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Mermaids, Lyrics, Concerts, and Gratitude

Betsy, Ryan and I had a wonderful experience at the Faerieworlds festival last weekend. Ryan and I are about to start our journey home. I’ve got two concert appearances en route, the last pair of shows on my #SultrySummerTour. Please help me spread the word!

-SATURDAY at noon, I’ll be singing at Salt Lake City Pagan Pride Day 2016! It’s free! If you can, please bring a non-perishable item for the Food & Blanket Drive that Pagan Pride Day is sponsoring in the name of The Road Home: a private non-profit social service agency that assists individuals and families experiencing homelessness in Salt Lake County and along the Wasatch Front.

–NEXT MONDAY EVENING, I have a concert at the lovely Tortuga gallery in Albuquerque, NM. Grab tickets here!

Tortuga’s a great place, tucked into a sweet little neighborhood, and I’m so glad they’re able to host me for another self-produced concert.

I’ve gotten a lot of love for my mermaid song, “The Ballad of Laurelei”, which was a collaboration with our friend, the late great Mark Lewis. The Faerieworlds community honored Mark’s life this weekend in myriad lovely ways, and we were proud to add to that resonance our performances of “Laurelei”. I want to thank our band mates (Sharon and Winter, I love you!) for helping this mermaid sing her story, and our fans (especially our mermaid fans!) for letting us share the world of that song with them and loving it so very clearly.

I’ve had one person write to me since the weekend, asking for more information about the song. It’s not yet recorded, but I have blogged about its lyrics and origins. Read that post here.

#SultrySummerTour – the Last Leg!

Happy September, everyone! I’ve got concerts in WA, OR, UT, NM and TX this month, starting tomorrow night:

September 2nd, 7:30-9:30pm

Sooj & Betsy House Concert

Port Townsend, WA

GET TICKETS!

Come on over for an evening of whimsy and wit, cello and guitar, siren song and magic! S. J. and Betsy‘s skill, presence and desire for connection with their audience consistently shine from every stage they cross. Original songs are the focus, here, flavored with everything from classical pieces to rowdy jazz or Celtic tunes. In short, there’s something for everyone, and there’s a place for you in amongst the sweetly falling notes these powerful womyn create.

Doors open at 7:00pm and music begins at 7:30. Ages 8 and up, please. Special thanks to Ellen and crew for hosting!

Note: address and parking info will be sent to you with your ticket purchase. We’ve got just 40 seats available, so don’t wait until the last minute!

Then we’re off to Faerieworlds in Oregon for concerts, workshops, and magic. Our main stage concert is late Friday afternoon, we’ll be teaching an improv/jam workshop on Saturday afternoon, and we’ll perform on one of the smaller stages on Sunday afternoon – don’t miss our friends’ performances, either! Sharon Knight and Nymbol’s Secret Garden are back this year!

Faerieworlds 2016

Horning’s Hideout
21277 Northwest Brunswick Canyon Road
North Plains, OR 97133

On the road home, I’ll be stopping to give concerts at Salt Lake City Pagan Pride Day, and in Albuquerque, NM, at the lovely Tortuga Gallery!

Saturday September 12

10am-6pm

Sooj Performs at Salt Lake City Pagan Pride Day 2015

Murray City Park
5175 Parkside Drive
Murray, UT 84107

FREE EVENT!

It’s that time of year again, when Pagan Pride Day events across the country occur in parks and community spaces, seeking to educate and build positive community awesomeness! The event is free, but please bring a non-perishable item for the Food & Blanket Drive that Pagan Pride Day is sponsoring in the name of The Road Home: a private non-profit social service agency that assists individuals and families experiencing homelessness in Salt Lake County and along the Wasatch Front.

Sooj will perform solo from 12:15pm to 1:15pm. Special thanks to Crone’s Hollow, Tammy, and Debra for helping this big of magick to come true at the last minute!

Monday Sep 14

7-9pm

Sooj Solo Show at Tortuga

901 Edith Boulevard Southeast
Albuquerque, NM 87102

GET TICKETS!

