Dear hearts, 

It's been too long since I wrote. Life's been uncommonly busy for me this past month and a half, what with getting home, getting the Second Chances back in action, getting together with the whole family up at North Country Fair, getting the van packed up and on the road, getting covid, getting over covid, getting across the border, and finally getting back into the gigs this past weekend here in Michigan. Phew. 

Smiling Acres Music Festival, Trufant, MI • photo by Brent Godfrey 

It was my first time contracting the plague, and it sure wasn't fun, but I was grateful for the vaccines and these miraculous immune systems of ours. We had to cancel three shows (in Saskatchewan, Minnesota and Wisconsin), and I sincerely hope I didn't give anybody anything more than entertainment at our last two shows in Alberta. Here in Michigan, we played the lovely Nahma Inn and the wonderful new Smiling Acres Music Festival over the weekend, and we've got a few shows left before we cross the border into Ontario: 

Tue July 5 • Grand Rapids, MI • solo yard concert TONIGHT! 
Wed July 6 • Buchanan, MI • yard concert at Tamarack 
Thu July 7 • Ann Arbor, MI • The Ark, opening for Carsie Blanton! 
Fri-Sun July 8-10 • Bliss, MI • Blissfest 
Tue July 12 • Toronto, ON • Cameron House 
Thu July 14 • Harcourt, ON • Harcourt Park Community Centre 
Fri-Sun July 15-17 • Perth, ON • Stewart Park Festival 
Tue Jul 18 • St. Catharines, ON • house concert 
Fri Jul 22 • Waterloo, ON • Kitchener-Waterloo Little Theatre 
Sun Jul 24 • Ithaca, NY • yard concert 
Thu-Sun Jul 28-31 • Goshen, CT • Falcon Ridge Folk Fest 
Wed Aug 3 • Chicago, IL • Hey Nonny 
Thu-Sat Aug 4-6 • Appleton, WI • Mile of Music festival 
Sun Aug 7 • Maple Plain, MN • Sun Dog Farm 
Fri Aug 12 • Regina, SK • yard concert 
Sun Aug 14 • Saskatoon, SK • yard concert 
Fri-Sun Au 19-21 • Big River, SK • Northern Lights Bluegrass & Old Tyme Music Festival w/ Pamela Mae and friends 

All shows are with the Second Chances unless otherwise advertised, and all the details, as always, are on www.scottcook.net. As you can see, there are still some gaps in the schedule, and we'd really like to fill 'em. Tour's hard to make profitable at the best of times, even without covid derailing things. We're traveling with our own sound system so we're all set up for yard shows, just drop a line to scottcooksongs@gmail.com if you want to bring us to your town! 

So, a crazy thing happened since I wrote you last, from the Folk Alliance conference in Kansas City, when I'd just released "Get 'Em, Letitia James!" to the wide world. A week later Pamela and I had a gig in Powell River, BC and took the opportunity to drive up to tiny Lund, the northern terminus of Highway 101, where we were tickled to see a poster for our show that night. 

At the bar back in Powell River, we were listening to our pal Dennis Bouwman's opening set when the owner came over and told me there were a couple women at the bar who wanted to speak with me. He put a business card down on the table, and I was floored to see the top right corner: 

As it happens, Letitia James' right-hand woman has family on the Sunshine Coast. She was visiting Lund, where she saw the same poster we'd seen and said "that's the guy!" Turns out they've already been rocking out to the song at the office. I still can't quite believe it. 

Pamela and I wound our way home from there, even visiting some new spots. We had a sobering slow drive through Lytton, where last summer's "heat dome" brought the highest-ever recorded temperature ever in Canada, at 49.6C (121F), and then a wildfire took out the town. The whole Main Street was just rubble, charred brick chimneys and rebar, with signs advising us to roll the windows up and set the air to recirculate on account of the lingering toxins. 

I was reminded of earlier this year, when we crossed the Rio Grande in New Mexico and saw it was just gravel. It's not uncommon for it to dry up, as a lot of it's diverted for agriculture upstream, but it's currently seeing the most severe drought in 1200 years, and projections for the future don't look good. 

It's hard to square stuff like that with the way life wants to rush back to "normal", isn't it? With the way we're all raring to get back on tour, or fly to Europe, or what have you? I just paid to offset our spring tour's carbon emissions on MyClimate.org at a cost of $400US for offsetting projects in the developing world like providing more efficient stoves to folks in Kenya, or helping small farmers in Nicaragua with reforestation, and split the same amount among the Rainforest Action Network and Rainforest Foundation US. $800 felt like a lot. But truly, it was a small cost compared to the other costs of tour, like the $8000 we spent on food. And I imagine if every company was paying to offset their carbon footprint, things like intact forest would become a heckuva lot more valuable, wouldn't they? 

These aren't easy subjects to bring up, but I think we need to. The cognitive dissonance of our collective don't-wanna-hear-about-it is reaching absurd heights, and feels especially jarring this week, as we watch this country prioritize gun rights over women's rights, cripple the Environmental Protection Agency, and then banish its cares in an orgiastic blaze of fireworks. But we keep meeting beautiful souls as we travel this land, and I keep deciding, every day, to look for the good in people, and speak to the good in people, as best I can. 

It sure was beautiful to reunite with the North Country Fair family up in Driftpile after two years of no Fair. I saw "Mandate Freedom" stickers on some trucks, and was reminded of how big a tent the Fair actually is. We celebrated the life and songs of our pal Bill Bourne (who, incidentally, was a big ol' hippy and also anti-vax) on Main Stage on Saturday, and we closed out the Fair with his song "The House" on Sunday. A whole bunch of muddy people joined hands and danced in a big circle and sang a song wishing for a world in which we might all be able to get along. And I continue to believe that world is possible, and waiting for us. 

Speaking of North Country Fair, last summer I started a music camp up there over August long weekend. I was pretty certain I wouldn't be able to do it again, but I really hoped it'd continue, and if I had my druthers, that Dan Barton, who's a helluva teacher, and Dana Wylie, whose spiritual compass I have utmost faith in, would carry it forward. Well, it's happening.

Wherever you are in your journey with music, if you wanna go deeper, I can't recommend camp highly enough. If that weekend doesn't work for you, or bluegrass and old-time's more your thing, check out NimbleFingers in Sorrento (where both Pamela and I have been students multiple times) or Northern Lights in Big River, Saskatchewan, where Pamela and I will both be students this year. Don't leave music to the professionals, it's for everyone. 

Alright friends, I've got a gig to pretty up for! Sure hope to see you soon, and drop a line if you want us to come to your town, either on this trip or when I roll through with Pamela in the fall. Big love and best wishes from our crew to yours, 

s

Hey beauties, 

I'm writing from the Folk Alliance International conference in Kansas City to let you know I just released a new song! I'd love to get it to as many ears as possible, and maybe, hopefully somehow, to the ears of its subject––a public servant whom I consider a living folk hero, the New York State Attorney General Letitia James. 

I first heard Ms. James' name on Democracy Now, and they went on mentioning her with such regularity that I was eventually motivated to look her up. The more I dug into her story and read her words, the more I was floored by her intelligence, tenacity, and utter badassery. 

It's a shame, really, that we hear so much about the antics of the most ruthless people on the planet, while inspiring stories of actual heroism so often go unnoticed. So at least for my small part in all this, I wanna sing about the heroes. Tish James is one. 

This link'll take you to the track on whatever streaming service suits you, or you can download it for any price (including free) from Bandcamp or my website. I'd really appreciate it if you'd have a listen and share it with whomever you think it might inspire. We need songs about heroes. We need to remember the best of our humanity in the changes ahead. We need to take the wheel from the broken people steering us off a cliff. That's not easily done. But Ms. James' life stands as an example that it can be. 

This is one of nine new songs I've released to Patreon since I started it up, and I want to say huge thanks to the 115 souls on board, without whom I wouldn't have dedicated nearly as much time to writing songs this year. If you wanna add your name to the ranks of Fellow Travellers, join up here at whatever price feels right for you. 

Another one of those Patreon songs has become a regular feature in our live shows, and a young videographer who came to our Portland gig asked if he could record us singing it on the street before we left town the next day. I reckon he did a pretty fine job. 

"Enough" by A Song Catcher 

Thanks in advance for listening and sharing, and if you know someone who knows someone who might know Tish James, I'd sure be honoured for her to hear it. 

As for the rest of this Hobo Travelogue, I'm gonna keep it short (at least by my long-winded standards), 'cause I've gotta dive back into the folky fray here at the conference. It feels really good to be back in the same place with these dear hearts after so long away. Folks have been writing! And folks have been doing a lot of thinking about what we want this business/art/revolutionary program to look like going forward. I've already seen a bunch of great new-to-me artists like Willi Carlisle and Kyshona, and I'm looking forward to more discoveries the next two nights. If you're at the conference or attending online, my official showcase is tonight at 7:45pm Central in Roanoke, and I'm gonna be joined by The Accidentals on strings for the Tish James tribute. 

Pamela took a pass on all the flights and rigamarole, and she and her daughters are hanging out with Roadetta in Victoria for the week. Our epic tour's still in progress, just on pause. We wrapped up our Washington dates with shows in Bellingham, Kingston, Seattle, Port Townsend and Olympia, and felt incredibly, heartwarmingly welcomed at every stop. We took the boat into Canada from Port Angeles and sang unamplified for a great crowd at the Victoria Folk Club, had a long-overdue Taiwan reunion with pals in Sidney, sang for lovely open-hearted crowds in Brentwood Bay, Salt Spring Island, Nanaimo and Qualicum Beach, and even made our way across to Lasqueti Island for the first time to sing for the folks out there, beyond the pavement and off the grid. When I land back on Vancouver Island we'll be resuming the winding journey home like so: 

Wed May 25 • Cumberland, BC • backyard concert w/ Senyué opening 

Fri May 27 • Gabriola Island, BC • Gabriola Commons 

Sat May 28 • Powell River, BC • Wildwood Pub w/ Dennis Bouwman opening 

Sun May 29 • Gibsons, BC • afternoon show at Persephone Brewing 

Tue May 31 • Vancouver, BC • The WISE Hall w/ special guests TBA 

Wed June 1 • Mount Currie, BC • The Cheese Pusherman Roadhouse 

Thu June 2 • Hope, BC • Secret Shop Show 

Fri June 3 • Tappen, BC • Carlin Community Hall 

Sat Jun 4 • Summerland, BC • An Evening in the Valley 

Wed Jun 8 • Rossland, BC • Alpine Grind 

Thu Jun 9 • Creston, BC • yard concert 

Sat Jun 11 • Strathcona County, AB • Hastings Lake Hootenanny 

And just like that, I'll be heading out again, this time in the company of those ever-lovin' Second Chances: 

Thu-Sun Jun 16-19 • Driftpile, AB • North Country Fair 

Wed Jun 22 • North Country Fair Afterbender, location TBA 

Thu Jun 23 • WHERE SHOULD WE PLAY AROUND EDMONTON? 

Sri Jun 24 • Rimbey, AB • Rimbey Public Library outdoor show 

Sat Jun 25 • WHERE SHOULD WE PLAY AROUND CALGARY? 

Sun Jun 26 • WHERE SHOULD WE PLAY AROUND REGINA? 

Tue Jun 28 • ANYBODY UP FOR A SHOW NEAR FARGO? 

Wed Jun 29 • Carlton, MN • Historic Scott House 

Thu Jun 30 • Three Lakes, WI • Three Lakes Center for the Arts 

Fri Jul 1 • Nahma, MI • Nahma Inn 

Sat-Mon Jul 2-4 • Trufant, MI • Smiling Acres Music Festival 

Wed Jul 6 • Buchanan, MI • yard concert 

Thu Jul 7 • Ann Arbor, MI • The Ark, opening for Carsie Blanton 

Fri-Sun Jul 8-10 • Bliss, MI • Blissfest 

Tue Jul 12 • Toronto, ON • TBA 

Wed-Sun Jul 13-17 • WHERE SHOULD WE PLAY IN ONTARIO? 

Wed Aug 3 • Chicago, IL • Hey Nonny 

Thu-Sat Aug 4-6 • Appleton, WI • Mile of Music Festival 

Sun Aug 7 • Maple Plain, MN • Sun Dog Farm 

Sun Aug 14 • Saskatoon, SK • backyard concert TBA 

I'll be reuniting with Pamela for the Northern Lights Bluegrass and Old Tyme Music Festival in Big River, SK August 19-21, then hanging around home for a bit before we two head back eastward to check off most of the other 24 states Pamela didn't get to see this time around. All my dates, as always, are on www.scottcook.net. We'd love to stop in your town if you know a good spot to play––venues and regular presenters can contact lara@flemingartists.com, and folks who wanna host in houses or backyards can drop a line to scottcooksongs@gmail.com. 

Alright, that's all the news for now. Love yourself, love your work, love the world, and hope to see you down the trail. Yours, 

s

Hey beauties, 

I'm writing you from a little piece of heaven overlooking Gamble Bay on Washington's Kitsap Peninsula, where we played in a barn Sunday evening and have taken our hosts up on their offer to spend a couple more days. There's lots more on what we've been up to below, but for now I wanna tell you what's ahead for us: 

First of all, for those of you around the world who've been following our travels through our weekly (or so) Roadetta Roadshows, I'm sad to announce that tonight'll be our last. We'll be back in more familiar pastures next week, and our lives'll be getting busier, including some Tuesday shows in the three-dimensional world and a flight down to Kansas City for me to attend the Folk Alliance International conference. And with the weather warming up on this side of the world, it just feels like a good time to wrap it up. We'll have a humdinger of a finale, though, with our friends Ordinary Elephant calling in from Louisiana and some new songs of our own. It all gets rolling just before 5pm Pacific (find your time zone here) on www.facebook.com/scottcooksongs or YouTube here. 

Secondly, for those of you who live or have music-loving friends in Northwest Washington, we've got a few shows to go around here, and we'd love to see you (or your people) in person! 

