I had a lot of favorite moments during my shared online concert with Alec last Friday (September 7). We managed to capture the whole thing, so I conjured the bits I loved best onto my YouTube channel. Here they are!
My next online show will be under the light of the Harvest Moon, on the evening of September 24th. Watch it here!
I’ve really enjoyed putting out a decently steady crop of new songs for download this year. I released the freshest one this week! Check it out at the player below. You may download it free, or set your own price! Lyrics here.
Big thanks to everyone who’s shared or ‘liked’ this on social media since I posted it late Monday night. 🙂 It makes such a big difference, especially for the grassroots performers like me!
My Aug 28 solo online show AND my Sept 7 shared online show with Alec were both incredibly well received, and relatively smooth tech-wise, too! Come and see the next one on the Harvest Moon, September 24, if you can! Watch it live here! I’ll start at 8pm Central time, at which time the big moon herself should be on the rise. I love singing on full moon nights!
Here’s a highlight from the August 28 broadcast, of my song “Safe & Dry”, an homage to big, scary weather. I may step outside to sing this one in the general direction of the Carolina coast, in light of what’s headed their way.
And here’s Alec playing “Manticore’s Lullaby” with me from last Friday, September 7! I love that mando so much.
I have two online shows coming up, and one live concert appearance in Arkansas. I’m also happy to report that all of my travels-abroad and domestic-during July and August went beautifully, and so far all is still really going as it should with my pregnancy.
My first online show coming up is TOMORROW (Tuesday). Please forgive me for the relatively short notice. I took my time getting my act together, and then suddenly I didn’t want to wait any longer to give another solo online concert. Blame it on the full moon in Pisces if you like.
TUESDAY AUGUST 28, 8-10PM CENTRAL
Solo Online Concert
(pay what you want)
Watch here: http://www.concertwindow.com/sjtuckermusic
Online shows never run out of space, so pay the amount of your choice, snuggle a friend or a pet, and enjoy! I have downloads and physical goodies available as tip rewards, some of which are brand new!
Next month, almost entirely for selfish reasons, I’ll share another online show with my bandmate and buddy, Alexander James Adams!
FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 7, 7PM CENTRAL
Sooj & Alec’s Shared Online Show
(pay what you want)
Watch here: http://www.concertwindow.com/sjtuckermusic
“The Pixie Queen and the Faerie Tale Minstrel join forces once again, one night only, for an online concert! MISCHIEF IS ASSURED!”
We’ll kick things off at 7pm Central (8pm Eastern, 6pm Mountain, 5pm Pacific). Check out Alec’s Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/AlexanderJamesAdams/
Throughout this year of touring less and actively taking intelligent care of myself as my body changes and I get closer to babytime, everyone’s support of my online shows has been such a boon and such a boost. Thank you all for continuing to show enthusiasm for what I do, even as the tech becomes more a part of it!
The next day, I’ll be singing beside my own local healing waters, in the town that hosted my very first concerts ever, when I was seventeen years old. Thanks to Hot Springs PPD for making it happen. Let me know if you plan on being there – like all Pagan Pride events, it’s free to attend. My concert begins at 2pm, the lovely Mama Gina performs immediately after I do, and I’ve listed the full event schedule here.
Pagan Pride events have always been dear to my heart, since the very start of my career. This is the only one I have on my schedule for 2018, as well as my last in-person show before babytime. Happy Full Barley Moon to all of you this week, and I hope to see you soon in the Spa City or on your screens!
In the studio news:
My travels during July and August necessitated a pause in working on my next album release, but I’m home now and able to jump back in. So far, recording and finishing projects fits right in line with all of my nesting impulses, so stay tuned for more news about upcoming releases!
The first thing I may be able to announce soon is the completion of an audiobook for Denise Parkinson’s Daughter of the White River, which is an historical account of the short life of my fellow Arkansan, Helen Spence. Helen’s spirited story has captivated me for over a year now, and I’m so grateful to work with Denise to bring the audiobook to life! Denise’s next hope is to fund and film a documentary about Helen’s life and the pre-Depression houseboat communities of the lower White River, now long gone, but very much part of the hyperlocal stories I’m just learning about where I myself was born. I may be contributing a bit of music to the eventual film. I’ll keep you all in the know as things develop.
Here’s a brand new pitch reel for the documentary, featuring local places and local talent.
Home safely from all my gorgeous travels now, wishing you all well!
It’s a gentle night in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. I’m sitting at the kitchen table in the home of my friends Danny & Rebecca Mullikin. If you’re at all familiar with the music of Tuatha Dea- and if you recall our shared project, The Green Album, you certainly are- then you know their names and voices well. We’re embarking on a different kind of shared odyssey this month, making a big drive together up to Canada, where we’ll all appear at PaganFest this weekend, after which Tuatha Dea will all continue on to Kaleidoscope Gathering.
