Goat Balls Studio Recordings
Help Us Record Goat Balls: A Big Band Musical About the Greatest Quack in American History
Goat Balls - Bring The Music To Life
A true story too wild to make up. Help us record 10 songs from Goat Balls, a new musical about J. R. Brinkley, the goat gland con man.
New York, NY, US
He had no medical license. He had a radio station, a scalpel, and a very unusual cure.
Goat Balls is a Brooksian, neo-noir musical based on the true story of J. R. “Doc” Brinkley, the con man who claimed to cure male impotence by implanting goat glands into his patients. Armed with nerve and a microphone, Brinkley became a national and international celebrity. He prescribed elixirs over the airwaves and helped popularize country music by broadcasting it far and wide. The American Medical Association eventually exposed him, and the lawsuits piled up, but not before he made a serious run for Governor of Kansas. He died bankrupt in 1942 and is remembered as one of the most notorious medical quacks in U.S. history.
It’s a story too wild to make up, and it swings.
The project
We’ve written about 20 songs in the style of a 1920s American big band. Now we want you to hear them. With your help, we’ll bring 12 jazz musicians and 8-10 singers into a professional recording studio to record 10 numbers from the show, played live in the room the way this music is meant to sound.
These recordings will bring the score to life for theaters, producers, and collaborators, and for you, the people who help new work get made. They are the next step toward getting Goat Balls on its feet.
Our goal: $20,000
Your contributions will fund:
- Professional studio time and a recording engineer
- Fair pay for every musician and singer
- Music direction and preparation of the band’s parts
- Mixing and mastering, so every track is polished and ready to share
- Production costs and fundraising fees
We believe artists deserve to be paid for their work, and a big part of this campaign is making sure the talented people playing and singing this music are compensated fairly.
About us
Lisa Hickman (book and lyrics) is a New York City-based performer and playwright whose work spans theatre, television, film, commercials, and voiceover. Her New York theatre credits include projects at Dixon Place, H.E.R.E., The Bushwick Starr, Galapagos, Theatre for the New City, Axis Theater, The Tank, and The Mark O’Donnell Theatre, along with national tours and regional theatre work. Her screen credits include Orange Is the New Black, Perfect Murder, and Hal Hartley’s Meanwhile. She is currently an on-air guest for QVC, and is a proud graduate of Pace University (B.F.A.) and Brooklyn College (M.F.A.).
Steve Smith (music) is a composer, pianist, theorist, and musical theater director from Toronto, Ontario. He is a faculty member at Mannes School of Music, The New School University, where he teaches music theory and analysis. He has written incidental music for plays performed in New York City and has served as music director on many musical theatre productions. He is also the co-founder, alongside artistic director Vince Peterson, of the Choral Chameleon Institute for Composers and Conductors of Choral Music. Goat Balls is his first original musical.
Steve Smith (music) is a composer, pianist, theorist, and musical theater director from Toronto, Ontario. He is a faculty member at Mannes School of Music, The New School University, where he teaches music theory and analysis. He has written incidental music for plays performed in New York City and has served as music director on many musical theatre productions. He is also the co-founder, alongside artistic director Vince Peterson, of the Choral Chameleon Institute for Composers and Conductors of Choral Music. Goat Balls is his first original musical.