Wed Apr 27 • Seattle, WA • Ballard Homestead 
Thu Apr 28 • Port Townsend, WA • Palindrome 
Sat Apr 30 • Olympia, WA • New Traditions Cafe 

As always, all the details about any shows are on www.scottcook.net. The very next day we'll taking the ferry from Port Angeles to Victoria and embarking on the Canadian leg of this long run: 

Sun May 1 • Victoria, BC • Victoria Folk Music Society 
Fri May 6 • Ucluelet, BC • Salmon Beach concert 
Sat May 7 • Brentwood Bay, BC • Village Empourium 
Sun May 8 • Saltspring Island, BC • field concert at Pipe Rabbit Farm 
Tue May 10 • Nanaimo, BC • house concert 
Thu May 12 • Lasqueti Island, BC • Lasqueti Arts Centre 
Fri May 13 • Qualicum Beach, BC • Oceanside Folk/Roots Club 
Sat May 14 • Gabriola Island, BC • Gabriola Commons 
Wed-Sun May 18-22 • Kansas City, MO • Folk Alliance International 
Wed May 25 • Cumberland, BC • backyard concert w/ Senyué opening 
Sat May 28 • Powell River, BC • Wildwood Pub w/ Dennis Bouwman 
Tue May 31 • Vancouver, BC • The WISE Hall w/ special guests TBA 
Wed June 1 • Mount Currie, BC • The Cheese Pusherman Roadhouse 
Thu June 2 • Hope, BC • Secret Shop Show 
Fri June 3 • Tappen, BC • Carlin Community Hall 
Sat Jun 4 • Summerland, BC • An Evening in the Valley 
Sun Jun 5 • Penticton, BC • private yard concert 
Wed Jun 8 • Rossland, BC • Alpine Grind 
Thu Jun 9 • Creston, BC • yard concert 
Fri Jun 10 • WHERE SHOULD WE PLAY IN SOUTHERN ALBERTA? 
Sat Jun 11 • Strathcona County, AB • Hastings Lake Hootenanny 

Pamela's gonna be really happy to be home and in the garden, but I won't have much rest from the road––Melissa's flying out within the week to reunite the Second Chances for a tour I've long dreamed of, taking them out to Michigan and Ontario and likely as far as New York. If you'd like to bring us to your town, we'd love to make it happen. Venues and regular presenters can contact lara@flemingartists.com, and folks who wanna host in houses or backyards can drop a line to scottcooksongs@gmail.com. Here's what we've got so far: 

Thu-Sun Jun 16-19 • Driftpile, AB • North Country Fair 
Tue Jun 21 • North Country Fair Afterbender, location TBA 
Wed-Sun Jun 22-26 • where should we play between Edmonton & Regina? 
Tue Jun 28 • anybody up for a show near Fargo? 
Wed Jun 29 • Carlton, MN • Historic Scott House 
Thu Jun 30 • Three Lakes, WI • Three Lakes Center for the Arts 
Fri Jul 1 • Nahma, MI • Nahma Inn 
Sat-Mon Jul 2-4 • Trufant, MI • Smiling Acres Music Festival 
Wed Jul 6 • Buchanan, MI • yard concert 
Thu Jul 7 • Ann Arbor, MI • The Ark, opening for Carsie Blanton! 
Jul 16-31 • where should we play in Ontario and the Northeastern US? 
Sat Jul 16 • Prescott, ON? • Blues, Brews and BBQ? 
Wed Aug 3 • Chicago, IL • Hey Nonny 
Thu-Sat Aug 4-6 • Appleton, WI • Mile of Music Festival 
Sun Aug 7 • Maple Plain, MN • Sun Dog Farm 
Sun Aug 14 • Saskatoon, SK • backyard concert TBA 

After the Saskatoon show, Bram and Melissa will drive Lucky home and leave me with Pamela and Roadetta for a week of music camp followed by the Northern Lights Bluegrass & Old-Tyme Music Festival, August 19-21 in Big River, Saskatchewan! If you're into bluegrass and/or old-time, and especially if you're learning an instrument, camp's well worth the trip. Pamela and I went last year and it was magical. 

In September I'll be headed eastward again, either on my own or as a duo if I can convince Pamela to come––dates are already up on www.scottcook.net and there are lots more coming soon. 

Some folks have asked if the North Country Fair Acoustic Music Camp I started up last year over August long weekend will be happening again. As expected, I'll be away with the Second Chances at that time, but I'm happy to report that camp lives on thanks to the efforts of superhero Dan Barton! He's got a killer group of instructors together, including our friend and roots-music heroine Linda McRae up from Nashville, returning harmony wizard Dana Wylie, hella-talented Aussie bassman Tim Bennett and more. Just like when other people learn to sing a song you've written, it's a beautiful thing to watch something you've birthed go on to have a life of its own. 

Roads in the Rearview 

We've covered so much ground since I last wrote you dear readers that it'd be futile to try and recount it all, but some sweet moments along the way deserve special mention. Pamela continues to be amazed at how deep the Taiwan connections run, with folks I know from there showing up at several shows along the way––shouts out to Shirzi, my onetime housemate Johanna, Dawid Vorster, Nathan Javens, Megan Blanton, and Kimmie of River, our home barroom in Jungli! In central California we got to share four shows with Justin Farren, who just might be the best songwriter and performer you've never heard of. A common highlight of Justin's shows close to home (and the whole run we did through BC and Alberta in 2019) is his daughter Amelia singing along, like in this clip from our San Rafael house concert: 

"Worthy of the Sea" 

We got to drive Roadetta across the Golden Gate Bridge and ride bikes around San Francisco before joining up with Justin and Kora Feder for an in-the-round show in Berkeley. We stayed in lots of gorgeous State Parks along the way, including three nights in Pfieffer Big Sur. We followed Highway 101 up the coast, slack-jawed at the scenery, and camped among the towering redwoods on the Avenue of Giants. 

Readers of this Travelogue (and rubber tramps in general) might get a kick out of the "Travel Log", a home on wheels that singer and birdcall-imitator Charles Kellogg carved out of a fallen redwood and mounted on a truck body for his tour around the United States in the early 1900s, performing vaudeville shows and campaigning to protect the coast redwood forest. 

We drove up to Ashland, Oregon and started seeing a lot more hippies than we had down South. We played a lovely backyard concert for a Sisters Song Camper named Joan, and the next day we met renowned bluegrasser Keith Little, jamming with some young folks outside a little cafe. We played for a full house at Tsunami Books in Eugene, Oregon, our first sold-out show of the tour, thanks in part to the promotional efforts of my friend Sadie, who hosted my last Eugene show, and my old friend Mike Meyer, who first welcomed me to Eugene. After some scant turnouts earlier in the tour, the energy in the room felt utterly amazing. The next day I gave a songwriting workshop at the home of some other Song Campers named Steve and Debbie, and it warmed my heart to be able to offer something like that along the way. 

We stayed a week in Portland, eating great food, catching up with pals and biking around that beautiful city. It was pretty much peak bloom while we were there, an incredible opulence of magnolias and cherry blossoms and daffodils that had us wheeling through the streets downright drunk on flowers. 

We wrapped up our week in Portland with a show at the White Eagle, and I was really gratified that so many folks (including so many great songwriters!) came out to see us in the big town. The next day we played Brewminatti in tiny Prosser, WA and marvelled again at how it only takes a few energized people to bring music to an out-of-the-way place. We played one last show at the charming Tim Noah Theatre in Snohomish, WA and then across the border to Canada for two weeks off the clock. 

As our Roadshow viewers know, Roadetta's been having some persistent troubles with the exhaust system along this tour. There was actually a class-action lawsuit about the exhaust systems in certain years of Sprinters, where Mercedes had been fudging the emissions tests much like Volkswagen had done, and the whole thing was eligible to be fixed for free and re-warrantied under the terms of the settlement. The only problem was, it was a separate lawsuit in Canada and the States, and since our vehicle was from Canada, they'd only fix it for free on that side of the border. Thankfully, we had a two-week gap in our schedule, so we took the opportunity to get the van fixed and drive out to Penticton to visit Pamela's daughter. It was really sweet to have some downtime in one place, and some folks who'd been waiting way too long to hear from me got replies to their emails! If you're one of those, and you still haven't, feel free to ping me. 

One big event during our week of downtime was the loss of our dear friend and hometown hero Bill Bourne. I just did a phone interview about him with Grant Stovel at CKUA a few days ago, and I'm sure there'll be many tributes to come, because he touched so many lives with his music and his example. 

Bill flanked by Indio Saravanja and me at Calgary's Ironwood Stage in 2012, photo by Alia Love 

It's hard to fathom how much I owe to his friendship, mentorship and inspiration, musically and otherwise. He blew my young mind when my buddy Calvin took me to see him at the old Muddy Waters Cafe, and later at the Sidetrack with Lester Quitzau and Madagascar Slim as Tri-Continental. When I first worked up the courage to talk to him, it was to ask his permission to put The Anglers' cover of "The House" at Taiwan's PeaceFest on a CD, and he was nice as can be. He was always incredibly generous with his time and talent, showing up at open mics in town, jamming with whoever wanted, and mentoring so many young musicians. He and Tippy Agogo took me on board for a couple gigs with their Nerkelwerks project that really stretched my musical boundaries, and he took me and Indio Saravanja on a couple runs as Tres Amigos, playing some venues I'd never been able to book for myself. It was a joy and an education to be on stage in his company and his care. His recommendation opened the doors to the Dream Cafe for me, after probably ten years of trying to book myself in there. He bought a ticket and came out to the living room concert when I brought Corin Raymond & Jonathan Byrd to Edmonton for the first time. He let me use his apartment and his Neumann mic when I was recording parts for my second album This One's on the House, and he played on it for free or close to it. When I opened for Brandi Carlile at Edmonton's big concert hall, the Winspear Centre, I went across the street to Brittany's Lounge, where he was playing a free gig five nights a week in those days, for a drink and a chat. As always, his perspective made everything clearer. He was unbelievably chill about everything, absolutely unflappable and zen. He never wanted to "lay a trip on anybody," as he said when he had to leave our music camp last summer, his health failing, still not wanting to bring anybody down. I can only assume he was up there against doctor's advice in the first place, but he was there because he wanted to give back. His life was a gift. He talked some crazy shit sometimes. He would've been hella frustrating to try and help with some real-world kinda things. But he had a deep connection to source and love, and like so many people, I'm forever changed by the glimpses I got of it through him. 

Here's a clip of him singing his song "Pie and Ice Cream" on the first night of our North Country Fair Acoustic Music Camp last summer, in what may well have been his last performance. He's accompanied by Bramwell Park on banjo, Shari Rae on bass and Joe Nolan on guitar. 

"Pie and Ice Cream" 

He'll be dearly missed. But I'm gonna do my best to live into all I learned from him. 

So much love to you, friends, wherever you are. Hope some of you can join us for the last of these Roadetta Roadshows tonight, and hope to see more of you in the flesh real soon. 

Keep shining, 

s

Far-flung friends, 

I'm writing you from our campsite in Joshua Tree National Park, where we're getting ready to drive into L.A. County for a brief brush with the stage before we head back into the woods, taking comfort in Carolyn Mark's hoboing advice from How to Be a Boozy Chanteuse: 1) brushing your teeth is a shower, 2) a shower is a nap, and 3) a nap is but a dream. 

It's been almost two months since I wrote you last, and it's sure not for lack of stories to tell, just of time to write them down. Many of you have been traveling vicariously with us through our weekly Roadetta Roadshows, and we're grateful for your company and your generosity. We've been broadcasting live to my Facebook and YouTube channels from the back of the van every Tuesday at 5pm Pacific/6 Mountain/7 Central/8 Eastern/9am Wed in Taiwan/noon in Melbourne/2pm in Aotearoa with a few songs, a few stories, some of the sights we've seen, and a special guest beamed in for a couple songs and a chat. We did our first ramshackle Roadshow just after pulling into a place called Teresa's Beauty Salon and RV Park in Cuba, New Mexico, and despite our slapdash setup and intermittent internet, Rachael Kilgour brought the beauty with a couple really moving songs about her dad. Corin Raymond joined us from Hamilton the next Tuesday, followed by Jonathan Byrd from North Carolina, Kerryn Fields from down under, Justin Farren from California, and last week David Wilcox, whose driveway we stayed in when we rolled through Asheville last month. The episodes are all up online here, and I think they're good TV, even on the replay.  Next Tuesday we'll be joined by Kora Feder, who we'll be playing with in Berkeley March 20, and the following week we'll be getting a taste of home with our housemate Elliot Thomas and equally talented neighbour Braden Gates joining us from Edmonton. 

All our guests' musical offerings have been stunning, but I've been even more grateful for the conversations, for how willing they've all been to go deep, and for the medicine to be found in connecting across the miles, especially in troubled times like these. 

Every day I remember that the blessings I enjoy are unearned and fleeting. The news keeps providing us with daily evidence that the world's still scary, cruel and unjust. But thankfully, the near-to-here keeps delivering reminders of beauty and decency everywhere we go. 

I'll do my best to tell you about some of the places we've been, and I've even got some pictures. But first I want to wave up the road, in case you're in our path, or know somebody someplace we're going who might enjoy the show, 'cause we'd love to meet them. Here's how our next couple months are looking: 

Fri Mar 11 • Altadena, CA • Coffee Gallery Backstage 
Sat Mar 12 • ONLINE • Spring For Jeevan (fundraiser for street kids' school in Varanasi) 
Sun Mar 13 • Shell Beach, CA • Our Front Porch 
Tue Mar 15 • ONLINE • Roadetta Roadshow episode 7 w/ Kora Feder! 
Thu Mar 17 • Mokelumne Hill, CA • yard concert w/ Justin Farren! 
Fri Mar 18 • Sacramento, CA • house concert w/ Justin Farren! 
Sat Mar 19 • San Rafael, CA • house concert w/ Justin Farren! 
Sun Mar 20 • Berkeley, CA • The Back Room w/ Justin Farren and Kora Feder! 
Tue Mar 22 • ONLINE • Roadetta Roadshow episode 8 w/ Elliot Thomas and Braden Gates! 
Fri Mar 25 • Ashland, OR • Casa Campbell house concert 
Sat Mar 26 • Eugene, OR • Tsunami Books 
Sun Mar 27 • Eugene, OR • SOLD OUT afternoon songwriting workshop 
Tue Mar 29 • ONLINE • Roadetta Roadshow episode 9 w/ special guest TBA 
Fri Apr 1 • Portland, OR • White Eagle Saloon 
Sat Apr 2 • Prosser, WA • Brewminatti 
Sun Apr 3 • Snohomish, WA • Thumbnail Theater 
Tue Apr 5 • ONLINE • Folk Project Acoustic Stayaway (1hr earlier than our usual Roadshow!) 
Fri Apr 22 • Bellingham, WA • Honey Moon 
Sun Apr 24 • Kingston, WA • Concerts at the Barn 
Wed Apr 27 • Seattle, WA • Ballard Homestead w/ Elena Loper 
Thu Apr 28 • Port Townsend, WA • venue TBA 
Sat Apr 30 • Olympia, WA • New Traditions Cafe 
Sun May 1 • Victoria, BC • Victoria Folk Music Society 
Fri May 6 • Ucluelet, BC • Salmon Beach concert 
Sat May 7 • Brentwood Bay, BC • Village Empourium 
Sun May 8 • Saltspring Island, BC • yard concert 
Tue May 10 • Nanaimo, BC • house concert 
Thu May 12 • Lasqueti Island, BC • location TBA 
Fri May 13 • Qualicum Beach, BC • Oceanside Folk/Roots Club 
Sat May 14 • Gabriola Island, BC • Gabriola Commons 
Wed-Sun May 18-22 • Kansas City, MO • Folk Alliance International 
Sat Jun 4 • Summerland, BC • An Evening in the Valley 
Sun Jun 5 • Penticton, BC • yard concert 
Thu Jun 9 • Creston, BC • yard concert 

There's lots more in the works, including a summer cross-country Second Chances ramble with dates in the Midwest and out east, the Northern Lights Bluegrass and Old-Tyme Music Festival in Saskatchewan in August, and more US dates in the fall. You can see it all as it takes shape on www.scottcook.net. 

