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Epic April Activity

First thing: today is Transgender Day of Visibility. I celebrate you and I see you! 🙂

My next two weekends are gonna be pretty epic. 🙂

I get to perform in Oklahoma for the first time in far too long (get tickets), and I get to reunite with one of my heart’s favorite musical projects for the first time since 2011.

….and yeah, sorry not sorry about the “Frozen” earworm there, but it’s true. 😀 We’ve shared plenty of stages together between the three of us since our last actual Fates tour, but thanks to Big Bad Gina and Renée Janski, we get to bring the Triple Goddess action back in full force on April 10! And have you SEEN the REST of the lineup for the Amazon Music Fest?? This is not amazon dot com we’re talking about. This is Amazon Warrior Princess Music Maker Extravaganza we’re talking about! Grab your tickets and get more info!

Thanks to Bekah for the graphic. Thanks to Bekah and Ginger for being my bandmates and heart-sisters for life. This? This is gonna rock so hard, it will change lives.

We’re ready. Are you ready? 🙂

New review!

Note: This post has been edited to include the reviewer’s preferred personal pronouns. Viva gender expansion!

Rev. Dr. P. Sufenas Virius Lupus (and yes, e has worked for both of those titles!) just posted a lovely, toothsome ramble of a review for Stolen Season on eirs blog!

The highlights for me:

-e declares “Little Bird” a song worthy of Doctor Teeth and the Electric Mayhem, which just makes my little Muppet heart fly through the roof!

-e faithfully shares how the title track affected em emotionally, calls it an understated epic, and says it is “the emotional heart of the work, singing and drinking deeply of a well of lost love, of unexpected adventures and outcomes, of worlds that cannot be integrated easily (or often at all). As much as it is in the long line of mythic compositions on such similar themes, there’s also something about it that I suspect will resonate with many devotional polytheists quite impactfully.”

Holy crap. 🙂 Color me grateful and humbled.

Read the review and check out eirs stunning, articulate blog here!

Adventures in Gratitude

I had a pretty exciting day yesterday, and it wasn’t the kind of excitement I voluntarily seek.

Have you ever seen a rock as big as your fist flying toward your face at top speed? Thankfully, my truck’s windshield took the hit. I am fine, and my truck is at a repair shop in Little Rock for the weekend. We’ve been together for more than a decade, she and I- the least I owe her is a little vacation and some time at the spa. 🙂

Let me repeat: I am okay. But this was pretty scary.

I was on a rural 2-lane highway, headed south to visit my mother for her birthday. I’m sitting here with her right now, and while I’ve always been grateful when she and I can get together, the sun is that much brighter today. If things had been ever so slightly different, if that rock had flown even slightly harder, or any number of other tiny details, I might not be sitting here.

My family is amazing. It turned out that I was less than half an hour away from my uncle’s favorite repair shop. He called them for me, I made sure everything was drivable (including me), I met him at the shop, I made sure the repair crew and I were on the same page, and then my aunt and uncle let me ride south with them to Mom’s birthday dinner. Mom brought me home last night, and here we sit.

My fans are also amazing. Within seconds of my mentioning what had happened (and my saying that I was okay) online, I got flooded with comments, asking if I needed help with anything, thanking goodness and goddess and gods and my windshield that I’m okay, even offering to pitch in for the repair. Thank you all- we’ve got it covered, so please don’t worry. I appreciate you so much!

Here are some happier thoughts from my day at home with Mom. Mostly her flowers and her sweet, goofy dogs. Read more…

Update: CD’s, Videos, Live shows, radio, raffles, and other awesomeness

Birthdays and Other Sweet Celebrations:

Today is my song-sister Jessica Star’s birthday! Check out her music here!

It’s also my mother’s birthday, and I’ll be spending the weekend with her. 🙂

This weekend my first album and my newest album get to stand side by side. On this date in 2004, I released my first CD, Haphazard. It’s been a vibrant few years since then, and Stolen Season is the newest jewel in the timeline. I couldn’t be more pleased! Listen to both albums free on my downloads page.

Worldwide <3:

Since my CD release announcement last weekend, I’ve heard from fans in 30 of the 50 US states, and in five different countries! I love hearing from all of you; thank you for reaching out!

Making Tracks:

I got to perform at Oak Spirit Sanctuary‘s Ostara Festival near Boonville, Missouri last Saturday, and it was lovely. Special thanks to Kerry Lynn, Taz, Gaia Rain, Jess, Xander, Don, LB, and the rest of the Oak Spirit family for welcoming me, and thanks to my phamily at Spiralfae Accents for going above and beyond! I look forward to celebrating with you all again.

Shake your tail; spread your wings:

Before I left Missouri, I got to take part in filming some of the planned music video for my song “Little Bird“! I met my video directors, Sab and Meg, in Tower Grove Park in St. Louis, on Monday afternoon. The weather obliged us by being lovely and sunny, if a little brisk. Sab and Meg, with the help of my partner Ryan and my good friend Anna, took video and stop motion footage of me performing the song (wearing layers of pixie floof, with an audience of tolerant waterfowl), and then we worked together on some of the scripted stop-motion shots they had planned, involving stop-motion puppets and sets of their own making! It’s gonna be such a cute video. I can’t wait to see and share the finished product! Subscribe to my YouTube channel if you want to know right away when we post it there!

More Missouri Goodness:

Fans in Missouri will be glad to know that I’ll be back to perform two St. Louis area concerts: one on June 5 at the Focal Point, and one on June 6 in the aforementioned Tower Grove Park, at St. Louis Pagan Picnic 2015! Pagan Picnic was where I first met Scott Helland of Frenchy & the Punk, years ago, and I’m thrilled to be performing for that event again, this time with Tuatha Dea, Boo Greenway, Rhythm Village participants, Summer Osborne, and Raw Earth! Pagan Picnic is a free, all ages event, and everyone, regardless of age, race, creed or lifestyle, is welcome.

By the way Pagan Picnic is raffling a copy of Stolen Season- one of the first fifty copies out of the box! If you’d like to support this lovely witchy event, and further the cause of new music at the same time, participate here.

The Stolen Season Roadshow Starts Next Weekend in Oklahoma!

Next Saturday, April 4, I have my first #StolenSeasonRoadShow concert! I’ll be performing live at the U. U. Church of Lawton, Oklahoma! Grab your tickets here!

Imminent interview:

Tune in to 99.3 The Eagle (streaming here) this Sunday night for Michael Cree’s Deep Tracks radio program! I spoke with Mr. Cree face to face today (he’s really had an impressive life in local radio) and he gushed about Stolen Season, promising to play as much of it as he could on his program from 7-10pm CST! He’s also looking into the possibility of bringing me in for an interview, which I told him I’d love to do.

Tune in to Chris Orapello‘s Down at the Crossroads podcast on April 8 to catch our discussion and interview! Chris will be spinning tracks from Stolen Season, and we’ll make it a night to remember. Chris recently had Sharon Knight as a guest on his podcast to discuss her lovely Portals project, which I get to be part of! Support that project by clicking below!

Stolen Season YouTube Playlist!

I hope you all enjoy the album! Feel free to share this around.

Download tracks and/or buy the CD here.

Stolen Season CD Release Announcement Vid!

I continue to be a bit excited. 😀 I’m announcing the release March 23rd. THAT’S TOMORROW!

For a while, you’ll still only be able to get it directly from me: here on the site, on my download site, or at concerts. Meanwhile, I’ll be working with CDBaby over the next few weeks to get it listed on iTunes, Amazon Music, Spotify, and everywhere.

Stolen Season CD Update, Tour Schedule Update

Happy Equinox, everyone! I’ve got so much to tell, and all of it’s good!

1. Wednesday afternoon Ryan and I drove to Memphis to pick up the Stolen Season CD’s at Audiographic Masterworks! They’re gorgeous! They have that new album smell! I’m starting the process of packing and shipping pre-orders and contributor copies now! Those of you who placed a pre-order for the physical CD should receive a package from me (shipped personally) between next Tuesday and April Fool’s Day. The post office ladies are gonna LOVE me in a day or two, lemme tell ya. If you have not yet had a chance to check out the album, you may listen to it and order a CD or a digital copy right here.

2. I’m working with CyberPR to run a publicity campaign for the album release! Wednesday morning I got to have a lovely chat with my campaign manager, Brooke Segarra. Brooke and I discussed the validity of having a scheduled “release date”, and we came to the conclusion that I should just go ahead and launch the album and the publicity campaign at the same time- I’ve been spreading the word faithfully, and so have all of you, so there’s no reason to keep the album under wraps, now that the CD is actually printed and ready to go. “Have you been talking and blogging about the album a lot already?” Brooke asked me. OH YES, I responded, laughing. It’s a testament to the patience and enthusiasm of my crowd that you all haven’t gotten tired of me talking about it!

So instead of making myself and everyone else wait another couple of weeks, Brooke gave me her blessing to go ahead and launch the album NEXT WEEK! CUE THE CONFETTI CANNONS!!!

3. Another lovely new review popped up for Stolen Season this week, courtesy of Sabrina Leah over at the Auditory Addictions blog! Thank you, Sabrina! <3 If you have a blog or podcast or radio show of your own, and you’d like to feature or review Stolen Season to help celebrate its release, please do not hesitate to contact me and let me know! I would be thrilled, truly. I check for messages daily at this address: sjtuckermusic -at- gmail -dot- com

4. Naturally, I’m not going to stop promoting the album personally, once I make the big release announcement on Monday. I’ve got some nifty things planned for YouTube, if nothing else, including live cuts of every song on the album (a release concert of sorts), AND an official music video for “Little Bird” that’s gonna be so cute I can hardly stand it! Subscribe to my YouTube channel if you want to make certain not to miss those videos when I post them. I’m hoping to put up all of the live cuts of the songs, which I performed and sang in my studio at home, early next week. The video will come a little later, hopefully by early April.

5. THIS WEEKEND I’m performing at Oak Spirit Sanctuary‘s Ostara festival in Boonville, Missouri. If you’re celebrating the Equinox and getting down with all the good eclipse energy that’s coming through, I wish you joy! I will be vending at the festival with my friends at Spiralfae Creations, so if you’re on site, come and find us at their booth.

7. NEXT SATURDAY I’m performing my rescheduled concert in Lawton, Oklahoma, at a new location: the Unitarian Universalist Church of Lawton. I’m very much looking forward to this! Plenty of room for all, so grab your tickets now.

Read on for the rest of the tour stuff I have for April. 🙂

New Song: For Pinocchio

For Pinocchio

Trap it like a spider with a gossamer thread
the beautiful lie that you hold in your head
lock it away with what’s best left unsaid

Anyone who loves you deserves what is true
Draw the message you bring from the essence of you
stay off the roller coaster and the loop-dee-loo

See, one little lie loves company. They take over before you know
And it’ll be plain as the nose on your face, my love
I don’t wanna say I told you so, oh
You’re good enough, honey, just the way that you are
remember that whenever you wish upon a star
keep the truth in your words, compassion in your heart

Bind ’em all together with gossamer threads
the beautiful lies that you hold in your head
lock ’em away with all that’s best unsaid
and you’ll be a real boy someday

One little lie loves company, and they’ll take over before you know.
It’ll be plain as the nose on your face, my love
Oh, don’t make me say I told you so, no, no!

So don’t turn loose of that gossamer thread
keep that beautiful lie snuggled up inside your head
take a minute to swallow what’s best left unsaid
and you’ll be a real boy someday. 🙂

This song was from the first week of my weekly songwriting challenge. The prompt was “beautiful lie”. I had this whole big idea about a song for faeries who, not being capable of lying according to folklore, think of human lies as works of art. Then the kid with the nose showed up instead, and that was fine.

New Song: Looks Like Rain

I don’t wanna say it, but it looks like rain
Maybe it’ll tend to what we haven’t yet saved
Hand in hand across the muddy plain
You and I shall go, you and I shall go

Treacherous the path
Warm your hand in mine
It’s dangerous to go alone, they say
As we are, we ought to be fine
It’s ages since our first adventures
Our early cloudy skies look less stormy now
The rain has always come when you’ve kissed me
Love is always about how the bottom falls out

So perhaps I shouldn’t worry when it looks like rain
Maybe it’ll nourish what we haven’t yet saved
Hand in hand across the muddy plain
You and I shall go, you and I shall go

The weather hasn’t stopped us yet
coast to coast rambling, as good as it gets
Icicle kingdoms and canyon walls
grottoes and rainy day waterfalls
Treacherous the path
warm your hand in mine
It’s dangerous to go alone, they say
Our way, we ought to be fine

Just put your arms around me when it looks like rain
Come shower or shine, I’ll be perfectly safe
Hand in hand into the tidal wave
you and I shall go, you and I shall go

This was inspired by the lyric prompt, “looks like rain” from my weekly songwriting group. The rain, the mud, the coral, the waterfalls, the canyon walls, the grottoes, and the icicles are all real. The tidal wave is gooey relationship metaphor. 😀

Part of this song came out of walking all the way around a lake shore earlier this week, rescuing displaced freshwater mussels after a break in the levee. It was more of an adventure than you might think- Arkansas mud is no joke.

I’m usually so busy writing about fantastical things that I forget about love songs. This was a joy to work on. I’ll definitely include this on an album in the future.

Song-a-week Challenge

This is my sixth week of participating in a songwriting group (my first!) which receives a prompt each Monday, and must turn in an mp3 of a new song using that prompt by midnight of the following Sunday.

This means I’ve written at least six new songs in the past month and a half, and it feels SO GOOD.

I wanted to share my happiness with you all, and also tell you what those new songs are about. Some of them will most likely get their turn on a future album. 🙂

So far I’ve written:

-a song for Pinocchio (the prompt was “beautiful lie”)

-a song about an inanimate object (I chose a guitar, specifically one of the guitars I don’t get to travel with very often, and I got somewhat silly)

-a song about pushing boundaries (the prompt was “perfect question”)

-a song about being yourself and loving what you love, no matter if other people think it’s strange (the prompt was “fool’s gold”)

-a song that focused on alliteration (the title is “Curbside Couch”, and it’s about remembering to be good to yourself and take a break every once in a while- I wrote this one in Cozumel on the beach)

-and this week, a song about going on adventures with your sweetie, regardless of the weather (the prompt was “looks like rain”, and I managed to work in a whole bunch of juicy relationship metaphors as well as a bitchin’ guitar solo).

Those of you who keep up with creative pursuits, be they dance, visual art, music, performance art, fiber arts, culinary arts, flow arts, fire arts, blacksmithing, making nifty things, or any other act of awesomeness that feeds your soul: I cannot recommend this type of commitment enough. Not only have I created new material weekly since this began, I’ve given myself permission to write about literally anything. And it’s really working out well for me. None of these songs are pieces I expected to write. They all came from the prompts given to me, and they’re all worth revisiting. I am an exacting lyricist, with a huge mental to-write list. Having a weekly deadline to produce things that don’t come from that internal list was a prospect that initially gave me the willies. But I’m loving it! I look forward to each week’s prompt and the challenge it brings.

Also, there’s no one in the pool of songwriters I’m on this journey with who’s ANY KIND of a slouch. Not even close. Imagine being in a group of people that you essentially get to write a whole new album’s worth of music with each week. We’re on our sixth one now, and our new collective body of work is so diverse, so scathingly brilliant, that it takes my breath away. 🙂 So. Many. New. Songs. From so many talented people! We’re all listening and writing together, and it’s just the best thing. I get to listen to a whole album’s worth of new songs, created by fellow artists who I really get a kick out of, every single week. Plus, we all get to tell each other that we kick ass, and share our favorites, and share positive feedback.

If that’s not food for the soul (certainly for my soul), I don’t know what is.

TL, DR: make time for what feeds you. Make time for your craft. When a cool challenge comes by, jump on it. I have done, and I’m loving it.