Sooj

The perfect topic for a snow day, sez I.  I’ve started up a discussion over on Facebook about which mythical creatures captivate us most, and why.  Feel free to chime in with your own comment.

The Wondrous Celtic Velocipede Tour has come to an end!  All parties are done for the year and safely home.  I will post some recap and gratitude soon.  Everyone please be extra careful in this winter weather, wherever you are!  The ice has arrived at my house.  There’s a chance we’ll lose power out here in the woods, so the Wizard and I may be rockin’ it old school in historic ways over the weekend.  Yay for firewood and snuggles!

Heather Dale and I got a mention in the Philadelphia Inquirer, thanks to PhilCon and to our perceptive fan/friend Lynati, who told staff writer Julie Zauzman, “you should be interviewing THESE two ladies!”

THE TOUR: I have been (voluntarily) kidnapped by (really awesome) Canadians and stuffed into their (relatively comfy) car.  They tell me that I’ll be (happily) playing bass, playing guitar, playing djembe, and singing with them for the rest of this month, across two provinces and ten states!  Below is the list of dates and cities where you can catch us all, and I hope you will.  Get ticket info and locations on my tour page.

TONIGHT Nov 11: Troy, NY

Tuesday Nov 12: Kingston, Ontario

Wednesday Nov 13: Toronto, Ontario

Thursday Nov 14: Belleville, Michigan (local to Detroit and Ann Arbor)

Friday Nov 15: Chicago, IL

Saturday Nov 16: Madison, WI

Monday Nov 18: Winnipeg, Manitoba

Tuesday Nov 19: Minneapolis, MN

Thursday Nov 21: Lincoln, Nebraska

Friday Nov 22: Denver, CO

Saturday Nov 23: Denver, CO again!

Monday Nov 25: Kansas City, KS

Tuesday Nov 26: St. Louis, MO

Saturday Nov 30: Mt. Joy, PA

Sunday Dec 1: Fredericksburg, VA

Word to yr Produce!!  Here it is!  Watch, share, dance, enjoy! Eat your veggies!

This was so much fun to dream up, create, and perform.  “Beetz” is gonna be one of my favorite songs to perform live for a long time to come- especially when I get to share the stage with my sisters in Big Bad Gina.

Download the song and get the lyrics here.

((new album dance!!))

The digital release is here, and I am so happy that I get to share it with all of you!

Please go and listen for free, and download if you wish!

The Jack O’lantern smiles with a knowing, subtle shine

Lighting up the front steps of this little house of mine-

A house you’d never reach unless the forest wished you well.

Here you are, safe and sound; step up and ring the bell.

Read more…

The new release is getting very close.  I’ve been hard at work on what are turning into the final mixes of eleven new songs- the last one I had left on my wish list for the WONDERS project *finally* allowed itself to be lured out of my 12-string guitar and my C pennywhistle tonight!

I’m pretty excited, so I wanted to share the song names (still figuring out what order they’ll go in) and the heart-stoppingly awesome album art contributed by Chaz Kemp Illustration.

Wonders cover art by Chaz Kemp

The Songs:

September’s Rhyme

Wonders

Little Skylark (Safe at Home)

Glashtyn Shanty

Ask Me Anything (Ell’s song)

September Morning Bell

The Great Velocipede Migration

For Iago

Sailing Song

Little Skylark (The Worsted Wood)

Not the Villain

Song of the Witches

Read more…

Yes, you read the title correctly. 🙂

Just after I performed at the Beltania festival in Colorado this May, my friends Makara and Manfred asked me to deliver the autograph of my life.

The two of them have a great deal of fun restoring classic VW buses, and they’d just gotten one to the point that it was ready for a new custom art paint job.  Makara had the design all mapped out in her head to include giant Tuscan sunflowers, inspired by her time in Tuscany…and lyrics from my song, “Cheshire Kitten”.

With a big Cheshire cat face and loopy, striped grin on the back of the bus.  And she wanted me to AUTOGRAPH THE BUS.

Folks, I have autographed some neat stuff in my time, but this really takes the cake!

What else takes the cake:  the bus is for sale.  $5500 is the asking price!  Also, Manfred and Makara are giving Sooj fans first crack at it.  They’re not listing the bus on public websites until this Wednesday (Sept 11), in case one of you guys wants to grab it first. 🙂

Yup.

You could roll out in your own Tuscan Cheshire Kitten Mystery Machine.

EDIT: This beauty is now the beloved new vehicle of my sweet Autumn O’Leary, whom many of you have seen performing with me many times as ASL interpreter!  WOOHOO!

I’m leaving the rest of the photos and info up about the bus anyway, if you’re still curious.  Yaaay Autumn!

Read more…

I’m writing from LaFayette, Georgia today, where Ryan and I are attending the Gathering of the Tribes festival and leadership conference.  Turns out that this festival is the oldest, longest-running pagan event in the country!  Amazing to think that there are so many festivals out there nowadays.  No complaints here!

Ben Deschamps and I have been hard at work booking shared shows for me and the Heather Dale Band for this October and November!  Check out all the tour dates as we post them on my tour schedule page.  We’ll be in Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Ontario, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Manitoba (hey, look, a rhyme scheme!), Nebraska, Colorado, Missouri, Indiana, and Maryland…whew!  With new albums, too!

I just added two new tracks to my Soundcloud today- two mixes from an instrumental improv session I shared with my friend Rev Tsolwizar in New Mexico!  Listen here.

Also on Soundcloud is my stage-mate from last night, 9th Phoenix.  If you like the idea of club/dubstep pieces with witchy influences, all positive and pretty tight, check out Sai’s work here.

1. I have a show! On Saturday! In Nashville!  At which I will debut at least one new song!  Thorne and Edie just sent a promo flyer – please download and share around, especially if you’re in the Nashville, TN area.  It’s a PDF, and it looks great!  Download below:

sjtconcertflier

2. I’m running an art/music/creativity contest on my Facebook music page through Saturday, inspired by a new song I wrote this month called “Little Bird”.  Check out the contest, the rules, and the beautiful entries already posted.  There’s still plenty of time to participate, and everybody who jumps on board gets a free mp3 of “Little Bird” from me as soon as it’s recorded!