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.

Songscape Updates

It's been a busy few weeks for Sustain! We have two Songscapes going this month. Songscape: Great Mountain Forest with Jake Klar just wrapped up and Songscape: Seedskadee NWR with River Whyless starts on July 30.

Songscape: Great Mountain Forest

Klar just finished his residency at Great Mountain Forest. The week kicked off with a potluck at the Great Mountain Forest farmhouse, alongside GMF's board members, staff, interns, friends and family. After a delicious dinner outside with the crickets and pines, we watched Green Fire, a documentary about Aldo Leopold, the father of conservation and the Land Ethic. To top off the night we had maple syrup sundaes, made with GMF's own syrup made on site. Forest products for the win.

Jake has completed his song, filmed a music video, and now we're in the process of arranging recording and video editing. We'll let you know the release dates soon.

Songscape: Seedskadee National Wildlife Refuge

We are tired of making you tired with the requests for donations for Songscape: Seedskadee NWR! We're sorry. However, we still need funding! Luckily we had a great grant come in from Clif GreenNotes (of Clif bar) but we're still a few thousand short of being able to have Corey Robinson, National Geographic videographer, do the music video. Please consider donating here: https://www.generosity.com/volunteer-fundraising/songscape-seedskadee-national-wildlife-refuge

With that necessity out of the way, we're excited for the kick off Welcome Campfire on July 30. We have the great pleasure of receiving a beer donation from Storm Peak Brewing, a craft brewery out of Steamboat Springs. Awesome outdoor gear company, Stio, has also donated gear to River Whyless to help outfit them on their float trip on the Green River through the refuge.