05.01.12 - Musical Theater Update


INDIEGOGO CAMPAIGNBut we need your help. We have raised some of the money for the production through private donations, however, there is still $20,000 to raise. Daunting yes, but we believe. Yes, we believe. You should know that we have a stellar cast and crew chock full of Broadway veterans including: Van Hughes (American Idiot), Ryan Link (Hair), Drew McVety (Billy Elliot), Lori Fischer (Barbara's Blue Kitchen), Billy Brimblecom, Rebecca Hart, Michael Castillejos, Alex Branton, and our esteemed director, Gabriel Barre (Pippin).
So go to:
indiegogo.com/SonofaGunFirebone and watch the video, then see if there are any perks that suit your fancy. Or if you know someone who might be interested in supporting this endeavor, please spread the word.
OTHER WAYS YOU CAN HELP 1. As we say, spread the word! Pass this along to people you know who are WATERDEEP fans, FIREBONE THEATRE fans, or fans of the actors in our spectacular cast.
2. If you live in the NYC area, buy a ticket now (the $30 package) and come see the show at Theatre Row! And invite your friends!
3. Like/follow Firebone Theatre on Facebook and Twitter.
4. Like/follow Waterdeep on Facebook and Twitter.
5. Contact us at admin@waterdeep.com if you have either of the following that you'd like to donate:
airline miles/free flights, or places we can stay in NYC. 
LORI'S MUSICAL THEATER BACK STORY I'm going to be honest here. When Don started this whole musical theater journey, I was a little skeptical. Seriously? A musical? Do you even like musicals? Do you have time for this? Do longhaired bearded types fit into the world of musicals?! (Yes, I'm clearly not always as supportive as I'd like to think I am). But the guy just seemed to have a knack for it. After seeing the reading at Joe's Pub in May 2011, I had to admit it was pretty amazing to see something in writing get fleshed out on a stage, in front of a live audience. Then Son of a Gun won the O'Neill last summer and I got to go to Connecticut to see the show in process there. What an experience: so many people in the Broadway community dedicated to making this piece-that was so near and dear to our hearts-the best that it could be. Then to watch it hit the crowd, with all it's tragedy, comedy and melody... it was, as Don has already said, one of the highlights of our creative life.
To seal the deal, this March we went to St. Louis to see our friend, Van Hughes-who will be playing the lead in Son of a Gun-play the lead in Green Day's musical, American Idiot: truly inspiring. I'm hooked on the thrill of live theater; to see a room suddenly disappear as we're all drawn up into another world is pretty remarkable.
So now, as I survey the last 18 years of our creative journey together, I can see that all the artistic and collaborative tendencies of my hubby-the festivals we threw, the Voice Cds, the jam band nature of Waterdeep, even the crazy story songs he wrote-are a great preamble to musical theater. As wacky as the idea seemed at first, I can now see it makes perfect sense.
VIDEOWe have another video up on youtube. This one is of our cover of Paul Simon's
Under African Skies. FILM AND TVA little birdy told us that if you watch
Private Practice on May 8, 10/9c you might just hear our song "It's Alright". If you don't hear it, little birdies occasionally change their minds at the last minute, so there's always that.
UPCOMING SHOWSJune 1-Nashville, Tn- Belmont's Massey Performing Arts Center (MPAC) 7:30pm.
Check back here in a few days; there should be more details coming soon.
July 6-Bushnell, Il- Cornerstone Festival-Gallery Stage 6-6:40

End of Story
Well, that's all she wrote, literally. If you made it all the way to this point, I'm proud of you and will maybe give you a sticker at the next show as a token of my appreciation*...or maybe you should quietly clap for yourself right now. (whispered) yay.
Peace Out,
Lori
*while supplies last : )
03.21.12 - Spring Update

