Sooj

Grateful Traveler

Got home from Magical Mountain Mabon in New Mexico late on Tuesday evening, and I’m starting my trip to Piedmont Pagan Pride Day in Belmont, NC this afternoon.  Zoom!  The Mabon event near Tijeras, NM was an absolute joy.  The campsite was gorgeous, and the community were eager and generous with their level of participation and support.  I am better for having made the trip, and that whole tribe has my great gratitude.  

For a bonus, I got some quality time with my friend Kat Heatherington, who has a book release coming up!  More info on Kat’s book release and her poetry here.

I also got an all-too-brief visit with my song-sister, heroine, and fellow Green Album songwriter Wendy Rule and her husband, composer Timothy Van Diest.  We had a gorgeous hike up above Santa Fe on Monday afternoon, and two excellent meals together before Ryan and I headed east for home.  If you don’t know Wendy’s music, written and understood from both sides of the veil,  go here. Tim & Wendy have a new collaborative album right there on the front page!

 

I’m looking forward to my time in NC.  It’s been too long!  Linked below are some of the sweet sights I brought home with me from the high desert.

 

 

#newmexico you are such a flirt. It’s working. #rainbow #newmexicosky #travelingram ????

A post shared by S. J. Tucker Music (@sjtuckermusic) on

 

Local flora knockin’ me out in #newmexico this weekend. #pricklypear #castilleja #colors #naturebreak

A post shared by S. J. Tucker Music (@sjtuckermusic) on

Online Concert Tonight!

I’ll be giving another Concert Window broadcast this evening from 7-8pm Central time, which will be 8-9pm Eastern, 6-7pm Mountain, and 5-6pm Pacific.  Pay what you want, get comfy, and enjoy – click here! 

To get you warmed up, here’s an excerpt from my most recent previous solo broadcast, which was back on July 1st.  

 

Reminder: I’ll be heading to New Mexico in a few days for the Magical Mountain Mabon festival, and then to NC next week for Piedmont Pagan Pride day!  At the end of the month, I’ll be at the Earth Warriors Festival in Ohio, which is sure to be full of old friends and new memories.  All the info about upcoming shows is right here on my tour schedule page.

Upcoming Shows This Autumn

I’ll start with the sad news to get it out of the way: CalderaFest, which was to be my band Tricky Pixie’s one and only festival appearance for all of 2017, has been canceled. πŸ™ Now on to happier things!

 

I got to kick this month off in Missouri, at beautiful Oak Spirit Sanctuary outside of Boonville, where I was very sweetly received, as was my song-sister RenΓ©e Janski, who came to that land for the first time this past weekend as my side player!  Our crowd at the Harvest Homecoming event was enthusiastic, kind, and full of fun.  Thank you all so much for a great experience!

 

I’m heading back to Missouri in a couple of days to gather with friends in support of one of our own.  We’re throwing a benefit event on Saturday, September 9th in Webster Groves, all afternoon and evening, for our buddy Brian Greenway, songwriter, supporter, and A+ dad.  Here’s the info for that.  We’ll have music, tasty treats, an impressive silent auction, and a little bit of mayhem, no doubt.

 

It’s a great month of events for me, so I don’t even mind driving all over the place to get to where I’m wanted!  

-I’ll be in New Mexico for the Magical Mountain Mabon event Sept 14-17, joining brand-new New Mexico resident Wendy Rule, one of my most brilliant stage-friends! Online registration for this event is closed.

-I’ll be in North Carolina for Piedmont Pagan Pride Day on September 23rd, my only PPD event of the season!  Pagan Pride Day events are always free and open to the public.  This is my first trip to NC in a couple of years!

-I’ll close out September at the Earth Warriors festival in Ohio, sharing the spotlight with Kellianna & More.  Check it out.

 

Next month, I’ll stop in Memphis at my beloved Festival of Souls, and then I’m hitting the road from Arkansas to Oregon and back with my song-sisters RenΓ©e Janski, Ronda Jean, Ginger Doss, and Lynda Millard!  Talk about a dream come true! All of our confirmed tour dates are on my tour schedule page, and also our #MusesontheRoad Facebook events for the first half of the tour and the second half of the tour.  Consider yourself invited, my dears!

 

I do get a little bit of time at home here and there, which I sorely need, though I hate to admit it.  The cats are pleased.

 

Four PNW Shows!

Folks, it’s been a lovely summer of low-key concerts for me so far, a large chunk of them shared with my friend Leslie Hudson, who’s based in Ontario & touring the US extensively by car for the first time.  We’ve torn up the road together from Oklahoma to Washington state, and it feels so good.    

Leslie and I will share four more concerts- two in Washington and two in Oregon -before we part ways later this month.  The Seattle-area shows are this weekend, and we’ll be on stage with my band Tricky Pixie for those!  Hoping for a big turnout, since Saturday and Sunday will be our only public Tricky Pixie concerts in the PNW this summer.  

Saturday evening, Leslie and the band and I will be in Kenmore, WA.  Get your tickets here!

