ABOLITION 2021

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Heath joins a stellar lineup including Kronos Quartet, Brandi Carlile, Prison Music Project with Ani DiFranco, Nathaniel Rateliff, Mike Watt, Marcus Mumford, Adrianne Lenker, Courtney Marie Andrews, Lonnie Holley, Caitlin Rose, Sam Amidon, Jolie Holland, Buck Meek, Ian Felice, Maddison Cuningham, Ketch Secor with Molly Tuttle & more for Abolition 2021.

A series of online concerts on April 9, 16, 23 & 30th, hosted by Abolition Apostles (http://abolitionapostles.org) in collaboration with Jolie Holland and Johanna Samuels, Abolition 2021 will raise funds for a new hospitality house near the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola. This house will offer free lodging to the families of incarcerated people at Angola and other nearby prisons, and will serve as a hub for activists, journalists, and lawyers visiting one of America's most notorious penitentiaries.

View the full lineup & get your tickets here: https://noonchorus.com/abolition-2021/

NEW ALBUM: SPRINGTIME IN THE HEART

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The new album from Heath Cullen, produced by Joe Henry, is out in the world today.
Watch the video for the title track above, filmed live in the studio as the music went down.
Listen/order the album here: www.music.heathcullen.com

PRESS RELEASE: HEATH CULLEN ANNOUNCES FIRST NEW ALBUM IN FIVE YEARS, PRODUCED BY THREE-TIME GRAMMY WINNER JOE HENRY.

Heath Cullen returns with his first new album in five years, Springtime in the Heart, unveiled on April 17, 2020. The album was recorded in Los Angeles with three time Grammy winning producer Joe Henry and is the long awaited follow up to Cullen’s 2015 collaboration with Elvis Costello’s Imposters, the critically acclaimed Outsiders.

The release also marks Joe Henry’s triumphant return to the producer’s chair following a tumultuous year in which he received a stage four cancer diagnosis (now, thankfully, in remission), and features an A-team of Henry alumni: Jay Bellerose on drums; Jennifer Condos on electric bass, Adam Levy on guitars; Patrick Warren on keys; and Levon Henry on reeds. The album was recorded and mixed by Pete Min and mastered by Kimberly Rosen.

Says Cullen: “When I stepped back and lined these songs up, side by side on the shelf, I noticed a thread of optimism, a thread of hope. That’s why the record is called Springtime in the Heart, because that’s what I feel like we all need right now. An antidote to bad news”


Springtime in the Heart is available now at www.heathcullen.com

HERE'S THE REASON YOU WON'T FIND MY NEW ALBUM ON SPOTIFY

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Photo by Robbie Jeffers

Photo by Robbie Jeffers

I'm very excited to be releasing my fourth album Springtime In The Heart into the wide world tomorrow, April 17. The recording was made with a great deal of love and care by myself and a handful of the finest musicians in the world, and produced by my dear friend, the great Joe Henry. I’m proud of our work together and I hope you'll take a listen.

But you won't find it on Spotify or Apple Music, or anywhere else for that matter — except for one place: my Bandcamp page, via www.music.heathcullen.com. You can stream the whole record right there, right now — and if you like it, perhaps you'll consider purchasing a copy.

I know that many folks will find this move inconvenient to their listening habits. And I know that many will —as some already have— call it a foolish business move, or ‘music business suicide’. But tell me, dear listener: What else am I to do? My music is what puts the bread (and hopefully the butter too) on my table, and it's an expensive undertaking to create the recordings that we release — a major investment of time and money. Why then should I hand the keys over to some multi-billion dollar company to exploit my music for their own profit? Should I do it because they grant me exposure? How many “exposures” (streams, if you like) does it take before an independent artist can buy a loaf of bread? The answer is simple: Too many. No matter which way I look at it, it just doesn't make sense. "Exposure" won't pay the bills, folks.

Right now, musical artists everywhere are facing a one hundred percent loss of their touring income for the foreseeable future — that means they have zero ability to go to work for possibly a year or even more — but these big companies that are making huge profits by streaming our music are downright refusing to change their business models and help independent artists earn enough money to make a fair living wage.