Hey all (or y'all...when in Rome...),
It's Lori. Don's busy in the studio finishing projects with The PawnShop Kings and Natalie LaRue, so it's my turn to give you a quick update on the various goings-on of Waterdeep. And since you know me to be the less talky of the two of us, I'll get right down to business.
THE COLLECTION Last month-ish, we let you know about our retrospective CD called The Collection, that you could buy with our new record, No Doubt of Sunshine (if you haven't picked up a copy for yourself or your friends, click
HERE to make everyone in your life happy). Now we are happy to offer it as a separate item in our store. Yay! This 14-song retrospective album features two new reocrdings of older songs, and also comes packed with the following downloadable bonus material:
Live at the Late Great New Earth - a previously unreleased 10-song live album recorded at Waterdeep's legendary last show at the New Earth Coffeehouse in Kansas City in 2004. If you were there, you get to re-live it. If you weren't, you get to live it.
The Waterdeep Chartbox - The complete collection of chord charts used in the studio for EVERY previously recorded Waterdeep song (up to and including the album In The Middle of It). Everything you could ever need to start that Waterdeep cover band you've always wanted to form.
Audio interview- A 20-minute conversation with Don and me about the making of all the Waterdeep albums.
All that stuff (a
$50 value) for only
$19. Not so shabby really. Check out Waterdeep:
The Collection here.ONE TREE HILL (AGAIN!) AND YOUTUBE VIDEOS Tonight, Wednesday, March 21, Don's song, Stay By Your Side, (from No Doubt of Sunshine) will make its television debut on The CW's
One Tree Hill at at 8/7c . So get your popcorn popper cleaned up and ready to go....Yes and amen.
We've got another video up now, of us playing
Stay By Your Side.
By the way, we updated our last video of "It's Alright" to an
HD version here (FYI, the old fuzzy looking one is gone, so that link no longer works).
UPCOMING SHOWSWe have some fun shows coming up soon, so be sure to check those out (Psst, they are right at the top right of this page, in case you didn't notice)
MUSICAL THEATER Don's foray into musical theater is going very well. In fact, so well, that his first piece, Son of a Gun, will have a full production run for three-weeks in New York in November! Produced by
Firebone Theatre, Son of a Gun will show at The Beckett Theatre @ Theatre Row (42nd St and 9th Ave). Did you get that?! CRAZY! For those of you who don't speak musical theater (like me) that means costumes, sets, lighting, etc. No more music stands while reading scripts. This is the REAL DEAL, and in NYC, and for three weeks! We couldn't be more excited. There's more info to come, but for now you can watch a video about it at
http://firebonetheatre.com/ where Firebone is also raising the money to make this happen (Don and friends need to raise A LOT of money to pull this off), so feel FREE to
donate if you feel so inclined.
Well, that about wraps it up. By the way, thanks for getting the word out about No Doubt of Sunshine. We have had a lot of great feedback from so many of you, and that always feels awful nice.
Take care,
Lori (& Don)
02.01.12 - New Deluxe Edition/Limited Edition Sold Out
We have sold out of our Limited Edition packages with the Feb 18 house show tickets. Thanks everyone for snatching those up.
However, we have changed our Deluxe Edition to include the booklet that was previously in the Limited Edition only. Nothing better on a cold winter day than a cup of tea/coffee/hot chocolate while reading some essays/poetry/lyrics.
-Lori
11.30.11 - No Doubt of Sunshine Announcement

