Upstairs Hugh

And it came to pass that...

Album cover artwork A while back, I made a CD of songs that, mostly, I'd written myself. Mostly, I played them and sang them myself too. It was called "Glowing", and I made 500 copies. I even put up a website (okay, it was on Tripod).

Some of them were sold, a few more were given away, and ambitious plans were made for the rest. After a while, though, I came to think that maybe I wasn't cut out to be a musician...I'd said pretty much all I had to say, at least in songs, on the one album, and new songs were beginning to sound much like the old ones.

I stopped writing, stopped playing, and the CDs began to collect dust. I dropped a few off here and there, but nothing really systematic. Every now and then I'd come across a copy in a used CD store, which made me happy: I've found a lot of great albums, often by people I'd never heard of before, in the same stores, and it was fun to wonder if that might happen with mine.

And then a while ago, I suddenly thought that it might be neat to do something a little more spectacular with my little album. I came up with a plan.

I'm down to about two hundred copies or so. (I'm guessing -- I haven't kept track in a while.) What I've decided is that I want to ensure a copy gets to every country in the world. What that means for you is, maybe, a free CD.

How To Get A Free CD (Of Mine)

First things first: this offer does not apply to those in Canada, the USA or the UK. Sorry -- copies are already there. If you live in another country, you may still be a winner.

Basically, all I want is an email from you with your address, maybe a little hello or something. If it's in a country I haven't sent it to, you're in luck: you get a free copy of "Glowing". I won't charge anything -- this is entirely on me. (I'll mark it as a gift with no value for customs, but you're on you're own for duty.) I'll be maintaining a list here of all the countries that have CDs already, so have a look and make sure your country's not there. Keep in mind I may take the initiative and look for a place to send it to all on my own...

As of May 9, 2004, all countries are open except for the US, the UK, Belgium, Paraguay, Germany, Hungary, Thailand, Mongolia, Tuvalu, Mauritania, Mexico, Taiwan, Venezuela, Switzerland, Australia, and Canada. First come, first served.

What's more, I'm putting this CD under the Attribution-ShareAlike license from the Creative Commons. Quoting from their summary of the license, that means you can copy the CD as long as:

Attribution: You must give the original author credit.
Share Alike: If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting work only under a license identical to this one.

You an also download the music free from Jamendo under the same license, too, so that everyone gets a crack at them.

(One clarification: I do a cover of "Buffalo Stance" by Neneh Cherry. I can't release that under the CC license, I think, because I didn't write it. When I made the album, I paid the licensing fee to distribute 500 copies of it, so the CDs are okay -- but I'm assuming Oggs and the like aren't. Sorry.)

My email address is:

	aardvark

	at

	saintaardvarkthecarpeted

	dot

	com

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License. In time, I'll be adding the Ogg files, a mirror of my old Upstairs Hugh Tripod site, and a (sigh) blog detailing who gets what. Inna meantime, talk amongst yourselves.