Blog

Hi, everyone! I’ve got lots of news and links to share with you today! Here goes.

We have a Swiss-based cousin whose colleagues are taking a long trip today, March 4, to get supplies to the Polish-Ukrainian border. If you’d like to support what they’re doing, use this link to donate: https://tinyurl.com/bsbschoolfund More information here.​

My musical colleague Daniel Katsük (you may also recognize his voice-over chops in Dragonball Z or Full Metal Alchemist!) released a book of children’s stories on my birthday! It will soon be available to order everywhere, but for now, here it is on Amazon: https://tinyurl.com/mysticallakesbook​

Bandcamp Friday is BACK all day today, March 4! Please feel free to share my music link around & download anything you might have missed. I’ve got everything I can afford set to “name your price”, and if you spend money on me, I’ll get a slightly larger share from midnight to midnight Pacific. Thank you!

I don’t have an online show this month, BUT I’ve got one live appearance on March 18, my first of the year, an outdoor event down in Florida. Please let me know if you’re planning to be there! More info here: http://sjtucker.com/tour All my thanks to Phoenix Festivals for rescheduling to bring me back, after all this time, since the 2020 event was postponed! (Also, if anyone knows any good swimmable springs to visit near Bell, Florida, please let me know! Have mermaid tail, will travel!). It doesn’t look like this event will have a virtual option for those unable to attend in person, but rest assured that I am still advocating for as many witchy events and cons as possible to do this from now on.

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My next online show on the theme of Tricksters in Wonderland will be April 1st with a replay on April 3rd! Tickets available now: https://onlineconcertthing.com/product/s-j-tucker-2022-04-01-9-pm-cst/​

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Yesterday, March 3, actor and puppeteer Melissa Stanton released a new short film which features my song, “Witch’s Rune”! I’ve added it to my soundtrack placements video playlist for your convenience: click here to watch!

Hi, folx! I’ve got only one online show this month, Sunday February 6 at 3pm Central, shared with Renée Janski! Just counting down the hours until showtime now, and I’d love for you to join us! Here’s the ticket link! If you miss it, I’ll offer the video for purchase later at Online Concert Thing.

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Bandcamp Friday is TODAY, February 4, and I’ve re-released some old live tracks for the occasion! Grab them at my store here! You can listen before you purchase. All artists will receive an extra 15% of each sale from Midnight to Midnight Pacific time! Thank you all for your support!

Last month I was interviewed on a new-to-me podcast called Shadow Transmission, curated by my new friends in the underground goth & darkwave music scene of Central Arkansas- I didn’t even know we had one of those, neither the scene nor the podcast! Anyhow, I think the interview and the episode turned out great! DJ Hollow is an excellent host and I really enjoyed our conversation. Listen here or wherever you enjoy podcasts.​

PSA: As far as I know, it came to the attention of just about the whole internet on February 1st that one purported NFT marketing website claimed it was offering NFT’s (art or other media sold exclusively via cryptocurrency) involving music by just about every musician you can think of, even those of us out here chugging along under our own power, without a record label & with the help of your support, like me. Since it hadn’t yet come up until now, I just want to officially let you know that, unless you hear otherwise directly from me, any NFT site or product claiming to be involved with my music is lying. Please take care and don’t get scammed. I am taking steps to protect my work from this kind of presumptive near-theft, and I will be keeping an eye on the situation, along with my musician’s union, my digital distributor, and my legal counsel.

Sorry to get so serious there at the end! Thank you for sticking with me in this new year. I hope that you are well and safe, and that you have everything you need right now!

It’s been 13 years as of yesterday, January 13, since the Ravens in the Library anthology & the online #SaveOurSooj benefits, together with all the brilliant makers and musicians and authors and artists who make it happen, came to my rescue. I go days at a time without thinking about the scar, but not a day goes by that I’m not grateful.

2009 was before the ACA, let alone before we were all so accustomed to crowdfunding as its own thing. I was an indie musician with no health coverage, and the surgery I had to have could have pulled me out of my career and into a mountain of medical debt. But my community wasn’t having that.

Come see the online show tonight and help me celebrate!  Get tickets here!

It’s almost October and so much is happening.  

FIRSTLY! HAPPY 3RD BIRTHDAY TODAY TO THE NEPHEW OF MY HEART, SEBASTIAN! If you do not yet support his genius mother Catherynne M. Valente on Patreon, please consider doing so!

I’m about to have my first in-person concerts since November 2019, yall.

Here is all the info in one place, on my tour calendar page.  

