Holly Figueroa: Home
January 7, 2009
In May, 2009, I lost my voice.
I am not speaking figuratively, metaphorically, or any other "ally". I mean...I lost my singing voice.
(Well, I guess you could say that I "literally" lost my voice, and that would be an "ally", but...you get the point.)
It left me at the Northwest Folklife Festival. While performing. I knew it was going during the first song, but I kept singing, thinking that it would warm up and get better.
But it wasn't warming up or getting better. It was deteriorating and falling apart, and I couldn't carry a tune by the end of the my set. I had to talk a lot and cover for the fact that I could not sing.
We left Folklife and came home. I fell asleep around 7pm, and slept until noon the next day. For days, weeks...my voice was gravelly and hoarse. I started getting scared.
For weeks before that, I had been having hand pain and stiffness in the mornings. It was worse if I played guitar or or did things like...make coffee. Do dishes. Basically, if I *used* my hands, the next day, I couldn't move them for a good long while in the morning.
I largely ignored this, thinking it was old age. My partner (a physician) assured me...not old age.
So, when I lost my voice, and went to my doctor with these symptoms, he sent me to a rheumatologist, who gave me all kinds of drugs for inflammatory arthritis. None of them worked. I then went to several ENT doctors who couldn't agree on anything, but one of them said this: that there was that there is a joint in our throats that can become swollen with inflammatory arthritis, and that was what was happening.
I asked, "How long will this take to get better?" The question should have been, "Is this ever going to get better?"
I started to think not, and I was not reassured otherwise.
I thought about all of the songs I wanted to sing but couldn't. I stopped listening to music altogether. When people asked me what I did for a living, I said, "Nothing."
I wasn't a musician. I wasn't a singer. I wasn't a songwriter. I was...nothing.
Before I was a songwriter, I used to sing, exclusively. Back in "the day", I was a blues and jazz singer. I started hanging out with songwriters and really liked them, then I started cowriting, and found out that I was okay with words. Then I started playing guitar (under duress), and writing my own songs, but I always kind of felt like writing songs was a lot of work, and I was okay at it...
But singing them...that was fun! So I would write just so I could go out and sing on the "folk" or "singer songwriter" circuit, or whatever they are calling it lately. And playing guitar...I don't really like it that much. It can be fun, but I'm not that great at it, and its hard when your hands don't work that well.
I said, (well, croaked) many, many times in the last 9 months: "If I ever get my voice back, I'm going to..."
And then there were a lot of things I was going to do, but none of them involved songwriting...and all of them involved singing my favorite songs, and singing my ass off.
In February (yes! next month!), Evan Brubaker and I will go into David Lange's studio and record many, many of my favorite songs. Some of them will be jazz standards. (think Billie, Ella, etc.). Some of them might be blues songs that will make you blush. (Just thinking about them makes me blush, and it is hard to get me to blush...) Some of them will be recorded with and by people you have heard of. Some of them won't. (And, okay, there will be at least one original song on the record, because I am simply fraught with hubris. There. I said it.) They will all be my very favorite songs. Because I have my voice back for as long as it is back, and that's what I want to do.
**
That was the preorder preamble. So that makes this the...postamble?
As I have done with my last 4 records, I am funding this project solely through preorders, only this time, what this record will sound like, and the medium it will be released on, will depend on demand.
The instrumentation and number of talented musicians we can afford will depend solely on how much money we raise between now and when the record is released. We will start with piano, drums, and upright bass.
After that, we will add instrumentation according to 1) what the song asks for, and 2) what kind of money is in the coffers.
(For instance: I hear strings and horns on some of these songs, but if the money isn't there...it isn't there. People don't play for free. Well...I play for free. But no one else does!)
It is mind boggling how differently music has made it's way around the world since 2007 when I released, "Gifts and Burdens". We could make this record and never produce a physical product at all, but could release it solely as MP3s. Or we could make only the CDs that are preordered. Or we could make a short run of vinyl for the folks who want to hear their favorite jazz songs the way they would have heard them 50 years ago.
So, instead of me having to decide, I'm leaving it up to you. Here are the levels, and what you get.
$15-$99: A link to download an MP3 release of the new record as soon as it is ready. (This is basically a "what you can afford" level". I had a bunch of people email and say "Can I just send you a donation with nothing in return?" which made me think...it isn't that hard to email a link to mp3s. I was thinking about the "old days" when I would take a preorder for $25.00 for a physical CD, and actually lose money on the production and postage. But a link? Not that hard. Or expensive. The expensive parts are the manufacturing of CDs and vinyl. But...if there are no cds and vinyl involved...not that bad.)
$100: MP3 release of the new recording before it goes out to the public, AND immediate shipment of signed copies of the entire back catalog that is in print. (This includes "Dream in Red", "How It Is", and "Gifts and Burdens".)
$200: MP3 release of the new recording before it goes out to the public, AND a CD copy with artwork, lyrics, and all of the songs when the run is finished, AND immediate shipment of signed copies of the entire back catalog that is in print.
$300: MP3 release, CD Copy, AND, a vinyl 12 inch with the best songs from the sessions. (In other words: whatever will fit and still sound good, we will put on the record.) AND immediate shipment of signed copies of the entire back catalog that is in print.
You want to go above that? Email me. (preorder@hollyoreilly.com)
WHAT EVERYONE WHO PREORDERS above the 100 dollar level GETS:
At every level, you get your name in the credits as an "Executive Producer".
At every level, I will do a house concert for free in your home for you and your friends. (In the tri state area. That's WA, OR, CA. Other states may be added, depending on my continuing good health and tour schedule.)
At every level, you get access to a private site where you can hear the pre production demos, and hear how the record is going. I will be keeping a blog on this private site, and will post pictures of all of the folks working on the record during recording sessions. There will be mp3s on this site that will not be available on any CD or vinyl.
And since the song list is not completely decided on yet, if you preorder BEFORE FEBRUARY 1, you can send a song request for consideration.
There are two ways to pay:
PAYPAL: with a credit card, or with your paypal account, send a payment to
holly@cakerecords.com
(please select "gift", or paypal takes a chunk of the money, and that's no fun.)
Send a check to:
Holly Figueroa
3601 93rd Ave
Mercer Island, WA 98040
**
I want as many people to be a part of this as possible. Making records is never about me, sitting in a studio in a bubble. It is more about me, thinking about you, and what you want to hear.
If I hear from more of you, more of you will get what you want.
Thank you for reading this all the way through. I really appreciate it. I have been wanting to do this for a long time. It took losing everything and getting a little bit of it back to kick my butt into action.
Holly