I don't know where to begin this, so I'll speak freely and from the heart.

In just 3 weeks, I have the incredible opportunity to go to Rio De Janeiro, Brazil to record with Ivan Lins. Some of you may know who he is, and some of you may not, but to put it simply, he's one of the world's greatest poets and is highly regarded as "The Stevie Wonder of Brazil". "Love Dance" & Dinorah, Dinorah" from George Benson's "Give Me The Night" album, and "Setembro" from "Q's Jook Joint." You know his work, but not his name.

Let me share a bit of backstory on why this is so important to me. I'll try to keep it short, but we'll see. To start the story... without this man's music, I wouldn't be here. We all have someone's music that saved us while we were going through the darkest periods of our lives. For me... it was Ivan's. When I was 15, I used to listen to "Love Dance" often, and one day, I finally pulled the sleeve from the record jacket to look at the credits and I see that Ivan wrote it. His name stuck with me. Fast forward a few years to me going to basic training in the United States Air Force and being sent home from basic training and not being able to walk because of a leg injury. I went into a DEEP depression though some never saw it.

When I was 19 and Napster and Limewire came around, I downloaded anything I could find of his and I made 2 CDs, both of which I still have 20+ years later. From 18 to around 26... while I had some good times when I was alone, it was very dark, and in those moments where I wanted to "unalive" myself, it was this man's music that literally spoke to me and saved my life. If you think about your own journey with someone's music that was "there" for you... this is that.

Fast forward a bit to 2014, I released a cover of his song "Velas Icadas" on my first album and I also covered "Love Dance" on my second album. On 2 separate occasions of me attending his shows in NYC and Detroit, he heard my arrangements of both songs and was really moved by them. So much so, that he said the third song he wanted to hear of his from me, he'd choose it and send it to me. Absolutely floored and honored by his graciousness.

At the start of the pandemic, he sent me 3 songs to choose from, and I chose 2 of them to cover. Initially, I was just going to do instrumental versions or get a couple of my frequent collaborators to work on these with me, but something spoke to me and had me ask him to feature on the songs. He happily said yes. Unbelievable. I've wanted to work with this man for 20+ years, but it didn't happen before because I simply wasn't ready. Well... now is the time!

I'm asking for your assistance in helping in living out what has been the biggest dream I've ever had. After this... I'll have to come up with something else!

As for the financials, the entire trip is going to cost $7,000. This is to take care of Ivan's fee, the plane ticket to get to Brazil, studio costs, and accommodations.

I have $5,000 of it covered already so we don't need much more to make this happen. $2,000 toward the dream, and the other $500.00 to cover fees.

If you prefer to use another method:

$bwilliamsmusic (CashApp)

@bwilliamsmusic (Venmo)

Anything I received through those, I'll take the goal down here.

In advance of anything you do, know that I appreciate the love you all continue to show me on my journey. Thank you so much.

Let's go to Brazil!