Sooj

It’s almost October and so much is happening.  

FIRSTLY! HAPPY 3RD BIRTHDAY TODAY TO THE NEPHEW OF MY HEART, SEBASTIAN! If you do not yet support his genius mother Catherynne M. Valente on Patreon, please consider doing so!

I’m about to have my first in-person concerts since November 2019, yall.

Here is all the info in one place, on my tour calendar page.  

I know me, so I know I’m gonna be all sorts of vulnerable and emotional in the moment, even if I have my stage presence firmly in place and no one suspects a thing. If I do get to see you (masked and vaccinated) in Lakewood, Ohio ($15 for adults, kids under 14 free- please mask up!) one week from today or in Easley, SC (free event with your donation to charity – again, please mask up) on October 9th, there may be tears in my eyes and uncontainable joy in my voice.  As far as I am aware, both of these (90% outdoor and distanced) in-person events are going on as planned.  If that changes, I will get word to you ASAP.Rest assured that I am fully vaccinated, I will be masked unless I am singing or inhaling a sandwich between schedule items, and I will be asking folx to respect social distancing so that I don’t risk bringing any microbes home to my fellas, one of whom is much too young for the currently available COVID-19 vaccines. Wish me luck.  I know you will.  And let me know if you plan to attend either event.  

This should go without saying, but let me be clear: if you are not feeling well on either event day, if you are unable to wear a mask or to be fully vaccinated, or both if possible, please do not come.  There is no such thing as too careful right now.  Stay home, stay well, and stay safe.

MEANWHILE!  Let’s visit online Sunday, September 26, at 3pm Central!  Heather Dale & I are hosting an online watch party for our Arthurian (Guineverean and Morganaian, to be precise) Legend musical, Queens of Avalon!  How different would the story be if the queens got to be more than mere symbols, instead taking the spotlight?  What if these two women, Guinevere and Morgana, so often written as rivals, had instead met as children and vowed to be sisters forever, no matter what?  Come see what we did with it: old songs and new, cast-made costumes and props, flow arts, and more!  Heather and I will host, and we’ll be in the chat, MST3K-ing ourselves left and right.  It’s gonna be great.  Join us here at Online Concert Thing. $5 and up! 

As part of the show, Heather and I will both be offering Avalon-related goodies we’ve never even thought of before, like flow arts tutorials, handwritten keepsake-level letters from Camelot & elsewhere, video chats, unreleased mp3 collections, silk dance fan sets handmade by Heather, and affirmations from the Lady of the Lake, herself!  Of course, you’ll also get the chance to download the Queens of Avalon film and soundtrack, which are really the best bits. 🙂

While I’m in Ohio, I will ALSO be performing online, as part of a multi-band benefit for Arkansas Community Advocates, a Little Rock based organization who are allies to our unhoused population here in the state.  ALL the money from Tickets will go to AR Community Advocates, and spoilers…I’m doing a bit of a different kind of show for this one. Most of the other acts on the bill play dark wave and other similar genres of music, so, with the encouragement of our event organizer Timothy, I pulled out some of my own more electronica-influenced surprises, two of which I have NEVER EVER PERFORMED LIVE until now!   

Come, enjoy, and help us help others, 1pm Central on October 2nd! Your $10 ticket supports Arkansas Community Advocates.  

I’ll also give an online show at 2pm Central on Halloween- join me for the Bad Wolves’ Ball!  Get your ticket!

Quick post  to let you know that I have a last-minute online show today at 4pm Central, and it’s free!
Click here to watch on Zoom
If Zoom requests a passcode, use 0000

Hope you like the Children of the Horned One look I chose for today’s show.

Watchtower Temple is a new Pagan group based in Batesville, Arkansas, and this is their first event of any kind!  They originally had it scheduled as an in-person campout, but they transformed it into a virtual event for everyone’s health and safety.  Batesville is where I went to college, so this group is already dear to me by extension.  They have been lovely to work with.  

I know we are all video-conferenced out at this point, but I have to spread the word about this because if a pagan community is setting down roots there, 20+ years after I and a handful of my school friends were learning how to be witchy on our own, with no available mentorship, I wanna see it flourish!