We've had an amazing wander so far. Time stretches out in a crazy way on the road, and it honestly feels like it's been ages since I last checked in with you dear readers. We drove down through Texas to Dallas and straight to the opera house to watch Hadestown, an incredible testament to the power of music and myth and the triumph and tragedy of life. I got to make good on a house concert at my friend Paul Heller's place and a show called the Open Door Coffee House, which happen to be the first two gigs I cancelled back when it all hit the fan in March of 2020 and I had to flee home from Texas. We stayed in an RV park right in the middle of Austin, biked around to see music and friends, and played a sweet house concert outside of town. We got to visit my Taiwan pal Billy's hydroponic farm in Houston, marvel at what they've built and wonder about how humanity's gonna feed itself in the future, given the massive soil depletion, water contamination and everything else that comes with the farming-on-steroids approach we've gotten hooked on. We got to play the Mucky Duck in Houston and the Old Quarter in Galveston, two storied venues I'd never had the nerve to try and book before. We camped on the Gulf of Mexico, and got hints of the turbulent history in Galveston's ornate streets. We drove through the Louisiana Bayou, visited our friends Ordinary Elephant, and oo'ed and ahh'ed at their far superior van renovations: their electrical setup with enough lithium batteries to run an air conditioner, their custom-built cupboard with sink and fridge and tuck-away towel rack and expertly-hidden joinery, and the general how-the-heck-did-you-do-that of the amazingness underway in advance of their March tour dates. 

We met up with dear friend and longtime collaborator Melissa Walker in New Orleans, where her month-long stay fortuitously overlapped with ours by a day. We had our minds blown by the jazz at Preservation Hall, in the clubs and on the street, and saw flashes of the old currents of joy and resistance that have run through that city since the days of Congo Square. 

Preservation Hall before the show 

Modern day heroes	Evil old Andrew Jackson replaced by Harriet Tubman

We drove through Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and Kentucky, meeting kind, stereotype-defying folks everywhere we went. We reunited with Cary Morin and Celeste di Iorio for two more shows together in Atlanta and Asheville. We met David Lamotte and David Wilcox––two folksingers I've admired, been in touch with, and have many a mutual friend with––in the flesh for the first time on the same night at Isis Music Hall in Asheville, North Carolina. 

We played a last-minute show for an enthusiastic invitation-only crowd in Roanoke. We dropped into a thing called the Allegheny Jubilee on a dark night in Sparta, North Carolina, with an old-time band and a crowd of hella serious flatfoot dancers, some of whom even had flashy jackets with their nicknames monogrammed on them. It was like we'd landed in another time. We paid our first visit to Galax, Virginia, home of the world-famous fiddlers convention, and to Floyd, Virginia, home of the Floyd Country Store, where we spent the weekend soaking up the old-time music and flatfoot dancing. 

We got to meet Appalachian artist Willard Gayheart, who spent the better part of an hour with us in his studio telling stories. We got to visit Nashville, drop in to Ernest Tubb's Record Shop and Roberts Western World, and see the Punch Brothers play the Mother Church of country music, the Ryman Auditorium. We got to stay a couple days with Danny Schmidt and Carrie Elkin, two inspiring songcrafters and all-around beautiful humans, as you can see in this picture. 

I got to play the Bluebird Cafe for the first time, in the round with Jennifer Knapp and Crys Matthews. We played for the radio on WDVX's Blue Plate Special, Woodsongs Old-Time Radio Hour and the big one, Mountain Stage in Charleston, West Virginia, where we got to meet Kathy Mattea. We made it out as far east as Richmond, Virginia before heading back west through Oklahoma, where we played two house concerts at Tim Grimm's place and spent two nights camped at the West Bend RV Outpost, where we got a peek at how a bunch vagabonds and visionaries are reimagining an old industrial site into a hobo dreamscape, complete with community kitchen, office spaces, lofts, a silkscreen shop, event space, B&Bs in a boat and RVs, a dispensary, yoga studio, and soon, a big caravan park with a saloon and an outdoor stage––another example of hard work and an eye for the possible gradually remaking the world. 

I sang a feature set at The Colony's Monday open mic, the very first place I ever visited in Tulsa––it only paid fifty bucks but it sure warmed my heart. We drove back across the Texas panhandle, and saw the Cadillac Ranch outside Amarillo.

 We played the beautiful GiG Performance Space in Santa Fe, where a fella who'd first found me in an online show with David Wilcox drove all the way from Buena Vista, Colorado to catch the show and hang out. The bar was closed after the show so we hosted in the back of the van, and decided we need a guest book for the next time we have company! 

We dug White Sands and played a show followed by a songwriting workshop in Las Cruces. We drove through a dust storm and endless fields of cactus to a show in Tubac, Arizona––the very first Arizona gig I ever played, eleven long years ago. We awed at the old mission and the Santa Cruz River in Tumacácori, right down by the Mexican border. 

We played a house concert in a piano showroom in Mesa, where I did my best imitation of a piano player for a cover of series-favourite Carsie Blanton's anthem "Be Good". We stayed a few days in Pamela's folks' 55+ community in Mesa, and even got to drive a golf cart around like the locals. 

We've been eating lots of Mexican food, studying a little Spanish, trying to make as little garbage as possible, having conversations with all kinds of people, and looking for the good wherever we can. And we've been getting along. 

Well, Pamela and I have, at least. Roadetta's another story. As those of you who've been showing up for our Roadshows know, she's had some issues. She's needed a couple spa days already, and being a Mercedes, she has expensive tastes. It's all down to a dodgy emissions system, which Mercedes-Benz was caught lying about and has settled a class-action lawsuit to avoid admitting guilt for. They tell us they'll fix it all for free once we're on the other side of the border, but as our van isn't registered in the US, they won't cover it down here. Which means that every now and then Roadetta goes into countdown mode, where we've got 10 starts remaining before she won't drive any faster than 5 mph. It's a tricky spot to be in when you've got gigs to play in different states day after day. But so far we've been lucky. And the other day in Tucson when we rolled into the Sprinter shop (just like the Mercedes shop, but without the fancy coffees and the condescension) with only two starts remaining, they cleared the codes, got us back on the road, and handed us a bill for $0.00––another reminder of all the kindness in this often cruel world. 

I recorded a new song called "Jubilee" for my Patreon followers from the back of the van last month, and I'm gonna do my best to write and record another this month. If you're curious, you can hear them all (I've released eight so far) by joining up over at www.patreon.com/scottcooksongs. This latest one's inspired by a quote from David Graeber, who said that “the ultimate, hidden truth of the world is that it is something that we make, and could just as easily make differently.” That thought's been turning around in my brain more than ever lately, because, overpowering and immovable as it seems, this system was made by people, woven together by stories and beliefs about what's true, possible, right, and fair. And when so many of us recognize that the stories we've been following so far are delusions, only serving the interests of a powerful few, we're on the way to making new stories. 

One last note: I'm giving to the International Rescue Committee, and there are several similar organizations with decades of experience helping people displaced by war. Giving helps me feel less powerless in the face of tragedy. 

Wherever you are, friends, I hope you're counting your blessings and loving on your nears and dears. With love from here, 

s

Friends! 

Here's a rare thing for your eyes: a teeny weeny Hobo Travelogue, minus the long rambles and rants, just to keep you in the know on the near-to-here! Nearest of all, our first Roadetta Roadshow airs TONIGHT at 6pm Mountain Time (find your time zone here), with mind-bendingly good Minnesotan songwriter Rachael Kilgour as our special guest. We'll be broadcasting from inside our van Roadetta somewhere in New Mexico, with scenes, songs and stories from the journey so far, and we'd love it if you'd join us. You can tune in on either of my Facebook pages, on the front page of www.scottcook.net, or on Youtube right here. All the comments go to the same place, so please say howdy from wherever you are. 

We've played six shows already––two in Alberta, one in Montana and three in Colorado––and we'll be in Texas by Thursday. If you've got friends in the Lone Star State, please send 'em our way! Our itinerary, as it continues to take shape, is as follows: 

Fri Jan 21 • Dallas (Farmers Branch), TX • house concert 
Sat Jan 22 • Dallas (Arlington), TX • Open Door Coffee House 
Sun Jan 23 • Austin (Cedar Creek), TX • Arhaven House Concerts 
Fri Jan 28 • Houston, TX and ONLINE • McGonigel's Mucky Duck 
Sat Jan 29 • Galveston, TX • Old Quarter Acoustic Cafe 
Fri Feb 4 • Auburn, AL • Sundilla Acoustic Concert Series 
Sat Feb 5 • Duluth, GA • Red Clay Music Foundry w/ Cary Morin! 
Sun Feb 6 • Asheville, NC • Isis Music Hall w/ Cary Morin! 
Tue Feb 8 • Knoxville, TN • WDVX Blue Plate Special 
Thu Feb 10 • Richmond, VA • Tin Pan 
Mon Feb 14 • Lexington, KY • Woodsongs Old-Time Radio Hour 
Thu Feb 17 • Nashville, TN • Bluebird Cafe w/ Crys Matthews and Jennifer Knapp 
Fri Feb 18 • Newport, KY • Southgate House Revival 
Sun Feb 20 • Charleston, WV • Mountain Stage! 
Sat Feb 26 • Norman, OK • Red Dirt Salon house concert 
Mon Feb 28 • Tulsa, OK • open mic feature at the Colony 
Wed Mar 2 • Santa Fe, NM • GiG Performance Space 
Thu Mar 3 • Las Cruces, NM • workshop and show at Cruces Creatives 
Fri Mar 4 • Tubac, AZ • Tubac Deli 
Sat Mar 5 • Mesa, AZ • Stilwell Pianos Presents Little Turquoise Door Concerts 
Sun Mar 6 • Tuscon, AZ • Monterey Court w/ Eric Ramsey 
Fri Mar 11 • Altadena, CA • Coffee Gallery Backstage 
Sun Mar 13 • Shell Beach, CA • Our Front Porch 
Thu Mar 17 • Mokelumne Hill, CA • yard concert w/ Justin Farren! 
Fri Mar 18 • Sacramento, CA • house concert w/ Justin Farren! 
Sat Mar 19 • San Rafael, CA • house concert w/ Justin Farren! 
Sun Mar 20 • Berkeley, CA • The Back Room w/ Justin Farren and Kora Feder! 
Fri Mar 25 • Ashland, OR • Casa Campbell house concert 
Sat Mar 26 • Eugene, OR • Tsunami Books 
Sun Mar 27 • Eugene, OR • afternoon songwriting workshop 
Fri Apr 1 • Portland, OR • White Eagle Saloon 
Sat Apr 2 • Prosser, WA • Brewminatti 
Sun Apr 3 • Snohomish, WA • Thumbnail Theater 
Sun Apr 24 • Kingston, WA • Concerts at the Barn 
Sat Apr 30 • Olympia, WA • New Traditions Cafe 
Sun May 1 • Victoria, BC • Victoria Folk Music Society 
Fri May 6 • Brentwood Bay, BC • Village Empourium 
Wed May 11 • Nanaimo, BC • house concert 
Thu May 12 • Lasqueti Island, BC • location TBA 
Fri May 13 • Qualicum Beach, BC • Oceanside Folk/Roots Club 
Sat May 14 • Gabriola Island, BC • location TBA 

So far we've been especially grateful for the kind border guard, who didn't even want to see Pamela's neatly organized folder of visa paperwork and instead seemed to be trying to egg me into proposing to Pamela right there in the office; for Cary Morin and Celeste Di Iorio, with whom we shared our first Stateside show in Great Falls and will be reunited in Atlanta and Asheville; for Brad and Lisa Raley, who gave us such a heartwarming welcome to Colorado with an intimate living room show and conversation that felt like home; and for all the natural beauty meeting our eyes along the way, especially in Moab where we holed up in a motel for the last three nights. 

We sang to a beautiful empty room in Carbondale, with only the friendly sound and video techs and a small online audience watching, and it does seem like Covid's not done disrupting things yet. But we're grateful to be out in the world, and to be singing songs for the folks who come to hear them. If you've got friends anywhere along our path, please let 'em know, we'd love to meet them. 

One quick item of business: I've changed the default currency to USD on my website for the remainder of this tour, but I've adjusted prices accordingly, and you can still order from anywhere in the world. If the postage calculation or exchange rate or anything isn't sitting right with you, just drop a line to scottcooksongs@gmail.com and we'll get it sorted out. 

Yesterday was Martin Luther King, Jr. Day here in the States, and I can't let it slip by without reminding people to listen to his words. Politicians of all stripes love to claim him as a civil rights hero, but he was way too radical for them to own. Have a listen to "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence" and see what I mean, in the way he broadens the lens of civil rights to human rights and global citizenship, the way he frames the war in Vietnam alongside all of America's overseas adventures as a war on the poor, the way he casts wealth inequality as a form of violence, and the way he challenges his fellow Americans and Christians to live up to their own ideals. Life Magazine, The Washington Post, and plenty of other mainstream publications turned on him after he gave that speech, and he was shot dead a year to the day later. Pamela and I listened to the whole speech yesterday, and it still rings powerfully true and relevant after all these years. 

Lastly, I want to send out love to all who loved Koady Chaisson of the East Pointers, taken completely unexpectedly and way too young by a massive heart attack two weeks ago. He was a friend and an inspiration to me and all who knew him. I'm still finding it hard to believe. But I'm reminded how precious and fleeting this life is, and how important it is to love your people while they're here. 

I love you, friends. Thanks for sticking with me. I hope you'll join us online tonight if you can, and I hope to see some of you in the flesh real soon. 

Hugs from the passenger seat, 

s

Howdy from Home! 

Hey friend, 

Wherever this finds you, I hope you're safe, healthy, staying inspired, and enjoying the company––in person or virtually––of people and animals you love. I'm writing you from my Riverdale, Edmonton home, a place I've grown pretty fond of over the course of these last two unusual years. I've gotten so used to the joys of staying put (and the joy of Pamela's company) that it felt strange being away for almost three months on my fall tour, a trip that would've counted among my shorter jaunts in years past. All the same, it was wonderful to venture out into the wider world again, and I was extremely grateful for the folks who came to see me along the way. There were less of them than expected at some stops, but I've been hearing that from a lot of my peers, so I'm not worried that my brand's uniquely in decline. I also lost seven tour dates along the way (for various, mostly covid-related reasons), but it was nothing like the falling dominoes of 2020. Overall, while it's certainly a strange time to be touring (more on that later), the folks who came out were grateful for songs, and I was grateful to sing for them. 

While I'm currently revelling in an unbroken eight-week stretch of home time, come January––Goddess willing and the covid don't rise––we'll be back on the move in our campervan Roadetta, goin' where the climate suits our clothes. Thankfully, Pamela's visa got approved this week(!) so she's coming along this time, and by the miracle of modern technology, so can you. We've decided to produce a weekly variety show from the road, with live songs and chat from the van interspersed with footage of scenery along the way, snippets of other bands we cross paths with, and interviews with some of the characters we meet. I dare say you haven't seen anything quite like it.

We'll be kicking off the season with an Indoorables show before we leave, Saturday January 1st at 6pm Mountain Time (find your time zone here), but after that we'll be moving to Tuesday nights at 6pm, keeping you up to speed each week on all the pretty places we're rambling through. It's a big ramble, and we're still filling in dates, but here are the stops so far:

photo by Gerard Hudson

Sat Jan 1 • ONLINE • Indoorables farewell show! 
Fri Jan 7 • Calgary, AB • Calgary Folk Club w/ Bram, Shari, Pamela, and opener Carolyn Harley! 
Mon Jan 10 • Great Falls, MT • The Newberry w/ Cary Morin and Stephie James! 
Wed Jan 12 • Fort Collins, CO • Music at Three Pines 
Thu Jan 13 • Denver, CO • The Lodge at Woods Boss Brewing w/ Jay Stott Duo 
Fri Jan 14 • Carbondale, CO • Steve's Guitars 
Fri Jan 21 • Dallas (Farmers Branch), TX • house concert 
Sat Jan 22 • Dallas (Arlington), TX • Open Door Coffee House 
Sun Jan 23 • Austin (Cedar Creek), TX • Arhaven House Concerts 
Fri Jan 28 • Houston, TX and ONLINE • McGonigel's Mucky Duck w/ Rachael Kilgour 
Sat Jan 29 • Galveston, TX • Old Quarter Acoustic Cafe w/ Rachael Kilgour 
Fri Feb 4 • Auburn, AL • Sundilla Acoustic Concert Series 
Sat Feb 5 • Duluth, GA • Red Clay Music Foundry w/ Cary Morin 
Sun Feb 6 • Asheville, NC • Isis Music Hall w/ Cary Morin 
Tue Feb 8 • Knoxville, TN • WDVX Blue Plate Special 
Thu Feb 10 • Richmond, VA • Tin Pan w/ Seth Walker 
Thu Feb 17 • Nashville, TN • Bluebird Cafe w/ Crys Matthews and Jennifer Knapp 
Fri Feb 18 • Newport, KY • Southgate House Revival 
Sun Feb 20 • Charleston, WV • Mountain Stage 
Wed-Sun Feb 23-27 • Kansas City, MO • Folk Alliance International conference 
Wed Mar 2 • Santa Fe, NM • GiG Performance Space 
Thu Mar 3 • Las Cruces, NM • workshop and show at Cruces Creatives 
Fri Mar 4 • Tubac, AZ • Tubac Deli 
Sat Mar 5 • Mesa, AZ • Stilwell Pianos Presents Little Turquoise Door Concerts 
Sun Mar 13 • Shell Beach, CA • Our Front Porch 
Wed Mar 16 • Santa Rosa, CA • yard concert w/ John Roy Zat 
Thu Mar 17 • Mokelumne Hill, CA • yard concert w/ Justin Farren 
Fri Mar 18 • Sacramento, CA • house concert w/ Justin Farren 
Sat Mar 19 • San Rafael, CA • house concert w/ Justin Farren 
Sun Mar 20 • Berkeley, CA • The Back Room w/ Justin Farren and Kora Feder 
Fri Mar 25 • Ashland, OR • house concert 
Sat Mar 26 • Eugene, OR • Tsunami Books 
Fri Apr 1 • Portland, OR • White Eagle Saloon 
Sat Apr 2 • Prosser, WA • Brewminatti 
Sun Apr 3 • Snohomish, WA • Thumbnail Theater 
Sun Apr 24 • Kingston, WA • Concerts at the Barn 
Sat Apr 30 • Olympia, WA • New Traditions Cafe 
Sun May 1 • Victoria, BC • Victoria Folk Music Society 
Fri May 6 • Brentwood Bay, BC • Village Empourium 

...with a whole bunch more to come in May around the islands in BC! If there's somewhere you think we really should play, anywhere along the way, including back yards and front porches (we'll be travelling with our own PA), please drop a line to Lara@flemingartists.com and hopefully we can make it happen! Also, if you're on the ground in one of these places, and would like to help promote the show, please hit me up at scottcooksongs@gmail.com––nothing beats the ol' grapevine for spreading the word and we'd be hugely grateful for your help. 

We're stoked to be playing a bunch of historic venues for the first time, like the Mucky Duck in Houston, the Old Quarter in Galveston, and the Bluebird Café in Nashville, but the one I'm most excited about is Mountain Stage in Charleston, West Virginia––a live-taped theatre show that goes out over 280+ NPR stations across America, hosted by Kathy Mattea.  We'll be joining The Steel Wheels, Tammy Rogers and Thomm Jutz, and more special guests TBA, and you can tune in from anywhere in the world on www.mountainstage.org. Funny enough, my new friend Carsie Blanton (who you really oughtta check out if you haven't already) played the same gig recently, and West Virginia's corporate-favourite Democrat Joe Manchin was in the audience! Carsie took the opportunity to tell him what a great many Americans would say if they had the mic––stop blocking things most Americans want, like the child tax credit! Politico even covered it (update: so far, he's still a shill).

We're going lots of places Pamela's never been, including New Orleans, Nashville (already got tickets for the Punch Brothers at the Ryman!), Asheville, and to the Folk Alliance International conference in Kansas City, where we've got an official showcase! I haven't had the honour since 2013, and I feel a lot more prepared to make the most of it now. 

Another sweet bit of news lately was a Canadian Folk Music Award nomination for Tangle of Souls, for English Songwriter of the Year. I'm up against some stiff competition, including Allison Russell's new album Outside Child, which is up for four CFMAs and three Grammys(!) and I'm pretty sure will take it, but as always, it's a huge encouragement to be noticed by my peers in the biz. 

By popular demand, I'm currently mulling over whether to record Tangle of Souls as an audiobook, and if I do, how to go about releasing it. I know that's how plenty of people take in books nowadays. If that's you, please let me know how you listen to audiobooks and/or podcasts, and if you've got any tips on getting it out into the world!

Fall Tour Recap 

It was really amazing to go for a run around the three-dimensional world this fall, so I want to reiterate my thanks to the beautiful souls who came out to say hi along the way, and the heroic presenters who made it possible. 

I got to headline at Caffe Lena in Saratoga Springs for the first time, and also made first visits to some historic venues like The Ark in Ann Arbor, Club Passim in Boston, The Towne Crier in Beacon, and Le Poisson Rouge (the old Village Gate) in New York City.

checking out the signatures in the green room at The Ark

That's Caffe Lena's founder Lena Spencer on the right, with Suze Rotolo & Bob

I want to express particular thanks to the volunteer presenters, people like Don Sheldon of Valley Stage in Vermont, Beth and the team at Ripton Coffeehouse, Christine at the Dragonfly Barn in Maine, Celene and Geof of the Old Sloop Coffeehouse, Jen Stevens in Providence, Laura and Paul at Meeting House Presents in Hartford, Michelle and the team at the Earlville Opera House, Bob Kelley and his team at Earth Room in New Jersey, Over Yonder House Concerts and the Original Sub Shop in Toledo, the team at Trinity House Theatre in Livonia, John in Bishop Hill, Carla at Sun Dog Farm in Maple Plain, and Vic and the crew at Nickelodeon Music Club, who provided our Alberta homecoming. None of these folks make their living presenting music––they do it strictly for the love, and often at great cost. I may as well add places like the Columbus Theatre in Providence, Rhode Island; HiLo in North Adams, Massachusetts; Seven Steps Up in Spring Lake, Michigan; Natalie's in Columbus, Ohio; Stone Arch Brewpub in Appleton, Wisconsin and all the famous spots I already mentioned to the list, 'cause even though they're regular venues, they didn't get into this for the money either, and they sure aren't raking it in now. If you're comfortable going out to indoor shows, please, support your local venues however you can.

mentioned a sweet stroke of serendipity a couple travelogues back (when a fellow former kindergarten teacher from Taiwan happened into the campground I was staying in) and that sort of thing continued along the tour, most notably when I'd spent the night in the van in a random rest area in Connecticut and got up in the morning to see Pete Damore, one half of Ordinary Elephant, walking past my van! They had just pulled in to eat breakfast, partway through their overnight haul from Louisiana up to Massachusetts for their first gig.

We got to share five shows along the way, and it was a joy and an inspiration to be in their company. We recorded a version of my song "Learning to Let Go" in a stairwell that's up on my Patreon. I also shared two brand-new songs––"Steady For You" and "The Wolf That Wins"––on Patreon since I wrote you last. It's a simple pay-what-you-can arrangement over there, where you set whatever monthly rate feels right for you, in return for a new song every month, and an open invite to our monthly circles on Zoom, where we've been talking songwriting, fingerpicking, and whatever else is on my Fellow Travellers' minds. We just crossed the 100 supporters mark, and I sure do feel supported by that. I'm almost finished a new song simply titled "Enough", and I plan to deliver it to those 100 kind souls before the end of the month! Make it 101 right here if you're so inclined.

Cook's Books! (with a giveaway) 

For the last while I've been thinking I want to start plugging some of the books I've been reading, and maybe even re-selling them at cost at my merch table, we'll see! For now, I reckon it's time to start, and I reckon the silly name'll do.

The first book I'm recommending––and would love to get into as many sets of hands as I can––is Jason Hickel's Less Is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World, published in the summer of 2020. It's an easy-reading introduction to the notion of degrowth––an idea that's been around for a while but you sure won't hear from any mainstream politicians' lips. It's just assumed that the economy needs to keep growing, so nowadays they talk about how we can "green" the economy and grow it at the same time. That kind of talk ignores an inescapable truth: an economic system that depends on infinite growth can't run indefinitely on a finite planet. Capitalism's such a system––companies need to grow to survive and generate profits for their shareholders, and that growth's inextricably tied to extraction and consumption. There's just no way around that. But the important thing to notice is that growth, as measured by GDP, isn't tied to quality of life. After a certain level of progress has met people's material needs, the two become decoupled, as they have in the United States, where profits keep going to the top while life expectancy and pretty much any measure of happiness are in decline. As Hickel says, capitalism is “fundamentally unhinged from any conception of human need.” And that's why we have a huge industry harnessing all the power of modern psychology to convince people to buy things they don't need and can't afford. 

The book looks back over the last 500 years, showing how processes of privatizing public goods (starting with the enclosures of public lands that drove Europeans into the factories and to the New World, through the theft of human capital in the transatlantic slave trade, and on into the exploitative relationships the global North maintains with the global South) have led to the garish inequality we see both within and between countries, and the consequent destruction of the very Earth our lives depend on. Now that we're looking over the edge, the question is “how we can shift from an economy that’s organised around domination and extraction to one that’s rooted in reciprocity with the living world." 

Hickel's in good company with this sort of analysis. Murray Bookchin, who I quoted from a fair bit in Tangle of Souls, diagnosed the ecological crisis as a social crisis; that the whole idea of dominating the Earth is rooted in domination of our fellow human beings. Jeremy Corbyn wrote along similar lines in his recent Jacobin article responding to COP26: "The climate emergency is a class issue. It punishes the many and is driven by systems built by the few. Only a huge redistribution of power can prevent the climate crisis from deepening — and build a better world from what follows." Greta Thunberg's statements at COP26 echo the same theme: "the climate and ecological crisis of course doesn't exist in a vacuum, it is directly tied to other crises and injustices that date back to colonialism and beyond. Crises based on the idea that some people are worth more than others and therefore have the right to steal others, to exploit others and to steal their land and resources. And it is very naive of us to think that we could solve this crisis without addressing the root cause of it." 

Thankfully, we don't need to grow the economy indefinitely. Countries like Costa Rica, for example, have way higher levels of happiness with a much smaller GDP per capita. What people naturally want is health, safety, good food, meaningful work and meaningful relationships. What the machine wants is growth without limits, to keep on eating til it eats itself. We need to take back control of our societies from the tyranny of markets. That'll involve, as Geoff Berner sings, taking the billionaires' money away, and building a world based on global justice rather than the winner-take-all death pact we're currently locked into by the limits of our imagination. 

There's lots to talk about in all this, but I think this book serves as a good starting point in questioning the sacred dogma of growth, and I'm keen to mail my copy, along with giveaway copies of Tangle of Souls and Further Down the Line, to one lucky winner! Write me an email with "pick me!" in the subject line, and one solution to our ecological predicament that you're trying in your own life in the body, and I'll randomly draw a lucky winner! 

Peace on Earth, and Goodwill Toward Humankind

Vermont, NYC, and Toledo

Cape Cod

It really was so good to get an eyeful and earful of the wider world; to be reminded again that it's a beautiful place, with kind strangers in every corner of it. But before I wrap up this Hobo Travelogue I want to talk just a little bit about the human landscape I experienced along the way, especially Stateside. Most apparent was a deep sadness, no doubt partly due to the pandemic and its continuing fallout. Many people lost loved ones and livelihoods, all off us lost some sense of stability, and we haven't really been able to properly grieve. But I also sensed something deeper shifting, and if I'm going to guess, I think it has to do with a growing sense that we just can't, or won't, be able to understand one another enough to act together on the problems we're facing. SARS-CoV-2, awful as it's been, is really nothing compared to the upset that climate change will bring to our way of life in the years to come. And if we can't agree on even basic facts, we're going to have a really hard time coming together to meet the biggest challenge we've ever faced as a species. 

Now, I know there are bad actors out there, deliberately sowing disinformation and trying to manipulate outcomes to their advantage with no regard for other people. There are undoubtedly some such folks in the worlds of politics and big business, like the Sacklers, who made billions in profits from the opioid epidemic they helped create. But I don't think most people are like that. 

The biggest blessing of being on tour is the way it delivers evidence of basic human decency to me every single day. Deep down, most people are good, and want the same things. That's something like an article of faith for me, but I see it confirmed more often than I see any reason to doubt it. When people do awful things, there's usually a good reason––they themselves have been hurt, or they don't actually realize what they're doing is wrong. And a lot of times our inability to understand each others' actions comes from deep differences in our worldviews. 

No matter what your political stripe, I think we could all benefit from listening to folks on the opposite side of issues from us––hearing what they have to say for themselves in their own words, imaginatively inhabiting their viewpoint as best we can, hearing how your own side's talk might sound to them, and most importantly, considering what they might be right about. Every point of view has some truth to it, and refusing to acknowledge those truths (or worse, censoring any discussion of the complexities) only serves to drive us further apart. 