Sooj loves visiting Albuquerque and couldn’t resist a show in town on her way east! Tortuga Gallery always has a great vibe, more so when good music and good people come together within its walls. Come and celebrate with Sooj in the shadow of the Sandia Mountains as Stolen Season tours homeward again!

Doors open at 6:30pm, and music starts at 7:00. There will be a short intermission between sets. Special thanks to Kat, Jill, and Pax for helping this concert come to life.

I’ve got one weekend at home to reconnect with my cats and my family, and to start outfitting my recording studio for winter time. After that, I’ll meet up with Alec and Betsy for another little mini Tricky Pixie tour! We’re headlining two conventions this fall, plus giving our first concert in Cape Girardeau, MO!

September 25, 2015 – September 27, 2015

Tricky Pixie performs at FenCon 2015!

The Westin Hotel DFW Airport
4545 West John W Carpenter Freeway
Irving, TX 75063

Registration info – memberships still available at the door!

Tricky Pixie are thrilled to come to DFW and FenCon together for their first band visit! Other Guests of Honor include author S. M. Stirling, Tadao Tomomatsu, artist Mitch Bentley, Dr. Penny Boston, Jaye Wells, and Rick Loomis. Watch for our band concert on Friday evening, plus panels and solo concerts throughout the weekend.

Thursday, October 1st

7-9pm

Tricky Pixie Live at Dockside, The Upper Deck

4 North Spanish Street
Cape Girardeau, MO 63701

GET TICKETS!

Tricky Pixie’s on the road! Come and catch us in Cape, between Fencon and Archon, for a show that’s all our own! Special thanks to Jen for helping us set this up!

October 2, 2015 – October 4, 2015

Tricky Pixie performs at Archon 2015!

Gateway Convention Center & DoubleTree Hotel
1000 Eastport Plaza Drive
Collinsville, IL 62234

Register here!

Tricky Pixie are thrilled to visit the greater St. Louis area together for the first time since 2010 as guests of Archon, along with author Jacqueline Carey, artist Brent Chumley, RJ Haddy, and Jordin T. Kare!

After Archon, Betsy and Ryan and I will drop Alec off at home and continue on to perform at Greater New Orleans Pagan Pride Day on October 10, meeting back up again for what’s bound to be a magical Tricky Pixie show at Summerland Grove’s Festival of Souls near Memphis! Festival of Souls is my home festival, and I’m so grateful to be bringing the band this year! For these October concerts and all the rest of what’s coming after this month, check out my tour schedule page.

WHAT ELSE IS NEW?

Did you know that you can now support BOTH Alec AND Betsy on Patreon, should you choose? We helped Alec set his Patreon videos up on Sunday. They’re pretty cute!

Check out Alec’s Patreon Page

Check out Betsy’s Patreon Page

I do not currently run a Patreon, but I have a more stripped down subscription service! Want me to send you a new, exclusive, unreleased song once a month for about $10? Sign up here if you like!

It’s all run through Paypal, so it’s very easy to deal with if you’re set up there. Get started and get new music!

Thank you all, as always, for being part of the fun that is my little career. It’s been a lovely summer, and I’m looking forward to this month’s travels and shows. Thanks for reading, thanks for listening, and thanks for believing!

Port Townsend This Wednesday + Autumn Pixie Flights

Betsy and I have one more show together in Washington state for 2015. Come and join us at our Port Townsend house concert this Wednesday! Get tickets here!

This summer has been an unprecedented season for Tricky Pixie concerts. It may be the first time ever that we’ve been able to do more than just a couple of shows at a stretch before our schedules require us to part ways. I’m so grateful to my band mates for this time and this magic, and also to all of our fans, friends, colleagues, and crew! As Alec says, “the best magic takes the best of friends.”

Alec flies away home today. We’ll miss him terribly, but we’ll reunite with him in Dallas-Fort Worth at the end of September for our appearance as Guests of Honor at FenCon! After that, we’ll drive north for our first-ever band performance in Cape Girardeau, MO, en route to our other Guest of Honor appearance at Archon near St. Louis! We’ll round out our touring year in mid-October with a concert at the fest of my heart, Summerland Grove’s Festival of Souls near Memphis— the festival that’s helped spark all sorts of songs of mine, including “Come to the Labyrinth“.