My concert today will include long beloved favorites like “Hymn to Herne” and “Witch’s Rune”, but also my new single “Outlast” on electric guitar, and some unreleased songs!

Here’s the event schedule for today and tomorrow:

Saturday:

10am – Opening Ceremonies

12pm – A poppet for every purpose with Bryen Scott-Kiddy

2pm – Intro to reiki with Josh Meeks

4pm – Music by special guest S. J. Tucker

6pm – Life as an LGBTQ+ pagan

7:30pm – Music by Krista Chapman Green

9pm – Music by Louis Garou

10:30pm – Campfire

Sunday:

9am – Pagan breakfast chat

11am – Open floor discussion

1pm – Ritual

3m – Closing Ceremonies

Remember that I’ll be online for the Queens of Avalon screening later this month, and I hope to see you there!

If all goes as planned, I will have my first in-person concerts in 22 months during the first two weeks of October.  I’ll be in the Cleveland area on October 2nd, and in South Carolina on October 9th, both outdoor events with distancing measures in place.  All the info is here on my tour schedule page.  Whatever ends up happening, changes or cancellations or going forward as planned, I’ll let you all know.  Rest assured that I will do what I need to do to stay safe and healthy, and to help my audience do the same.

In case you missed it, I released a new single last week, “Outlast”!  Listen and download here.  Choose your own price!

I’m releasing my song “Outlast” today for the first time!  

You’re all welcome to “Follow” me on Bandcamp as well.  I tend to release new music there first, as it takes less time than with CD Baby and Spotify and all the rest for my new stuff to become available- no waiting period, I just click “publish” when I’m ready, and it’s available to everybody right then and there.

I wrote this song during the latter half of 2019. This week (Sept 1, 2021) I decided it was time to polish it up for release. A recent live performance of this that I filmed for my YouTube channel less than a week ago resonated with a whole lot of people, lots of you telling me that this was just what you needed to hear.  Watch that at this link if you haven’t seen it yet:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJXW0FCAgcY
Please choose your own price to download this newly released song.  If you need it for free, come on and get it.  If you purchase it at any price, today being Bandcamp Friday means I’ll get a little bit of an extra cut! 

My hope is that download sales of “Outlast” this Friday will help me turn around and send a donation both to local organizations on the ground in Louisiana and Mississippi who are getting supplies to people without power or shelter after Hurricane Ida, AND to reproductive choice mutual aid and support organizations in Texas.  Also, of course, I hope y’all enjoy the song.

Later this month, I’ll be cohosting something special with Heather Dale, a little revival of our Queens of Avalon musical!  Come join the watch party on September 26th: https://onlineconcertthing.com/product/queens-of-avalon-screening-2021-09-26-0400-pm-edt/

Thanks for your ears, your support, and for believing in me. 
Please stay safe and well until we can see each other face to face.  We are built to outlast.  May it be so. 

Hello, beloved folx!

My next online show will be this month on August 22nd, at 2pm Central!  Come see our first Online Concert Thing variety show, featuring showcases of two performers new to the platform, Meren King and Cloud the Pagan Rapper!  I’ll be the headliner and the emcee (Mythpunk of Ceremonies).

A whole bunch of my besties also have concerts at OCT this month: Betsy & Alec & Vixy & Tony & friends have created virtual Music Under the Trees for us this Aug 7 and 8, and Renée Janski will give her first concept show at 5pm Central on August 8, wherein she’ll be busting out both her opera chops AND her jazz chops!  I can’t wait.  Go check out the upcoming shows and join us for any and all!

If you haven’t yet visited Online Concert Thing to see a show, here’s a helpful video to get you started.

Bandcamp Friday is back this week, August 6th!  That means if you purchase any downloads or order any physical CDs or books from my Bandcamp page, I’ll get an extra cut!  That goes for other music friends who sell their work on Bandcamp, too: Betsy, Alec, Leslie Hudson, Meren King, and more!  I love working with Bandcamp, and the fact that they’ve made this a fairly regular thing they choose to do for us musicians is just one of the reasons.  You’ll get instant access to mp3 downloads after your purchase, and when you order merch, I’ll ship it to you myself!  Shop here:  http://music.sjtucker.com -and thank you!