Blog

Hi, everyone!

I hope the weather, work, and your blood- or chosen-family are all treating you well, and if not, I hope the tide changes for you soon.

I’m also hoping you can join me this evening – I get to share a concert with my sweet song-sister Bekah Kelso, online, everywhere the signal can reach, just for you.

Here’s the link for the concert broadcast, which will begin at 7:30pm CENTRAL TIME, and wrap up at 9pm Central.

Here’s the Facebook event if you’d like to be part of the discussion there, and also share the info with your Facebook peeps.  Feel free to invite anybody you think would enjoy what we do, together and apart!

In Bekah’s words, we’re gonna music & chill, y’all.

It’s my last concert of any kind for this year, so expect it to be one of a kind.  Bekah and I have been singing together for more than a decade, through years and years of beauty, life changes, and revelations.  I cannot recommend her music highly enough, and I cannot wait to sing with her again, live from her living room, for all of you!  It’ll be a warm and welcoming acoustic concert, and you can watch from any device that connects to the web.  Bonus:  if watching from a computer, you can take advantage of the “chat room” feature on Concert Window, which is always a treat!  Join that flock of friends (some you’ll have met, and some you haven’t yet) and chat with us as we share songs and stories, harmonies and happiness.

Bekah and I each have a song on The Green Album! Have you heard that yet?

OTHER (BRIEF) NEWS

Remember my Traveling Songs promotion?  As the greatest fan family ever, you’ve all helped me raise more than thirteen monthly car payments for my new touring vehicle since mid-July!  THANK YOU from the bottom of my happy heart!  Shadowfax is going strong, and it looks like that shiny new odometer is already going to read something around 25,000 miles at the end of this year.  Shadowfax is an absolute pleasure to drive!  Thanks also to those of you who’ve sent me your feedback about those Traveling Songs- it means the world to me to know which ones you love, which ones you keep going back to, and which ones you truly love best of all!  If you haven’t heard about this and you’re curious, click here to learn more.

I released a polished version of one of the Traveling Songs, “Moving Meditation”, just a little while ago, as part of a new playlist.  Check it out and listen here.  It’s free to download if you like, but I’m using money from any paid downloads of that collection to beef up my year-end donations to Planned Parenthood, the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance, and the Water Protector Legal Collective.  Those donations are looking pretty respectable now, thanks to those paid downloads.  Thank you all so very much.  Not only are you helping to make a difference, you’re doing so when you could have had the music for free.  Thank You!

Before I go, I just want to reassure you all that, no matter what’s in store for us in 2017, I have a WHOLE LOT of music planned for you.  I have a whole lot of concerts, starting with some really fun stuff at PantheaCon in California this coming February.  I have a whole lot of goodness to send your way, I am gonna keep making songs and sharing them with you, and I’m so glad for the connection that we all have through those songs.  2016 was rough on a lot of us.  I just want you all to know that it wasn’t so rough on me that I won’t keep singing, keep traveling, and keep doing my best to give you all something new to enjoy, as often as I can.  You’ve told me, via the internet and face to face, that it makes a difference, so I’m going to keep doing what I do.  We are a community here in this little fandom, beautiful and diverse and strong.  May we continue to be so.  May we thrive.  May we grow in strength.  May we keep learning, doing our best, and learning how to do better when we fall short.  May we do right by one another, by friends and by strangers.  May we conquer whatever there is to come, together.

Movement and dance have really helped me to reset for the past week- for most of my life, tbh. I know I’m not the only one. So here’s a new mixtape and a new song. Grab it for free if you like. Any paid downloads will help me beef up my upcoming donations to Planned Parenthood, the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance, the Water Protector Legal Collective, and other local causes I support. $300 so far, since I launched this yesterday evening; nice work, folks. 🙂

 

Further thoughts prompted by the election results:

Fellow women, my Queer tribe, my witches, my POC neighbors, my Muslim neighbors, I know right now it feels as if the bullies have knocked us down, or that they’re going to very soon.
That just means that it’ll be our turn again next.
The people who want us scared and divided forever are in for a bit of a shock.
I’m not saying you gotta start building the barricade, but I am saying that we already know how to fight for what we have and what we need and what we believe. We already have been. And wouldn’t we rather fight and win than have it handed to us? Wouldn’t we rather survive and thrive, out of love and/or spite?
I’m not saying to go pick a fight with your relatives or your neighbors. I’m saying stay woke, and remember that you’re not alone, not ever. I’m saying that we need to be ready to give ’em hell. To speak up and speak out, to sing and to write and to paint and to create, and to keep on. To vote in the 2018 election, and every midterm and primary that comes along.

Get some rest, take a shower, eat something. When you’re ready to stand again, there will always be a place for you. Freak the fuck out and THEN carry on, when you can.

And yes, I would die for all of you if it came to that. Over and over, for as long as it takes.
We are damn expensive player-characters, and in the words of the late great Drew Hayes, we get the experience points, like it or not.
I think we’re all gonna have a LOT of XP to spend after the next few years together.
So be it. Get your character sheet.

The following words are for any and all of my friends and fans worldwide who are struggling with fear, grief, numbness, or rage today. If this doesn’t describe you, I urge you to attempt understanding and compassion if and when you encounter someone who’s worried or upset about the election results.