Sooj

1. TRICK-OR-TREAT FOR TIGERS

I’m participating in the annual Halloween Studio Tour once again!

Once a year, a whole pumpkin patch full of artists, makers and musicians comes together in support of our favorite animal charities.  This year, I’ll be donating 20% of my online sales of certain music items to Turpentine Creek, the premier Big Cat refuge in the US – it’s actually only three hours away from my own home!

Check out my page on the tour, and visit the tour map to find other tricks and treats!

2. OTHER FRIENDS AND FUNDRAISERS

Murder Ballads are still campaigning away for their first studio release, Pretty In Scarlet, for which I contributed some fun drum tracks!

Friday Afternoon Tea has a new webisode posted!  I got to be a sponsor again.  Check it out!

3. CONCERTS COMING UP

I’ve got just a couple of events and concerts this month, all close to home!  I’ll be at Summerland Grove’s Festival of Souls Oct 18-20 near Memphis, and I’ll be at the first-ever Pagan Pride Day in Conway, Arkansas (one of my new hometowns) on Oct 26 from 2-8pm in Simon Park – this event is free!  Check out all the details for my October travels on the tour schedule page.

4. HOW’S THE NEW ALBUM COMING?

I’m working hard at home to get the Stolen Season album ready to go to print.  As a consequence, I took an unannounced Facebook and blog hiatus which lasted nearly a month (oops).  Don’t fret, though; I’m still here!  I’ve just got my guitar strings and nose to the grindstone, that’s all.  🙂  The album may or may not be ready for digital release by Halloween, but that’s what I’m shooting for.  I’ve basically got this week and next week to get the mixes of every song all polished and completed and off to my mastering engineer, Mark Yoshida.  Wish me luck!

Watch this space tomorrow.  If I can get it together, I’ll post the list of songs which will appear on the Stolen Season album!  For now, back to work for a few hours, and then off to Conway Arts Fest to spin some fire with my friend Hector Garcia!

*Munchkin and Cards Against Humanity fans, you want to see this. I’ve played this game in its test form. It’s clever and fun enough that I’d love to see it take off! Plus, the folks who’ve created it are a hoot.

* I finally completed my Ice Bucket Challenge, served up to me two weeks ago by Wotan the Barbarian.

It wasn’t until after I posted the video that I learned I have loved ones for whom the threat of ALS is very real. I had reservations about doing this initially, but now I’m very glad that I did.

It also wasn’t until after I posted the video that I learned from a fan about aspects of ALS treatment research which purportedly involve animal testing.  Nothing is ever simple.  Here is one article about that issue from the ALSA website.  Always get the facts and always speak out with compassion, and with both feet on the ground, about the issues that touch you.
More happily, I want to encourage all of you to do something silly in support of a great cause- make it what you feel is most appropriate and most beneficial. It doesn’t have to involve a bucket of ice water. What wackiness can you come up with that helps out where you are, and makes people laugh?

*My friend Elizabeth’s crowdfunding campaign, which involves 12 pieces of art based on my music, ends in ten days. It needs a little love to reach its goal. If you want art and music from the two of us, please back this project. The art is stunning.

It’s taken my head a couple of years to get used to what my heart and spirit knew the first time I set foot on the land where I now live and have my little studio:  I am home.  I am staying.

That’s a hard thing, after having led a pretty seriously nomadic lifestyle for about a decade.

I’m realizing this morning that it’s taken me ages to relax into the thought that this house is mine (to clean), this yard is mine (to tend), and this place will care for me as much as I care for it.  I believe in the spirit of this 230 acre former summer camp.  I believe that it is awake, and that it knows me, has accepted me as one of its own.  I love this place deeply, but I’m realizing that the whole of me still hasn’t eased into believing that I won’t have to be gone from here someday.  That it won’t be “time to pack up” eventually, like it always used to be.

It’s good to be ready for whatever may or may not come.  It’s good to keep your sword sharp and your armor well fitted, because nobody knows what will happen next.  But I’m on the verge of giving myself permission to just be here, when I’m here.

There’s the dusting, the dishes, the ants and the poison ivy.  There’s also the peace, the cricket song, the bookshelves (far too few, currently) and the green grass.  The lake and the mist.  The clean air and the starlight.

I ran outside with my camera earlier this morning.  From the couch downstairs I could see, past our screened-in patio, a wild hibiscus blossom in the hedge with a dew-laden spiderweb just behind it.

Call me hippie weirdo all you want, but it made my heart stretch and ache to see it.  Such an end of summer image, with the lake’s morning mist still dense and mysterious behind it.  I did my best to capture what I saw.

