Sooj

Shows Coming Up!

I’ve got concerts in Tennessee, California, and Washington state coming up. Here’s where I’ll be.

SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 17 – HUMBOLDT, TN
Wheel of the Year Fest
Wood’s Wood
129 Harris Grove Road
38343

Join us as the Harvest Moon rises!

Gates open as early as 3pm for those who’d like to gather in the afternoon. Music starts at 7pm.

Camping allowed on premises. Bring all that you would need to camp if you choose to do so. Port-a-potties on site as well. Bring good attitudes and happy vibes, chairs or blankets to sit on, flow toys, snacks, and drinks. Please carpool as parking is limited. On arrival, please follow the directions of parking attendants and do not park on the road. Recycling available on site. Smokers, watch your butts! NO MOOP (matter out of place)! Kids welcome; drunken stupidity discouraged.

On September 25th weekend, I’ll be in Ohio for the wedding of two sweet friends of mine – the proposal actually happened in my kitchen! After that, it’s off to California for HEXENFEST!

SEPT 30-OCT 2, GEYSERVILLE, CA
HEXENFEST 2016
Isis Oasis
20889 Geyserville Ave
95441
GET TICKETS HERE.

Sooj’s concert is scheduled for Saturday, October 1st, from 4pm-5:15pm. Don’t miss concerts by Pandaemonaeon and Wendy Rule during the event!
Hexenfest is a music and arts festival dedicated to exploring the intersection of art and magic. Myth and legend, folklore and fairytale, experiences of the numinous, all find a home here. We celebrate artists who explore the wild unknown, those who look to the realms of myth and dream and reflect their otherworldly visions into our world.

Next is a glorious little mini Mythpunk tour from Ranier to Tacoma to Seattle, with such luminaries as Bekah Kelso, Sharon Knight & Winter, Betsy Tinney, and Nathaniel Johnstone, Dogwood, and Tempest! IS IT OCTOBER YET

SAT OCT 8, 7PM – RANIER/YELM, WA
SIDHEHAVEN FULL CIRCLE – THE REMIX
13626 THISTLEDOWN LN SE
98576

GET TICKETS

From our hostess, Sherry Kirk:
In 2014 Sidhehaven celebrated it’s reawakening with an amazingly awesome house concert featuring some of our favorite performers. It was so much fun that we want to try and do it again with the musicians S. J. Tucker and Bekah Kelso (plus cellist Betsy Tinney). Unfortunately Sooj & Bekah live far far away from our beloved pacific northwest and normally travel expenses are too high for them to be able to come and perform. I talked with Sooj & Bekah and told them I feel certain that people would be willing to buy tickets far in advence so that we can raise the money needed to get them both up here. I’m setting up this GoFundMe to sell the tickets for the concert. All of the funds raised will go to the musicians. Tickets are limited because we can only fit so many people in the house. For $50 you get a ticket to the concert and a limited edition commemorative mug I’ll be designing specifically for this event. $25 gets you a seat at the concert only, and $30 gets you a commemorative mug, even if you can’t attend the show in person.

SUN OCT 9, 7PM, REDMOND, WA
MYTHPUNK MASQUERADE CONCERT
SOULFOOD BOOKS
15748 REDMOND WAY
98052

“If punk is about finding out how far you can go, then Mythpunk is about finding out how far you can run with mythology, folklore and fairytales in your own art and music.” –S. J. Tucker
The Mythpunk Masquerade comes to Soulfood Coffeehouse!
Featuring:
S. J. Tucker
Johnstone and Dogwood with Tempest
Sharon Knight and Winter
all with our favorite cellist Betsy Tinney.

Wear your faerytale finest, and we will enchant you with songs from the land of myth and dream!
This show is offered as a suggested donation of $10 – $20. Pay what you can!

WEDS OCT 12, 7:30PM, TACOMA, WA
MYTHPUNK MASQUERADE CONCERT
CRESCENT MOON GIFTS
2502 6TH AVE
98406
GET TICKETS

Come share an enchanting evening with Sharon Knight & Winter and S. J. Tucker & Betsy Tinney at the wonderful Crescent Moon Gifts in Tacoma.
Rumour has it they will be sitting in on each other’s sets. Also, they each have new CDs in tow, including the Pagan compilation The Green Album
which also features Wendy Rule, Kellianna, Tuatha Dea, Damh the Bard, Heather Dale, & many more.

SUN OCT 16, 6:30-11:30PM, SEATTLE
WAKING PERSEPHONE’S UNDERWORLD BALL
SOOJ, THE GHOSTS PROJECT, NATHANIEL JOHNSTONE BAND
HALE’S BREWERY PALLADIUM THEATRE
4301 LEARY WAY NW
98107

GET TICKETS

A rocking evening to celebrate the conclusion of Waking Persephone with live music, performances, vending, and much more! Dress up, chill out, and have a great time! Our event is all ages! 2016 Musical Guests: S. J. Tucker, The Ghosts Project, The Nathaniel Johnstone Band, and tunes spun by DJ Pan!x
**VIP Tickets include early doors (at 6pm with band member meet & greet), signed poster, and swag – proceeds benefit our scholarship fund.

