That’s right, yesterday (and all night) was a travel day. The close of the Kickstarter campaign has come and gone…I watched the timer count down to zero on Wednesday morning closing out a very intense 30 day (and preceding 30 days of setup) period of watching the reaction to my new book and Blu-ray. It was a resounding success, I’m very happy to report. The funding reached 268% of the original goal and 812 backers will soon be hearing from me about their rewards. Thanks again for the very encouraging response.

On Wednesday morning, I also launched a Kickstarter campaign for a very talented pianist, lyricist, songwriter, and vocalist by the name of Paul Horner. I’d written about the recording of his new project back in March. My good friend Robert Margouleff (Grammy winner for his work with Stevie Wonder) produced Paul’s first recording…and he’s almost 80 years old. Paul is a remarkable musician and I’m very pleased to have gotten to know him through his project.

After the recording sessions back in the spring, I contributed to his project by mastering the record and putting together the artwork. It’s taken way too long but due to number of issues and concerns about images and licensing etc. but it finally ready to be replicated, packaged, and distributed to his admirers.

Paul is primarily known for his work with the legendary Peggy Lee. He co-wrote a number of songs with her and collaborated on the production of the Broadway Musical “Peg”. Many of those tunes have never been recorded, which is shame because Paul’s wit and songwriting skills deserve a much wider audience. There’s the first song that he and Peggy co-wrote called, “I Gave It Everything I Had”, which is also the name of the album. Funny songs, a Christmas tune about a three-legged reindeer named Snowdrop and my favorite, “Washing Windows”. There’s also a drawing of Paul and Peggy by Tony Bennett.

Paul’s looking for some support for his project so that he can finance a few final costs. As a recent Kickstarter veteran, I offered to shoot and edit his video and assist in putting together all of the rewards and images. You can check out his Kickstarter campaign at: Paul Horner’s KS Campaign.

The life of a musician and songwriter is not always lucrative. While Paul and I were shooting his video, he told me that he contributed to a number of hit songs early in his career in England but never received any credit…or money. So much for the music business being kind and fair. He mentioned, “Mrs. Brown, You’ve Got A Lovely Daughter”…a tune that was a huge hit for Herman’s Hermits. Paul collaborated with the writer with the melody of the bridge section.

So please consider taking a look at his Kickstarter pitch video. I included portions of a number of his tunes. And to keep things relevant, one of the rewards is high-resolution file downloads. Robert captured the project at 96 kHz/24-bit PCM and it was kept that way throughout the postproduction process.

See you tomorrow.