Does that sound okay with you? Because it's not okay with me.

So... Where does that leave us? On the other side of the coin from all of these big streaming companies sits one lone service: Bandcamp. Bandcamp pays artists based on the principles of fair trade. And what's more, they pay the artist the very instant that each sale is made, not three or four months down the track (I.E. if you buy a download or physical product from an artist through Bandcamp, the artist gets paid right away, which, in this time of crisis is exactly when we need it the most).

So, for the time being, during its initial release period, you will not find Springtime In The Heart on Spotify, or Amazon, or Apple Music, or on any other streaming service, and I make no apologies for that. If you've read this far, you obviously care enough to give a listen. You can do that here. I thank you, and I hope to see you out on the road once we've made it to the other side of this debacle.

With love,

Heath Cullen
Candelo, NSW
April 16, 2020

P.S: If you've been hit hard by COVID-19 and you can't afford the dollars for a download, please write me C/O- info(at)heathcullen.com, and we'll see what we can do. xo

TOUR CANCELLATIONS, JOIN HEATH ON PATREON

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Like every other performer who relies on touring to make their living, I've just lost my entire income for the foreseeable future in the blink of an eye. Coming right off the back of a string of canceled work due to the Australian bushfire summer from hell, this COVID-19 pandemic hits hard. I was preparing to announce a run of tour dates to launch the new album, but I have no option now but to put these plans on hold until it’s safe to go back out on the road.

The only safety net I have in this time is my connection to my audience, so in response to this emergency I have joined up with Patreon to help me continue bringing my music to you. Subscribing through Patreon is an incredible way that you can support the artists that you love, and it helps them to focus on their creative work by providing a reliable, steady income stream.

I’m asking for your faith, solidarity and support in this difficult moment. As a Patreon member, you’ll receive access to exclusive content: Whole albums of unreleased material! Demo recordings, sketches and more! Behind-the-scenes updates! Live stream concerts! And the pride of fuelling work that (I hope) truly matters to you.

I’ll have a lot of time on my hands in the months ahead, and I have my instruments, my studio, and my connection to you. Now, let’s take these lemons and make some lemonade. www.patreon.com/heathcullen

NEW VIDEO: THINGS ARE LOOKING UP

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Heath Cullen returns with his first new album in five years, Springtime In The Heart, recorded with three time Grammy-winning producer Joe Henry, to be unveiled on April 17th, 2020.

Debut track Things Are Looking Up is available now as an instant download with all pre-orders of the album (digital, vinyl or CD) from www.music.heathcullen.com. It is released today accompanied by this film clip featuring rare and stunning footage from NASA which shows the reentry into the Earth’s atmosphere of the Gemini II spacecraft in January of 1965.

Says Cullen: “I had planned to release this song on New Year's Day as a kind of ‘Happy New Year’ update from my home on Australia’s NSW South Coast. Instead, I spent New Year’s Day at a bushfire evacuation centre under a red and smoky sky raining ash and blackened leaves, huddled together with my community as a firestorm roared down on our beautiful valley... it was the most terrifying thing I've ever been through. Those same fires have been burning for five weeks. My plans were put on hold while the month of January unfolded like a never-ending bad dream, with the constant threat of an encroaching blaze never far from home, always at the whim of the wind and weather. There were more scary days like the first one. The flames finally reached my family’s farm on February 1st, and as I write, there are still columns of smoke rising from the hills all around us. At night the mountains glow red. My home is still standing but hundreds of homes in our community and thousands around Australia have been lost, and when I think of the environmental devastation that these fires have caused nationwide... it's just heartbreaking. ”

“The Australian fires of 2019/2020 are a global catastrophe and an ecological emergency, and are a direct result of the human-induced climate change that scientists have been warning us of for decades. We must demand that our elected representatives heed the advice of scientists and experts and take solid action towards ending our fossil fuel addiction immediately.”

Footage credit: NASA. This video shows the reentry into the Earth’s atmosphere of the Gemini II spacecraft in January of 1965. The video is played here at double speed.