A Cleveland recording engineer who wants to show support for human rights is putting together a retro fundraiser for the ACLU of Ohio.
Clint Holley, who runs The Earnest Tube studio, recorded about three dozen artists in the past year directly to disk – no tape, no computers. Now, he has commissioned 10 of his friends in the Northeast Ohio music scene to contribute to the album “Analog Rebellion.”
Holley says he was partly inspired to use direct-to-disc recording since it’s the same process used by John and Alan Lomax to preserve folk music for the Library of Congress in the 1930s.
“Folk music, by and large, usually tells some kind of story or relates some bit of news. It gives insight into the mind of the person who’s singing it at the time," Holley says. "So I think what they kind of obliquely discovered was that these songs are capturing not only the regional sounds but also the thought patterns and what was on people’s minds.”
Another motivation for Holley was the election of President Donald Trump and concerns about how the new administration might impact people’s rights.
“I'm a pretty liberal-minded guy and brainstormed this thing to do something local that could actually help make an impact in the long run," Holley says. "Instead of getting on Facebook and complaining about it, I figured it's best just to do something, no matter how small. Sometimes that helps push everything forward.”
A crowdfunding campaign for “Analog Rebellion” ends on December 31, and Holley expects the album will be pressed next spring at Cleveland-based Gotta Groove Records.
