Sandra McCracken

Makin' Some Noise for NoiseTrade

I write songs.  I write checks.  I change my own guitar strings.  I am an independent singer-songwriter (mostly) by choice.  I believe in independent music like I believe in organic farming.  It’s good for the economy.  It’s good for my family.  It’s good for the art that I’m making. 

But the secret truth is, there’s no such thing as an independent artist.  You can’t do this in a vacuum.  An artist needs support. NoiseTrade has given me (and 2500 other bands and artists) a platform to build a career on our own terms.  Since NoiseTrade launched 2 years ago, I have gathered an e-mail list of nearly 20,000 listeners.  By trading music for e-mail I can tour, promote, and connect.   

NoiseTrade is a free service (and an independent company), and hopes to keep it that way.  They are asking for financial support so they can make some major service upgrades. Make a DONATION and get 25 SONGS from artists like Katie Herzig, Matt Wertz, Derek Webb, The Civil Wars, David Mead, Bleu, Thad Cockrell and many more.  Included in this batch of songs is my new, exclusive song “Never Have Tonight Again.” 

Thank YOU for listening.  Thank you Derek, Brannon, Mark, David, and Joe, and Josh at NoiseTrade. Here’s to more people making honest music on their own terms...

Cheers, Sandra

Published on September 19, 2010 at 9:26 pm | Permalink | 0 Comments

Porter's Call Auction

I’ll start by saying, I love my Dad.  But when I was a kid, my Dad told me that chiropractors are not real doctors and that anyone who goes to a therapist is weak.  The funny thing is, when I became an adult, I realized that my Dad is sort of a man-child with occasional back pain who probably needs both a therapist and a chiropractor.  So, I decided, like many other things, I needed to revisit these ideas and make up my own mind about them.

When I was in my last year of college, and post-college I had a whole host of emotional baggage and a break up from my high school boyfriend which launched me into a personal, epistemological crisis.  I’m fairly certain that this experience with a high school boyfriend (that should not have also been a college boyfriend) taught me why elected officials need term limits.  And it also makes me feel better about Rory Gilmore eventually splitting ways with Logan.  But, I digress…

All this to say, at this point someone referred me to go talk to Nita Andrews, who is now known with her husband Al as “Porters Call,” a ministry of counseling and support for artists and their families.  Like my Dad taught me, I resisted and protested.  But I was finally won over by my own curiosity and desperation to find some stable ground. 

Upon walking into our first meeting, I’d considered myself pretty self-aware.  But let me confess, Nita blew the doors off my understanding of myself and the world around me.  Over some months, she gave me a hand that pulled me out of my over-extended adolescence (I was in my early 20’s) and she welcomed me into authentic faith and personhood.   There was no pretense in her counsel, no condescension in her friendship, and she was not shocked in hearing my confessions.  With imagination, candor, and insightfulness I found those meetings to be possibly the safest place I’d ever known.  For the first time, I could be myself.  And that was the beginning of something new.  Weak became honest.  Honest became truth.  And truth became strong. 

We all have both weakness and strength written into the fibers of our being.  We wear a lot of masks.  Jump into a lot of coffins.  We put our paintbrushes down for long naps while we go about our busy lives.  It’s all part of being human in this broken world.  But the more we bury the truth, or ourselves, or our secrets, the more we live in the dark.  Literally, it’s like burying ourselves one inch at a time, in the dirt.  Under the ground.  Where no light or movement or beauty that can get to us.   So grab a shovel, a pick axe or even a toothbrush.  And let somebody help you get free. 

I am thankful to God for Nita and Al Andrews, for the work of Porter’s Call, and for the way that they continue to make themselves available for the artists in our community.  They are hosting an auction this week (beginning Saturday September 11 at 10 AM) to help raise support for their counseling and creative ministry.  I’ve contributed 3 exclusive journals, with handwritten lyrics from “In Feast Or Fallow” to the auction.  I’ll post updates on Twitter and Facebook when the auction is live.  Find out more about the work they do, and how you can help or be helped:  www.porterscall.com

3 exclusive journals available here for auction  

Published on September 8, 2010 at 2:27 pm | Permalink | 0 Comments