New Album: New Marketing Twist – Release As We Go!

New Album: New Marketing Twist – Release As We Go!

My last CD release, “Shanghai'd and Marooned in Key West (things could be worse)” was a major success as far as the overall quality of it went. The accolades poured in from all over. Everyone expressed satisfaction and I was honored to have made a CD that included eighteen Key West musicials who were second to none.

What it was, however, was expensive. I'm not complaining, mind you, just making a matter of fact statement. My total production cost, which includes, renting the San Carlos to record the rhythm section (drums and bass), paying the eighteen musicians to play, paying for all of the studio time for recording, mixing and all that goes with it, the actual production of the finished product in CD form, came out to over fifteen thousand dollars. Again, I'm not complaining at all. It was worth every penny!

On the flip side, fifteen grand doesn't grow on trees. With my investment in the Cork and Stogie last year, that pretty much gobbled up any extra money I had.

The issue with an artist such as myself is, it doesn't matter if the money is there or not, the creativity continues and new songs keep coming out of me.

It's time to get back in the studio and put together a new release!

So, here I have all of this material available and I ask myself “How do I make this happen?”, because I don't have the cash available to do it. (Philanthropic investors are more than welcome to contact me however!)

My girlfriend Dani, and others, did the Kickstarter program. It's worked for them well, but it's not something I'm all that comfortable with as of yet.

So, I came up with an idea, which I think makes sense for everyone.

How about if I release the album song by song as it gets recorded? On line, the cost of songs are $.99 each. That's easy!

The sale of the individual songs, will go to paying for the next songs to be recorded. Does that make sense?

I don't know if it's been done before or not. I will say that when I announced it on Facebook yesterday, my friend Kole Dunn wrote me saying he would be doing the same thing. Great minds think alike... or maybe that's not great minds, but rather, madmen! HA HA!

The first song, “Island Blue” is released today, August 3, 2016 and is available on CD Baby. The other carriers, iTunes, Amazon, CD Universe, and so on, will be available in the next few days.

“Island Blue” was recorded by Dan Simpson at Private Ear Studios, here in Key West and features the amazing Country artist Misty Loggins on her Trop Rock debut, singing lead vocals. For background vocals, we have Dani Hoy! On drums, “Father Time”, Richard Crooks, Bass is Dan Simpson, Ericson Holt on keyboards, and myself on guitars.

The song has a Patsy Cline/Willie Nelson feel to it, with a contemporary theme to it of someone heading to a tropical island, like somewhere in the Keys, for example, on vacation, and staying. The song is in a Country ballad/lament style.

Dan Simpson, who recorded this, as well as my previous album, Shanghai'd and Marooned in Key West (things could be worse), regretfully is moving to Ashville, N.C. after a thirty five year run in Key West. Dan is a fabulous guy and everyone in the Key West music scene will miss him. It's said that there is a bustling music scene there, so we wish him the greatest success!

The rest of the album will be done with Key West/London producer Ian Shaw. I'm guessing Ian has been here in Key West for around four years. He still bounces back and forth between London and here regularly, working on various recording projects. He's been in the business over thirty years and I can't wait to start working with him. I've known him since shortly after I arrived here and we've always gotten along great. My experience working with him falls into the introductory level. I did a vocal track with him for a song of Renn Loren's, when I first met him. Renn introduced me to him, as a matter of fact.

                                          Ian Shaw

Dani Hoy, for her brand new release, At The End Of A Long Road, did all of her vocal tracks with Ian as well. The release was actually produced by Kevin Johnston up in Maryland, but Dani did her vocal tracks with Ian. I actually had a fun little two words on her song Back Country Pontoon Party, where I holler out “And beer!” that we did with Ian, but for reasons unknown, Kevin deleted it. Damn producers.

We'll be going into the studio to do two songs this month. One will be “Yeah, A Harbor” and most likely a song I wrote a few years back “Dockside Bar”. This will be a rhythm section with Paulie Walterson and Bob Tucker, the current rhythm section of The Shanty Hounds.

After that we'll be adding guitars, vocals, and additional instruments. It is actually a very time consuming project making a recording. The person who buys the recording, for the most part, doesn't realize all that goes into it. That's natural, as it's not their field.

Additionally, there are two songs that I recorded with the band Homemade Wine last year, that have to be finished. These two songs fall into the category of Southern Rock. Both songs are about 70% completed and we'll get to them when we can.

After that, there are also the title song “Jump Into De Fi-Ya!!!”, “Yippie Cayo Hueso!!!!” ( Cayo Hueso is the Spanish name for Key West, Translation: Bone Key), and “Tote The Load”, plus a song named “Smile!” and maybe one or two more.

Like Shanghai'd, each song will have it's own art cover. Island Blue's is one of the most beautiful islands in the Keys, Marvin Key. I took the picture and Dani, a graphic artist for ages, sized it and added the font.

Once the album is completed, I'll offer it as a complete work. The advantage is here, you can get it as it becomes available! Conceivably, the complete work could be over a year in the making, so here you can get the first song TODAY!

Conventional? Hardly! But what would anyone expect from me anyway? Certainly not the norm!

                                 Misty Loggins (Getty Images)

                      Key West Chris Rehm and Misty Loggins - 2012

Here's the link for Island Blue. It's less than a dollar. As the other carriers, iTunes, Amazon... etc, start to pick it up, I'll add their links too.

http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/keywestchris2

https://itunes.apple.com/…/…/island-blue-single/id1142208757

https://www.amazon.com/Island-Blue-Key-West-Chris/dp/B01K39P4R6/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1470838734&sr=8-2&keywords=Key+West+Chris

Thanks for reading the blog and for those of you who purchase the son a very big THANK YOU!!!

All the Best From Key West!

Key West Chris Rehm