diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index f21a128..b1add9b 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -17,15 +17,6 @@ PREFIX = /usr
 MANDIR = $(PREFIX)/share/man/man8
 BINDIR = $(PREFIX)/bin
 
-ifeq ("$(origin TAG)", "command line")
-TIMESTAMP := _p$(shell date +%Y%m%d)
-endif
-
-VERSION := $(shell ./version)
-TAG := v$(VERSION)
-TARPREFIX := espeakup-$(VERSION)
-TARFILE := $(TARPREFIX)$(TIMESTAMP).tar
-
 all: espeakup
 
 install: espeakup
@@ -42,11 +33,6 @@ distclean: clean
 
 espeakup: $(OBJS)
 
-tarball:
-	git archive --format=tar --prefix=$(TARPREFIX)/ $(TAG) > $(TARFILE)
-	tar f $(TARFILE) --delete $(TARPREFIX)/.gitignore 
-	bzip2 $(TARFILE)
-
 cli.o: cli.c espeakup.h
 
 espeakup.o: espeakup.c espeakup.h
diff --git a/tarball b/tarball
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..1f5643d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tarball
@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+# Makes a tarball release
+
+VER=$(./version)
+PREFIX=espeakup-${VER}
+REL=${1:-v${VER}}
+
+if [ "$REL" != "v${VER}" ]; then
+	TIMESTAMP=`git show $REL --pretty=format:%ai |head -1`
+	PATCHLEVEL=`date --utc -d "$TIMESTAMP" +_p%Y%m%d%H%M`
+fi
+
+TARFILE=${PREFIX}${PATCHLEVEL}.tar
+
+git archive --format=tar --prefix=${PREFIX}/ $REL > ${TARFILE}
+tar f ${TARFILE} --delete ${PREFIX}/.gitignore --delete ${PREFIX}/tarball
+bzip2 ${TARFILE}
+echo "Produced ${TARFILE}.bz2"