Birthday Recap and Bringing on the NEW!

Happy Birthday- New Year, Bring on the NEW :-)

Sponsor your Favorite Singer/Songwriter and help Produce the Next Album by clicking below!

I just had a fun-tastic birthday weekend in the Pocono mountains with my incredible friends. First of all, I am so, so blessed to have friends who can all go away together for a couple days and mostly get along and mostly eat the same food and be active, engaged, intelligent, sensitive, generous, easygoing, and HILARIOUS people. But second of all, how many people have friends who write them a play called "Cassandarella", then dress up in full-on ridiculous costumes and act it out at 11 pm in front of a campfire, then bring out a cake? As if THAT weren't enough, Jody, being awesome, bought a scratch-off lottery ticket, and I actually won $100! First time THAT'S ever happened! So cool.

I also got calls from my unbelievably supportive and amazing family, and a few other friends from around the globe. And of course, Facebook, being totally odd with it's delusion of being a "personal" means of communication, proved its incredible networking capability with literally hundreds of well wishes posted to my wall.

Really, I am so lucky. Thank you. THANK YOU!

Anyhow, as I ring in the new, and realize with more clarity than ever before what I want for my life (feeling older...feeling like an adult...feeling responsible...let's do this thing!), I also realize how amazingly transformative this summer has been (so far). I'm reinventing and starting over in many ways, which is scary and intimidating, exciting, and very humbling. I'm feeling more excited about music and the new projects I'm working on than I have been in a while, and am all the more excited to share the results on record and live with you!

In the spirit of new approaches, new joy, and greater abundance and success, I have also decided to add something new to my musical community: the option of becoming involved in creating my music by becoming a sponsor. I have always been a "do it yourself-er" and often thwarted myself or my progress by feeling like I had to do everything myself. The friends closest to me (you know, the ones who will tell me the truth- even the hard truth) have occasionally reminded me of this, and recently, have really made me examine why I'm doing this, and encouraged me to stop. The truth is, I realized recently that I have applied pretty much every resource and asset I had, that I came to NYC with, towards my music- creating it, producing it, performing it, traveling for it, living in a major city in order to be inspired and in the thick of the business. While pursuing this dream passionately, and creating hopefully unique music and experiences for myself and my friends, fans, and audience(!?), I got to a point recently where I'm not able to sustain this level of activity without some help in the, um, "assets" department ;-) It has been really hard to face and really humbling to talk about, because I always heard and believed that if you did what you loved, the money would follow.

After I finally got brave enough to actually SAY something and determined to change the situation, a few of my Amazing Friends all suggested the same thing: Why not invite and allow the people who love your music the most, your fans, to become involved in creating your next batch of music? As many of you know, I'm producing a whole new set of tunes with a producer I love, and the results have been fantastic, garnering us meetings with not only the usual music industry suspects, but also places like the YES Network, History Channel, major advertising agencies...from here to Nashville to LA. "Why not let your fans know that you need some support to afford the travel, production, the band, the CD duplication, etc?" asked my Amazing Friends. "What you need is an arts patron... an Angel... a sponsor... you know, like the Metropolitan Museum of Art, or Brahms." Well, when you put it THAT way...!

So, for the first time ever, I would like to invite you to become a sponsor of my music. Unlike many organizations that ask for you to "support the arts", you know EXACTLY where your support is going in this case, and will directly experience the results of it, and actually have a relationship with a real person who will be able to create more, and more consistently, and more easily- with your help.

Since I've never done this before, and I'm not NPR or PBS, I don't really know how this works, but I DO know that many independent artists like myself are revolutionizing the music business by having their fans as co-producers on their albums. I've never been a "revolutionary". That's new, too. Which means it's a perfect way to start the year. So...

LEVELS OF SPONSORSHIP
First of all, I welcome and uber appreciate ANY amount you would possibly like to sponsor with in support of the new music, the upcoming tour/travel, and live band concert events (think of yourself as a one-man Live Nation)

But for those who love PBS-like "gifts", how about these levels:

1. Ivory Tickler- $20 or more- Receive a copy of my new album LIVE AT CAMP NASHVILLE, or my last studio album Hold the Sun

2. Cassandrican Idol: $50 or more- All 3 of my albums (Hiding Underneath, Hold the Sun, and Live at Camp Nashville), signed if you wish!

3. Rockstar- $100 or more- All 3 of my albums, signed if you wish, as many CK posters and pens as you can handle, and 2 tickets to my next concert at which there's a cover charge

4. Musical Angel- $250 or above- All 3 of my albums and a house concert (night of musical personally tailored to you, in the comfort of your own home) for you and your friends, wherever and whenever it's convenient for you!

If you'd like to create a sponsorship or patronship greater than those amounts, please contact me personally, as I would love to discuss how I might be able to thank you for your generosity and support in an active, artistic way.

Meanwhile, if you or anyone you know would like to present a house concert, need a songwriter or singer for any special occasion (custom birthday, anniversary, and wedding songs) or event (charities, private parties, opening for Carole King...), or want to hire me to taste all your chocolate and ice cream and confirm that it's good (therefore saving you the anguish of eating bad chocolate or ice cream), I am available, interested, and would love to hear from you.

Finally, I need to personally thank these artists for their own stories of sponsorship, encouragement, and non-judgmental support:
David Ippolito, the phenomenon known as That Guitar Man from Central Park
Annie Fitzgerald, the gorgeous pop/folk/jazz artist celebrating her new CD with a release September 9 at Rockwood Music Hall, 7pm
Brooke Ferris, Rising Cabaret Star, Actress, and BFF

HUGE THANKS for your support, your birthday wishes, for reading this, and for joining me on the next, new era of my musical journey. You are all powerful and beautiful friends, and I am so grateful to have you in my life as I begin my next trip around the sun.

Much love,
Cassandra