Spring is in full swing in St. Louis. We have so much going on musically and I can't wait to tell you about it! I am woefully behind in updating you all about some recent happenings. For starters, something pretty amazing happened in recent weeks. My mom was watching a viral video about a dog rescue and suddenly realized my music was the soundtrack! It is a long and wonderful story of how I contacted the video's creator and found out she works for The Bill Foundation (one of the best-known animal rescue organizations around) and now the video has well over 1,000,000 views and my music is getting some great attention. For the backstory (and the exciting future of the story!) check out my blog link: "Crazy Story of Me 'Going Viral'"! You can also learn about helping Gideon and other animals in need through our download fundraising effort below, in Industry News.

We went to Folk Alliance International earlier this year and had an amazing time networking and showcasing. To read about how I had the chance to dine (and sing) with Steve Poltz (who co-wrote Jewel's hit "You Were Meant for Me") at FAI, check out my blog link: "Folk Alliance and Steve Polz". You can also watch a fun video of AJ and I "getting our acoustic on" for the KC Café City Radio showcase in a video filmed by our friend Rob Hanning: "Still"

In upcoming news, I can't believe the record we started in Los Angeles last August is finally done! The masters are completed and the record sounds amazing! How can it not, when it features a bunch of award-winning musicians? (More on that below)! In order to give this record a fair shot, we are planning to invest in publicity and radio, and are taking the huge leap of faith in launching an Indie Go Go campaign to try to get some financial help with that. I want to let you all know that as newsletter subscribers, you will get the first chance to participate in the campaign, seeing the video and the proffered perks 24 hours before we publicize it elsewhere.

This is a small bit of what is happening. I hope you will read on to learn more about all of this, including our upcoming tour dates. We are especially excited to be doing some Midwest appearances with John Craigie, a true songwriter's songwriter. He is so amazing! We perform with him in Chicago, Columbia, and Saint Louis - details below in Show News. I hope we get to see you on the road this spring and summer!

AJ and I had the very special opportunity this year to help out two wonderful women who have been battling cancer. Earlier this year we were part of a fundraiser for my good friend Debra Hardin in Columbia at the Blue Note with many other great mid-Missouri musicians and artists. Earlier in April, we flew to Colorado to share a show with Liz Barnez to raise funds for Ann Pendley, who has been battling cancer for over a decade. The warmth and love we encountered in both of these supportive communities really inspired us, and inspired me to write about it in my most recent blog, "Cancer is Evil but People are Angels"

We can't wait to head out on the road next week for a four-day run with John Craigie - an incredible songwriter and indefatigable touring artist. We return to the wonderful Uncommon Ground in Chicago, and one of our favorite spots in my old home of Columbia - The Bridge, where we will also share the stage with the incredible Noah Earl. For our St. Louis show at the Gramophone you will be treated to two great area singer-songwriters in addition to myself and John: Summer Osborne and Lizzie Weber.

Then the second weekend in May we head south, hitting up some new cities like Memphis and Louisville, as well as returning to Nashville. On May 9th at NOON Eastern time, we'll be appearing on 89.9 WDVX on The Blue Plate Special hosted by Red Hickey. Hope you can tune in to our live performance! Click to LISTEN LIVE! or go to http://www.wdvx.com/audiovideo/listen-live/

Our last show in April is Saturday, April 26th, Watertower Wines in Ste. Genevieve, MO 2-5pm! See you there!

Check out SHOWS on the Hilary Scott website for more information!

My rendition of John Hiatt's song "Have a Little Faith in Me" was recently featured in a video about the rescue of Gideon the pitbull, which has received worldwide attention and well over 1,000,000 views, as well as features on Yahoo, Huffington Post, The L.A. Times, and more. Since I am a big supporter of pitbull rescue and rehabilitation, this was a wonderful surprise to pair up with Annie Hart from The Bill Foundation. We are donating a portion of all proceeds from downloads of "Have a Little Faith in Me" and from downloads of the album on which it appears, Indigo, to The Bill Foundation. Check out the video on YouTube: Annie made a special version of the video for my YouTube site: "A Sick Homeless Pit Bull Gets Rescued & Makes Inspiring Transformation" If you wish to help out, you can purchase here: "Have A Little Faith In Me" (Indigo)

My Los Angeles recording project, entitled Freight Train Love, is through the mastering stage. For this project, I worked with industry veteran Michael O'Neill as producer. Musicians featured on this project include: Johnny Lee Schell (Bonnie Raitt, Taj Mahal, Blues Brothers, Jim Belushi); Bob Glaub (Paul McCartney, John Lennon, Rod Stewart, Journey, Linda Ronstadt, Jackson Browne); Tony Braunagel (Taj Mahal, Bonnie Raitt, Trampled Under Foot); Mike Finnigan (Jimi Hendrix, Etta James, CSN, Leonard Cohen, Tracy Chapman); Julie Delgado (Sting, Rod Stewart); Kevin Fisher (Rascal Flatts, Sara Evans). In addition to several of my own original songs, I wrote four of the tunes with Michael O'Neill, covered two Kevin Fisher tunes (one is a duet with Kevin) and also covered a Neil Young song (Lotta Love). This record deserves a big publicity push, which we hope to give it when we launch our Indie Go Go campaign in just a few days! You can get a 'sneak peek (listen)' of one of the songs on the album here: LISTEN

This week, we will be shooting a music video to Flowers on Mars from our Flowers on Mars Vinyl EP with the extremely talented Brian Cummings. We have pre-approved treatments that look simply amazing. Having never done a music video before, we are terribly excited about this, and we are considering a joint album and video release party

We love to provide opportunities for our fans across the country to have intimate concerts in their own home or outdoor space! If you or any of your friends are interested in hosting us for a House Concert, let us bring the music to your doorstep! We make it as easy as possible. Just contact Hilary Scott (hilary@hilaryscott.com) for all the details.