Demo: "Red Is the Rose" (writer unknown) (Patreon)

To pay for the costs associated with making the LOW TIDE album in 2018, I ran a 30-day fundraising campaign through Kickstarter. Many of you -- I daresay most of you -- backed that campaign and made the dream of the album a reality. 

For this and so much more, my thanks are unending.

As you may remember, there were tiers to that campaign -- for X dollars, you get a CD; for a little more, a signed CD; donate a little more and I'll send along a songwriting journal, or handwritten lyrics, or all the CDs I ever made, and so forth. A couple of the higher-dollar tiers gave the backer a song of their choice, recorded especially for them, either solo or with Jim Henry. I called that little series of recordings "Kickstarter Backer Rewards Recordings." Creative, no? :)

About a dozen backers threw in for custom song recordings. I produced some of them at home and some in Jim Henry's studio, with each little project teaching me something new and important about the process, and something about the donor, too. I was fascinated by the variety of songs people wanted me to sing. Trad songs, popular songs, their own songs ... the whole gamut. I was exposed to songs I'd never heard and some I'd always loved. A couple folks even let me choose the songs, but most had an idea what they wanted to hear ... and why.

Today's offering is a traditional song I recorded at the request of a backer named Michael. Michael told me his father had worked on the Manhattan Project, and Tommy Makem's rendition of "Red Is the Rose" was his father's all-time favorite song. "Radiation got him," he wrote, "and he left a widow with seven kids. That song gave us all strength."

(I'm *really* glad he didn't tell me that until after I delivered the song, because I don't think I could've handled the pressure!)

Jim Henry and I don't play a lot of straight folk or trad songs but we loved putting this tune together. Michael says this is officially his favorite version now and has encouraged me repeatedly to release it publicly. I've actually only formally released one KBRR tune -- "I'll Be Here In the Morning" was recorded for one of my high school besties and released as a single -- and honestly, I am on the fence about how/whether to release some of the others. But who knows? Maybe more of those recordings KBRR will find their way here in time. I can think of three or four more I'd like to share if those backers are okay with it.

Either way, you'll be the first to know.

For now, for today, for the roses... enjoy! And thank you as ever for your support. xotg