Be a part of John Taylor Ward’s debut solo album

THE SOUTHERN HARMONY

This project is being fiscally sponsored by the Aaron Copland House, so all donations are tax deductible

Or make a check (memo: Southern Harmony) payable to:

Copland House INC

P.O. Box 2177, Peekskill, NY 10566

In the South, the lines between worlds run thin. Human, natural, spiritual—they press close together, overlapping in strange and ordinary ways. A tree hums with a hymn. A song carries the weight of a lost name. The wind moves, and someone long gone seems to pass by with it.



SOUTHERN HARMONY is a recording built from that atmosphere. It gathers music that doesn’t sit easily in any one time or place: shape-note hymns rooted in generations of community and faith; American art songs that feel half-dreamed; and chamber music that shimmers into existence an imagined “South.”



This is neither nostalgia nor reenactment. It’s a kind of sacred listening—to what still stirs beneath the surface, to a past that hasn’t quite left. The result is something simultaneously vibrant and haunted.



JOHN TAYLOR WARD is joined in this kaleidoscopic fusion by the early music band RUCKUS, composer and pianist DAN SCHLOSBERG, folk music luminary TIM ERIKSEN, and members of Mexico City’s CEPROmusic.




The album includes:

  • Shape-note hymns from The Southern Harmony (1835), arranged with raw edges and open space for the spirit to move

  • Songs by Charles Ives and George Crumb, whose music reaches for the unseen, and hears it reaching back

  • Selections from Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Songs of Sun and Shade, which braid together an imagined South where sunlight, sorrow, and the spirit world intertwine

Why We Need You

We’re raising $25,000 to finish this recording and put it into the world with the care it deserves.

That amount covers:

  • Studio recording, mixing, and mastering

  • Fair pay for musicians, arrangers, and engineers

  • Design, packaging, and physical production

  • Distribution, press outreach, and documentation

These days, public funding for the arts is drying up. We’ve seen grants vanish and commissions stall, but we don’t believe that means the well is empty. We believe it means that people like you are the ones who will decide what deserves to be heard.




Giving Levels

We’ve named these tiers not after shiny rewards but after the kinds of people who show up in a story and stay there, even after the telling ends. We hope you find yourself somewhere in here.




$5,000+ — Executive Producer

  • Executive Producer credit on the album

  • Private house concert (in person or virtual)

  • Signed advance LP or CD

  • Handwritten lyric sheet from John Taylor Ward

  • All perks from lower tiers

$2,500+ — Stars in the Crown

  • "Special thanks" credit in liner notes

  • Private virtual performance and conversation with Ward and members of Ruckus

  • Early access to behind-the-scenes video content

  • Signed advance CD

  • All perks from lower tiers

$1,000+ —Angel Band

  • A personalized video thank-you from the artists

  • Signed copy of the score/arrangements used in the recording

  • Early digital album download

  • All perks from lower tiers

$500+ — Harmony Circle

  • Signed physical CD

  • Recognition on the project website and materials

  • Digital album download before public release

$250+ — Friend of the Family

  • Early access to select tracks and updates

  • Digital download of the full album

$100+ — Witness

  • Digital thank-you card and behind-the-scenes content

  • Early access to one advance single

$25+ — All Y’all

  • Your name listed on the project’s website

  • Email updates about the process and release




What You’re Part Of




This record isn’t being made to chase trends or feed content. It’s being made because something old and unspoken asked to be heard again.




Let’s make this together,

Taylor