Sooj

I’ve been keeping the first two lines of this one locked in my heart until the rest of the song was ready to come out and play.  It took three years, but here are the lyrics!

I come from the land of the wild river gods

where the Joker was never a throwaway card.

Better keep this in mind when you bank on the odds

or I’ll wash your soul away.

My mother the moon, my father the tide

gave me wisdom enough to be nobody’s bride.

You may think that you’re tough, sugar. Swallow your pride

or I’ll wash your soul away.

I won’t mean to do it.  I just take it as it comes

when the black rain falls and the west wind hums.

You cannot stop the water when she decides

tonight’s her night to rise.

I am more than a prize to be won by your smile.

I’m a wind and a storm and a wild river child.

If you’ve got what it takes, we could talk for a while

’til I wash your soul away.

Sirens may sing, prophets decry,

hucksters all claim that they’ll teach you to fly.

In the time that it takes just to form your reply,

I’ll wash your soul away.

So help me, I’m a wild, wild river child

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Preparations for tomorrow’s Music Under The Trees concert continue apace, and I have had so much sweet rehearsal time with so many glad hearts! For those of you who’d hoped to attend but haven’t yet sent in an RSVP, the concert is full. However, I found out last night that I have another concert in the area with Clint McCune and Betsy Tinney, Musician! We will perform at SoulFood Coffeehouse, our favorite neighborhood stage, on August 1st at 8pm.  Everyone’s welcome. 🙂

All the fretboards!

Here is the last video and song released by the beautiful, brilliant Nicole Sangsuree before her untimely passing yesterday.  Soar on, blithe spirit and sister.  I will miss you.

I only got to share a stage with Nicole once, at the Women of Wisdom conference in February of this year.  She made a hell of an impression on me, though, and I hope we meet again in some other story.  Here she is, using her powers for good.

Remember to tell your loved ones that they matter to you.  It’s important.  You never know what the next day may bring.

Earth My Body from Nicole Sangsuree Barrett on Vimeo.

It’s been a grand and gentle summer thus far.  Hope this is true for you as you read, as well.

Since I left home on June 18, I’ve played seven shows, with the eighth coming up tonight at 8pm in Ashland, Oregon.  Between gigs, I’ve gotten to do a fair amount of hiking in beautiful places, I’ve carved out a bit of time for yoga and dance, and I’ve spent some quality time with dear friends in several different cities and pieces of country paradise.  It’s a beautiful afternoon in Ashland today.

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It’s a beautiful morning in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. Ryan and I will make our way south to New Mexico today, and I am very much looking forward to the drive. Hope you all get to see something beautiful today, too.

My concert in Albuquerque this Saturday still has room for you! Check it out and please help me spread the word if you can.

SATURDAY JULY 5 2014 – 7:30PM
Sooj and Helios
Tortuga Gallery
901 Edith Boulevard Southeast
Albuquerque, NM 87102
$10-$15 advance, $15 at the door
Get tickets here: http://soojandhelios.brownpapertickets.com/

Albuquerque’s own magical dij-and-drums duo, Helios, featuring Rev Tsolwizar, opens the night! These rhythms are guaranteed to get you on your feet and dancing!
Doors open at 7:00pm
Music starts at 7:30pm

As promised, I’m writing you all to let you know that I’ve got THREE more shows confirmed for this month, one each for California, Oregon, and Washington. Here they are!

SATURDAY JULY 12 2014 – 7:00PM
Sooj joins Sharon Knight & Winter
Air and Fire, a Mystical Bazaar
13136 State Route 9
Boulder Creek, CA 95006
$20 advance,$25 at the door
Get tickets here!

Sooj’s longtime friends Sharon Knight and Winter are allowing her to crash their Neofolk Romantique Full Moon Concert in Boulder Creek, CA! Join in the dance, and make it wild!

Sharon’s distinctive voice and striking poetry have won her a loyal following across the country. Together with longtime collaborator Winter, she tours nationally several months out of the year, performing at festivals, masquerades, conventions, cafes, shops and house concerts. Their music has been heard on over 300 radio stations, enjoyed “top 10” status on MP3 and NAR charts, has been featured in three independent films, and captured the attention of major labels and independent labels alike. Sharon and Winter are the founding members of the gothic tribal folk metal band, Pandemonaeon, and they produce their own annual festival in California called Hexenfest. Winter has most recently played guitar on Blondie’s latest album “Ghosts of Download,” and has also produced and performed on Jessica Star’s new album, “Mystical Creature.”

