CT Sings: Stories from the Constitution State is a fully-produced songwriting/recording project featuring Connecticut-inspired songs written and performed with children in Connecticut. Over a dozen schools and libraries and over a thousand students throughout the state were involved. Volume 1 was released and available as a CD and distributed to schools and libraries throughout the state in Fall 2012. Vol. 1 was made possible by a generous grant from the DECD Office if the Arts, with additional funds from CT Folk. We consider this an on-going project and hope to continue it as a multi-volume collection in the future.

CT Sings Vol. 1 consisted of 3 phases: Songwriting, Recording and Album Release.

Songwriting

At the heart of CT Sings are the workshops. Each workshop is essentially a guided practice in the creative process. In as little as two hours, students with Chuck & Mira's support, rigorously engage in critical thinking and problem solving by working through each facet of the songwriting process, from blank page to completed song. For this project, CT themed songs were encouraged. Some songs were directly inspired by historical events or specific places throughout CT. Others were more general and inspired by a sense of place, a sense of home. In 6 months time, we collected 40+ songs in total.

Recording

14 songs were chosen from the bunch to be professionally recorded with band accompaniment at the beautiful New Haven studio, FIREHOUSE 12.  In these recordings we wanted to emphasize a variety of genres to illustrate that once lyrics and melody are written, the song can be taken in myriad directions. This is evidenced in the final versions on the album that range from folk to punk rock to R&B to Latin. (Samples to the right)

All schools and libraries that participated in the songwriting phase had the opportunity to send representatives to sing and record in the studio along with Chuck, Mira and the band. 50+ students participated in the recording process.

Album Release

The recorded songs were then professionally pressed and packaged for distribution throughout the state. All participating schools and groups received a copy of the final album. The RELEASE SHOW was held in Oct 2012 in a beautiful theatre at the WATERBURY ARTS MAGNET SCHOOL, in Waterbury CT.