Tom Waits up for Blind Willie Johnson Kickstarter project

Tom Waits is one of the artists involved in a new Kickstarter project looking to fund recordings of Blind Willie Johnson songs. He is said to have agreed to record two songs for the album: Soul of a man and John the Revelator.

Other names involved in the project are  Sinead O'Connor, Lucinda Williams, Derek Trucks & Susan Tedeschi, Blind Boys of Alabama, Rickie Lee Jones and Cowboy Junkies.

The goal is to collect $125,000 by November 16. For a $10 pledge you receive updates about the project, $2,500 gets you a a lot of goodies, with signatures 'by every willing participating artist'. And for a mere $5,000 you could be the owner of a unique handmade guitar.

More about Jeffrey Gaskill's Help Produce The Songs of Blind Willie Johnson project at Kickstarter.com and on Facebook.

When talking about Waits and Johnson, it's worth mentioning the first lines of Tom Waits' Georgia Lee ("Cold was the night and hard was the ground") are reminiscent of Johnson's Dark was the night, cold was the ground (for more info: see Celestial Monochord).