Jeffrey Gaskill is a Grammy-nominated executive music producer with a passion for the blues, and he has launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund a tribute album for Blind Willie Johnson.
Blind Willie Johnson is a hugely influential blues musician that popularized many hymnal and gospel songs in his blues style. Despite his influence, Gaskill feels that he may be under-appreciated when compared to the likes of Robert Johnson, who has enjoyed a lot of attention in the last decade or so. He wants to rectify that with a tribute album.
NASA recently confirmed that mankind has left the solar system for the first time with its Voyager 1 spacecraft entering interstellar space after a 36 year journey. Onboard the spacecraft is a 12-inch gold-plated copper disk, carrying the music of Bach and Mozart, and Blind Willie Johnson’s recording Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground. Meanwhile back on earth, Blind Willie Johnson’s significant contribution to the world of music is far too often overlooked. Our mission is to shine a light and acknowledge this important and influential artist currently representing mankind in outer space.
The album, entitled “God Don’t Never Change: The Songs of Blind Willie Johnson,” would feature the likes of Tom Waits, Derek Trucks, Sinead O’Connor, Lucinda Williams, Luther Dickinson and more.
There are some really interesting rewards available for this campaign, including one of a limited series of Cigar Box guitars made from wood taken from Blind Willie’s former home. The guitars start at pledge levels of $4,500.
At the time of writing the campaign has raised just under $50,000 on a goal of $125,000, so the crowd (and the project creator) has some work to do before this campaign can be successful. However, the campaign has 19 days to go at the time of writing, so there is plenty of time to make up the difference.
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