With that in mind, I'm working on a longer-form piece called "What the Unvaccinated Are Right About" that's sure to draw a little fire from both sides of my meagre readership, but will hopefully also provide an opportunity for some mutual understanding. Keep an eye out for it. But in the meantime, whenever you find yourself disagreeing vehemently with some group of folks, it might be a good exercise to make a list of what they might be right about. At least that'll give you some common ground to start with if you ever end up in a conversation with someone who holds that view. And I genuinely hope that we do have those difficult conversations. Because the resort to force is what happens when conversation becomes impossible. 

There's a website called All Sides that's a good place to start if you're having a hard time understanding how current events like the Kyle Rittenhouse trial can be understood differently by people who don't share your media diet. And there's a group called Braver Angels that's doing its best to depolarize American politics through collaborative work projects, open debates, and even songs. "Say Can You See" was featured in their songwriting contest last year, and since then I've been trying my best to write more songs that speak to the times without inflaming the tribal allegiances that are so central to the culture war. 

Everywhere I went on this last tour I saw signs of tribal allegiance, from the "thin blue line" and "Trump Won" flags to the pervasive lawn signs proclaiming "Hate Has No Home Here" and "Black Lives Matter" in the beautiful hills of (nearly all-white) rural Vermont. We all know who our tribe are. But as I was riding my bike around Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania I saw a Braver Angels sign on a lawn, and it made me feel the most hopeful of all. I don't know who lives there. For all I know, they might be conservative. They might be for small government and states' rights, or against gun control and abortion. But I'm pretty sure we could at least have a civil conversation about it. I believe in a country where people can do that. 

Wherever you are, friends, and whatever you're celebrating this season, I hope it brings you reminders of the best in life, and I hope you get along with your family. 

With love, 

s

Dear hearts, 

I'm writing you from a cabin in the Adirondacks, a spot I've mentioned in this Travelogue before, when I stayed here in October of 2015 and wrote a song called "Further Down the Line." Over the years I'd forgotten the name of the town, let alone the campground, but last year the owner posted a link to one of my songs from their Facebook page, saying that I'd stayed there once, and there it was––Thomas Creek Campground in Stony Creek, New York! It's so good to be back here. The cabin's got no power, just a woodstove and an oil lamp. Out front there's a firepit and a bluff overlooking a winding bend of Stony Creek. The view gave me shivers as the moon rose over it the night I arrived. 

Amazingly, when the owner mentioned that I was coming, one of their regular campers said she's a fan! She came to see me the first morning with copies of two albums that are all sold out by now, Moonlit Rambles and Long Way to Wander. She's never seen me live; she just found my music online and ordered the albums from CD Baby. I signed them for her and she bought a copy of Tangle of Souls, having heard "Leave a Light On" on YouTube. I guess the internet ain't good for nothing after all. But I sure am glad that I don't have it out here. I don't even get cell reception in the town. I had to drive twenty minutes and park outside a laundromat to send you this Travelogue. But I'm headed back out right away to get back to work on songs, 'cause that's what I came up here to do. 

In the near-to-here, I've got a monthly commitment to my Patreon supporters, and from a wider perspective, I truly believe it's the work I can best serve the world with. If I had data on my phone, there'd undoubtedly be a ton of other work pressing itself on my mind as more urgent, but unplugging's reminding me of the difference between urgent and important. Spending the days out in the elements, getting back into my body, exercising and meditating, listening to creeksong and birdsong rather than podcasts and the radio, tending the fire and singing songs under the night sky, it's gradually blowing some of the chatter out of my head, making space to listen to the depths I've been drowning out. It's unbelievable how much mental real estate gets taken up by the computer in my pocket––a device cunningly and specifically designed to eat up our time, insinuate its way our minds, and make us want things we don't need. My pal Jez Hellard wrote a song about it on his new album The Fruitful Fells, a song for our times if ever there was one: "Black Mirror's Got You". 

I've got a new song almost done which I'll be sending out to my Fellow Travellers as soon as it's finished, and a couple more ideas moving too; it's a great feeling. Come tomorrow, though, I'm heading back out to sing songs for people again! My first show's at the oldest continuously-running folk coffeehouse in America, Caffe Lena in Saratoga Springs, New York. Up the narrow staircase on the way in there are pictures of some of the many legends who've graced their stage over the years, including a young Bob Dylan. Wednesday's show's a fundraiser for a local organization called Youth² - Youth Helping Youth, and I'll be focusing on songs of social action for the occasion. The show'll be live-streamed, so anyone around the world can tune in, at 7pm ET (find your timezone here), through this link! 

I'm really excited to be sharing a bunch of shows with Ordinary Elephant this coming month, 'cause they're a killer duo and great people to boot. At a glance, here's how the roads ahead are looking: 

Wed Sep 29 • Saratoga Springs, NY • Youth² fundraiser at Caffe Lena, with LIVESTREAM 
Thu Sep 30 • Richmond, VT • Valley Stage 
Fri Oct 1 • ONLINE • my Folk Music Ontario official showcase airs at 4:30pm ET here 
Sat Oct 2 • Bristol, VT • Ripton Coffee House 
Sun Oct 3 • Bridgton, ME • Dragonfly Barn 
Wed Oct 6 • Dover, NH • house concert 
Fri Oct 8 • New York, NY • Le Poisson Rouge, opening for Carsie Blanton! 
Sun Oct 10 • Rockport, MA • Whale Cove Productions house concert 
Thu Oct 14 • Providence, RI • Sweet Little Variety Show 
Fri Oct 15 • Hartford, CT • Meeting House Presents 
Sat Oct 16 • Earlville, NY • Earlville Opera House 
Sun Oct 17 • North Adams, MA • Railway Songwriter Series at HiLo 
Tue Oct 19 • Cambridge, MA • Club Passim with Ordinary Elephant 
Fri Oct 22 • Philadelphia, PA • Philly Folksong Society with Ordinary Elephant 
Sat Oct 23 • Lincroft, NJ • Earth Room with Meghan Cary 
Sun Oct 24 • Beacon, NY • Climate Solutions Week finale at the Towne Crier with Bruce Molsky and more 
Tue Oct 26 • Ann Arbor, MI • The Ark Spotlight Series 
Wed Oct 27 • Columbus, OH • Natalie's Coal Fired Pizza with Ordinary Elephant 
Thu Oct 28 • Toledo, OH • Over Yonder House Concerts 
Fri Oct 29 • Livonia, MI • Trinity House Theatre with Ordinary Elephant 
Sat Oct 30 • Spring Lake, MI • Seven Steps Up with Ordinary Elephant 
Tue Nov 2 • Appleton, WI • Stone Arch Brew Pub 
Wed Nov 3 • Bishop Hill, IL • Bishop Hill Creative Commons with Ordinary Elephant 
Fri Nov 5 • Viroqua, WI • TBC 
Sat Nov 6 • Maple Plain, MN • Sun Dog Farm Concerts 
Thu Nov 11 • Great Falls, MT • The Newberry, opening for Ross Cooper 
Sat Nov 13 • Calgary, AB • Nickelodeon Folk Club with the Second Chances 
Sun Nov 14 • Edmonton, AB • homecoming show with the Second Chances, TBC 

I've been racking my brain about who I know in some of these places––especially the big cities like New York, Boston and Philly––and reaching out in hopes of seeing some familiar faces. But I reckon you probably know some folks in those cities too, don't you? And if you think the kind of songs I'm bringing just might help keep their hoping machines running, well, please do send 'em my way! All the dates and deets, as always, are on www.scottcook.net. 

Admittedly, it still feels strange to be touring, and even stranger to be Stateside. There's such an extreme range of opinions on everything, from whether it's responsible to tour right now to whether the pandemic's even real. My last Hobo Travelogue elicited a couple responses that I hope to find the time to properly answer soon. For now I'll just say that seeing as the vaccines, while imperfect, really are working, I reckon it's a justifiable risk, as long as appropriate cautions are in place. Many of these shows are requiring proof of vaccination at the door, and audiences to be masked during the show––check in with the particular venues for more information. 

The Ontario shows were wonderful, mostly for the opportunity to catch up with folks I hadn't seen in two years or more. The next-to-last was a pop-up event in a big open gazebo outside a brewery in Johnstown put on by Upper Canada Folkfest. Local acts played all afternoon and I got to take it home at the end, followed by a sweet unplugged jam on fiddle tunes by Irish Millie, her dad, and our pal Graham Lindsey, under a low crescent moon. 

I crossed the border without any special paperwork besides my US passport; the guard was mostly just curious how my career was going. I got to spend two nights on the Cook farm, see my cousins and pals up north, and meet four new humans I hadn't met yet! I got to share a show with one of my heroes, May Erlewine, in the gorgeous Wealthy Theater in Grand Rapids. 

I got to do lots of driving around in the dark looking for places to camp, and even slept in rest areas a couple nights, tickled to be up to my old tricks and grateful for all that's still free in this world. I made coffees and sent emails from picnic tables in rest areas; I even got a free rapid antigen test in one of them. Eventually I made it out to the Atlantic Ocean, spent a couple days in a motel in Connecticut catching up on things, and opened a show for Carsie Blanton at the Columbus Theatre in Providence, Rhode Island. Both Carsie and May, each in their own way, are writing honest songs about the world today and how to stay human in it. I'm grateful for their voices. Who do we know in New York City that could use those kind of songs? 

Alright, I'm back out to the woods! Come see me at Caffe Lena tomorrow if you're online. But be sure to unplug when you can, it'll do ya good. 

Love from here, 

s

Hey you beauties, 

Much to my amazement, and possibly yours too, this Travelogue's coming to you from the road! I've been winding my way along the North Shore of Lake Superior, and decided to take a motel day––which grew into two––to catch up on correspondence, including this overdue Hobo Travelogue. In a sleepy little railroad town called Schreiber, Ontario I found the perfect little bit of the past to hole up in. 

Starting tonight I'll be playing a handful of dates in Ontario, then crossing my fingers and hopefully the border for two months of US dates my new agent Lara lined up. It feels kinda crazy, given all the uncertainty and a couple cancelled dates already, but it's still looking great. There are a few gaps left in the schedule, so if you've got a spot in mind, please drop a line! I'll be travelling with my own PA and happily singing songs for whoever wants to hear them, outdoors wherever possible. Regular venues should contact lara@flemingartists.com but house (or yard) concert hosts can hit me up directly at scottcooksongs@gmail.com. Here's the dates as they sit so far: 

Wed Sep 1 • Sault Ste. Marie, ON • backyard concert w/ Trevor Tchir opening 
Fri Sep 3 • Haileybury, ON • backyard concert 
Sat Sep 4 • Georgian Bluffs, ON • house concert 
Sun Sep 5 • where should I play? Guelph? Somewhere in Toronto? 
Mon Sep 6 • Toronto, ON • afternoon back lane concert in Davisville Village 
Tue Sep 7 • Scarborough, ON • afternoon yard concert 
Wed Sep 8 • Sudbury, ON • afternoon yard concert with Corin Raymond 
Thu Sep 9 • anyone in Ottawa or thereabouts wanna host? 
Fri Sep 10 • Howick, QC • yard concert 
Sat Sep 11 • Johnstown, ON • Upper Canada Folkfest pop-up concert 
Sun Sep 12 • Smiths Falls, ON • afternoon yard concert 
Wed Sep 15 • Lansing, MI • Robin Theater 
Thu Sep 16 • Lake Orion, MI • 20 Front Street 
Fri Sep 17 • Petoskey, MI • cancelled, where should I play instead? 
Sat Sep 18 • Grand Rapids, MI • Wealthy Theater, opening for May Erlewine 
Sep 19-23 • got five days off here, and I'm all ears! 
Fri Sep 24 • Providence, RI • Columbus Theater, opening for Carsie Blanton 
Wed Sep 29 • Saratoga Springs, NY • Youth² fundraiser at Caffe Lena 
Thu Sep 30 • Richmond, VT • Valley Stage 
Sat Oct 2 • Ripton, VT • Ripton Coffee House 
Sun Oct 3 • Bridgton, ME • Dragonfly Barn 
Wed Oct 6 • Dover, NH • house concert 
Fri Oct 8 • New York, NY • Le Poisson Rouge, opening for Carsie Blanton 
Thu Oct 14 • Providence, RI • Sweet Little Variety Show 
Fri Oct 15 • Hartford, CT • Meeting House Presents 
Sat Oct 16 • Earlville, NY • Earlville Opera House 
Sun Oct 17 • North Adams, MA • Railway Songwriter Series at HiLo 
Tue Oct 19 • Cambridge, MA • Club Passim with Ordinary Elephant 
Thu Oct 21 • Commack (Long Island), NY • Shine Sessions House Concert with Ordinary Elephant 
Fri Oct 22 • Philadelphia, PA • Philly Folksong Society with Ordinary Elephant 
Sat Oct 23 • Lincroft, NJ • Earth Room with Meghan Cary 
Sun Oct 24 • Beacon, NY • Climate Solutions Week finale at the Towne Crier with Bruce Molsky 
Tue Oct 26 • Ann Arbor, MI • The Ark Spotlight Series 
Wed Oct 27 • Columbus, OH • Natalie's Coal Fired Pizza with Ordinary Elephant 
Thu Oct 28 • Toledo, OH • Over Yonder House Concerts 
Fri Oct 29 • Livonia, MI • Trinity House Theatre with Ordinary Elephant 
Sat Oct 30 • Spring Lake, MI • Seven Steps Up with Ordinary Elephant 
Tue Nov 2 • Appleton, WI • Stone Arch Brew Pub 
Wed Nov 3 • Bishop Hill, IL • Bishop Hill Creative Commons with Ordinary Elephant 
Fri Nov 5 • Nisswa, MN • cancelled, where should I play instead? 
Sat Nov 6 • Maple Plain, MN • Sun Dog Farm Concerts 
Sat Nov 13 • Calgary, AB • Nickelodeon Folk Club with the Second Chances 
Sun Nov 14 • Edmonton, AB • homecoming show with the Second Chances, TBA 

It's gonna be great to play with some old pals and heroes like Trevor Tchir, Corin Raymond, May Erlewine, Carsie Blanton, Ordinary Elephant, and Bruce Molsky! And I'm really excited for my first shows in some storied rooms like The Ark in Ann Arbor, Club Passim in Cambridge, Le Poisson Rouge in NYC, and the gorgeous Columbus Theater in Providence. I'm hugely grateful to Lara and the team at Fleming for making so many cool things happen. 

Corona, Conspiracies, and Carbon 

Another thing I'm grateful my agency's made happen is a conversation about covid precautions at venues. As you know, we're still in a pandemic, and in fact the numbers are higher now in some places than they've ever been. I've gotta get a PCR test before I cross the border, and if I come down with any cold or flu-like symptoms along the way I'll have to get tested again. I must admit, it feels a little precarious. I don't want to let this virus keep me off the road, but I also don't want to take unnecessary risks with other folks' health. Some venues are requiring proof of vaccination, and I imagine more will be following suit. 