I know me, so I know I’m gonna be all sorts of vulnerable and emotional in the moment, even if I have my stage presence firmly in place and no one suspects a thing. If I do get to see you (masked and vaccinated) in Lakewood, Ohio ($15 for adults, kids under 14 free- please mask up!) one week from today or in Easley, SC (free event with your donation to charity – again, please mask up) on October 9th, there may be tears in my eyes and uncontainable joy in my voice.  As far as I am aware, both of these (90% outdoor and distanced) in-person events are going on as planned.  If that changes, I will get word to you ASAP.Rest assured that I am fully vaccinated, I will be masked unless I am singing or inhaling a sandwich between schedule items, and I will be asking folx to respect social distancing so that I don’t risk bringing any microbes home to my fellas, one of whom is much too young for the currently available COVID-19 vaccines. Wish me luck.  I know you will.  And let me know if you plan to attend either event.  

This should go without saying, but let me be clear: if you are not feeling well on either event day, if you are unable to wear a mask or to be fully vaccinated, or both if possible, please do not come.  There is no such thing as too careful right now.  Stay home, stay well, and stay safe.

MEANWHILE!  Let’s visit online Sunday, September 26, at 3pm Central!  Heather Dale & I are hosting an online watch party for our Arthurian (Guineverean and Morganaian, to be precise) Legend musical, Queens of Avalon!  How different would the story be if the queens got to be more than mere symbols, instead taking the spotlight?  What if these two women, Guinevere and Morgana, so often written as rivals, had instead met as children and vowed to be sisters forever, no matter what?  Come see what we did with it: old songs and new, cast-made costumes and props, flow arts, and more!  Heather and I will host, and we’ll be in the chat, MST3K-ing ourselves left and right.  It’s gonna be great.  Join us here at Online Concert Thing. $5 and up! 

As part of the show, Heather and I will both be offering Avalon-related goodies we’ve never even thought of before, like flow arts tutorials, handwritten keepsake-level letters from Camelot & elsewhere, video chats, unreleased mp3 collections, silk dance fan sets handmade by Heather, and affirmations from the Lady of the Lake, herself!  Of course, you’ll also get the chance to download the Queens of Avalon film and soundtrack, which are really the best bits. 🙂

While I’m in Ohio, I will ALSO be performing online, as part of a multi-band benefit for Arkansas Community Advocates, a Little Rock based organization who are allies to our unhoused population here in the state.  ALL the money from Tickets will go to AR Community Advocates, and spoilers…I’m doing a bit of a different kind of show for this one. Most of the other acts on the bill play dark wave and other similar genres of music, so, with the encouragement of our event organizer Timothy, I pulled out some of my own more electronica-influenced surprises, two of which I have NEVER EVER PERFORMED LIVE until now!   

Come, enjoy, and help us help others, 1pm Central on October 2nd! Your $10 ticket supports Arkansas Community Advocates.  

I’ll also give an online show at 2pm Central on Halloween- join me for the Bad Wolves’ Ball!  Get your ticket!

Quick post  to let you know that I have a last-minute online show today at 4pm Central, and it’s free!
Click here to watch on Zoom
If Zoom requests a passcode, use 0000

Hope you like the Children of the Horned One look I chose for today’s show.

Watchtower Temple is a new Pagan group based in Batesville, Arkansas, and this is their first event of any kind!  They originally had it scheduled as an in-person campout, but they transformed it into a virtual event for everyone’s health and safety.  Batesville is where I went to college, so this group is already dear to me by extension.  They have been lovely to work with.  

I know we are all video-conferenced out at this point, but I have to spread the word about this because if a pagan community is setting down roots there, 20+ years after I and a handful of my school friends were learning how to be witchy on our own, with no available mentorship, I wanna see it flourish!

My concert today will include long beloved favorites like “Hymn to Herne” and “Witch’s Rune”, but also my new single “Outlast” on electric guitar, and some unreleased songs!

Here’s the event schedule for today and tomorrow:

Saturday:

10am – Opening Ceremonies

12pm – A poppet for every purpose with Bryen Scott-Kiddy

2pm – Intro to reiki with Josh Meeks

4pm – Music by special guest S. J. Tucker

6pm – Life as an LGBTQ+ pagan

7:30pm – Music by Krista Chapman Green

9pm – Music by Louis Garou

10:30pm – Campfire

Sunday:

9am – Pagan breakfast chat

11am – Open floor discussion

1pm – Ritual

3m – Closing Ceremonies

Remember that I’ll be online for the Queens of Avalon screening later this month, and I hope to see you there!

If all goes as planned, I will have my first in-person concerts in 22 months during the first two weeks of October.  I’ll be in the Cleveland area on October 2nd, and in South Carolina on October 9th, both outdoor events with distancing measures in place.  All the info is here on my tour schedule page.  Whatever ends up happening, changes or cancellations or going forward as planned, I’ll let you all know.  Rest assured that I will do what I need to do to stay safe and healthy, and to help my audience do the same.

In case you missed it, I released a new single last week, “Outlast”!  Listen and download here.  Choose your own price!