedmon's Call and solo career fame has offered a hand in advising us as we go forward! (You can always keep up on Derek and Sandra McCracken - coming out with her own revisited hymn project - on the twitterverse btw, @derekwebb and @sandramccracken)

55 Days Remain - Now there are 55 days left to engage our social networks in this process!  Toward that end I invite all of you to jump on Facebook, invite your friends to visit the kickstarter page.  Geeks and nerds, you're the ones who will be able to download widgets and help the Youtube video go viral!  Remember, anything you can do to get the word out means a greater chance of this project bringing communities together to free some of the 27,000,000 vulnerable people held in modern slavery!

Looking forward to the next steps in singing freedom into reality for the child soldiers, bonded laborers, and sex workers in the world today,

Carl

Officially launched the kickstarter for The Abolitionist Hymnal tonight!  This is an interesting way to engage listeners in the very process of creating a new album.  Click the link on the widget below to show your support for this project proceeds from which go to fighting modern day human slavery.  The 27,000,000 people held as child soldiers, bonded laborers, and sex workers need the church to wake up, and these songs will hopefully help in that effort!

Carl

There's been talk amongst the new class of comedians and entertainers about a "New Sincerity" taking over from the "old irony" immortalized mostly on the printed t-shirts of the latter part of the last decade.  I'm intrigued by this notion especially as it effects the creation and enjoyment of church music.

Tonight at a church service for 20 people in suburban Detroit a gentleman played a solo handbell piece that he'd written.  The small congregation appreciated his energy in playing this piece and I tried to imagine the reactions that could have come from a group of worshippers more used to the adult contemporary music that has become so indicative of modern Christian worship.  Maybe they'd have appreciated his offering in the way of the "old irony."   Probably they would have texted to their friends something like "U wont bleev wat I just saw. OMG."

But I felt appreciative of his efforts.  It made me wonder what a remix album of some of my own projects would sound like if it was constructed from the sincere attention of choir directors, bell ringers, and the errant local church orchestra.  What would the Cherub Choir's rendition of "Maker In Whom We Live" or "Through The Wild and Nervous" sound like?

I hope I get a chance to find out sometime.  Sincerely.

Carl