I realize folks have strong opinions about this. I get emails every week from friends and fans (including some former fans) upset with the way things are going, and I'm hoping to write a thorough, multipurpose reply soon. I think I may be in a better position to do so than many of the sneering and unsympathetic voices I've heard so far, simply because I myself have been convinced at various times in my life that 9/11 was an inside job, and that Jesus must be coming back soon. I understand that people inhabit different galaxies of information, so I don't assume that people with different worldviews from mine must be stupid or evil. I also realize that there's plenty of room for nuanced positions in between uncritical acceptance and outright paranoia. I've heard sensible friends defending both sides of the argument around vaccine mandates, and I have mixed feelings about it myself. 

But more often, I'm hearing from folks whose questions consistently hint at a much bigger picture, like maybe this whole pandemic's a pretext for something way more nefarious. I'd encourage those folks to go beyond "just asking questions" and think through what would be involved in such a massive deception. Being as the overwhelming majority of medical professionals agree that vaccines are relatively safe and dramatically lower our chances of serious illness, how many folks do you suppose must be in on it, and what's their endgame? I have a hard time imagining all the scientists and health care workers who'd have to be conspiring to rid us of our freedoms, and I have an even harder time imagining that it's all being done to bring "socialism" to the world. All I see are the usual market forces making money out of misery, enriching space cowboys like Jeff Bezos while impoverishing the people he pays to deliver stuff to folks who can afford to stay home. Jeremy Lent's article "The Five Real Conspiracies You Need to Know About" merits sharing again. 

Two of the conspiracies Lent mentions in the article are the "conspiracy to hide the effects of climate breakdown for corporate profit" and the "conspiracy to grow the global economy indefinitely, while killing most of life on Earth and risking the collapse of civilization." Admittedly, those are less thrillingly comic-bookish than the "plan-demic", but they're also way less speculative. And I think I can say pretty confidently that the long-term consequences of letting our climate tilt into chaos will make this global pandemic and its aftereffects look like small beans in comparison. 

One thing I successfully avoided thinking about for a long time that I can't help but think about nowadays is the carbon dioxide that comes out the tailpipe of a tour. I wrote about all that in Tangle of Souls, including my commitment to make my tours carbon-neutral, and some troubles with the whole idea of offsets. It's complicated, and I still have mixed feelings. But as time goes on, I feel even stronger about doing something to address my oversized footprint. I know that it's huge corporations doing most of the polluting, and I believe that companies like Exxon, who knew their business was causing global warming 40 years ago but chose to put profit over the survival of civilization, should be held criminally responsible. I know small players like me can't fix the problem on our own, and I know (as per the IPCC's new report) that we can't really fix the problem––disastrous levels of heating are already locked in, and no matter what we do, things are going to get a lot worse long before they get better. Nevertheless, I still want to do something, and offsetting my tours doesn't actually feel like enough. For starters, I want to pollute less. In the same spirit that the Paris Agreement commits countries to keep ratcheting down their emissions year by year, I've decided to halve my own. This year (from when things started back up in July, through next July) and going forward, I'll be putting out less than half the CO2 I did in my last year of touring. I'm serious about this. I've already run the rough numbers. The main thing that means is just going slower. I don't ever want to run as fast as I used to. Admittedly, it's pretty late for me to be coming to a conclusion that ecologists have been on about for decades now. I honestly just didn't want to hear it. But the spell's broken now, and I'm talking about it in hopes that it'll break for others. We need to learn to slow down, and live with less. 

I'll also keep putting money into offsets, and making my tours carbon-neutral touring doesn't really feel like enough; I want to make the whole operation carbon negative. I tallied up the emissions from this summer's tours, calculated the cost of carbon credits to match them (at $30US per ton), and doubled that amount. The really amazing and kinda sad thing was how affordable that still was. 

When you look on a site like MyClimate, you can see how much it costs per ton to reduce atmospheric carbon by investing in various projects, all the way from installing solar panels in Switzerland (which is relatively expensive) to providing more efficient stoves to folks in rural Kenya, helping small farmers in Nicaragua with reforestation, or supporting indigenous people in their fight to save the Amazon (all of which are shockingly cheap). This isn't surprising––our dollars go way further in the developing world. But it is shocking to contemplate just how little it would cost profitable companies to make their operations carbon-neutral. 

Same goes for how much it would cost them to pay their workers a living wage, I guess, or to behave ethically in so many areas. In all fairness, they're just playing the game the way it's designed, cutting corners where they can. But I believe we can demand more from them, so for starters I'm demanding more of myself. 

The IPCC report got buried in the news cycle predictably quickly, but it's worth dwelling on.  George Monbiot's piece in The Guardian ("Why is life on Earth still taking second place to fossil fuel companies?") is a good place to start.  Brian Tokar of the Institute for Social Ecology (the organization founded by Murray Bookchin, that I took an online course with during lockdown) wrote a longer article ("On the IPCC’s latest climate report: What does it tell us?") that goes deeper into the science in the report, against the background of the Institute's work trying to bring about the bigger political changes that might make progress on climate possible. 

On the subject of changing the world, I've been working on a song in tribute to New York Attorney General Letitia James for my Patreon supporters, and just now I shared a remix with Bramwell Park on drums and keys and Dana Wylie providing the gospel choir. I'm gonna tweak it a bit more and release it out into the world soon, but you can hear it now by joining up as a Fellow Traveller right here. 

Summer in the Rearview 

Last I wrote you beauties, I was headed out on the road with the Second Chances for our first time together in the van in almost two years!  We visited a bunch of out-of-the-way spots and reunited with some long-lost pals, and it did our hearts a lot of good. We got to share the stage of the charming Sunset Theatre in Wells with Ali McCormick on the occasion of her farewell party. We got to visit our friends in Beaver Valley, where the youngsters who were worrying us last time by swinging their Leatherman sawblades around on lanyards have now graduated to throwing axes! We got to see Melissa's new house in Prince George and marvel at her woodworking: 

We got to play the first live show in Salmon Arm's lovely new Song Sparrow Hall. And we dodged fires and tried not to think apocalyptic thoughts. We actually didn't know if we were even going to Bella Coola for their festival up until the day before, when we got the update that the road would be open to convoys with a pilot vehicle from 3am to 11am. 

We drove through the first of two burn zones unaccompanied, with fires smouldering on both sides of the road and no one in sight. But when we got to Nimpo Lake where we'd reserved a cabin for the night, there was already somebody in the bed! He was a nice guy, but he couldn't help us. With no cell service, nobody at the store where we'd made the reservation, no vacancy anywhere else, and a swarming horde of mosquitoes jazzed to see some out-of-towners, things were looking pretty desperate. But Melissa called her girlfriend Karen on the payphone, Karen tried to think who she knew in Nimpo Lake, and amazingly, the first person she called (who happened to be the festival sound tech's daughter) also happened to be the person who'd made our reservation! She sorted us out with another cabin and reaffirmed our faith in serendipity. 

The next morning as we were being escorted through the second fire zone we blew a flat, and had to wait for the pilot truck to come back and rescue us. Thankfully, we broke down in a beautiful spot, the gal in the pilot truck had the tools to put a plug in our tire, and I had an air compressor to re-inflate it. 

It was wonderful to visit Bella Coola for my third time, marking the changes in the festival––I was especially glad to hear more Nuxalk performers––and the changes in me, like leaving the fest hangover-free. 

In our set on Sunday, the power died right as I was singing "Among the Trees" and we got to go down and sing right to the people. It's a magical place. 

We managed to make it all the way back home on the tire with the plug in it, parting ways with Melissa in Williams Lake and joining Shari Rae for lovely outdoor shows in Canmore and Priddis and two hometown shows as part of Edmonton Folk Fest's "Takin' It to the Streets" initiative. 

The following week we all headed up to the North Country Fairgrounds for the first-ever North Country Acoustic Music Camp, something I've long dreamed of doing but never had the time for. There were 43 students, 7 instructors, and breakthroughs aplenty. The first night I arrived, set up a bit, checked in with the instructors, and headed to bed early. As I was brushing my teeth, listening to the campers jamming in the darkness, I could barely believe it was really happening, there on the Fairgrounds I've loved for so long.

It was a real honour to be able to share some of what we've picked up along the way with folks who were eager to receive it. I don't imagine I'll be available to run the camp next summer, but it really feels like it wants to happen again, and I expect it will. Stay tuned. 

After camp I went back to town briefly for a show outside the Arden Theatre and two more Folk Fest shows, and then went out with Pamela for a week on the road in our big van Roadetta, playing sweet little shows outside the library in Rimbey, at the Lethbridge Folk Fest and at Blue Door (Yard) Concerts in Didsbury, then spending four days at Northern Lights Bluegrass and Old-Time Music Camp in northern Saskatchewan. Pamela studied bass and I took bluegrass guitar with Marc Roy, as well as taking in the general way they run their camp, as inspiration for ours. That camp happens on the Ness Creek festival site, a beautiful creekside spot with swallows winging through the air all day to feed their nestlings in the rafters of the buildings, and a big lamplit fire circle out back of main stage where folks jammed every night. The shared repertoire of songs and tunes among bluegrass and old-time players makes for a really inclusive experience. On the last night I walked through the cantina where all the cool kids were throwing down hard, and as soon as I stepped inside, someone looked over their shoulder and said "we're in C."  That pretty much summed it all up for me. 

Pamela and I made our way back home and out to Edson for a final Indoorables show before it came time for me to hit the road eastward in Lucky. I spent a few days getting things ready, but ended up in a hurry all the same, short on time to send out this Travelogue, find shows to fill the gaps in my schedule, or reach out to anybody I hope to see along the way. I'm getting around to all that now. But one guy I had intended to reach out to, my old Taiwan coworker Chad Kelly, just happened into my campground one morning in Whitewood, on a mission to put up bouncy castles for a community event. What are the odds of that? Well, it seems like that kind of thing happens all the time. 

I love you, pals. Keep shining, see you out there, 

s

It feels surreal, friends, but here I am writing you from the passenger seat once again!!! The Second Chances and I are headed up to Grande Prairie for a sold-out yard concert, and onward for a dozen shows away from home! It's still kinda hard to believe it's happening. I've missed your faces, and I'm so excited to see some of them up close! Four of the shows are already sold out, so grab your tickets now if you're coming. Here's our lineup: 

Thu Jul 8 • Grande Prairie, AB • SOLD OUT 
Fri Jul 9 • Dawson Creek, BC • KPAC Theatre with Naomi Shore opening 
Sat Jul 10 • Fort St. John, BC • Naomi & Ryan's yard 
Sun Jul 11 • Prince George, BC • SOLD OUT (but we're livestreaming it, 7pm Pacific!) 
Mon Jul 12 • Wells, BC • Sunset Theatre with Ali McCormick opening 
Tue Jul 13 • Beaver Valley, BC • Shannon and Robin's yard 
Wed Jul 14 • Penticton, BC • SOLD OUT 
Thu Jul 15 • Salmon Arm, BC • Song Sparrow Hall with Chicken-Like Birds opening 
Sat-Sun Jul 17-18 • Bella Coola, BC • Bella Coola Music Festival 
Wed Jul 21 • Canmore, AB • yard concert 
Thu Jul 22 • Priddis, AB • SOLD OUT 
Fri Jul 23 • Calgary, AB • Calgary House Concerts 
Sat Jul 24 • Edmonton, AB • Edmonton Folk Fest's Taking it to the Streets! 
Sun Jul 24 • Edmonton, AB • Edmonton Folk Fest's Taking it to the Streets! 

We're still playing it extra careful for now, since plenty of folks still aren't fully vaccinated, and we're going to be visiting a lot of out-of-the-way spots. I decided to write a song to break the ice about all that. I gave my Patreon followers a sneak-peek of it last week, and if you're reading this Travelogue in email form, you'll find a download code down at the bottom. 

We'll be live-streaming the Prince George show so folks around the world can tune in. My Fellow Travellers on Patreon will get a link for free admission, and for the rest of you it's just a fiver to attend. 

After the tour, we're headed back to the North Country Fairgrounds for the first-ever North Country Acoustic Music Camp! It's gonna be magical. We were just up there for a weekend with so many old pals, and I can't tell you how sweet it was to be back in a place so thick with memory among so many loved ones. If you're not a player, but you wanna come hang with us after the camp, the finale concert's open to the public! 

Wed-Sun Jul 28-Aug 1 • Driftpile, AB • North Country Acoustic Music Camp 
Sun Aug 1 • Driftpile, AB • North Country Acoustic Music Camp Finale Concert 
Fri Aug 6 • Edmonton, AB • Downtown Live! Concert on Starlite Room patio 
Sat Aug 7 • Edmonton, AB • Edmonton Folk Fest's Taking it to the Streets! 
Sun Aug 8 • Edmonton, AB • Edmonton Folk Fest's Taking it to the Streets! 
Thu Aug 12 • St. Albert, AB • Arden Theatre Patio Series w/ the Indoorables 
Fri Aug 13 • Rimbey, AB • Rimbey Public Library w/ Pamela Mae 
Sat Aug 14 • Lethbridge, AB • Lethbridge Folk Festival w/ Pamela Mae 
Sun Aug 15 • Didsbury, AB • Blue Door House Concerts w/ Pamela Mae 
Thu Aug 19 • Edmonton, AB • yard show in Allendale w/ the Indoorables 

At the end of August I'll be heading east on my own, playing shows across the prairies, in Ontario, and through the Northeast and Midwestern States.  I'll be announcing a whole raft of dates soon, so stay tuned!  And get in touch if you wanna set something up along the way. 

Loveya, keep shining, 

s

Comrades, 

It's been a while without word from me, unless you're on my Patreon. I uploaded a new song called "When God Was Young" a couple weeks back, and am just finishing up a new soul number in tribute to New York's badass Attorney General Letitia James. I hosted the third Fellow Travellers Circle on Zoom June 9th, where we caught up a bit, looked at the picking for "What to Keep", and talked about some lessons learned and hopes going forward from the pandemic. Our July circle will include a song swap. These hangs have been small and really special so far. There's room for everybody to talk, and folks around the world are getting to know one another. It's a beautiful thing. If you want in, just head over to my Patreon page, or cut out the middleman and sign up right here. 

I've got some big news to share this month, and for the first time in a long time, it even includes some happenings in the real world! Here's what the next while looks like: 

Sun June 27 • Edmonton, AB • The Outdoorables Return! We're playing two outdoor shows, Southside at 2pm in front of Holy Trinity Anglican at 10037 84 Ave, and Northside at 5pm from the front lawn at 3838 Ada Boulevard! Both shows are single sets, by donation, organized by our pal John Armstrong of Brass Monkey Arts. 

Sat July 3 • Driftpile, AB • Goin' Up to the Country! A bunch of good pals are camping out on the North Country Fairgrounds Canada Day long weekend, and I'm pulling together a concert for the Saturday, from 2-9pm on Shady Grove stage. Camping reservations and concert tickets are sold separately. As of this writing, there are only a few tickets left, but there are still plenty of tickets available for our music camp finale August 1st with Bill Bourne, Dana Wylie, Joe Nolan and more. 