Waking Persephone is a different kind of dance event experience, with a core focus on education and exploration, creating community while breaking borders. You’ll find an intensive series of classes, lectures, and activities featuring both new and established faces in the genres of dark, gothic, steampunk, experimental, theatrical, and ritual dances. Over the course of the event, there are ritual/community gatherings, gala shows, live music performances, workshops, master classes, panel discussions, vending, an afterparty ball, and more. The Underworld Ball is the culmination of this gloriously nurturing creative weekend!

After Waking Persephone concludes, I’ll fly home to perform in east Tennessee!

OCT 21-23, COSBY, TN
SAMHAIN NIGHTS
CERREN ERED CAMPGROUND
5101 MATHIS BRANCH RD
37722

Cerren Ered is an alternative event venue and campground, located on 32 private acres in the Great Smoky Mountains, only 20 minutes from Gatlinburg, TN. Join S. J. and the CE community for Samhain Nights: at the Crossroads! CE’s location is in a temperate rain forest, so be sure to pack bug spray and wet weather gear. Learn more at the Facebook group!

I conclude my month in Indiana at a private Samhain event, and then I have just two more tour dates this year, in November, at home in Arkansas and abroad in Maryland. All of my concert info is on my tour calendar page, here.

Traveling Songs & Green Album Love!

I want to thank everyone for your support of my Traveling Songs download and fundraiser! That project is still available for download now, so if you’ve had to wait for budget reasons, don’t fret! I will leave the downloads available as long as there’s a chance someone hasn’t had the chance to go and grab it yet.

If you’re not yet aware of Traveling Songs, it goes like this.
I wrote 52 new songs between Feb 2015 and Feb 2016.
I had to submit rough recordings of every single one to my songwriter group, one for each week.
I went ahead and released all 52 of those rough recordings as a way to get them out to everybody much faster than I would have been able to if I took them all into the studio and brushed them up for an album release.
The nifty side effect of that is that, in purchasing the download (11, 22, or all 52 songs, your choice), you’ve all helped me raise about 15 monthly car payments so far for my new touring vehicle!! And it’s been worth it. We’ve already put 12,000 miles on Shadowfax since June!

Get Traveling Songs here!

I also want to thank all fans of #thegreenalbum for something pretty huge.
Thanks to your enthusiastic support of this project, I was able to send in a $645 donation to the Rainforest Trust yesterday! We helped them secure 877 acres of nature preserve in the Congo! And that’s just from the copies of the CD that I have personally sold! All 14 artists on the CD are sending in their donations as well! We’re saving some pretty serious chunks of rainforest, here, one song at a time! Good work, everyone!

A photo posted by S. J. Tucker Music (@sjtuckermusic) on Sep 13, 2016 at 5:34pm PDT

Online show TONIGHT with the Doubleclicks!

Hi again, everybody! It feels like it’s been a while. I hope your Autumn is starting off smoothly, Mercury retrograde and all.

I had to to let you know that The Doubleclicks invited me to be a special guest in their online concert tonight! We’ll be streaming live starting at 6pm Pacific – 7pm Mountain – 8pm Central – 9pm Eastern. I’ve been hoping for years to cross paths with this amazing duo, and we finally met face to face last month at Myths & Legends Con in Denver. If you love genuine, lovingly nerdy music set to innovative cello, guitar, uke, and yes, cat piano, do check them out, either tonight or as soon as possible! They’re the bees’ knees, and I’m very happy to know them both at last.

Tune in to the live concert here.

RSVP on Facebook if you like.

My DragonCon Schedule! (and a brand new song)

Here’s the updated (final?) list of my scheduled DragonCon appearances and concerts this weekend!

Friday 7pm: Princess Alethea’s Traveling Sideshow, Marriott A707
–I’ll be playing the Enchantress (Sea Witch Yaaas!) in our retelling of The Little Mermaid, and announcing the debut of my brand new song, “Where the Ocean Meets the Land”!

<a href="http://music.sjtucker.com/track/where-the-ocean-meets-the-land-dragoncon-mix">Where the Ocean Meets the Land (DragonCon Mix) by S. J. Tucker</a>

Friday 11:30pm: In Concert, Hyatt Hanover F/G
–My only late show, courtesy of the Filk Zone. Sure to be silly & sweet. Come on over.

Saturday 2:30pm: Music for the Art Show
–Most likely I’ll be doing soft noodly jazz guitar things. Should be relaxing for everyone. Come see the artz!

Sunday 10:00am: Singing Workshop, Hyatt Hanover F/G
–Ooof. If I can get up, drive in, and sing this early in the morning, SO CAN YOU.

Sunday 2:30pm: More Music for the Art Show
–I may only play for half an hour this time, so that I can run down the hall and catch part of the Doubleclicks’ concert before it ends.

Sunday 8:30pm: In Concert, Hyatt Hanover F/G
–My second show at the behest of DC Filk. I’m so grateful to them!

Monday 1:00pm: In Concert, AmericasMart Concourse Stage II
–Special guest stunt Mythpunk Nathaniel Johnstone on deck!! YES.

