If you read this before Midnight Pacific time TONIGHT (Sunday), and you haven’t yet had a chance to back and pre-order the Red Shoes novel, today is your last chance to do so before the funding campaign closes.
Depending on the final total, author Phil may be able to commission a new song from me to accompany the book. That’s what we’re hoping for. Take a look here, and please take part if you can.
I did a reading of one of my favorite parts during my concert last month. Watch it as a separate clip here. The book is badass, and I recommend it highly.
Firstly, your ticket of $5 or more helps me help my hometown food bank, the Dumas Food Pantry, where my mother volunteers every single week. Thanks for that! Secondly, now that we’ve sold over 50 tickets in advance, (56 as of this writing!) I’m adding door prizes! Everyone with a ticket is eligible to win. The admins and I will draw winners at random during the concert.
I’ve unlocked a gorgeous tiger’s eye pendulum from my personal collection as our first door prize. You won’t believe the flash on this thing. At 60 & at 75 tickets sold, I’ll unlock a 1oz jar of loose incense donated by Phae’s Fantasy in OR (and I’ll contact the winners to check on your allergies & sensitivities just to be safe). At 100 tickets, I’ll unlock a stunning sterling silver dragon goddess pendant donated by Celtic Knot Works/Deva Designs in AZ!
This next part we only just announced on Tuesday. Want a NEW, EXCLUSIVE SONG download from Heather Dale & me, featuring both of us + Ben Deschamps? Everyone who get tickets for my Sunday show AND Heather’s Friday show will get a new, unreleased mp3 from us! We’ve been recording together remotely, sending files and sound recordings back and forth. Super fun! Go here & add both shows to your cart so we can send you what we made: http://onlineconcertthing.com
I’ve been filming outdoors this week for the Sunday concert, as the weather allows, and I’ve got some costume surprises I’ve been saving for you. I threatened to sing at least one song while wearing my new mermaid tail once we reached 50 tickets. Now we have, so it’s on! Wish me luck flipping my fin around for the first time!
One more thing to get excited about. I hope you’ll all pre-order and back Satyr Phil Brucato’s new novel, Red Shoes. It’s become a project dear to my heart. The POV character is a young dancer with as much sense as attitude, for the most part, and her story is one packed with magic and intensity, no less badass for staying vulnerable and, ultimately, human. I’ll be sharing a brief reading from one of my very favorite parts during my concert, with the author’s permission. Phil has been my friend since my first year on the road, so I admit my bias. But I’m telling you, this story and its treatment of music, magic, grief, and personal growth has a lot to offer. I truly believe it would’ve resonated with me whether or not Phil and I had ever met.
Baring my soul about #RedShoes in our video interview, with moderator Kwiley (bottom left), author Phil (top left), and audiobook narrator/producer Ivy Tara Blair (bottom right)!
Next month, remember that I’ll give a Midwinter Music online show on December 20th at 9pm Central. Video will be available for purchase afterwards for those who can’t make it or will be fast asleep at that time, time zones being the tricky things they are. Also, everyone who pledges to my Patreon, regardless of amount, gets access to all of my online show video recordings. Join us over there if you wish.
I’m launching this song in tandem with the pre-order and Indiegogo launch of Phil Brucato’s novel, Red Shoes, in part because Phil borrowed the song for the YouTube trailer he made to announce the book!
If pre-orders of Red Shoes go very well through IndieGoGo, there’s a chance I’ll be invited to help create an entire tie-in record for the book! It’s an urban fantasy novel with magic, dance, music, and several different flavors of badassery, and I do recommend it. Pre-order and back it here: tinyurl.com/GetRedShoes
Leslie Hudson is offering a discography bundle for Bandcamp Friday, including her lovely new release, Hemlock Honey and Crows: https://lesliehudson.bandcamp.com/
Your ticket of $5 or more will help me support Mid South Immigration Advocates this time around! https://miamemphis.org/
I streamed a bit of rehearsal to my YouTube channel Thursday afternoon! Watch the replay here if you like: https://youtu.be/DRfxboeYMaI
We’ve sold 74 tickets as of my writing this post. We unlocked our first door prize at 50 tickets, I’ll unlock a second one at 75, and I’ll unlock a beautiful 3rd one, a jewelry piece from our friend Paletree Arcana, at 100 tickets! Paletree Arcana artist Bianca Havens shares a birthday with my little son who just turned three. She’s having a birthday sale on her website right now: http://www.paletreearcana.com
^that kyanite, tho!
^my pumpkins
Other friends and sponsors of this concert who’ve offered door prizes and new merchandise:
Act one of the show will be a new, 100% live performance of my favorite Red Riding Hood spinoff, Gramma Wolf’s Garden! Thanks to my buddy Phil Brucato for performance rights to his story. I’ll perform this magical tale with songs of mine interspersed, and then after a break, I’ll play a whole list of MORE spooky songs, including a special live-only parody in honor of spooky season towards the end of the concert! (Hint: it’s a Dolly Parton tune like you’ve never heard it before. For complex copyright reasons, the parody won’t be part of the recorded video I’ll make available after the stream ends, so be sure to catch the live show if you can.)
On Halloween morning, I’ll also be a guest musician at UU Fayetteville’s online Samhain service, which begins at 11:00am Central. I’ll be sharing several of my original songs which fit the Samhain theme, including some unreleased pieces. Visit https://www.uufayetteville.org/ to join the service via Zoom.
