Stone Clover Presents 'Death To The Life Of Riley'

While this year has presented challenges to everyone, musicians have been hit especially hard. Musicians with a passion for performing have largely lost the ability to do so publicly, thereby losing nearly all ways we traditionally rely on to fund that passion.

This has hit Stone Clover especially hard, as we were beginning work on our most ambitious project yet when Covid hit and caused the cancellation of all shows and sources of revenue to fund that project. Imagine our shock when we were informed that St. Patrick's Day was cancelled! Those of you who know us also know that this is not going to stop us! IT AIN'T OVER, IT'S STONE CLOVER!

While we have been  extremely reluctant to ask for help, the current opportunity presented by Oakland county, and the continued uncertainty as to when we are going to be able to become self sufficient again has made it clear that now is the time to act. First lets tell you what we are creating.

Stone Clover is proud to announce that we will be producing, with the talents of Tuxedo Avenue Studios, a new 20+ song concept album titled "Death To The Life Of Riley". This is, by far, the largest undertaking in the band's 10+ year history. This project can best be summarized as a story driven concept album encompassing all of the musical styles we have blended into our trademark genre, now dubbed "Paddy Slag".

For many reasons, production costs being the most prevalent, the album will be divided into four separate EPs, to be released in succession and building up to a complete cohesive story. To add an even greater level of intrigue, the song order telling the story will not be revealed until all the EPs have been released, allowing the listener to speculate on the final narrative. Upon completion, the full album revealing the linear story arc will contain additional previously unreleased tracks. We also intend to create a series of related music videos moving the concept of the story along. A graphic novel and a screenplay are also in the works.

All money raised from this fundraiser will begin to cover the various costs necessary to make this multi media project possible, including but not limited to recording, mastering, legal, artwork, video shoots, editing, etc, etc, etc. While it may seem like a large sum we honestly project needing more than double this amount to bring this project to completion and would have been able to do so if not for Covid.

NOW FOR THE BEST PART

Oakland County has pledged to donate a matching amount to the Arts Beats and Eats musicians fund, up to $500,000, that will be used to help local artists survive. Every single dollar you donate to Stone Clover will be matched by Oakland county to help out fellow musicians. We believe this overwhelmingly generous gesture will inspire those who are able to donate to do so knowing that their efforts will be doubly effective.

We have already raised $1500 for the musicians fund with the help of our great friends The Corktown Popes by selling out our drive in performance on Saturday Sept. 5 from 4-6pm. We will be working out a way to broadcast this performance.

While we clearly stand to benefit from this campaign it has always been part of our mantra to do charity work and to give back to our community as a whole. Being able to use our own fundraising campaign and strong community relationships to directly benefit other fellow musicians is the main reason we have chosen to do this now. That being said we intend to raise  the bar and have Oakland county donate as much as possible of the $500,000 they have pledged to match.

Just think of all the cover charges, merchandise, or in our case rounds of drinks you might have spent this year attending concerts and music....Ten, a hundred, a thousand dollars?? Now realize that Oakland county will match your donation to help out our musical community as a whole. Your donation will directly help us to create new art while also providing much needed financial support for day to day living for so many more musicians in need.

If you've made it this far and would rather donate to the Arts Beats and Eats musicians fund instead of this creative project you can do that too and Oakland county will match those donations as well. Bottom line we are asking for your help in supporting our musical community. Let's make music and history together.

Stone Clover would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our fans for your continued love and support, especially those who may not be able to donate due to the hardships they themselves are facing right now. We are all in this together and if we are able to meet or exceed our fundraising goals we will be releasing the first EP for free for the first 3 months. Thanks to Tuxedo Avenue this is going to be an amazing record. We'd also like to thank Oakland County for their very generous efforts to support local artists. Efforts such as theirs are helping metro Detroit continue to be one of the best places in the world to create and appreciate great new music. 

Cheers all.