Photo by Patrick Duffy


Well, we've been in the middle of a snowpocalypse here in Atlanta all week. It seems like the entire metro area has basically been shut down since Monday.

Fortunately, though, Geoff and I have still been able to make some progress with Pocket the Moon, and I have some updates for you on the project!

You can now check out the Pocket the Moon website to hear a preview track and see what we've been up to! Click here to listen to "Bridge." This is a song Geoff and I have been doing together since the Novo Luna days, but I'm really excited about the Pocket the Moon version.

You can also find Pocket the Moon on Facebook, Reverb Nation, and Twitter. So add us on there! We may be giving away promotional tickets to shows on Facebook and Twitter, so you could get FREE stuff!

Pocket the Moon website - http://pocketthemoon.com
Pocket the Moon on Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/pages/Pocket-the-Moon/130546320341615
Pocket the Moon on Twitter - http://twitter.com/#!/pocketthemoon
Pocket the Moon on Reverb Nation - https://www.reverbnation.com/pocketthemoon

We managed to squeeze in a photo shoot with Belenen before the ice storm hit on Sunday night, so those photos will be coming soon! We're also planning a photo shoot with Alisha Gaspard (I'm ending the "every time a band I'm in gets awesome photos from Alisha, we break up right afterwards" curse). Haha. We're excited to be working with such talented photographers, and we're excited to see what comes from it!

Also, we have our first official show on Saturday, February 5th at Drunken Unicorn. We will be playing with Ether Overdrive and Audiophile with Brennan Johnson, featuring members from Dubconscious, Collective Efforts and Entropy. This is sure to be an awesome night of music and for just five bucks to see three bands, you won't want to miss it! So bring your friends!

In the spring of 2011, you can expect a full album release from Pocket the Moon, and you can also expect to see us play shows with the incredibly talented Nerdkween (who is actually going to play South by Southwest!) and the also incredibly talented Sydney Eloise (who some of you may have seen at The Star Bar when we played there last month).

Speaking of the Star Bar, you can check out a few of our songs from that set in this video, thanks to Dominant Sound.




So make sure you "like" us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, and come see us play at the Drunken Unicorn! And thank you so much for your support!!




Shortwave Society

If you're looking for some new things to check out this weekend once the ice thaws, 1880's Dance Party will be playing with Pink Pompeii and Shortwave Society at Drunken Unicorn on Friday, January 14th. It's only 5 bucks, and it will definitely be an amazing night of music you don't want to miss. I will definitely be there so throw on your coat, scarf, and gloves, and come hang out with me and hear some great live music. For cheaper than the price of a movie!


The Head

Also, The Head will be having an EP release show at Vinyl with Young Orchids. I'm definitely going to that show as well. I got the opportunity to see The Head at Star Bar last month, and these guys have a really solid sound. Check it out!


If you're looking for something a little more visual and you missed the Ponce Crush art crawl last weekend, Young Blood Gallery, Kibbee Gallery, and Beep Beep Gallery are still running their exhibits - Anima/Animus at Young Blood, Picturing the Beast: Animal Imagery in Contemporary Prints at Kibbee, and Year of the Rabbit at Beep Beep - featuring some of the cities most talented local artists. Anima/Animus and Picturing the Beast run through January 29th, and Year of the Rabbit runs through February 3rd. Check it out!

There are so many artists doing amazing things in Atlanta, so get out there and support them. Most of the time it's pretty cheap, and it's great to be a part of the community and see what kind of work local artists are creating (in all mediums!). Plus, you can get cheap beer at most music venues, theatres, art galleries, etc. And who doesn't love that?

So I'll end this blog post with a new segment called five things I'm diggin':





1. Jake Shimabukuro's version of "Hallelujah" on Peace Love Ukulele






2. This piece by Kelly McKernan, local artist, entitled Hit Me






3. My friend's blog domesticationfail.com - I'm pretty much the opposite of domestic, but it's really fun to read about her domestic adventures!





4. These hothlanta t-shirts







5. My little brother's writing for DeadJournalist.com now! (Hey, Kev, think you can hook Pocket of the Moon up with a solid review? Kidding, kidding.)

Photo by Belenen


I can’t believe 2010 is almost over! I mean, seriously?

The Cult Following is no longer around (at least not in the form that it was). Adrian Rhetts and Brian Teague are no longer playing with us full-time. There's no hard feelings and I have nothing but respect for both of them as people and as musicians. And please check out Eat the Sun, Brian's electronic project, which I’ve always been a huge fan of, and Electric Duane, who Adrian is now playing guitar with. (Electric Duane also features Matt Bradshaw and Monica Nicole - two of my friends and incredible musicians as well.) So you never know when they’ll make a musical appearance, but for the moment, bass player, Geoff Goodwin, and I are re-booting the project.

We’ve decided to form a two-person band using both my songs and songs that Geoff has written. We’re currently working on recording and expect to release a CD in early 2011. I’m really excited about where it’s going! This band will feature Geoff on drums, guitar, bass, bells, trumpet, piano, and I’ll be playing guitar, piano, maybe even a little bass myself! You can definitely look for some of the Cult Following favorites like “Tangled,” “Hipster Haircut,” and “August” on the upcoming release, and I’m sure Geoff and I will continue to play some of the tunes from Unsent Letters at the shows.

