“Just because I’m releasing an acoustic record, I don’t want anybody to get the impression I’m changing my direction,” Mitchhart said. “I’m still out touring with my full band, doing my regular show. This is a one-off album just like when I did my first acoustic record back in 1995. I like doing the acoustic stuff, that’s a part of me, but when people come out they’re going to see and hear my whole band.”
“Late at Night,” recorded at Prime Recording in Nashville, was self-released in the United States. It is available at Mitchhart’s live shows. In late February, it will be available online and outside of the U.S. via London-based Right Recordings.
“Right Recordings handles all the distribution worldwide and the promotion,” Mitchhart said. “They’ll mostly focus on Europe. The deal is I can produce them here, sell them on stage and keep everything. It worked out great because probably 90 percent of what I sell is from stage at my shows anyway. He’s taking the money from the Internet but I’m hoping the sales I lose from that will help because they’ll hopefully increase those sales exponentially and I’ll get my royalties off of that.”
Mitchhart financed the recording and manufacturing of “Late at Night” on CD and vinyl with more than $12,000 raised through a GoFundMe campaign. This was the second time he used GoFundMe, but he even used an early form of crowdfunding in the ’90s using his mailing list.
“When I did my first blues record in 1992, I had a physical mailing list,” Mitchhart said. “Every month I’d go to the post office and do bulk mail for fliers that I stamped and addressed. I sent a mailer out at that time and asked people if they’d be willing to purchase the record in advance to help me do it.
“That cost me about $14,000 and I raised almost $8,000 doing that,” he added. “It worked out wonderfully. People really seemed to enjoy being able to be a part of it. It worked out great. Fast forward many years now and crowdfunding is something a lot of people are doing. It’s an incredible way for people to be able to finance a new record.”
WANT TO GO?
What: Dayton Blues Society presents Winter Blues Showcase featuring Stacy Mitchhart with the Joe Tellmann Band, Dan Holt and Johnny Fink & the Intrusion
Where: Gilly's, 132 S. Jefferson St., Dayton
When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 21
Cost: $20
More info: 937-228-8414 or www.gillysjazz.com
Artist info: www.stacymitchhart.com
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