Chely Wright Looks To Kickstarter To Fund New Album

Chely Wright has announced that she'll be heading back into the studio to record a new album and has gone to the fans that have been supporters of hers to help her crowd-fund the project to get it recorded and then promoted- with a hopeful release date of summer 2015.

 

Says Wright:

"I’ve been writing a lot of songs in the past few years and I'm ready to start recording my next album. I need your help. We’re officially kicking off my Kickstarter Campaign. I will make a record in the same way I’ve always made records—using the best musicians, the best engineers and recording in the best studios available. The only difference this time around is that we are choosing to harness the “power of the people” to fund my album. For my past couple of releases, the budget for simply producing and manufacturing my records has been around $200,000. And then, the record label invests hundreds of thousands more in marketing and promotion. When I was on major labels, these dollar amounts were nearly doubled. So what I’m saying is that I want to make a great album of great songs and to do that, we need to reach our goal.

 This year marks my 20 year anniversary of making records. I have been really fortunate to have dedicated fans who’ve been with me since very early on in my career and together we’ve accomplished great things. I have always considered myself lucky to have been able to make records in Nashville with the best musicians, producers and record labels in the business and to have relationships with some of the greatest radio stations in the country. I cherish the hit records and triumphs that I was blessed to have. But the thing that I've always been most proud of is my relationship with the fans.  We accomplished so much together.  Let’s make some new memories!"

On the strength of her debut album in 1994, the Academy of Country Music (ACM) named Wright the Top New Female Vocalist in 1995. Wright's first Top 40 country hit came in 1997 with "Shut Up and Drive". Two years later, her fourth album yielded a number one single, the title track, "Single White Female". Overall, Wright has released seven studio albums on various labels, and has charted more than fifteen singles on the country charts, selling over a million total records in the process. Wright became one of the first major country music performers to publicly come out as lesbian. In television appearances and an autobiography, she cited among her reasons for publicizing her homosexuality a concern with bullying and hate crimes toward gays, particularly gay teenagers, and the damage to her life caused by "lying and hiding".

As a songwriter she has written songs that have been recorded by Brad Paisley, Richard Marx, Indigo Girls, Mindy Smith and Clay Walker, among them Walker's top ten hit, "I Can't Sleep" that won her a BMI award. On May 4, 2010, Wright simultaneously released her memoir, Like Me, and her first album of new songs since 2005, Lifted Off the Ground.

 Here's a video of Wright explaining the genesis behind the project, which you can donate to by clicking HERE: