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1157 (‘Til It’s Over)

Potential trigger warning for nuclear holocaust, PTSD, and bad dreams. If you’re already having a crummy day, come back to this later. <3

Turns out that when I have a nightmare, it’s not about giant robots or giant sea monster dinosaur leviathan kaiju, a la Pacific Rim. It’s about getting nuked, and not being able to hold my loved ones tightly to me as it happens.

This was precisely the content of the last bad dream that I had. It’s been several months, and I had forgotten about it. I remembered it Thursday evening when my partner told me the Doomsday Clock had been set to 11:57 (as in PM, with Midnight being crisis o’clock for humankind) by its keepers, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. The realities of global climate change, proliferation of nuclear weapons, and tech problems such as hacking of government entities prompted the new setting, or so I have read.

I did not actually know that the Doomsday Clock was a thing. Now I’m mildly obsessed. At least obsessed enough to write a new song almost immediately. I’m not the first. Not even close.

I don’t usually write songs that frighten me, but this one is the essence of turning one of your nightmares (one that isn’t necessarily far fetched, to be exact) into art. I’ve posted the lyrics below. I’m hoping to post a quick acoustic video as well, even though the arrangement for this song in my head is heavily electronic. (Lyrics under the cut)

A (Spiritual) Revolution Worth Having

Boosting my song sister Summer Osborne today, she of the heart (and pipes) of solid gold! Check out her new project-to-be!

The Days Ahead – Concerts and News

I’ve got some lovely things planned for the coming weeks in the Seattle area, Little Rock, and Oklahoma. 🙂

Jan 30-Feb 1: I’ll be attending Conflikt 2015 in the Seattle area with my Tricky Pixie bandmates! Alec is toastmaster, I’m teaching a workshop AND leading a cool/spooky song circle, and we’re all jamming with our friends, on stage and off!

Feb 6: Betsy‘s new band, In Like A Lion, will play their monthly first Friday concert at Soulfood Cafe in Redmond, WA – one of my favorite bands on one of my favorite stages. Odds are reasonable that I will be invited up on stage at some point. 😀 This show will stream live online!

Feb 7: Tricky Pixie has our first big concert of 2015 in Kenmore, WA! Get tickets and info here!

Feb 13: Betsy and I will share the stage with the delicious Wendy Rule at Soulfood Cafe. For Friday the 13th. Cuz that’s how witches do. 😀 This one will stream live online! More info here.

Feb 21: Home again, to play for my friend Kelley’s art opening at Gallery 360 in Little Rock! I decided to give Kelley a present for my birthday, because she’s lovely and brilliant and should have improvised jazzy guitar stuff to pair with her art.

Feb 27 and Feb 28: I have two little shows in Lawton, Oklahoma – my first time performing there! Hostess Mary at the Curious Goods emporium has been a delight to work with, and Pagan Radio DJ Pam McAfee is our sponsor! NOTE: Feb 28 is sold out, but Feb 27 still has a few tickets left. Grab them before they get away!

Today I’m home, catching up with Heather Dale and Ben Deschamps as we roll up our sleeves to start a writing retreat together! Some of you will recall Heather and Ben’s delightfully successful IndieGoGo campaign last year which raised funds for the production of an original touring show, a folk opera of sorts based on Arthurian legend. That’s what we’re set to work on writing together this week. We are quite literally by the lakeshore here, so if the Lady of the Lake shows up to participate, we’ll have lots of stories to tell. Wish us luck!

Do it for fun

Last weekend I went to Memphis for a couple of days to play music with friends for fun.

Wacky, right?

I spent a good deal of time jamming and visiting with the members of Grasping Thin Air, a band full of talented people I like, most of whom I’ve known for years, who are also pretty much in it for fun.

GTA’s guitarist, my friend J. (who fed and housed me like royalty for the weekend), was particularly thrilled to get to press play on the live-action jukebox that was me. He’s known me since well before I struck out on my own as a performer, which means that he knows songs I haven’t touched in ages. Naturally, those were the ones he asked to hear.

I’m pleased to say I was glad to find that I still know how to play them, and I didn’t lose track of the lyrics any more than I do with my newer songs. In the course of eight hours, I got to revisit “Face-down“, “Baba Yaga“,”Stickit“, “Tori Day“, and even “Shake”, none of which I can recall having on a setlist this decade. And it was so much fun.

I had no idea how much I needed to just sit and sing with friends. It’s not as if I don’t do so frequently, but this time was particularly nourishing. Maybe it was getting to hang out again with songs I wrote when I was in my early twenties, and finding out that I still love them, enjoy singing them, and can pull them off just fine. It just felt good. It felt a little like hanging out with the girl I was- and finding out, to my joy, that she was still here with me, strong and brave as ever.

So don’t be surprised if, as a result, you hear me pulling out a lot of goodies from Haphazard (2004) and Tangles (2005) at my concerts this year. I have been given a gift and a reminder: sing what’s fun, sing for you, and don’t discount your early work. Treasure it and let it out of the treasure chest when it feels right. 🙂

This post is dedicated with love and gratitude to Leif, J., Ashley, and Lauren (and Wilson and the girls, too).

New Vid: Cheshire Kitten Unplugged!

I posted a new YouTube video last night as my entry for NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert Contest. 🙂 It’s been a year since I last entered any sort of competition. So many of my friends have entered this one as well that it’s impossible for me not to be excited, regardless of the outcome! I only heard about it a couple of days ago – just in time to beat the submissions deadline (tonight at 11:59 pm).

Thanks to the help of a good friend who provided me with some relaxed jam time over the weekend, I felt really good about throwing my hat in the ring at the last minute. Fans and friends on Facebook and Twitter were kind enough to help me choose which song to film. Here’s how it turned out, with Ryan’s parents dropping in to be my super-intimate (and very timely) audience.

Another friend saw this link tonight and called the video a “pocket concert”! That sounds so cute that I want to make it a thing, if it isn’t already. 🙂 I’m considering posting quick unplugged vids of several songs now, in addition to the concert playlist I have in mind (and have already filmed portions of) for Stolen Season. After all, several people voted for “Black Swan Blues“, “Ask Me Anything“, and “Little Bird” yesterday.

Brainstorms and Stickers and Records, Oh My

I’ve been thinking of some wild, delicious things where Stolen Season is concerned.

One of those would be something I’d definitely want to deploy a crowdfunding campaign for.

I’ve always daydreamed about having at least one of my albums available as a record, and I think now that I finally have a project worthy of such rare treatment.

Unfortunately, Stolen Season from start to finish is too long an album to fit on a single 12-inch vinyl LP. So this will take some figuring.

But if I crowdfunded this idea, and it blew up, I would potentially have enough dough to cover remixing, mastering, printing and pressing of the whole thing for vinyl. All backers would be able to choose that version if they wanted it, as opposed to a shorter, more jazz-focused version. This is what stretch goals are made of.

For the hypothetical base goal, here’s the longest and jazziest of the playlists I came up with for a 34 RPM record pressing:

Black Swan Blues (with the record scratch effects removed, because overkill)

Sultry Summer Night

Believe In Lullabies

Wild River Child

Temptress

Little Bird

Believe In Lullabies – After Hours

And here’s the shortest list, for a 45 RPM pressing:

Sultry Summer Night

Believe In Lullabies

Wild River Child

Temptress

Believe In Lullabies – After Hours

To cover all the basics (remixing, mastering, printing, pressing, shipping, and potential crowdfunding service fees), I’d set the base goal at $5K. If the campaign didn’t make that goal, I wouldn’t lose anything. If it did make that goal, I’d of course be thrilled!

The other factor is time. According to the research I’ve done, vinyl pressing will take AT LEAST 16 weeks. This is AFTER all of the art and audio is approved. Mixing and mastering and proofing will all take time on top of that. So this would be something you’d have to really want to jump on, help fund, AND wait a while for.

If I made the fundraiser goal with time to spare, I could shorten the turnaround time for the whole thing by starting the remixing and mastering process right then. I wouldn’t have the funds yet, since many fundraiser services hold funds for a few weeks after a campaign ends, but I would at least know for certain they’d be there.

So there’s my more spendy wild idea. Please tell me what you think. There are no wrong answers.

The simpler brainstorm had to do with stickers. Many of you are familiar with my frequent practice of offering stickers with little lyric snippets on them. I’m working to come up with a good list of Stolen Season lyrics stickers to create. These are the ones I’ve got so far. Feel free to suggest more!

Wild River Child

Clever Fairytale Girl

I may fit the story, but I’m up to no good.

Tempest tossed, but not about to break.

Singing up the wind and rain, gonna shake you down with my refrain.