THE BEAUTIFUL LESLIE HUDSON will release a new record on Samhain called Hemlock Honey & Crows! I recorded djembe drum for “Wicked Sings”, and a whole cast of musical characters contributed tracks of their own to boost Leslie’s own brilliant songwriting and evocative sound. More info: https://music.lesliehudson.com/
HEXENFEST LITE will stream on November 6th at Online Concert Thing, featuring Sharon Knight & Winter and Tuatha Dea! Don’t miss it.
THE MIGHTY GINGER DOSS will release her new song, “RUNE” on November 1st! You’ll hear my voice in the mix as one of the Norns along with my sisters Andrea Sumers and Lynda Millard. “RUNE” is Ginger’s musical telling of how Odin learned the wisdom of the Runes. Get ready, because it’s gonna pull you right in: https://gingerdoss.com/
FOR YULE in December, I’ll give a Midwinter Music online show December 20th at 9pm Central. Expect my Solstice songs, my Mari Lwyd and Krampus songs, and more. Ticket link coming soon! Mark your calendars!
IN THE WORKS
Recording songs for the Rootless record proceeds little by little, and I expect to keep moving forward on new projects at my toddler-mom-snail’s pace over the winter. Thank you all for being part of the journey as I go. Remember that you can pledge to my Patreon if you like, to get access to sneak peeks of new & unreleased recordings, chord charts for my songs, and archived video of all my online shows: https://www.patreon.com/sjtuckermusic And I’m always here to ship CDs and books to you (weird USPS stuff notwithstanding) from my own little house when you make an order at http://music.sjtucker.com
Those of you who’ve been streaming my music via Spotify or your other favorite streaming service, THANK YOU. I do get weekly income from this via my digital distributor, which has been CD Baby from the beginning. Thank you for believing in what I do! I wish each of you joy and magic for All Hallows.
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.
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!
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!
I’m releasing my song “Outlast” today for the first time!
You’re all welcome to “Follow” me on Bandcamp as well. I tend to release new music there first, as it takes less time than with CD Baby and Spotify and all the rest for my new stuff to become available- no waiting period, I just click “publish” when I’m ready, and it’s available to everybody right then and there.
I wrote this song during the latter half of 2019. This week (Sept 1, 2021) I decided it was time to polish it up for release. A recent live performance of this that I filmed for my YouTube channel less than a week ago resonated with a whole lot of people, lots of you telling me that this was just what you needed to hear. Watch that at this link if you haven’t seen it yet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJXW0FCAgcY Please choose your own price to download this newly released song. If you need it for free, come on and get it. If you purchase it at any price, today being Bandcamp Friday means I’ll get a little bit of an extra cut!
My hope is that download sales of “Outlast” this Friday will help me turn around and send a donation both to local organizations on the ground in Louisiana and Mississippi who are getting supplies to people without power or shelter after Hurricane Ida, AND to reproductive choice mutual aid and support organizations in Texas. Also, of course, I hope y’all enjoy the song.
Thanks for your ears, your support, and for believing in me. Please stay safe and well until we can see each other face to face. We are built to outlast. May it be so.
My favorite Canadians and I have decided to do something very special in about a month. 🙂 Come join us! Watch parties are apparently a thing now, so let’s have one of our own…in Avalon, in Camelot, at Online Concert Thing!
The Queens of Avalon musical, written by and featuring OCT favorites S. J. Tucker and Heather Dale, revisits the famous stories of Camelot… but surprisingly reinterpreted from a woman’s perspective. Both destined to become queens, Guinevere and Morgana meet as girls and become fast friends. They come of age together, and vow to change the dragon’s curse that overshadows Morgana’s life. The fate of kingdoms lies in their hands!
Join Sooj, Heather, and other folx from the original Queens of Avalon production team as we travel back to Avalon and Camelot together for an online watch party of the filmed stage production we created together back in 2015, with the help of our tiny, amazing crew and crowdfunding supporters the world over! Heckling & feelings are welcome in the live chat, as we’re sure to offer up all of those things, ourselves! Very special Avalon-themed merch will be on offer from both queens for this show only!
My next online show will be this month on August 22nd, at 2pm Central! Come see our first Online Concert Thing variety show, featuring showcases of two performers new to the platform, Meren King and Cloud the Pagan Rapper! I’ll be the headliner and the emcee (Mythpunk of Ceremonies).
A whole bunch of my besties also have concerts at OCT this month: Betsy & Alec & Vixy & Tony & friends have created virtual Music Under the Trees for us this Aug 7 and 8, and Renée Janski will give her first concept show at 5pm Central on August 8, wherein she’ll be busting out both her opera chops AND her jazz chops! I can’t wait. Go check out the upcoming shows and join us for any and all!
Bandcamp Friday is back this week, August 6th! That means if you purchase any downloads or order any physical CDs or books from my Bandcamp page, I’ll get an extra cut! That goes for other music friends who sell their work on Bandcamp, too: Betsy, Alec, Leslie Hudson, Meren King, and more! I love working with Bandcamp, and the fact that they’ve made this a fairly regular thing they choose to do for us musicians is just one of the reasons. You’ll get instant access to mp3 downloads after your purchase, and when you order merch, I’ll ship it to you myself! Shop here: http://music.sjtucker.com -and thank you!
SECOND, feel free to save & share the images in this post all over social media to help spread the word. Please, PLEASE invite your people, because chances are they’re my people too, and I don’t want to leave anyone out. Thank you SO much.
Online Concert Thing is 100% an independent platform, run by indie musicians just like me- people I know and have personally been on stage with, in fact, with the goal of building community for both viewers and performers. I think you’re gonna like it.
On the day of the show, if you have trouble getting signed on or getting your payment to go through, email ben@onlineconcertthing.com right away. Admin Ben will be watching for messages and ready to help!
