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The new album, Old Fashioned, will be released on January 24th, 2012 by Yer Bird Records out of Calgary, Alberta. I’m very honored to join their already stellar roster, so take a moment and visit their website, check out some of the other quality music they are putting out. They will release the first single on November 22nd, so stay tuned…

The album was produced by Bo Ramsey, a personal hero of mine for quite some time due to his production work with greats like Lucinda Williams, Greg Brown, Jeffrey Foucault, Pieta Brown, The Pines, and others, as well as Bo’s own fantastic solo records. We recorded the album in Iowa City back in August at Minstrel Studios with John Svec at the controls. After that it was passed to Tom Tucker in Minneapolis for mixing, and then on to Yes Master in Nashville, where it was mastered by Alex McCollough.

Old Fashioned features a host of great musicians, including Bo Ramsey himself on electric guitar, Pieta Brown singing harmonies, Bob Black on the banjo, Matt Donoghue (who played on Ghost Towns) on upright bass, and best musical buddy Jeremiah Nelson on a whole host of instruments. Jeremiah also designed that handsome album art above.

Thank you so much to everyone who was a backer for the initial project over at Kickstarter, you all made this album possible!

Singles and other sneak previews are on their way before the full release in January, check back for more updates!

 

Had a great tour earlier this month, with fantastic shows in largely new territory, adding new states such as South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, and Kentucky to the list. Of course, had really great shows in cities I’ve been to countless times, such as Chicago, Madison, Kansas City, and others, so thanks so much to folks for showing up and supporting there.

I met so many great new friends, thanks so much to everyone who hosted concerts, hosted me (often on their couch), fed me, let me do laundry, etc. Tours, obviously, have a very specific goal and purpose, but the best part, for me, is meeting new people.

As for the new album, an official announcement on release date and such is coming soon, I promise! In the meantime, I can tell you that the music portion (the important part) is complete. Just last weekend I received the masters from Yes Master in Nashville, and I’m very excited to get these out to everyone to listen to asap. Stay tuned.

Happy Halloween, everyone,

John

Dates in Kansas, Missouri, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, Kentucky, Illinois, and Wisconsin for late September and October… check the “calendar” page for more info!

Also, the new record, Old Fashioned, has been mixed by Tom Tucker up in the Twin Cities, and will be off to Mastering shortly. Will update on an estimated release date ASAP.

Gearing up for day #2 of recording in Iowa City today with Bo Ramsey producing. Day #1 went swimmingly, and you can follow along on Twitter or Facebook for pictures and updates. Stay tuned, this is going to be a fun ride.

John Statz – NEW Album and Kickstarter Campaign from Matt Woods on Vimeo.

For more info, visit John’s Kickstarter page.

The time is rapidly approaching, and I’m getting very excited to start recording my fourth studio album, “Old Fashioned”. I have a batch of brand new tunes, all written in the last year, and am hoping to write a few more this summer before recording starts to have a nice selection.

In late August, I’ll be heading to Iowa City to work with legendary producer Bo Ramsey (http://www.boramsey.com/), who has worked with folks like Lucinda Williams, Greg Brown, Jeffrey Foucault, Calexico, Pieta Brown, and The Pines. Not only will he be producing the record, but he will also be playing guitar throughout. Bo Ramsey is a badass. I am pumped.

Because I don’t have a record label, I’m using Kickstarter to help fund the album. A lot of costs go into releasing a record, with the big one this time around being Bo Ramsey’s fee for producing the album. In addition, I’ll be paying musicians to play on the record. I’m hoping to bring some talented Wisconsin folks from previous releases down to Iowa to record with us, and also enlist some Iowa City musicians as well. After the recording sessions are over, the album will need to be mixed and mastered (mastering will be done by Justin Perkins in Milwaukee), and then printed and pressed, and promoted. All of these things cost a lot of money, and that is where this campaign comes in.