So, what’s the problem?

Most people involved in music-making today are in a similar position – spare-time artists subsidising a hobby or professionals peddling hard and break-even financing a vocation. This project involves two ‘spare-time’ artists, Colin Harper (myself) and Breige Devlin, coming together to create an album of recorded work in a music industry landscape that is as challenging as it has ever been. In doing so, we will be pushing money into the fully professional music economy – and creating a little piece of art with goodwill and positive energy.

Breige is a seasoned live performer with few recordings; I’m a seasoned writer and recorder of music who very rarely performs. Despite this stage aversion, I was fortunate to enjoy a few years in the 2010s in which my musical activities paid for themselves, with a low four-figure annual income from download and physical sales and airplay. (My main living comes from academic proofreading and the writing of music histories/biographies.) It was heartening to know that my music was not an unwanted activity.

However, the continued rise of streaming – which delivers barely any revenue to the music creators – has made even that £1,000 or so per year a memory. Art for art’s sake is okay, but the trouble is that art costs money and time – and that won’t change.

What’s the solution?

Selling in advance a physical artefact of our recording project, in the form of a limited-edition CD, is our solution. We’re not asking for charity but rather for a ‘commission’ from friends, well-wishers and people who like either my music or Breige’s music (or both). Or maybe just people who like me or Breige (or both). For anyone truly effervescent with goodwill, I can also offer additional packages involving a couple of my previous albums and one of my previous books.

Tell me more…

Breige and I will rehearse and record with a core unit of jazz sensation Scott Flanigan on piano/organ, blues-rock virtuoso Ali MacKenzie on bass and Wookalily Welsh wizard Louise Potter on drums. It’s likely that there will be five songs and one instrumental: three songs and the instrumental by me, one song by James Devlin and one by Breige and Colin favourites Horslips. Lead guitar colossus Big Bill Campbell will guest on one song (and hopefully not present us with a 'big bill'); mid-Ulster song-writing legends James Devlin, Vincent Harkin and Francis McEldowney will feature on backing vocals on one number, as will harmony sensation Helen McGurk on another and Dave McLarnon on another still; Horslips legends Barry Devlin and Jim Lockhart will guest instrumentally, as will Fermanagh classic-rocker Pat McManus.

The recordings will be made over four days in December at RedBox Studios, Belfast, with ‘wizard of sound’ Cormac O’Kane producing. Four days' studio time with Cormac costs £1,400. Essentially, we are hoping to raise funds through advance sales towards this outlay. 

(The photo above features Cormac O'Kane, Barry Devlin, Breige Devlin, Colin Harper and Jim Lockhart.)

Right then, what’s the deal?

See the 'Rewards' section for postage info (UK, EU, USA)

Option 1: £15+p&p will secure a CD.

Option 2: £35+p%p will secure a CD plus copies of Colin’s two previous albums (with many guests including Scott Flanigan, Ali MacKenzie, Chris Spedding, Jan Akkerman, John McSherry, Bert Jansch, Sarah McQuaid and Andy Powell).

Option 3: £50 + p&p will secure a CD, copies of Colin’s two previous albums (Sunset Cavaliers and Titanium Flag) and a copy of Colin’s acclaimed history of 300 years of Irish uilleann pipers, The Wheels of the World (Jawbone Press, 2015).