This week has been our first chance to sit and visit like normal people, without also running around to do sound checks and such, barely getting to see each other smile up close, and it feels like such a gift. Our lives are jam packed with joy and hardship in our tiny music scene, and we love almost every part of every day, even when we’re exhausted and overtasked, running at breakneck speed to get the show going on time. Therefore, the so-called slow days are few and far between, and it makes them valuable, at least to me. And that’s not to say that we haven’t all also been multitasking like crazy while we’re together. Being pregnant, I’m the only one who’s really done any sitting still at all. But there’s something about getting to cook dinner with your buddies, when we live and work the way we do, that’s super special. Tomorrow, the whirlwind catches us again.
My whirlwind’s been very gentle this year, out of necessity, so despite the brutal aspects of our long drive and border crossing preparations and logistics, I feel pretty well recharged and prepared for this. To start it off with friends is especially fantastic, and I feel like the luckiest kid on earth.
I’ll try to post more here and share stories as the journey unfolds. Let me know if you’re planning to attend PaganFest this week, or if I’ll see you in Pittsburgh for Confluence next week. Meanwhile, here’s a pic of one of my favorite moments from today, when Danny invited me to run over with him to Music Outlet in Sevierville. 🙂
Thanks to Kris & Jeri Lynn for requesting this one. Dedicated to them and to anyone else who needs to hear it right now.
Thanks to all who were able to be there for my seventeenth Concert Window broadcast last night! Here’s the highlighted song, “For Pinocchio”, which I picked out for their YouTube channel.
I’ll add at least one additional song vid from last night to my own channel ASAP – “Kindness Matters” turned out particularly well, despite the heat and the noisy (electric) fans. Sound quality may turn out slightly better from the background video that I saved on my own gear.
I apologize to anyone who had difficulty getting the Concert Window site or video feed to behave for them last night. Even though it’s beyond my control, I acknowledge that the site is quite often very squirrelly for a lot of my viewers. It’s even more frustrating because everything on my end was working nearly perfectly for once! Blargh! Tech frustrations aside, last night was possibly my most successful broadcast to date, and I really needed that boost. So thank you all again.
I’m hoping to schedule the next solo online show for mid-August, and then a second one with a special guest and good friend in early September! If you’ve got a date preference for either one, please write and let me know (sjtuckermusic at gmail).
Please join me if you can tomorrow evening on my Concert Window channel for an online show! I’ll be singing solo this time, with new songs and new tip rewards available to all of you. The ticket price is your choice. I’ll start the music at 8pm Central (9pm Eastern, 7pm Mountain, 6pm Pacific). Watch here.
Please feel free to share the link with friends- online shows never run out of seats, and everyone is welcome!
Join the discussion if you like on the Facebook event page.
I will debut at least one new song during the broadcast, a lullaby I’ve been working on en Español. If you’re at all more fluent than I am in that gorgeous language, I’d love to have your feedback on the lyrics and presentation. My plan for the lullaby is to release it on my YouTube channel for free, in hopes that it can be used to provide comfort to those of all ages being detained and torn from each other at our southern border. I’ve had a lot of help from fans and friends already in getting my Spanish as correct as I can for the lyrics, but I am happy to have more help.
Speaking of new songs, I have a surprise for each of you if you haven’t heard it yet. The newly released, fleshed out mix of my Traveling Song “Dance the Faery Ring” is available as a free download right now, in celebration of the Summer Solstice! I’ll sing that one live tomorrow night as well, but if you don’t have it yet, please help yourself and get it here! “Dance the Faery Ring” is my attempt at writing a song to celebrate the changing of the seasons. I hope it will inspire you to dance.
TOUR STUFF
In a couple of weeks, I’ll be in Ontario, Canada oh so briefly, for the 2018 Pagan Fest event! I will give a concert and teach two workshops over the weekend, and the festival’s music lineup is a whole constellation of stars! More info here.
After that, I’ll be performing at the Confluence convention in Pittsburgh! More info here.
Those are my only two live appearances for the month of July. Please let me know if you plan be at either event!
PERSONAL ANNOUNCEMENT
This last section of today’s post is CW: reproductive stuff. Please skip it if you need to do so. Your needs are valid and you have my love and understanding, no matter what.
This clip is from my May 2018 Concert Window online show. 🙂 Watch the next one here, June 28, 2018 at 8pm CST!
YouTube says I have too many words for the lyrics to go into the video description. 😉 So here they ALL are.
THE BALLAD OF LILAH ROSE
Lilah loved her family and the land they worked upon.
She minded what her daddy said, she grew up sweet and strong.
Jared was the apple of his southern mother’s eye,
but the devil was his daddy, and he couldn’t help but lie.
Try to stop a cyclone from going where it may.
Try to stop young love from growing day by day.
Lilah’s daddy saw it in his little girl’s face,
but he never said a word about disgrace.
“That boy is trouble,” all the ladies would agree,
and they’d pester Lilah’s daddy to put her under lock and key.
He’d listen with the patience of a saint, but that was all.
Gossip swirled along the wind through harvest into fall.
Lilah was a good girl ’til Jared came around.
Her daddy felt the wind change, but didn’t run him out of town.
Lilah found her mettle when Jared did her wrong.
“Boys will be boys” is such a tired old song.
Love demands a tribute grand enough to shake the earth.
She will meddle in your life and in your death and your rebirth.
Now, Jared ain’t been seen for days and no one acts surprised.
“Long time comin’, and the river’s bound to rise.”