NEWS SOURCE: Steve Taylor / Jesusfreakhideout.com
August 8, 2024

What happens when two CCM legends collaborate? Today, singer/songwriter/producer/director extraordinaire Steve Taylor announced a new Kickstarter campaign to fund a brand new album from gospel vocalist Russ Taff. Titled Cover Story, the album consists of 11 cover songs and will be made available digitally to backers as next month when the campaign ends. The album will also be available on CD and vinyl, which release this December.

About the project and the campaign, Steve writes:

As a fellow music lover, I’m guessing you know what it’s like on those rare occasions when you witness a live performance that goes beyond professional excellence to become something that marks your very soul.

The last time it happened to me was in the summer of ’22. The band that brought me to Nashville — Chagall Guevara — played a reunion show at the Ryman, and the next night we had an after-party where we invited some friends to join us for a jam session at The Blue Room. One of those friends was Russ Taff, whom I hadn’t heard sing in decades and frankly assumed his best days were behind him.

I was wrong. 

Russ sang a cover of Charlie Peacock’s “Down In The Lowlands” so full of fire and spirit that he temporarily turned the crowd at Jack White’s downtown club into a church of hand-waving Pentecostals.

My bandmates and I left that night convinced Russ needed to record an album that captured the soulful, unadorned abandon we’d all just witnessed. So when a friend stepped forward a few days later with funding, I recruited John Mark Painter (who knew Russ from church) to produce an album I’d oversee in the hopes we could conjure the same mojo that Rick Rubin brought to Johnny Cash’s American recordings. Then we worked with Russ to gather a collection of cover songs — from Dylan to U2 to Prince to Depeche Mode — that would be made new due to Russ’s feverish vocals and the hard won wisdom he’s earned on his long road to recovery. We had it mixed by acclaimed producer and Chagall Guevara's longtime collaborator Matt Wallace. Then we had it remixed in Dolby Atmos by Matt Wallace and Will Kennedy.

I don’t recall ever being this excited about a record I’ve worked on. I want the world to hear it. Because I think the world needs it. If you seek further proof, listen to Russ's recent interview with Mark Laita on "Soft White Underbelly" (5M+ subscribers) and read some of the 3,000+ comments. (And for a deeper dive, watch my friend Rick Altizer's 2018 documentary "I Still Believe.")

So before this album gets released to the general public, we're offering you an opportunity to hear it first by purchasing it on vinyl, CD or digital download; along with t-shirts, a Dolby Atmos Listening Party, and even the chance to get a phone call from Mr. Taff himself.

I have no personal financial stake in the album's success. But as someone who's experienced the pain of alcoholism in his family, Russ's story gives me hope, which is why this has become for me a passion project and a two year labor of love. 

The plan is to use profits from this Kickstarter campaign to hire marketing and publicity support around the album's upcoming release. To that end, I've recruited some of the same team from my days running the Squint label that made the "Sixpence None The Richer" album a breakout hit, and we've even secured ADA to distribute the album — the same Warner Bros affiliated distributor that took the Sixpence album to a platinum certification. We hope to use that same determination and some of those same connections to bring this project to a wider global audience beyond Russ's core Gospel fans. 

But I want you to hear it first. Thanks for your help in taking Russ Taff's "Cover Story" of hope and healing to the largest audience possible.

Also, about Steve's upcoming film, Sketch, he writes:

What's up? Not much. You? 

Actually, so much is up. "Sketch" is the new movie I produced for writer/director Seth Worley (who directed our Kickstarter video!). It stars Tony Hale (Arrested Development, Veep) and D'Arcy Carden (The Good Place, Barry) and is gonna premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 7th. So if you're one of our Canadian backers I'd love to see you there (and I can apologize in person for the shipping costs to Canada). 

You can back the campaign now via Kickstarter until its end on September 10th, 2024. The goal their shooting for is a hefty $100,000.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/notdead/russ-taffs-extraordinary-new-album-cover-story

For more info on Steve Taylor, visit the JFH Artists Database.