Considering that Sharon and Winter’s music has been described as “folktales that ran away with the Faeries at the turn of the century and took cover in an old trunk bound for the circus, which was then commandeered by pirates”, you can imagine the kind of fantastic fusion promised by a shared show between the three of us.

TUESDAY JULY 15 2014 – 8PM
Sooj & the Feckin’ Tinkers
Oberon’s Threepenny Tavern
45 North Main Street
Ashland, OR 97520
$10 suggested donation

Friends of Sooj, the Feckin’ Tinkers are a Tuesday mainstay at Oberon’s Tavern – a lively duo comprised of Jeff “Dickens” Behrends on guitar and vocals, and Ingrid “Goblin Socks” Edstrom on bodhran drum and vocals. The infectious traditional and playfully modern Celtic music they play will have you stamping your feet and singing along!

Mischief is sure to be managed when we join forces! The Tinkers kick it up at 8pm, and I follow at 9pm, all for a donation of your choice! Come and join us at this unique and exceptional faery-friendly tavern in Ashland’s Downtown Plaza!

Oberon’s is a really nifty place, by the way. Here’s their website: http://oberonstavern.com/

SUNDAY JULY 20 2014 – 4-9PM
Music Under the Trees
Pinecoon’s Summer Stage
Redmond, WA
$20 RSVP
Please email betsy@betsytinney.com for directions and to reserve your space.

Join us for an epic house concert in the cool dappled shade of our backyard amphitheater in Redmond.

The music will go from 4 pm to 9 pm, with a short break for dinner in the middle. Doors open to the public at 3:30 PM.

Performing forces will include:

* S. J. Tucker with Betsy Tinney

* In Like a Lion (Clint McCune, Geli Wuerzner and Betsy Tinney)

* Flamboyant Mockingbird Pajamas (Kaede Tinney & band)

* Betsy Tinney (solo looped cello)

Suggested donation: $20 per person.

Reservations are strongly recommended. Please email betsy@betsytinney.com for directions and to reserve your space.
LAST AWESOME THING for today is this, which you can download for the price YOU choose: http://storybundle.com/music

What is this? I’m part of a massively awesome music and fiction download bundle that’s available for 11 more days! My Ember Days album is part of the bundle, as is music from Abney Park, Heather Dale, Alexander James Adams, Pandora Celtica, and the Borderers. Authors on board who’ve contributed tasty things include Kevin J. Anderson, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Peter J. Wacks & J. R. Boyett, and Rhiannon Paille, with bonuses from Peter J. Wacks & Steven L. Sears, Mike Baron, and more.

The more downloads of the bundle, the more goodies get unlocked!
If you want to hear FIVE out of the ten tracks I’m working on in the recording studio for my Stolen Season album, download the bundle and help me spread that link around between now and July 13!

Check out the link to see what you get with the initial download, and what you get as the downloads keep coming in and unlocking bonuses:
http://storybundle.com/music

Once again, this thing goes away after July 13. Don’t miss it!

Thank you all for sharing your summer with me. Bright stars and sweet shade to you!

I’m participating in a multimedia download right now, which is available for a limited time at this link.  Here’s what you get to start with, for the price of your choice:

AND here’s what you get IN ADDITION TO ALL OF THAT if enough people download the first batch!

Want it yet?  GO HERE!  You can only grab this before the next thirteen days go by, and after that, it’s gone. 🙂  Spread the word!  Link it around! Thank you.

AWESOME ANNOUNCEMENT for today: together with Abney Park, Pandora Celtica, Alexander James Adams and others, I’m participating in my first-ever multimedia music bundle! Download lots of tunes and fiction at the price of your choice for the next eighteen days!

BONUS: there’s a stretch goal aspect to this.  More (unreleased!) downloads get unlocked the more bundles you guys choose to get.  My contribution? FIVE tracks from the album I’m working on right now, Stolen Season! You can’t get those anywhere else right now, because the album is still a work-in-progress. I hope we get enough downloads to unlock that basket of goodies! Spread the word and download here at whatever price you like (no, really): http://storybundle.com/music 

For those of you who’ve been curious, I’ve got some of the art for the new album already, courtesy once again of the delightful Mr. Chaz Kemp. 🙂  Check it out!