Jul 8 - 25 • Second Chances tour of BC and Alberta! Lord willing and the covid don't rise, we're planning a safe, socially-distanced run of shows around BC and Alberta. Sadly, we won't be making it to the islands this year, but we've already lined up dates in Grande Prairie, Dawson Creek, Fort St. John, Prince George, Wells, Beaver Valley, Salmon Arm, Bella Coola, Black Diamond and Edmonton, and are looking for spots in Calgary and thereabouts July 21-23. We'll be traveling with our own PA, playing mostly outside, and staying flexible with the changing weather and restrictions. If you'd like us to visit your town along the way, please drop a line to scottcooksongs@gmail.com. And if you'd like to attend any of the shows, including the house concerts, all the info you need is on the front page at www.scottcook.net. 

July 29 - August 1 • Driftpile, AB • North Country Acoustic Music Camp! I'm putting on a music camp for the first time, and I couldn't be more excited. Our instructors are Bill Bourne (advanced guitar), Joe Nolan (beginner / intermediate guitar), Dana Wylie (harmony singing), Dan Barton (ukulele), Bramwell Park (banjo), Shari Rae (upright bass), and yours truly, teaching songwriting. There'll be small-group, instrument-focused classes in the mornings, master classes on a variety of subjects (rhythm, music theory fundamentals, improvisation, stagecraft, and more) in the afternoons, concerts in the evenings, jams at night, and a sweet all-day hootenanny to close it out on Sunday. We'll have an open mic on the Friday and Saturday nights where students can strut their stuff in front of a listening, supportive audience, and invite the instructors or other campers to back them up on their tunes. And we'll feature some of that week's new creations in the concert on Sunday. 

Registration includes 5 nights of rustic riverside camping, instructional fees, coffee tea and snacks, and admission to the Sunday finale, all for $300 or $200 for youth and seniors on fixed income. It's gonna be a mind-expanding experience, not to mention a heart-warming hang with like-minded folks in a beautiful place. Numbers are limited, so please sign up today if you want on board, at www.scottcook.net/music-camp. And tell your friends! But only the nice ones. Tickets to the August 1st finale concert are also available for $25 here, and special campground reservations for non-music-campers are coming soon. 

I've been dreaming of doing a music camp on that land for years now, inspired by the various music camps I've attended, including NimbleFingers in BC where I studied clawhammer banjo, the week-long songwriting intensive I took with David Francey at the ArtsWells Festival in BC, Sisters Song Camp in Oregon where I taught two different years, and the week-long songwriting and guitar schools at Kerrville Folk Festival in Texas which I've attended three times, learning from the likes of Mary Gauthier, Johnsmith, Steve Gillette, and Suzie Vinnick. Even as I've made a career in music, I've always considered myself first and foremost a fan and a student. And music has held my interest because there's always more to learn. I've attended every workshop on performance and stagecraft I've come across, and my shows owe a lot to the guidance of folks like Rich Warren (who's a DJ, but also a very picky folk fan), Vance Gilbert (who's a mind-blowing coach), and many more. I've taken guitar lessons from some greats like Bryan Sutton (through the ArtistWorks platform) and Mike T. Kerr, and singing lessons from Dana Wylie, who'll be teaching at our camp! And during the year off the road I attended more workshops than ever, presented by folks like the Ashokan Center in New York and Blueberry Bluegrass Association right here in Alberta. The scope of our appreciation of music deepens as we get a deeper understanding of it, and I can't imagine I'll ever feel like I've reached the end of that always-widening path. 

When I was sending out the invites, I was aware that many of the folks I was inviting are themselves qualified to teach at this camp. I certainly hope no one's offended by the invitation to be a student. Being a student is the best way to be. 

My favourite thing about music camp is witnessing people's breakthroughs. It's intense work, diving into music for days on end, and inevitably a lot of deep stuff gets shared. It's a place of creative metamorphosis, and that's a sacred space. 

These days, besides work on the camp, and my Patreon-driven commitment to writing songs, I've been spending lots of time working on the van––sanding and painting the rust spots, taking out some of the over-built stuff the previous owner did, widening the bed to put a real mattress in there, installing a bike rack on the back and a swivel seat in the front. Pamela and I have taken it out on a couple little trips already, and it sure feels nice having a home on wheels with room for the two of us. We've christened her Roadetta. And having gotten the news recently that Australia won't open its borders until mid-2022 (which means my postponed tour'll be kicked down the road another year), we've decided to move into the van in January, drive it all the way down to Texas, and work our way up from there as the weather warms up, including a swing by Kansas City for Folk Alliance. If there's somewhere we really oughtta play in MT, UT, CO, TX, LA, TN, NC, AR, MO, OK, NM, AZ, CA, OR or WA, I wanna hear about it! 

From where I sit, it feels pretty exciting and a little bit scary to see the world surging back into full gear. There's sure a lot of pent-up energy to be vented. But I hope we can remember what slowing down and realizing what's really essential has taught us. The rush wasn't all it's cracked up to be. We took a lot for granted. Our way of life got shaken up something fierce, and without a doubt, it will again. Many folks lost a lot. And unprocessed trauma's like an untreated wound. Let's not forget. 

I also hope we don't forget how easily many of our governments printed money to keep our economies afloat, when they come back and tell us we can't afford to feed or vaccinate the rest of the world as they suffer through the worst. It's all a matter of priorities. One glimmer of light on the horizon for me has been the creation of a Progressive International to unite forward-thinking folks and movements around the world, and their summit last weekend on vaccine internationalism. Yanis Varoufakis summed up the case for global citizenship quite elegantly (and even hopefully) here. 

Here in Canada we've got a fight on our hands to stop coal mining in the Rockies, and another to stop logging old-growth forests on Vancouver Island, and both could use donations of time and money. One thing these ecocidal projects have in common is their disregard for the treaties our country signed with the people who were here before we came. They're restatements of the shameful history of abuse written in children's graves across this country we call ours. We have to be better.  

That's all for me this month, friends. Wherever you are, keep shining your light into it, and I hope to see you soon. 

Big love, 

s

Hey friends, 

I wanted to drop a line to let you know that we won't be live-streaming tonight as planned. We've had a hard week. Our darling Foxy started walking funny on Monday, and by Wednesday morning we had to let her go. We'd noticed her stumbling a bit over the last few weeks, but we just thought she was showing her age. Turns out there was something growing in her brain. She went downhill surprisingly fast. Pamela took the day off work on Tuesday, we made a fire in the yard, some friends came to say their goodbyes, and we fed her a lot of her favourite things. She couldn't stand up on her own, but she still somehow managed to drag and throw herself across the lawn after a cat who pushed his luck, and she mustered up a show of orneriness for our friend Laurel-Lee, growling and rolling helplessly down the lawn like an angry burrito. 

She managed a couple wags of her tail when we were reunited at the vet's office Wednesday morning before they put her down, and she ate all the treats we gave her even though her mouth barely worked. We pet her and rubbed her tummy and talked about car rides and walks and treats and squirrels and Mia and Ginny and all the words that danced in her brain until the overdose of anaesthetic quietly stopped her heart. 

Foxy had a good life, at least in its last chapter. She found a home with Pamela from the first day she did her happy dance around the yard. And she had a great final year, thanks to the pandemic keeping us around all the time. She was a rescue, and had a hard time trusting strangers, especially men. But she opened her heart to me, and she got a lot better with other people and dogs. She learned about love, and she taught us about love too. I reckon that's all a good life amounts to. That's a sad but kinda comforting thought for me. 

Since then we keep seeing her silhouette everywhere––on her perch by the window, at the foot of the bed, in the kitchen whenever I open snack bags, in the quiet at the door when we come home. 

Grief is the price of love. And love's worth it. 

Pamela and I will be back online from the back of the van in Jasper National Park next weekend, playing a few songs Friday night for Nanaimo Folk Connection's first-ever online event (starts at 8pm Mountain Time, we're on around 9:50), and then playing a concert in the round with Meghan Cary and Suzie Vinnick for Brooklyn's Voices in the Heights on Saturday! The show's happening on Zoom, which is the most intimate format I've found for online shows, and tickets are pay-what-you-can over at www.voicesintheheights.org. The concert runs 7:30-9:30 Eastern Time, which is 5:30-7:30 our time. Please come join us, it'll be special. And if you're on Facebook, please share the event! 

Last I wrote you, Bob Bossin's transatlantic singalong of "Pass It Along" had just been released. Putting our YouTube and Facebook tallies together, it's been viewed 20,000 times since then. If you haven't see the video yet, it's here, pass it along! It got written up by Folk Radio UK, and the Nanaimo News Bulletin. It's been shared by hundreds of kind folks, including Gabor Maté! Biggest of all for me, it got added to Rise Up Singing's massive online database of songs. It made me so happy to hear from Annie Patterson, who has lived her life in service of songs. It's a joy for an old song to find new ears. But it's even better for it to find new voices. 

I got my first shot of the AstraZeneca vaccine about two weeks ago. I had a feverish night, but my overwhelming feeling was of gratitude to the researchers and the public health workers who made it possible. Since then I've been hearing from a few folks––some old friends, some just fans or perhaps former fans––who are convinced that the vaccines are part of a multi-pronged plot to depopulate the earth and enslave humanity. I don't imagine there's much sense in arguing with them, since their beliefs seem to have been formed by watching many hours of video online, and that's not how I make up my mind about things. As far as I can tell, many people's test of truth is to watch someone talking and decide for themselves if the speaker's sincere. As Malcolm Gladwell makes clear in Talking to Strangers, we're really, unbelievably bad at spotting liars. But more importantly, no matter how genuine someone is, that doesn't mean they know what they're talking about. 

If only all the bright souls overwhelmed by speculative conspiracies would invest their time and attention into the actual conspiracies against humankind unfolding in front of our eyes, well, I think we'd live in a different world. To see vaccines funded by taxpayer money (in the form of public research funding and government purchase contracts) jealously guarded in the interest of private profit––with Big Pharma successfully lobbying governments in Canada and the European Union against a waiver on their intellectual property rights––is a clear, provable crime against humanity. As my Fleming roster-mate (and killer songwriter) Carsie Blanton wrote recently, "Pfizer and Moderna did not invent any vaccines - people did. And Pfizer and Moderna will not die of Covid - people will. And if Pfizer and Moderna were people - which they aren’t - what would we do with them? There are 2,673 Americans on death row right now for a lot less murder than that." I expected about as little from Joe Biden as I did from his old boss Barack Obama, but I was pleasantly surprised to see him buck the will of the corporations on this one. The vaccine makers' stocks lost value on the news. To my mind, that's all the proof we need that our decisions oughtta be guided by morals rather than markets. 

It's been kinda surreal to see some pictures from festivals in Australia and New Zealand over the past while, and it's encouraging to think that live music is gradually coming back on this side of the world too, even if my stubborn fellow Albertans with their anti-lockdown rodeos and covid churches are currently racking up case counts among the worst in the world. My agent Lara has been lining up US tour dates for the fall, and there's still a possibility that I'll be in Australia in the new year, so stay tuned for that. In the meantime, if anybody in Australia hasn't got their hands on Tangle of Souls yet, there are copies of both CD and vinyl at Sugar Sounds in Bega, NSW and the wonderful proprietor Greg would be more than happy to hook you up. 

Oh, and we Indoorables just might be playing outdoors from a porch in Highlands May 21st, if Albertans can get their poop in a group by then! As always, all the details for all my shows, online or in the real world, can be found on www.scottcook.net. 

Alright, I'm gonna leave it there, and hope to see you online next weekend. Love your loved ones, and never forget how lucky you are. 

Troubadourly yours, 

s

Earlier this year I made a new friend, self-described “old folksinger” Bob Bossin of Gabriola Island, BC. Bob’s old band Stringband was a pretty big deal in the 70s and 80s; had their songs covered by the likes of Pete Seeger, Ian Tyson, and Emmylou Harris; and blazed the trail of crowdfunding, independent recording, and DIY touring that so many of us follow today. I was honoured to hear that he was singing my song “Pass It Along,” just like the title says. And just under a month ago he contacted me with a crazy idea that I couldn't help but say yes to. 

Bob gathered his former Stringband-mate Marie-Lynn Hammond, Pharis & Jason Romero, Connie Kaldor, Deborah Silverstein, Stefano Saletti, Arnie Naiman, Daniel Cainer, Joe Mock, Ian Robb, Veda Hille, Carole Christopher, Elizabeth May and John Kidder, Eva H.D., Leon Rosselson, Peggy Seeger, Bernadette Morris, Shelley Posen, Ben Mink, and Qiu Xia He––singers, songwriters, instrumentalists, folklorists, poets, politicians, and all-around living legends––to sing and play "Pass It Along" for Earth Day. I'm excited and humbled to share it with you.

The fate of our only home’s on my mind a lot more these days than it was back in 2012 when I wrote the song. It’s become clearer than ever that we’re at a fork in the road, where we can either choose to build an ecological society or drive ourselves to extinction. There’s just no way an economic model that requires infinite growth can survive on a finite planet. But we’re so addicted to the system, and the idea of accepting any limits is just so hard to take, that we’re willing to borrow from the future for another hit. We tune into the voices we want to hear––the denialists who tell us it’s all going to be okay, or the “green tech” visionaries who assure us that “clean energy” will somehow allow us to keep up the frantic pace of extraction, consumption, and profiteering––and tune out the voices telling us the hard truth, that we’re sick, we’re insatiable, and we need to stop. 

I first heard Murray Bookchin's voice through the course of my reading for Tangle of Souls, and signed up for an online course this winter from a group he co-founded, the Institute for Social Ecology. Those discussions helped me see how the idea of unlimited growth and the dream of the frontier are tangled up together, and how the way we’ve plundered the “virgin territory” of the “New World” is tied up with the way we treated the people who were already here. As Bookchin argues, the idea of dominating nature grows out of the idea and practice of dominating other people. Systems of hierarchy and domination are out of tune with the natural order, and anything out of harmony with nature eventually destroys itself. The fact that the two richest men on Earth are both enraptured by fantasies of leaving the planet is all the proof needed of our collective insanity. 

There’s lots we can do, as you already know. We can put carbon back in the soil, and support farmers and other folks who do. We can contribute to groups working to save their corners of the world like Raven Trust and the Fairy Creek Blockade, as the funders of this video have done. We can cut back on our own spending to give money to groups fighting for the forests like the Rainforest Foundation and the Coalition of Rainforest Nations, like I’m doing today. And we can work in whatever way we can toward a world driven by humanity and the common good rather than profit. One place to start is by overturning the regime of patents that has allowed pharmaceutical companies to turn public funding into private profits by restricting access to vaccines.

