Musical History Tour Ad Campaign

Help me reach beyond the choir with the Musical History Tour…

It seems to me this historical “breaking news” tour poster needs to be a full-page print ad in a newspaper near you.  I’m sure it’ll end up on lots of bathroom walls — which is just where we want them.  Am I making sense?

Raised so far:  $395

Why An Ad Campaign?

I’ll elaborate…  One of the things decades of touring internationally has taught me is that some countries have a really cohesive, inter-generational left movement that consistently passes down and otherwise shares political ideas, organizing strategies, and stories from the past that are essential for understanding the present.  Denmark is the best example I know of that has a left that exemplifies this culture-sharing phenomenon.  The United States is one of those countries that almost completely lacks the institutions necessary for doing this — it lacks the network of vibrant unions, strong left political parties and squats that allow societies like Denmark to function so differently than the US.

What we end up doing every generation or so in the US is reinventing the wheel.  So while I tour in Denmark and play every year to new audiences of leftwing teenagers, a teenager coming to one of my shows these days in the US would feel very out of place — while twenty years ago at a typical show in the US I was often the oldest person in the room, at 31.  There are young leftwingers in the US today to be sure, but they’ve never heard my music.  At the same time, they are probably having the same conversations I had decades ago with my fellow young people about the lack of any cohesive inter-generational knowledge base.

For the past several years I’ve taken the path of least resistance, and moved towards touring almost exclusively in Europe, where the tours pretty much just fall into place.  Which is how it tends to work when you’re playing a role (cultural, in this case) in a broader movement — but those networks in the US that I used to be plugged into no longer exist, for the most part.  Recently I decided to get more proactive about contacting present-day organizers about my Musical History Tour, and initial response has been positive.

In addition to emailing individual organizers and organizations I find on the web, it would be good to have an advertising campaign to help me reach out beyond my very small and infirm choir.  I have what I think is one of the coolest advertising campaigns ever, in the form of the tour poster pictured here.  If you glance at it for a few seconds, and perhaps even read a couple of paragraphs, I think you’ll agree that what it would particularly lend itself to some really memorable full-page print ads.

I’m already investing a few hundred dollars into this endeavor, which is all I can afford without assistance.  If anyone else wants to donate towards getting the message out there that there is an alternative view of history and the world (and I can sing it for them), all donations here will go towards paying for more print and online advertising for the Musical History Tour — specifically using this historical “breaking news” poster.  There is no minimum or maximum amount to raise for this campaign.  The full-page ad I’m already paying for in a progressive publication costs $600.  I’d love to have the budget to do a bunch more like that.