#CeltfatherMonthly: January 2018 (Patreon)

Greetings Gunn Runners and Happy New Year

I hope you had a marvelous holiday season. I’m very excited about the coming year. 

The first big news is the same as the past few month. I release As Long As I’m Flyin’ on March 6, 2018. I’m trying to build up momentum with lots of interviews and promotion. 

It kicks off with an awesome interview I did with the Sending a Wave UK Firefly Podcast.  I look forward to listening myself because we had a few insights on my creative process that I have never shared before. 

I want to ask a couple musicians to do a musical review of the album. I like the idea. I just need willing musicians.

Celtfather Music & Travel Podcast had 3000 more downloads last year, even tho I released 7 fewer episodes. That was exciting. I hope to improve that by offering a new About A Song feature where I talk about my most-popular songs. The one on "Don't Go Drinking With Hobbits" was so popular, I thought I'd try more. If there’s a song you would like to learn more about, email me. 

On the flip side, I released 2 more episodes of the Pub Songs Podcast this year. Yet I had 6000 fewer downloads. I’m not sure why the decrease. Maybe it's because I focused more on my music than Celtic music in general. Nevertheless, I will release a new episode each month as usual with a few more themes. The theme for this month is Famous Irish songs. Let me know if you have suggestions. And they don't have to be my recordings.

Spotify is my new project for 2018. I’m working on themed playlists. I have three new ones already: one for cats, one for Firefly, and one for Star Wars. If you’re on Spotify, please follow the playlists. Give em a listen. 

One of the big advantages of Spotify playlists is it makes releasing singles more practical. 

I have two songs I plan to release in January and February. One is an updated version of “Wherever I May Roam” with backing instrumentation by Samantha Gillogly and Richard "Nox" Miller. The second is a new comedy song called “Why Do You Torture Me”. I wrote it last year while performing at Johnnie MacCracken’s and released an iPhone recording on Patreon. Both will be released for free to members of the Gunn Runners Club.

Oh! A very big thanks to everyone in my Gunn Runners Club who fund the production of these songs. 

Speaking of funding, I pushed the Kickstarter for the next Cat album back three months to April 2018. I just have too much planned during the first three months. Hopefully, I’ll have a new recording of the “Mingulay Cat Song” released in March to ready you for the Kickstarter. 

I only have one show outside of Purgatorre (my home studio/office). I’m in Huntsville, Alabama on Saturday, January 13 at the Maggie McGuinness Pub. This is my 8th performance there. Wow! Hard to believe. 

Coffee with The Celtfather starts back up next Tuesday at 9am on Facebook Live. That’s January 9th. I hope you will  join me and share the show. 

I finally decided to separate my Celtic Podcast YouTube channel from my personal YouTube channel. That’s because I want to create more videos related to my music on my personal channel. I’m still not sure how yet. But I will let you know when I do. 

I added several new products to my Bandcamp store. You can now buy the Firefly Drinking Songs Songbook. The Sci Fi Drinking Songs book will be up soon. You can get my Celtic Music 6-Pack of CDs. And if you’re a fan of the Irish & Celtic Music Podcast, there are a couple more items specifically for you. 

I want to thank the newest members of the Gunn Runners Club. Thanks to our newest patrons: Elizabeth Burkholder, Tarren Renn, Jason Denen, Sarah Donner. And an special thanks to Tom Smith, Jim Cope, Jeremy Hendon, Scott & Anita Gorrell who all raised their pledges.

You can help me create and release more music. Join the Gunn Runners Club for as little as a buck a month. This will help me create new music for you.

That's all the news for now. Let me know how you're doing or what you would like to see more of in 2018. Slainte!