#bandselfie #bandseyeview #TrickyPixie #sultrysummertour about to rock. 😀

A photo posted by S. J. Tucker Music (@sjtuckermusic) on Aug 25, 2015 at 8:05pm PDT

New Song: Cool Kids

My “write one new song a week from a random prompt” challenge and group is still going strong. We’re thirty weeks in. Hard to believe I’ve been writing one new song a week as part of this thing, since February!

This past week’s challenge was to write something on the subject of age, and to do so with humor.

I’m pretty pleased by this new little anthem. The tune is a little bit Vaudeville. I’ll definitely record this one over the winter.

COOL KIDS

copyright S. J. Tucker 2015

So you gotta work just a little bit harder
than you used to do
in order to get the bounce back in your stride
after a long, hard weekend
of helping people smile
and singing out your heart for love and pride?

It doesn’t make you any less
compelling than you were.
In fact, the grey you earn can trump the
rainbow you prefer!
So hoist the colors, baby,
and if they start to fade,
look upon the changes as the
gift you give to the whole parade!

CHORUS
I wanna age like the finest wine
like all of my friends who’ve grown so fine,
so fine it hurts to look at you!
All the cool kids are older than me.
it’s always been that way, you see.
when I catch up, I’ll be a cool kid, too.

Perfection is the enemy of
making good mistakes,
of learning all you can while you’re still here.
The story’s gonna write itself
in the lines upon my face,
so I’ll be a storyteller, don’t you fear.

Better for the Good Folk*
than for you or I,
to walk the world forever–never
age, never change, never die.
So let’s hoist the colors like the
pirates that we are,
and never get too old or proud
to wish upon a star!

When I catch up, I’ll be a cool kid too!

*variant on a traditional name for the Sidhe or the Fae, who are said by some to be immortal, or at least unchanging. See also: the Good Neighbors

New and Wonderful (and silly) Music from Heather Dale!

I have some really excellent friends.

Heather Dale is right at the top of that list. 🙂

I got to make some silly noises at her behest, for hew newest record, IMAGINEER! Click and listen for free. It’s a kids album, for the coolest, nerdiest kids alive. That means us. 🙂

I dare you to check this out and not end up with “Don’t Put It In Your Nose” stuck in your head.

“It’s here! It’s here! Do you accidentally stick things up your nose? We have a song for that. Do you secretly wish you could live on Mars? Got you covered. Fond memories of Kermit the Frog singing on the Muppet Show? Me too. Basically this is a way for me to share my enthusiasm for science, history, and other deliciously geeky subjects with you… and hopefully tempt you into singing along at the top of your voice. In short: please come take a listen! Play the clips for your kids! Tell all your friends!” www.HeatherDale.com

Art and Excellence!

My friend and collaborator, artist Elizabeth Leggett, won the Hugo Award for Best Fan Artist last week- richly deserved. 🙂

Elizabeth is fast, she’s brilliant, she communicates clearly, and her work is stunning. She’s quite the success and the inspiration. I would never have expected her to thank ME in her Hugo acceptance speech, but she did! I’m pretty proud to be one of the people who’s benefited, personally and professionally, from her skill and brilliance.

Those of you who’ve seen any of the album art for Stolen Season will recognize Elizabeth’s style.

She’s been featured in a recent article, wherein she includes some sensible, in-line-with-integrity tips for artists who want to get their name out. Check it out here.

Summer Queendom Part the Fourth: Books!

Green Man Review is still featuring me as their Summer Queen this month (Queen!) and they asked me about BOOKS this week! Gloriousss!

Here’s an excerpt from this, their third of several interviews with me:

What was the first book that you remember reading?

My middle name is Jane. My mother gave it to me in honor of my great aunt Jane, whom I remember from my childhood as the beautiful redheaded relative from Louisiana who always brought me new books. I still have a gorgeous, hardback illustrated collection of Greek myths that Jane brought to me when I was six or eight years old, called The Golden Fleece. That anthology was my first exposure to the Greek and Roman myths, and I still have it in my collection. In fact, that book was probably what kicked off my lifelong love of mythology and folklore. I was always encouraged to read by my family — you should see the teeming bookshelves my father built into the wall of our living room in the house where I grew up. We’re all quite bookish.