If you’ll be there, don’t miss The Cog is Dead, The Doubleclicks, Tuatha Dea, Mikey Mason, Valentine Wolfe, The Blibbering Humdingers, Emerald Rose, and all my other song siblings!! Feel free to share this post!

It’s been over a decade since my last DragonCon. I’m overjoyed, and a little bit scared. 😀 That’s usually the recipe for great things!

Just Found Project Pagan Enough

Inciting a Riot PodHost and author Fire Lyte started Project Pagan Enough to help encourage radical inclusivity, tolerance, and respectful discourse in the Pagan community. I’m so grateful to have found #projectpaganenough today, when 111% of me is in utter slimy horror over having just learned of the anti-semitic, transphobic, bigoted words being posted on the so-called Asatru Folk Assembly’s Facebook page. It’s pretty gross. I realize that it’s not without precedent, but that doesn’t mean it’s acceptable.

The post I have seen linked from the group’s Facebook page comes from a blatantly backward place. I know, I know; Facebook has been a simmering trash heap of horrors for a long time where hate speech is concerned. This understood, I applaud those who are calling the AFA out on the content of these posts, both in the name of understanding and in the name of speaking up for radical inclusivity, which really shouldn’t be as radical as it is. I’d love to see Asatru or Heathen community members and other Asatru or Heathen groups do some (more) calling out of their own. I realize that the neo nazi/skinhead element of that community has been around for decades, and I have great respect for those on the Asatru path who stand against it. Please continue to do so.

Project Pagan Enough and author/artist Lupa Green’s #notinmypaganism response to the above are helping me (and others, I am certain) to respond to this nonsense with strength and constructive thought, instead of just sitting over in the corner, feeling helpless against our paralyzing squick and despair.

Let’s keep the goodness going, my friends.

Fire Lyte says “Project Pagan Enough is my movement to encourage pagans, and those of like mind, to react with kindness, intelligence, and poise in situations involving religion, practice, dogma, etc.” I say yes and I’m in and thank you.

The hard part of Project Pagan Enough is that, by saying yes to it, we agree to do right by our own commitment to rational discourse and understanding. For instance, we have to attempt to understand why the racism, transphobia, and anti-semitism of the AFA is there, and why some AFA members see nothing wrong with it. We have to put in the time to interact and educate, rather than just blocking, shunning, and screaming at each other. We have to hold ourselves, each other, and our community-at-large accountable. We do.

Eyecandy

I’ve been enjoying various photo manipulation apps on my phone; thought the results would be a fun thing to share today in case anyone needs a smile.

The photo I started with – the ceiling of our entryway at home

How it looks with a mosaic filter applied – hello, stained glass!

The same photo x4, mirrored, flipped, and with a little bit of color adjustment. I used the Layout app and Instagram’s color filters to create this version.

The British Library Sound Archive

I am in awe. I am so grateful that this exists, that there are people in the world so passionate about capturing and cataloguing so much sound and information. There are recordings of the sounds made by extinct species. There is folk music from countries I may likely never see. There is everything. My fellow audio nerds who love both recordings and the equipment they depend upon, this is relevant to your interests!

MaLCon + Doubleclicks = Love!

Finally got to connect with The Doubleclicks over the weekend, and my joy knows no bounds! Thank you so much to Nikki E. and all her team at MALCon in Denver for that opportunity! The con was very welcoming and fun, and I’m still smiling.

10/10 would squee again! Hoping that we all get many more chances to do so.

Moar Doubleclicks!

MALCon Concerts This Weekend

This year’s MALCon features author Guest of Honor Jim Butcher, Music Guests of Honor The Doubleclicks, and Artist Guest of Honor Peri Charlifu!

Sooj’s FRIDAY concert:

Mad Hatter’s Madcap Party, McAnally’s Pub, Fri Aug 12 8:30:pm – 10:30:pm

Don your finest, oddest, or favorite apparel for this year’s Mad Hatter’s Madcap Party while you enjoy SJ Tucker, who’ll court and cajole you with her evocative original music.

Sooj’s SATURDAY concert:

Sooj Unplugged, Kings Landing, Sat Aug 13 3:00:pm – 3:50:pm

Join S. J. Tucker (aka “Sooj”) as she gets more intimate, going unplugged and talking about songwriting and working with prompts.

Sooj’s SUNDAY concert:

Sirens in the Spotlight: Music for Mermaids,

McAnally’s Pub, Sun Aug 14 10:30:am – 11:20:am

Known as “Sooj”, S. J. Tucker is a vanguard of the Mythpunk movement and a dynamic live performer. Let her engage you with evocative ballads, highlighting the sirens among us.

Album Review: Traveling Songs

“An album is a guided presentation of a story. Even if the listener has no idea about the destination, the map has a line and the road follows the bard’s voice. We, the ones living outside the storyteller’s head, can wander down the path and explore the story. Traveling Songs lets you jump the border and dive into the uncharted, wild terrain of SJ’s imagination. Traveling Songs gives us the opportunity to throw the map away and listen to a pure, undiluted year’s worth of S. J.’s musical creations.”

—Jessica Halsey, writer