Holly Bowling has announced the release of Seeking All That’s Still Unsung, a new album of Grateful Dead covers. This studio album will see the Ghost Light keyboardist record Dead classics, but with the added twist of overdubbing a second piano track.
Bowling has released several live albums featuring her solo concerts where she reimagines and transposes the music of the Dead and Phish to solo piano. Since transitioning from performing on the road to streaming in her living room, Bowling has released eight volumes of her Alone Together (The Living Room Sessions) live series.
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On Seeking All That’s Still Unsung, Bowling will once again do her trademark solo work of transposing the music played by an entire band down to an arrangement for her lone grand piano. Yet this time, rather than using the same arrangements she has been using on the road for the past five years, Bowling felt like mixing things up. The inspiration for this change of style came from Bill Evans‘s Conversation With Myself. On that record, Evans overdubs himself playing piano over himself playing piano. Hence the title, Conversations With Myself. Thus, the new angle for Seeking All That’s Still Unsung was born.
“Playing solo, but not playing alone,” Bowling said in the announcement video. “Playing in the moment, but with one ear tethered to the way I played before.”
Along with the announcement came the launch of a Kickstarter campaign to help fund the record. In a video posted to the Kickstarter campaign, Bowling explained the harsh realities of trying to record and distribute music, especially now in the age of COVID-19. Without touring income, Bowling has financed much of the recording process herself and, as she points out in the video, selling records isn’t exactly a viable option for artists to stay afloat.
“As messed up and as heartbreaking as that is, it means that there has never been a more important time to bring the value back to recorded music,” Bowling said of the perfect storm of the canceled gig economy and the devaluing of recorded music.
Thus, Bowling is offering her fans an opportunity to not only support her directly, as they had done with their tickets for years, but also to get in on the ground floor. Fans can earn perks such as a digital download, CD, vinyl, signed limited-edition white vinyl, their names imprinted on the album jacket, or even a private concert from Bowling for donating certain amounts to the campaign.
Visit Holly Bowling’s Kickstarter campaign for Seeking All That’s Still Unsung for more information and watch the announcement video below.
Holly Bowling — Seeking All That’s Still Unsung Announcement