Read the full interview here! It’s short and sweet.

I’m feeling like a Summer Queen, thanks to the Mythmusica Music & Faerie Festival, where Betsy and I will be performing tomorrow. We got to visit the site this afternoon, and it’s a very beautiful place. I took a nap next to the creek, which was just exactly the kind of zen I needed today. Thanks so much to Country Creek Winery for hosting us!

A photo posted by S. J. Tucker Music (@sjtuckermusic) on Aug 14, 2015 at 10:33am PDT

Dirtfaery Signal Boost!

One of my dearest friends is a dirtfaery. Arguably, she is the dirtfaery.

That’s not an insult.

Sooj & Stevie (as Tink) at Faerieworlds. Photo by Emily Siskin.

She’s brilliant, and she brings her wild troll-and-faery tribe of performers together to enhance the experience of the Faerieworlds festival in Oregon, as often as expenses will allow. The dirtfaeries are offering incentives and original art to all those who help them raise funds for their journey to the festival this year- and believe you me, the art and goodies offered are as vibrant as the performers are.

Please take a look at their fundraiser, perhaps get yourself some lovely art, and throw in a dollar or two!

Your contribution will help bring the dirtfaeries home to the Realm from as far away as Texas and southern California. Even if it all turns out to be faerie gold, they’ll find a way to make use of it!

Dirtfaery in Action. Photo by Tuky Lupher.

#SultrySummerTour update: What’s Coming

Happy, Lammas, everyone! Wherever you are this week, I hope you’re well and fulfilled and at the top of the heap.

Some of us are having a very dry summer. Some terrifying things are happening out west, where I’m based this week. Part of the Olympic Rainforest in Washington state is on fire, and more of Alaska than I can even imagine is burning as well- something like a million acres or more. Predictions are dire. Drought and melting permafrost are making life very interesting, and will continue to ripple out and have an effect on the coming months and harvests. I have lots of friends who farm, on both large and small scales. The changes in crops and water availability and weather may be more apparent to them than to anyone else, but really, we can’t fail to notice. Our world is shifting. We can’t deny it.

But I know that, whatever changes may or may not come in our lifetime, folks like us will continue to take care of each other. We’ll all do our best to see that good things happen throughout autumn and winter, and beyond. This I believe, because I’ve seen it happen time and again.

I am thinking of you, and I am glad you’re in this world with me, even when times and weather patterns get strange.

On to more lighthearted stuff. 🙂

I’m in Redmond, Washington today, catching up with my Tricky Pixie bandmates. We have a LOT of upcoming shows together, across the next three months, and it feels so good! Everything starts this Thursday, in Woodinville, Washington, with a free show!

Thursday, August 6th, Woodinville, WA: FREE CONCERT!

Tricky Pixie at UBCCC’s Music in the Park Series

7:00pm-8:30pm

Cottage Lake Park (near the pool)

18801 Northeast Woodinville Duvall Rd

Thanks so much to Raven and the UBCCC for bringing us in!

This Saturday and Sunday, we’re headlining the first annual 2nd Star Festival, in Florence, Oregon, by the sea! Watch for selkies, merfolk, pirates, and more! Our event location for 2nd Star is the Florence Events Center. This is a kid-friendly festival, and it includes both daytime activities on Saturday and Sunday, and evening activities (like our concert) on Saturday. The fest is put on by some of our dearest Lost Boy buddies, and we’re so glad to be part of it! Bangarang!

Click here for 2nd Star Festival tickets and info

“The underlying theme of our festival is Find Your Creative Spark! There are endless ways to be creative.

“Our daytime activities include Acoustic Musicians, Awesome Local and Regional Art, Kids’ Activities, Talks From The Flight Deck (allowing people to share their inspirations of their own Creative Path), and Much More, all within walking distance to the Old Town section of Florence and the Pacific Coast! Festivities begin at 10am on Saturday and go until 6pm. We then break for an hour and a half for patrons to fill their bellies with yummy food from the area’s awesome restaurants in Old Town. Then, make sure to get your Concert Ticket to ensure a spot at the theater for the 7:30pm performance of Faerabella, Tricky Pixie, and Toby Froud!”