This is the kind of moment and image that will help me remember that I have permission to be here, to be happy.  It may sound strange to those of you who are very well rooted in your own home spaces, that I need such things.  But there it is.  There’s a song in this, no doubt.  I’ll keep you posted. 🙂

Those of you still on vacation: enjoy it!  Those of you back at work today: I wish you an easy transition!  As for me, I’m over here in the woods recording, mixing, and cleaning house in preparation for company.  This may not sound like work, but it’s certainly gonna fill up all my time today!  The lovely ladies of Pandora Celtica are coming to visit tomorrow, and they’ve promised to help me with my ALS Ice Bucket Challenge!  I’m extremely late in getting to it, but a little more awareness raised for the cause can only be a good thing.  If you want to see the results, make sure you subscribe to my YouTube channel– I’ll be posting the evidence of me + chilly, chilly water ASAP.  While having flashbacks of the “Neptune” video shoot, naturally. ;p

Later this month, I’ll have two shared shows with two of my favorite people who are coming to Arkansas to perform for the very first time.  Not only that, but they’ll be newly back in the USA from adventures in Europe which included, among other things, sharing the stage with Corvus Corax!  Corvus-freaking-Corax, people!!  I’m talking about Sharon and Winter, of course.  I met these two fine bards nine years ago in Oregon.  Sharon’s music had such an effect on me that I almost immediately holed up to write my Wendy Trilogy songs after we parted ways.  That should tell you how nifty our two shows will be.

We’re performing in Conway, Arkansas at my favorite coffeehouse/bazaar in this time zone, The Locals, on the evening of Tuesday Sept. 23.  You can purchase tickets here, and join us on the Facebook event here.  On the night of the show, we’ll give a student discount at the door!

The next night, we’ll give a very intimate performance at Gallery 360 in Little Rock, at I-630 and S. Rodney Parham Rd, just past Kanis Park.  I strongly recommend grabbing tickets for that show in advance, as there are literally only 40 seats in this place!  Get your tickets here.  The art is always captivating, the curators are fantastic people, and I can personally vouch for the quality of the music.  Join us on the Facebook event if you wish.

Artists take note: Gallery360 is currently accepting submissions for a new art exhibit:

Gallery 360 will awaken from its summer slumber in September with a showing titled “Artists Scrounging.”  To that end, we are looking for artwork made recently using found, recycled and re-purposed materials. That covers a lot of ground and will hopefully spark imaginations.

The dates will be September 20 thru November 1st.  We’ll take submissions up to 9/18, but would like to receive them ASAP.  Call or text Jay at (501) 993-0012 or email audiolingo@gmail.com.

Meanwhile, one of my favorite artists is still running a fundraiser to help her daughter fulfill a pretty amazing musical dream, and she’s offering prints of twelve, TWELVE new paintings based on songs of mine!  The art is already finished (she whupped it all out in a matter of a few weeks!) and will be shipped out as soon as the campaign is over.  Back the campaign at $5.oo or more, and you’ll also get the twelve songs free from me. 🙂  Check it out here.

I have so many brilliant and talented people in my life.

This month, artist Elizabeth Jordan Leggett has a fundraiser going.  The proceeds will help her daughter fulfill a very big, music-intensive dream.

Some of you will remember Elizabeth’s work from the liner notes of my Wonders album:

Elizabeth has taken twelve of my songs, fed them through her mystical brain, and popped out a painting for each of them.  They’re compelling, they’re a different reflection of what my music evokes, and I think they’re worth taking a look at.  Below is her depiction of “La Sirene”, which I completely adore.

You can look at the whole set in her online gallery, or you can look at them in the context of the Kickstarter campaign and become a backer right away.    Since all the art is finished, there’s very little risk involved!

The campaign ends on September 19, three weeks from today.  I hope you’ll give it your support and get yourself some gorgeous new art prints based on my work.  🙂

NOTE: many of the backer rewards include a free compilation from me, of all twelve of the songs which Elizabeth chose to turn into art!

Today’s the day!  I get into my trusty touring vehicle with my favorite cellist, and we zoom off on the first duo tour we’ve done all by ourselves!  The schedule is light, but that just means we’ll have more energy to pour into every single show.  We’ll play in Missoula MT tomorrow, Denver this Saturday and Sunday, Lincoln NE next Tuesday, and Dover DE on Aug 24.  All the showtimes and ticket info are over on my tour page.

This tour has its own art, down below, courtesy of the delightful Herb Leonhard!

Check out his other work here.

Art by Herb Leonhard

Sweet and silly song-sister Dogwood has an EP that’s free to listen online!  If you love ukulele, strong and delicious voices, mythology and mischief, definitely check out what she’s got going.

The same with her brilliant buddy Nathaniel Johnstone, whose Antikythera Mechanism album goes from shanty to goth to belly dance groove to pet kraken love song before you can even catch up!  Greek myths AND steampunk in every song?!? As my friend Amy said, come to Mama!

I’ve had the pleasure to sing with Margot Adler two times in my life, and to teach with her at a festival once.  I will never forget those experiences.

I will never forget her 1000-watt smile, and her steady voice like a solid beam of moonlight shining on dark water.

I will never forget the effect her writings had on me before we ever met face to face.

I will never forget sharing lunch with her at the airport in Detroit, barely a year ago.

The last time I heard her speak was on NPR.

May her voice, her light, and her spirit live on in the lives of those she touched and taught and sang with.

Here is The Wild Hunt’s lovely piece on her life and her death.

This marks the third time in two weeks I’ve learned of the passing of someone I cared about.  Remember to tell your cherished ones how you feel about them.  Life is so very short.