It's with great pleasure that we launch this little ship out onto the open sea. We worked hard on her, and we think she turned out real nice.
There are several different ways you can experience the new record. These are spelled out below, but we want you to know that each of the elements included-from the seeds Lori had drying out on the counter, to the prints I carved late at night in the dining room, to the essays and poems we poured over in the Limited Edition book- are dear to us.
As usual, we are incredibly grateful for the chance to share our art with you. We could ask for no better people than you to: hear our music, read our thoughts, gaze at our pictures, wear our t-shirts, and plant our vegetables.
We hope you enjoy.
No Doubt of Sunshine
1. Time And Time Again
2. It's Alright
3. We Already Got It
4. Back Together Again
5. Everybody Knows it
6. So Good To Have A Friend
7. Call It A Dance
8. Get It Together
9. Open The Door
10. Overcome It
11. I'll Go
12. Stay By Your Side
13. No Doubt Of Sunshine
The Digital Edition: $9.00(1) Digital version of the new 13-song album, available immediately
The Physical Edition: $11.00(1) Physical version of the new 13-song album
(1) Digital version of the new 13-song album, available immediately
The Deluxe Edition: $29.00(1) Physical version of the new 13-song album
(1) Digital version of the new 13-song album, available immediately
(4) Bonus songs - previously unreleased, newly written songs.
(12) Lyric postcards designed around Don's handwritten excerpts from the album's lyrics
(1) Tshirt- an incredibly soft American Apparel Tri-Blend t-shirt (color: "tri-cranberry") with a black ink print of Don's "Sunshine Rocker" lino-print, featured on the album cover.
The Limited Edition: $59.00(1) Physical version of the new 13-song album
(1) Digital version of the new 13-song album, available immediately
(4) Bonus songs - previously unreleased, newly written songs.
(12) Lyric postcards designed around Don's handwritten excerpts from the album's lyrics
(1) Tshirt- an incredibly soft American Apparel Tri-Blend t-shirt (color: "tri-cranberry") with a black ink print of Don's "Sunshine Rocker" lino-print, featured on the album cover.
(1) No Doubt of Sunshine Book- a signed 75-PAGE book that includes: album lyrics, bonus song lyrics, poems, essays, and lino-prints.
(2) House show tickets- (2) tickets to a special acoustic house show for you and the other purchasers of this package put on by Don & Lori in Nashville, TN on 02/18/2012 (specific location: TBD).
(1) packet of seeds from the Chaffer garden
But wait! There's more... I've always wanted to say that, and in this case, there really is more. There's ANOTHER ALBUM. What? Did they just say ANOTHER ALBUM?
Yes.
Actually, it's TWO MORE ALBUMS, an AUDIO INTERVIEW, and ALL THE CHARTS TO ALL OUR SONGS.
Huh?
Let me explain: about a year ago, we released a retrospective album (that usually means "greatest hits," but we never really had any "hits" per sei) called Waterdeep- The Collection exclusively through Family Bookstores. It's a 14-song CD, loaded with digital download bonus material, and now, we are offering it exclusively to purchasers of No Doubt of Sunshine. This is a serious deal: a $50 VALUE available to you for $19.
Waterdeep: The Collection includes:
-The (14)-song CD retrospective including (2) new recordings.
-Live at the Late Great New Earth (digital download)- a previously unreleased (10) song live album featuring members from each era of the band at Waterdeep's last show at the New Earth Coffeehouse in Kansas City right before their 2004 touring hiatus.
-The Waterdeep Chartbox (digital download)- The complete collection of chord charts used in the studio for EVERY previously recorded Waterdeep song (through the album In The Middle of It). Now you can find out how to play all the songs for yourself.
-Audio interview (digital download)- A (20) minute conversation with Don and Lori Chaffer about the making of all the Waterdeep albums.
The Physical Edition + WD: The Collection - $30
The Deluxe Edition + WD: The Collection - $48
The Limited Edition + WD: The Collection - $78
11.14.11 - Lo, a New waterdeep.com Cometh
This News Item Isn't as Geeky as It Looks
What you see here is the equalization (EQ) rack from my recording studio. At the time of this picture, I was having transformers put into the EQ modules (unnecessary tech-speak that means I was having them worked on). And that rack stared at me empty for a while. Its edge connectors were longing to re-connect with its modules, but, lo, it was vacant.
This is a metaphor for our old website. Long had it sat there, untended and barely updated. Then, right before our tour, the tour section went down, and many bad things seemed to begin to happen. We commissioned a new website, and in the intervening time, things were grim. Our website was a metaphorical rack with edge connectors but no modules. But now...
Welcome to the new waterdeep.com. Click around. Discover. It's simple, but it's the best way to plug yourselves into our world.
-Don
Audio Player- New Album Teaser
In the upper right corner of this page, there's a little audio player. In that audio player are several songs. The first four are from the new, unreleased Waterdeep album,
No Doubt of Sunshine. Look at you. You get a special sneak preview. You are the envy of your friends, and soon you will be the toast of the town when you email all those friends, and say, "Check it out. Waterdeep's streaming some of the unreleased songs from their new album,
No Doubt of Sunshine on their website. They're so awesome!"
-Don
Don Chaffer- An Unfinished Tale, Vol. 2: Truth

I released a new Don Chaffer EP a few months back, but, at first, it was released exclusively as part of a fundraising campaign for my musical,
Son of a Gun. Then, we released it to the wild, but then we forgot to post a digital version. Now, it's all there: digital and physical versions. Click
here, to buy it for yourself.
-Don
Tour Dates
06.01.12
Location: Nashville, TN
Venue: Belmont's Massey Performing Arts Center (MPAC)
Time: 7:30
Cost:
More info coming
07.06.12
Location: Bushnell, IL
Venue: Cornerstone Festival Gallery Stage
Time: 6-6:45
Cost:
Twitter
RT
@firebone : I'm seriously speechless. Thank You, Merci, Danke, Gracias! We raised more than $10,000 in the last 24 hours. Now the real ...
15 hours ago
And Fyi it took everything in me to not start that last post with "Well I'll be a son of a gun..."
#cornpone : ) -L
16 hours ago
Well Sweet Moses, I can't believe it!
#sonofagunmusical is fully funded thanks to you fine folks! Thanks for putting up w all this craziness
16 hours ago
5:56 PM May 15th
Btw, if everyone who ordered opening night after-party tix is really going, it's gonna be one hell of a hootenanny!-L
#bestpartyever #giddy 5:31 PM May 15th
"When the slings & arrows of outrageous fortune come- & u don't know where the arrows r comin' from- the question is do you love?"-Cowboy J
12:58 PM May 15th
12:57 PM May 15th
Ok everybody, today's the LAST DAY to help us and Firebone Theatre make Son of a Gun happen in NYC. Please RT!
http://t.co/D8bmcS3q5:31 AM May 15th