After 2nd Star, Betsy and I fly briefly east to perform at the Muthmusica Festival in Telford, PA!

August 15, 2015, all day

Sooj & Betsy at Mythmusica Music & Faerie Festival

Country Creek Winery

133 Cressman Road

Telford, PA 18969

Click here for tickets & more festival info.

We’re sharing the festival lineup with Brian Henke, Ashagal, and many other talented folks!

After Mythmusica, Betsy and Alec will be performing at Sasquan/WorldCon in Spokane the week of August 17-22. I’ve got a little solo concert in Ethel, Washington, courtesy of Lady Elwin and her sunkissed sanctuary!

Ethel, WA: Sultry Summer Solo Show presented by Sacred Spiral Sanctuary!

August 22, 2015, 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Sacred Spiral Sanctuary in Ethel, WA

COST: $25

Potluck dinner starts at 5pm, music at 7pm. Please bring blankets or chairs. All are welcome at this beautiful sanctuary! We will be outdoors, so pack your bug spray as needed. Proceeds to benefit The Cat’s Meow cat rescue, a local humane effort.

Contact our hostess for RSVP and location info:

seekersofstones@yahoo.com

360-562-1900

Elwin hosted a show for Betsy and me last August for the first time, and it was truly lovely. I’m looking forward to singing on her land again, for everyone who joins us there!

After Sasquan wraps up, the band will reconvene for THREE MORE WASHINGTON STATE CONCERTS: we’re playing Port Angeles with Rogue’s End on August 25, we’re playing in Silverdale on August 28, and we’re giving our BIG DAMN CONCERT in Kenmore on August 29! Whichever you choose, we’ll bring the magic!

1. Tricky Pixie and Rogues’ End

August 25, 2015 @ 7:00 pm – 9:30 pm

Studio Bob, the Allé Stage

118 East Front Street

Port Angeles, WA 98362

COST: $10 or more, your choice

Click here for tickets to this concert.

Rogues’ End and Tricky Pixie are two PNW-beloved bands that feature pipes, drums, fiddles, cello, guitars, voices, and a fierce commitment to Fun! Come and join the magic! This’ll be Tricky Pixie’s first-ever Port Angeles concert!

All ages welcome, $10 advance.

Music starts at 7pm on the magical Allé Stage, upstairs.

Special thanks to Merryn, Robert, and Studio Bob!

2. Silverdale: Tricky Pixie

August 28, 2015, 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Silverdale Grange Hall

12535 Clear Creek Road Northwest

Silverdale, WA 98383

COST: $10, $15 or $20, your choice.

Click here for tickets to this concert.

Join Alec, Sooj and Betsy for a night of wicked and whimsical music and stories, wrapped up with the usual good humor, and served with tasty cello, guitar, fiddle, and drums!

Special thanks to Constantina.

3. Kenmore, WA: Tricky Pixie’s Summer Seattle-area Show

August 29, 2015, 8:00 pm – 10:00 pm

Kenmore Community Club

7304 Northeast 175th Street

Kenmore, WA 98028

COST: $10, $15, or $20, or more- your choice.

Click here for tickets to this concert.

Come and join us for a special evening, open to each and every one of our fans! This will be Tricky Pixie’s final concert in the Northwest for 2015. Doors open at 7:30pm, and the magic starts at 8:00pm! Make sure to grab your tickets in advance- we frequently sell every seat for our Kenmore club concerts!

Alec flies away home after that, but Betsy and I have a couple more concerts together in the PNW before I start my autumn travels toward home:

Pt. Townsend, WA: Sooj and Betsy Show

September 2, 2015 @ 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm

Pt. T. House Concert

Port Townsend, WA

COST: $10, $15 or $20, your choice.

Click here for tickets to this concert.

Doors open at 7:00pm and music begins at 7:30. Ages 8 and up, please. Special thanks to Ellen and crew for hosting!

Note: address and parking info will be sent to you with your ticket purchase. We’ve got just 40 seats available, so don’t wait until the last minute!