Sunday evening, starting a bit earlier, we’ll all be in Silverdale, WA together.  Get tickets here!

 

After that, the band’s gonna say goodbye to Alec, our beloved faerietale fiddler, for a few weeks, but we’ll meet up again at Caldera Pagan Music Festival in Georgia!  Will you be there??  

 

Once Alec is safely on his way, Leslie and Betsy and I have our two Portland, Oregon shows.  Right now we’ve sold every seat for our show at The Sacred Well in Sellwood on Tuesday, August 15th, but we have a fair number of tickets left right now for the Wednesday, August 16th show.  Get yours!

 

Leslie has many, many more concerts in the US this year, and I recommend you find one if she’s coming through your home turf.  Find out more about her music and her tour here!

 

My year is very rich in bandmates so far, but I do have a couple of solo shows on the calendar.  πŸ™‚  There’s so much to tell, so much to look forward to!  Here’s the rest of the tour schedule for 2017, if you’re curious.

 

 

 

New Podcast goodness!

Aleen Simms and K. Tempest Bradford, both brilliant creatives & awesome beings as far as I’m concerned, wove me deftly into their conversation on the most recent episode of their shared podcast, Originality.  The ep is solid & sounds great, and it features some of everyone’s most beloved Betsy Tinney songs, too!  “Alligator in the House” and “Dryad’s Promise” both get a little featured air time.  Good choices!  During each episode so far, Tempest and Aleen have played clips of guest interviews, sharing smart, nourishing, spontaneous discussion around the things that come up in those clips.  They’re great pod hosts, and this is their seventh episode.

Listen here!

When Tempest interviewed me, we talked about a little bit of everything: following your bliss & doing the work, what privilege looks like for those of us who work for ourselves, knowing where the line is between independence and self-sabotage, writing what we love, and collaboration.  Since episode 8 will be all about collaboration, Tempest said in this episode that she’ll be including some more of our interview in that episode.  

Check out the podcast here.  Support and subscribe if you’re able! 

 

I hope y’all enjoy listening and have some toothsome thoughts as you go.  This was an honor for me!

 

New Tune on Soundcloud

Just posted this bad boy.  My first goth-industrial protest song. 

 

 

Lyrics and more info here.

My Digital Music is on sale July 6-20!

A company called Groupees is helping me to offer a digital bundle sale of my music this month!  Even better? They’ll send a portion of the proceeds to a cause dear to my heart: the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance.  

You pick the price, and the more people who participate, the more music everyone gets. πŸ™‚ 

Check it out here!

Blind preorder is open today, and after today, Groupees will open up the bundle tiers so that everyone can see what they’ll be getting.  I was allowed to curate both the contents of the bundle and the tiers themselves, so I hope everybody enjoys what’s in there!  The higher tiers include the Traveling Songs tunes, in celebration of that promotion’s having just about one year of success now!  Thank you all for that, too. πŸ™‚

 

Online Show Tonight, and a Special Invitation

Join me on Concertwindow this evening from 8-9pm Central!

I’ll be dedicating a tune to my friend Travis Prinslow and his family tonight.  The decision was made to take Travis, who’d been gravely ill for many days, off of life support this morning.  He was the best of Lost Boys, part of our Faerieworlds family, and so I plan to sing “The Lost Girls’ Lament” for him tonight.  The song is as yet unreleased.  I wrote it specifically for my friend Shelly Riggs’ play, Pirate Girl, back in 2015.  In the play, the cast brought the whole house to tears with that song.  I am trying to get all of my crying out of the way this afternoon.  I invite all of you to sing with me tonight when I perform this piece.  You’ll pick it up very quickly, don’t worry.  And while I may not be able to hear you through my laptop screen, I’m betting that Travis will hear you just fine. πŸ™‚   The lyrics are below.  

Thank you all for your support of my online shows!  Tonight’s will be number six this year!

 

The Lost Girls’ Lament c. S. J. Tucker, 2015

Lullaby for a pirate lost

Oh, Lullaby

Fearless and true to the end were you

Oh, Lullaby

May the stars hold your spirit, the sweet waves your bones

Oh, Lullaby

Watch over us now, wherever we roam

Oh, Lullaby

Oh, Lullaby, oh, Lullaby!

Watch over us now from the stars as we roam

Oh, Lullaby

Video update: July-Aug Tour dates & online show July 1st!

Copied over from Facebook Live. Hope y’all like this more informal style of video blog!  It seemed handy and fast for a time when I have a lot to tell you. πŸ™‚

Next Online Concert May 1st!

Just scheduled my second monthly ConcertWindow broadcast, just in time for Beltane and May Day! I may be a little excited about the fact that I can FINALLY get y’all some live music without leaving the house. Sign on and get comfortable! I’ll start at 7pm Central on Monday, May 1st, 2017.  

Where to watch

Join the discussion and make requests on the Facebook event page!

Check out the highlights below from last night’s encore broadcast and my two April Fool’s Day weekend shows, which were all so successful that I can’t wait for the next one!  Couldn’t have made it work without friends, fans and family. Thank you SO much, everyone!