Hi, everyone! I hope to see you on my travels this summer. I’m leaving home today, in fact!

I’ve got just a few events to let you in on, with more to come as things get confirmed, for June and July. Folks in Colorado, New Mexico, Oregon and Washington state, I’ll be coming through verrrry soon now! My first concert of the summer is THIS FRIDAY in COLORADO SPRINGS!

FRIDAY JUNE 20, 8pm
Sooj Solstice Concert
Unity of the Rockies
1945 Mesa Road
Colorado Springs, CO 80904
GET TICKETS HERE: http://soojatunity.brownpapertickets.com/

I haven’t had a chance to do a show in Colorado Springs in quite some time, so I’m really looking forward to this. Hang on to something, because I’m bringing with me an electric guitar on this trip! Her name is Stella.
Thanks so much to Dawn and to Jennifer and the rest of the Unity staff and congregation for hosting me!

SATURDAY JUNE 28 – MONDAY JULY 1
various show times at
the International New Age Trade Show, INATS West
http://inats.com/west/index.html
Denver Mart Pavilion
451 East 58th Street
Denver, CO 80216

INATS will be the first trade show I’ve participated in as a wholesale vendor, and I’m going in with my friends at Dryad Tea, Mithros Designs and Underhill Alchemy!
I don’t get to make any direct CD sales at INATS, only take orders, so this will be a new experience. I’m feeling very optimistic about the event, especially since INATS guru Andrew Toplarski has been delightful to work with so far. Andrew has set me up with four performances at INATS: one on Saturday morning, one at the Saturday evening COVR awards banquet, one on Sunday afternoon at 4pm, and one on Monday afternoon at 1pm. INATS is primarily for retailers and store owners to come and shop for new products to carry. Hopefully this will be a great chance for me to get my music carried by more stores. For more info, visit the inats.com website.

After a quick visit to friends in Steamboat Springs, it’s off to New Mexico!

SATURDAY JULY 5, 7:30PM
Sooj shares the stage with Helios
Tortuga Gallery
901 Edith Boulevard Southeast
Albuquerque, NM 87102
GET TICKETS HERE: http://soojandhelios.brownpapertickets.com/

I’m so excited to get back to Albuquerque again! This time I get to throw down with local Drum-and-Didgeridoo duo (brought to you by the letter D!) Helios! I can certainly vouch for their groove. Hope you can come and play with us! Tortuga, I’m told, is a very comfy and artsy space.

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Good news: The Audubon Society is on board to help the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance. Participate in the letter writing campaign here if you like.

For local folks in Arkansas, there’s a kickass float event planned for May 24th to help raise awareness! I’m betting it’ll be a beautiful day to come to the river with your kayak or other chosen transport and visibly join the fight to keep it unpolluted. 🙂

WHAT’S ALL THIS ABOUT, SOOJ? Well, a huge new hog farm is now operating right on top of Big Creek and the Buffalo River in beautiful northern Arkansas. The place is too close to the Creek and the River to be legal and in keeping with National Park regulations, but it’s there and operational anyway. The Buffalo is one of the last remaining National rivers that remains unpolluted. Those of us who don’t have any interest in turning a profit from running a pig prison (and filling the local ecosystem with massive amounts of poop, literally, day by day) want to keep it that way. So the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance is standing up now.

“The BRWA and the other Coalition members met with Cargill representatives (Cargill is the company which is the hog farm’s largest customer) and stated, in the strongest terms possible, that given the proximity of C & H to the Buffalo National River and its location on karst topography, the only solution is the removal of the hog factory from the watershed.”

This is the cause I’m championing on my tour this year, because the River is important to me. It’s gorgeous there, I’ve known people all my life who visit and float that river regularly, and it really is one of the last National rivers standing, where pollution is concerned. It may not make as much tourism cash for the state as a giant hog farm would make for the company that runs it, but I had no trouble deciding which side of that situation I wanted to fight for. You’ll see me post about this a lot. Please join me in supporting the BRWA however you can.