Extra special thanks to our hostess, Ellen Bonjorno, and her household!

Then it’s on down to Faerieworlds, which is on a later weekend this year than usual:

Sooj & friends live at Faerieworlds 2015!

September 4, 2015 – September 6, 2015, all day

new location – Horning’s Hideout

21277 Northwest Brunswick Canyon Road

North Plains, OR 97133

Sooj is thrilled to be back home in the Realm, at a new time and place this year, but with just as much magic! Watch for her main stage concert on FRIDAY, where she’ll be joined by Betsy Tinney, Sharon Knight and Winter, and other special guests. Also keep your eyes open for a Sooj cameo during Sharon’s concert, and check out her workshop on improvising with music on Saturday afternoon!

(Fun fact: this year’s Faerieworlds location was also the venue for the very first Faerieworlds festival that I ever attended, back in 2004. I met Betsy that weekend, as well as many other of my dearest partners-in-creativity. I think it’s pretty auspicious that the festival will be there again this year.)

Tadaa! That gets us all the way into early September. I’ve got lots of good stuff planned for the fall months as well, including MORE TRICKY PIXIE CONCERTS, in or around Cape Girardeau and St. Louis MO, Dallas TX, and Memphis TN! Click here for all the autumn tour dates and details.

OTHER NEWS, INCLUDING NEW MUSIC FOR YOOOOU!

—New Videos! I’ve been slowly uploading Stolen Season release concert videos to YouTube! Visit my channel to see and hear them all whenever you like! So far, they’ve all been filmed in my studio at home, The Pixie House. Before the month is out, I just might be able to film a couple more in Betsy’s studio, which will be lovely.

Click here to subscribe and stay tuned!

—Where’d this crown come from? Witchy review and critique site Green Man Review has crowned me their Summer Queen for 2015! What!? This means they’ve been interviewing me on all sorts of topics, they’ve published a previously unreleased essay of mine, and they’ve been posting some really great reviews of my albums and books! I am incredibly honored by all of their kind attention. Some of the interviews were two years in the making, and I’m so happy to see them posted now! Check out excerpts and links to all the Green Man Review posts here on the blog by clicking here.

–NEW SONG, NEW SONG, NEW SONG! Would you like to hear my first songwriting collaboration with the delicious Bekah Kelso? I thought you would! Click here.

–MORE new songs SOON! I’m still participating in my song-a-week group, and I’m still loving the whole experience after twenty-seven weeks! If it’s at all possible for you to get to one of my concerts in the coming weeks, you’ll hear a fair few of these new song-babies. I can’t resist sharing them. This means I’ll have plenty of recording work cut out for me over the winter! NO excuses, NO boredom! It’s gonna be soooo good.

–INSTAGRAM GOODNESS: I’ve been posting tour photos daily on my Instagram. There’s something very satisfying to me about finding one thing that made me smile on my travels, at least once a day, and sharing a photo of it. Click here to see what I see, and feel free to follow my account there.

I hope you’re all keeping safe and relaxed out there. Keep an eye on the causes that move you this month, and the situations that need more positive change. I’ll be right there with you, and so will my songwriter’s brain, and all of my understanding and compassion.

Here’s to us, and to our world.

Summer Queendom, part the third

The Green Man Review crew are putting my through my paces as their Summer Queen this year by posting all the interviews and reviews they’ve done with and for me and my work! The newest post is up now, and it’s a nice, long interview conducted in early 2013, about music and community, about my various band mates and collaborators, about ravens and alligators and all my favorite things. Here’s an excerpt:

I much prefer leaving room for brilliant, creative people to be brilliant and creative, instead of just telling them what to do. There are times when I have a specific part in mind for someone to sing or play, but even then, I leave it open to that person’s interpretation. When we all work together, the person who wrote the song is understood by the rest of us to be in charge. We all love and respect each other and each other’s work; we all want to help each other shine. I think I gain more by being open to suggestions than I would by being rigid and unbending. Sometimes it’s a lot more fun when you don’t know precisely what you want for a song, and you can ask your friends to help you find it.

Read the full interview here!