To see a preview of the new arrangements and where the music is going, you can come out to Smith’s Olde Bar - The Atlanta Room on Saturday, December 4th. We’ll be playing at 10:00 pm. This show will also feature other special guests such as Kyle Weisse (from Long Absent Friends) on violin. You definitely don’t want to miss it! It’s going to be completely different than any of the shows I’ve played so far this year, and with all of the focus on recordings, it’s likely to be my last show for a while. Also, we'll be playing with Sarah Mac Band and 1880's Dance Party!

Also, things are speeding along in full force on my Kickstarter page where I am raising money to go on tour in June 2011. So far, I have reached 60% of my goal! There are still 32 days left to donate so please check it out and donate what you can to help! (Every dollar counts!) If I don’t reach my goal by December 31st, I won’t receive any of the funds that I’ve raised on there so far, so please help me to reach my goal so I can make this dream a reality and share my music with the country! I had originally planned to make this an acoustic tour, but now it looks like it may be including “the whole band” (AKA Geoff). This is very exciting because now I can try to book the more indie music oriented venues as opposed to just acoustic coffee shop type places. Also, throw the little bro, Kevin Crawford, into the mix, and who knows what kind of shenanigans will ensue. Video blogs from the road, perhaps? A documentary about trying to make it as an indie band? Who knows? So many possibilities!

Sara Crawford Acoustic Tour June 2011 on Kickstarter - click here to donate!

Lastly, I just wanted to say thank you so much to everyone for making my 2010 so amazing. Thank you to The Cult Following for being the most fun band I’ve ever played with. Thank you to all of the booking people at the various venues for giving me the opportunity to play. I’ve played so many incredible places this year! MINT Gallery, Drunken Unicorn, Smith’s, Lenny’s, Red Light Cafe, Five Spot, Grant Park Summer Shade Festival, the Beatlanta house, Cool Beans...oh, and let’s not forget that tequila bar in Mexico...and playing two songs totally counts as a “show.” :-p Thanks to everyone who has come out to the shows and shown support. Thanks to everyone who has supported me by buying a copy of my CD or my poetry book. Thanks to everyone who has donated to my tour fund on Kickstarter. Thanks to all of the amazing musicians who I have had the opportunity to play with this year - Wade in the Rhythm, Callers, Lady Lazarus, Before the Solstice, CMAC... just to name a few. (And if you haven’t heard those bands, check them out! They’re well worth it.) Thank you to everyone who voted me Best Songwriter in Creative Loafing's Best of Atlanta issue! Thank you all so much for everything you do. You don’t know how much it really means to me.

Check back later this week for an events posting and restarting of the Poem of the Week!

Thanks for reading!

Suspension by Kelly McKernan
Watercolor and String
2009

I thought it'd be a good idea to start adding images that I like (art, photography, etc.) to my blog entries. It's another way to share art AND it makes my blogs more interesting/entertaining :-) Kelly McKernan is a local artist. I really love her work, and the above piece of her's is one of my favorites. Plus, she's designing the album cover for Unsent Letters (which I'm really excited about) so check out her website.

My website/blog is about a lot more than just promoting my art. I want to share other people's art with everyone, too, especially artists who are new, independent, local, etc. Artists of all mediums! Visual artists, musicians, filmmakers, poets, authors, playwrights, theatre groups, all of it. There is just so much great art out there, and a lot of it goes unnoticed sadly. I want to do my part to change that. Even if I just get 5 or 10 people to check out a new band, I think it's worth it. Because every day, I am immensely inspired, touched, motivated by great music, stories, images, art. I was just born to share, experience, and create art.

Speaking of art sharing, I have a new idea.

The Audio Play Project: I've had a thing for audio books lately. And one day I was thinking about how they should really do more audio book versions of plays. The best way to experience a play, obviously, is to see one. But I think hearing a play would be the next best thing. Almost like a recording of a staged reading, in a way. So. My idea is next year (2010) to record one full-length or longer one-act play a month and put it up in audio book/mp3 format for people to download on my website. Obviously, they wouldn't all be my plays. I'd probably have the first one and maybe the last one be mine, and in between it would be works by other local and/or unknown playwrights. I think it would be a good thing, though. New/unknown playwrights get exposure, the actors get voice over experience, and people get to hear new works! I think putting it in an mp3 format and making it free and available on the internet will give people who don't necessarily go see a lot of theatre the opportunity to experience new plays as well, and then maybe if they liked it, they'd get out there and see new works, too!

What do you guys think? Is this something you'd like to see in the future?

In other news, earlier this week I had a photo shoot with Belenen. I needed some new photos/portraits for my website, my various music press kits, and I wanted to put a photo of me somewhere on Unsent Letters (even though Kelly McKernan is designing the cover. I thought I could put it on the inside sleeve.) Typically, I'm ridiculously awkward in photos, but I thought these turned out great!! I couldn't be happier! Belenen just has a way of really capturing people the way that they are, and taking photos that are so bright, full of color, full of live! I feel like I look like myself in these. If that makes sense.

You can check out some of Belenen's photos on her Flickr page, here.

Here are some of the photos from the shoot. For the rest, check out my Photos/Videos page.