Shake your tail! Spread your wings!

<a href="http://music.sjtucker.com/album/stolen-season-unmastered-digital-release">Stolen Season (unmastered digital release) by SJ Tucker</a>

All Aboard!

First: I’ve finally posted all the lyrics for each song on Stolen Season! Click on the song titles and you’ll be able to read them.

Next: A group of excellent people will be running a Pagan Cruise this fall! The ship departs New Orleans on September 28 and returns October 3rd. Click here for more information!

The organizers dearly wanted me to be a part of this (for which I love them), but it would have meant canceling Tricky Pixie concerts for me. And that would have been hard, sad, and messy.

So please give this adventure your support, in hopes that it will continue next year! Because I’d like to go when my schedule allows! Bring me that horizon…

Stolen Season Gratitude Rollcall

I’m home from my first 2015 concert down in Atlanta, working from the best possible command center at the moment: snuggled in blankets with both my Pooshka and little Gawain, all three of us purring. Consequently, the laptop is not in my lap because there’s no room for it. It’s full of purrs.

I am so happy right now.

There’s no better time for me to type up my gratitude for the fellow musicians, artists and superheroes who are helping me realize the Stolen Season album. Read on for a huge list of awesome.

GAFilk appreciation post

Thanks to everyone at GAFilk this past weekend. I had a really wonderful time. From listening to Marc Gunn, The Blibbering Humdingers, and Robin W. Bailey for the first time, to swinging it out with Play it with Moxie and C. D. Woodbury once again, every note of music was a joy. Please do click on everybody’s links above and give them your support and your ears!

Thanks to everyone who came to sing in all the circles (your fortitude, I am in awe) and who listened when it was my turn. 🙂

Thanks also to Mary and Betsy and Ryan for jumping up on stage with me, fearless as ever. For all who like the new Stolen Season material, thank you for all of your sweet words about the concert!

Being Guest of Honor is like getting a present to me, and this one was pretty damn shiny. Thanks to Rob, the Suttons, and to mama Sharon and the con suite crew, as well as all my other friends and sometime caretakers. Thank you all!

For those who are wondering, I did manage to get video and audio from Betsy’s and my performance of “Little Bird” sent to my friend’s widow in time for the memorial. She says it was well received, indeed. Thank you Zach and Brian for video, and thank you Harold for audio!

As for what happened on Saturday evening, if anyone ever questions me about the validity of my work again, all I have to say is “I’m sorry, have YOU ever raised $1200 at auction with two CDs and a five-minute hoop dance?” I am still just flabbergasted, in the very best way. 😀

pic by David Weingart

Fun fact: Moxie the cola still exists, and the Moxian bandmates were kind enough to let me try a sip last night. Here’s how that went.

My tongue: oooh, this is ~~interesti~~—WHYYYYYYYY?!??

Amy McNally: I’m glad I let you try this, so I could see you make that face!

Thank you all again. 🙂 Homeward we go!

Spooky Sunday Earcandy

….that’s got to be a suitable band name for SOMETHING. Depeche Mode/Cure tribute?

Anyhow, thank you all for putting up with my New!Album!Squee this weekend. Thank you for all of your downloads and support and kind words. I’m taking a break from that excitement for a moment to share something else I got to help record recently. My friend Ben has committed himself to posting one new song a week for download, and this week’s treasure is one I got to take part in.!

It’s creepy, though.

But it’s Edward Gorey creepy, as opposed to Japanese horror film creepy. So, creepy with spats, I suppose (and because this is Ben, a boss melody).

The song’s called “Little Emma”. Think “Saint James Infirmary” meets Scandinavian fiddle tune that wants to be fit for New Orleans when it grows up. Plus a creepy, creepy poem I wrote to be recited over the tune, in place of just coming up with a bass line. Never underestimate your bandmates’ power to be completely off-the-wall.

Listen here.

BONUS: I ran across a recording of the great Paul Frees today on Tumblr, thanks to the one and only Mr. Doctorow, and a blog called WhatintheWaltDisneyWorld. It’s Mr. Frees’ outtakes from voice over sessions for the original Haunted Mansion ride. Too much fun! If you grew up watching oldschool cartoons and cartoon feature films, you’ll recognize Mr. Frees’ electrifying tones. He was certainly one of the voices of my childhood. This is delightful.

Listen here and shiver. 😀