New Green Roster Band: Single Girl Married Girl

Newest Green Roster Band- Single Girl Married Girl! Happy to celebrate Earth Day with a new band dedicated to sustainability! SGMG is based in NYC, and their Americana/folk/pop music shows off incredible vocals, playing, and lyrics.

Their new album, Spark, comes out May 19th, and will be packaged in sustainable materials! You can learn more about SGMG's green goals on their Green Roster band page, HERE.

To listen to Single Girl Married Girl, visit their website. Be sure to follow them on socials!

@sgmgtheband on Twitter and Instagram

Facebook: facebook.com/SinglegirlMarriedgirl/

Studio Day at Dirt Floor with Jake Klar

On November 7th, Jake Klar recorded his Songscape: Great Mountain Forest song at Dirt Floor in Haddam, CT. Both Klar and Dirt Floor are Green Roster members, dedicated to upholding environmental practices in their businesses. 

Left to Right: Eric Lichter, Max Wareham, Jake Klar.

Klar brought along Amherst-area musician and friend, Max Wareham, to play another layer of guitar. Eric Lichter, founder of Dirt Floor, had a cozy set up for them in the log cabin studio overlooking the Connecticut River. He even had a fire going, which you can hear crackling along to some of the tracks. It's an appropriate addition to Klar's song, which is inspired by Great Mountain Forest's history as a working forest. Great Mountain Forest provided timber-turned-charcoal to the iron industry of northwest Connecticut, which fueled the spread of railroad infrastructure in the 1800's. At a later date, Harrison Goodale, will likely be adding saw to the song, in keeping with Great Mountain Forests' heritage of sustainable forestry.

As always, it is a pleasure working with Dirt Floor. Eric Lichter is one of Sustain's strongest supporters and we could not bring you Songscapes without him. He donated this recording session to Sustain, which is incredibly generous. Thank you Dirt Floor!

See our short Facebook Live session at Dirt Floor (and a sneak peak at the song!):

Recording Songscape: Great Mountain Forest

On Monday (Nov. 7), Jake Klar will be recording the song he wrote while staying at Great Mountain Forest as part of this summer's Songscape program. We've heard the rough cut and it's wonderful! Really brings in the working forest history of the landscape.

The song will be recorded at Dirt Floor, one of our Green Roster member studios. Eric Lichter has donated a free day of recording for this project and we couldn't be more grateful for his support.

Earth Day Donation Drive

Happy Earth Day everyone! It would mean the world to us if you could donate to Sustain in celebration of our work to make music a force for nature. Even a couple bucks helps! As we do not have any paid staff, 100% of your donation supports our projects.

As a special offer today, anyone who donates $50 or more will receive a Guitarbage bracelet made from Parsonsfield's used strings (bass, guitar, mandolin, banjo).

Make your donation HERE! Thank you!

New Green Roster Band: Wise Old Moon

Newest Green Roster Band- Wise Old Moon! The band hails from Hartford, CT. Their music ties traditional folk influences with high-energy, twang infused indie rock. Wise Old Moon is dedicated to the environment- their merch is 100% cotton, USA made and printed with eco-friendly inks! Glad to have them on the Green Roster. Check them out and take a listen to their music HERE. 

This coming year, the band hopes to create another environmentally conscious merch piece, spend more time in natural places, and do their part to encourage other bands to take up environmental practices. Yeah!

New Green Roster Band: The Gage Brothers

Another new member for Green Roster! This time it's the Gage Brothers, out of Akron, OH. These guys play some great music- mixing traditional and new age styles into a unique folk and blues sound. Give them a listen HERE.

When they're not performing, you might catch them hiking around Cuyahoga National Park- it's their favorite. They're also planning to recycle/upcycle all of their spent strings this year! Learn more about The Gage Brothers on their website above, and on our page highlighting their environmental endeavors.

New Green Roster Band: Ben Cosgrove

We are really excited to announce a very accomplished musician and environmentalist to the Green Roster. Ben Cosgrove is a talented instrumentalist inspired by landscapes and place. Nature is clearly situated in his classical-folk crossover music. "By focusing single-mindedly on place/landscape/environment in my music, I hope to actively work against that human tendency to ignore the things around us." Isn't he the best!? What's more, is that he's held artist residencies at public lands across the US! Learn more about his eco-experience here.

Give him a listen and look out for his next show on his website: www.bencosgrove.com

New Green Roster Band: Jake Klar

Sustain is pleased to announce that Jake Klar has joined the Green Roster! Not only does he make great gritty, indie-Americana rock & roll, Klar also cares about doing the right thing for the environment. Check him out and listen to his music at: www.jakeklar.com

(Secret: Sustain's co-founders contributed to Jake's Crescent St. Blues EP! Harrison played bass and Betsy made dinners to feed the crew! Go listen!)

As part of the Green Roster program re-launch, we're now giving all members their own page on our website, highlighting their environmental accomplishments. Check out Jake's, and learn more about him HERE.

Green Roster Program Relaunch

It's been a little over a year since the idea for Sustain was born. In that time we have come a long way, and we're still learning! Our Green Roster program is something we've been giving a lot of thought- how could we better foster environmental practices in the music industry? How could we create a stronger community for the bands, luthiers, and studios who care about their impact on the environment? Just what exactly can the music industry do to be greener? What are people already doing, and what else could they be doing? Sustain and our original Green Roster members have been working on these questions this past year. We've been doing research, going to conferences like Folk Alliance, and talking to experts. And now we are ready to share!
It is with great excitement that we announce the relaunch of Green Roster. We have a slew of new members that we will be announcing throughout the coming week. Some of the key program updates include:

• More robust requirements for members- including annual green goal setting, measuring accomplishments, and public outreach/education requirements
• Resource pages tailored to bands, studios, and luthiers on how they can further green their business, materials, and habits
• A tiered membership system for bands which encourages growth and participation for smaller bands, while rewarding more advanced bands who have the resources to meet stricter environmental standards
• Member-to-member discounts
• Community knowledge sharing
• A quarterly newsletter highlighting member activities
• Plans for increasing the visibility of the Green Roster program to the greater public, as Sustain gains momentum and audiences
• Green Roster membership stamp trademark in progress
• Individual member webpages highlighting their business and their environmental accomplishments

The Green Roster program is still committed to promoting environmental responsibility and awareness in the music industry, but now with this program relaunch, it will be able to do so more effectively.