Thank you for everything you're already doing, friends. Let's think bigger, dream smaller, and fight harder. ❤️ 🌍

Hey you beauties, 

Hope this finds you smiling, and enjoying the season wherever you are!  A quick fivefold update for this month, and it's all good news, though the first one's bittersweet: 

1. The last foreseeable Indoorables show from home's going out tomorrow at 4:30 Mountain Time (or Sunday morning for our friends on the other side of the world; you can find your own time zone here). If it's sunny where you are and you can't bear to be in front of a screen, we certainly understand, and you can always tune in afterward if you like. But we felt like it'd be good to do one final instalment of our Saturday shows from home to celebrate a year together as a band. These monthly shows with the housemates have been such an unexpected joy, I'm even putting together a little slide show. We'll be joined by my good friend (and heckuva songwriter) Heather Styka from Chicago, and by our inspiring neighbour Peter Amerongen, who's doing a deep energy retrofit on a co-op housing complex just down the road. You can tune in on either of my Facebook pages, or right here on Youtube. 

We hope to start singing songs outdoors again real soon (including a May 1st show in Edmonton that's of course weather- and public health restrictions-dependent) and winding down the online stuff a bit, but I'll still be showing up on some screens over the next while: 

Thu Apr 22 - ONLINE - Face The Music Collective's Earth Day show 
Fri Apr 23 - ONLINE - Devil Mountain Coffee House (Walnut Creek, CA) presents Scott Cook  
Sat Apr 24 - ONLINE - The Groovenor presents the Protect Alberta's Rockies and Headwaters Concert Series with Scott Cook, Amelie Patterson, Tom Wilson, Ann Vriend, Wax Mannequin and more 
Sat May 1 - Edmonton, AB - The Outdoorables return to Riverbend! (TBC) 
Sat May 7 - ONLINE - Pamela and I are gonna try out an online show from the road somewhere in Saskatchewan! 
Sat May 14 - ONLINE - Voices in the Heights (Brooklyn, NY) presents Suzie Vinnick, Meghan Cary & Scott Cook 

As usual, all the info for these shows can be found on www.scottcook.net. I'm starting to pencil in outdoor shows in BC and Alberta with Pamela in May and June, and with the Second Chances in July, so please do get in touch if you're up for making tentative plans! I'm scheming about a concert on the North Country Fair land Canada Day long weekend, and a music camp up there the last week of July. And my amazing agent Lara's working on a scwhack of here's-hoping fall dates in the States, so stay tuned about all that! 

2. I put up a new song on my Patreon! And I intend to do the same every month from now on. This one's called "There Is a River", and my patrons tell me it's a keeper. 

We had our first patrons-only Zoom hang two weeks back, working through the fingerpicking for "Pass It Along" with a small group of mostly Australians.I'm thinking the next one'll be more of a social hang, but I'm wide open to suggestions on topics and timing. 

As an aside, one Fellow Traveller (Brian, a real nice guy and heckuva dobro player) wrote to ask about cutting out the middle man, and he's a man after my own heart. Patreon does take a 5% cut at the bare-bones level, with credit card processing fees on top of that, so if you're the type of person who thinks about dollars and cents, I've set up a parallel system over on my website where subscribers can see my Patreon posts, get the links to the monthly Zoom hangs, and get Fellow Travellers' discounts on merch and tickets. It doesn't have all Patreon's functionality like polls, comment threading, and such, and it isn't quite as cosy, but it's another way to support my work directly. If you want to cut out the credit card fees as well, you can contribute annually (as Brian does) by e-transfer in Canada or Zelle in the States (to scottcooksongs@gmail.com), or message me for my Australian bank info. And if you truly can't afford any monthly contribution, I'm happy to offer you a free subscription, just drop me a line. All my Patreon subscribers will be getting a link soon. 

Whether through Patreon or my website, this is a socialist, single-tier, pay-what-you-can thing. And it's a beautiful thing. It's already got me writing more, and worrying less. So far 70 kind souls have signed on as Fellow Travellers, and I gotta say, it feels like a massive gust of wind into my sails. 

3. As you may have heard "Say Can You See" won the folk category in the Great American Song Contest. And I just found out that I was chosen as a finalist in Kerrville Folk Festival's New Folk Competition! The concert's online this year, May 22nd and 23rd, with twelve performers each day, and it's an honour to be part of it. 

4. My old Taiwan comrade and UK tour mate Jez Hellard has just released a new album called The Fruitful Fells, and it's a tour de force, with the Djukella Orchestra's strong strings and winds supporting a truly timely selection of songs. You can hear it on Bandcamp, and you can order the real thing from jeremoon@gmail.com. 

5. Bob Bossin, of legendary Canadian DIY folk pioneers Stringband, has gathered an amazing cast of characters for a collaborative version of "Pass It Along", to be released for Earth Day. I'm humbled to hear that Peggy Seeger, Si Kahn, Pharis & Jason Romero, Marie-Lynn Hammond, Veda Hille, Connie Kaldor, Elizabeth May & John Kidder and a bunch more kind folks are singing my song! I can't wait to see the video, and share it with you on Earth Day, April 22nd. 

That's it for now, friends. I'll write with more thoughts when I've got more time to write, but for now, thanks for sticking with me, and for the light you shine into your corner of the world. Keep it lit, 

s

Hey far-flung friends, 

I'm writing with some big news for a change! 

Just about this time last year I was pulling back into Canada to reunite with Pamela after a long weird drive home from Texas, and it's been a whole lotta staying in one place since then, the most I've done since I was a kid.  But I'm looking toward the horizon a lot more lately, thanks to the world warming up, and to the aforementioned big news: I've just signed on with an agency for the first time. 

Over the past thirteen years booking gigs myself, I've long dreamed of finding a team to work with, but only if they were the right group of people.  Well, I reckon Fleming Artists, out of Ann Arbor, Michigan (incidentally, the town where my Mom and Dad met!) are the right folks.  Their reputation's impeccable, and their roster's a great mix of tradition-bearers and emerging voices, including Tom Paxton, Garnet Rogers, Judy Collins, Connie Kaldor, Cheryl Wheeler, Christine Lavin, Gurf Morlix, Dougie MacLean, jane siberry, Martyn Joseph, Laura Love, Carsie Blanton, and my pals The Accidentals, Ben de la Cour, Carrie Elkin, May Erlewine, Liz Stringer, Ordinary Elephant, Rachael Kilgour, Shane Koyczan, and The Sweet Water Warblers!  They've been having weekly Zoom hangs since the start of the pandemic, and it felt great to be welcomed into the family for Tom Paxton's song swap last week. 

I'll still line up some outdoor gigs with the Indoorables and the Second Chances this summer, but from this fall forward, my agent Lara Supan (lara@flemingartists.com) will be the contact person for bookings.  Tell you the truth, I said "my agent" for the first time the other day, and it just felt good in my mouth.  I can already feel more creative space opening up by having that side of the business off my plate. 

The second big announcement also has to do with opening up space for creativity, and hopefully changing my life in the process.  It's something I've been daydreaming about for a while now, as several folks have written to ask me whether there's some way they can support my work in an ongoing way. As I'm sure you know, the music business has changed a lot over the time I've been in it, and the pandemic magnified and morphed all that even further. The subscription model that Patreon pioneered has emerged as a really powerful way for people to support their favourite artists on an ongoing, monthly basis––kind of like crowd-funding, but for the ongoing creative process rather than one specific project.  In return, most creators commit to releasing content monthly, which keeps them tending the fire of their calling. 

In my experience, there's always more than enough time-occupying stuff that's peripheral to my calling––booking gigs, posting to social media, and all the myriad forms of entrepreneurial hustling that DIY artists do, even during a pandemic––to distract me from the really important work, the work I can best serve the world with: writing and creating. 

With all the dizzyingly instability of this past year and the bigger upheavals to come as our climate tilts and our systems unbuckle, I'm more convinced than ever that we still need songs.  Artists work in ephemera, but we're still essential workers––people need art to remind us of our humanness, and our humaneness.  As the market economy infiltrates every part of society, commodifying everything, boiling down the whole beautiful range of human sympathies to the narrowest self-interest, we need reminders of what we've lost and what we still have left to lose.  When scared people call for increased militarization of our borders and policing, build bunkers in New Zealand, or dream of escaping to Mars, we need songs to open our fearful hearts––to remind us that we're all here together on this Spaceship Earth, sink or swim, and that every single one of us has just as much right to be here just by virtue of having been born.  We need songs to soothe our spirits, songs for grieving, and songs for marching in the long ongoing fight against meanness, cynicism, and self-destruction. 

So starting this is a way of committing to creation, to showing up every day and delivering every month.  Right now I'm working on a new song called "There Is a River" that's some of the most personal writing I've done in a long time, and I'm going to release it to my subscribers first, sometime in April.  I aim to release another song every month to come, and if for any reason I fail, I'll pause the monthly contributions until I'm back in the saddle.  It'll keep me honest.  It'll be an inside track on all the new stuff I'm creating, before it goes out in public.  It'll be a sounding board for new ideas, and an opportunity to help me tweak things, to weigh in on what's really working and what still needs work. 

I'll also be hosting something once a month on Zoom, whether it's just a hang, or a workshop about some aspect of the craft like songwriting, guitar playing, stagecraft, and even how to play particular tunes.  I've loved the opportunity to teach when I've had it––at Sisters Song Camp in Oregon, various festivals around the world, and even in some folks' living rooms––and I want to do more of it, to help people enliven and enrich their own experience of music, and open up the channels of communication with their own muse.  It feels like worthwhile work to commit to, and I want to make room in my life for it.  But this kind of thing thrives in a smaller space.  I've been really inspired by Corin Raymond's Patreon (which I'm a patron of!), to see the deep discussions about books they're reading––the "curriculum of their hearts" as Corin called it––away from the freeway noise of Facebook.  Don't get me wrong, I'll still be on the socials, but I want to open up a quieter place to connect with my people in a more intentional and meaningful way. 

So I'm inviting you, today, to join me as Fellow Travellers.  The whiff of socialism in the name's deliberate, 'cause I'm a big believer in the idea of from each according to their ability to each according to their need.  Consequently, it's only got one tier.  You give what you can, whether it's just buying me a coffee every month, or a tank of gas each month––whatever makes sense to you.  In return, I promise to keep making art to open hearts.  I've got plenty ideas I'd like to try down the line, including podcast interviews with some of the interesting people I meet on the road.  But most of all I want to hear what I can do for you.  I want to make myself useful to the folks who got me where I am today. 

As I wrote in Tangle of Souls, I signed onto the Giving What We Can pledge last year, to donate at least 10% of my income to the most effective charities for the rest of my life (supporting groups like Give Directly, the Against Malaria Foundation, Living Goods, and Project Healthy Children), and I encourage everyone who can afford life's necessities to do the same.  I'll be doing the same with the Patreon contributions, and as that support grows, I'll be able to give more.  If you want to join up as a Fellow Traveller but are of the mind that your money's better off going to people in concrete need (of which there are way too many in this world), please feel no shame whatsoever about making a mere token contribution to my work in favour of giving more to people who need it more than I do.  A gift is the opposite of a commodity.  I'm not keeping score.  I'm just grateful to be supported, and to share new songs, online hangs, workshops, and whatever else my Fellow Travellers and I can dream up.  If you want on board, sign up here and let me know what would really blow the wind into your sails.

The Indoorables are back online tomorrow to ring in the Equinox, at 4:30 Mountain Daylight Time, which is 3:30 for our friends on the West Coast, 4:30 for our friends in Saskatchewan, 5:30 down the middle of Turtle Island, 6:30 out East, 7:30 in the Maritimes (8pm in Newfoundland), a friendlier 10:30pm across the pond, 6:30am Sunday in Taipei, 8:30 in Brisbane, 9:30 in Melbourne and Sydney, and 11:30am Sunday in Aotearoa.  We've got two fellow Edmontonians as our guests: local singer Kimberley MacGregor, who's just released a stunning new album; and our neighbour Jason Foster, who's locally famous as CBC Edmonton's Beer Guy.  Tune in on either of my Facebook pages, or on YouTube right here. 

And next Friday, March 26th, by the magic of modern technology, Pamela and I will be joining songwriters Ivan Boudreau and Chris Ronald and their all-star accompanists for an online Nashville-style song circle broadcast from Bez Arts Hub in Langley, BC.  Tickets are available here, and as always, all the details for all my upcoming shows are on www.scottcook.net. 

Thanks for sticking with me, dear readers.  I hope to see you on Patreon, and to cross paths out in the world before too long.  With love and hope, against all odds, 

s

Hey friends, 

I wasn't fooling anyone with all that Travelogue talk, may as well call it what it is!  Edmonton's so frozen that even the Fox doesn't wanna go for walks.  Nevertheless, the Indoorables will be foraying into the wider world via modern magic tomorrow, at 4:30pm Mountain Time, which makes 6:30 out east, 11:30 across the pond, 7:30am Sunday on sweet Formosa, 10:30am in Melbourne town, and half past noon in sunny New Zealand.  I've finished two new songs, and we've worked up a few new covers as well.  Our neighbours Billie Zizi and Cam Neufeld are joining us to play a couple songs and talk a bit about this place we're so lucky to live.  We're also debuting a brand new culinary segment with a taste of Taiwan, and we'll be saying 新年快樂 (xin nian kuai le!) to our friends over there, to welcome in the year of the Ox!  You can watch on either of my Facebook pages, or right here on YouTube. All the comments go to the same place, so be sure to say hi. 

Huge thanks to the kind folks who tuned in (and chipped in!) for last month's variety show with Justin Farren and Jonathan Byrd, and wow, I'm still heart-warmed by the attendance at the Home Routes Zoom concert with Jonathan and Corin Raymond February 2nd!  With 500 or so souls on board, it was the biggest crowd I've sung for in quite some time.  It hurt a bit to see so many names and faces of people I love dearly but can't actually hang out with, but it buoyed me up to know you're all out there. 

I've been dreaming of people together a lot lately, including last night.  I miss festival family.  But I'm so grateful that we've been able to reach out in other ways along our far-flung webs of connection. 

Case in point, on Tuesday I'll be back in the study for a visit with my friend Katie Dahl, who's producing a great weekly variety show from the woods of Door County, Wisconsin called Katie Dahl Has Friends.  We'll be talking traveling (which I still remember!), swapping songs and sharing a snack.  It's gonna be fun, 6:30 Mountain Time/7:30 Central on Katie's Facebook page. 

Oh, and the following week, Folk Alliance International is hosting their annual conference online for the first time, and anybody can come!  We won't be crowding into hotel rooms at 3am in search of song-gems, or jamming by the elevator 'til the morning people start to trickle through, but nevertheless it'll be some sorta simulacrum of that surreal event, online for all to enter by donation.  There are literally hundreds of showcases every night, Monday through Thursday, from an intercontinental who's who of the folk world, as well as panel discussions and keynotes from the likes of Margaret Atwood.  And just like at the conference, with so much going on, we're always super happy to see somebody walk in the door, so please come say howdy!  I'm playing two of my own hour-long showcases, at 7:30MT/8:30CT on Monday Feb 22nd, and 6:30MT/7:30CT Thursday the 25th, as well as a 20-minute slot from 7:40-8pmMT/8:40-9CT in the On The Tracks Songwriter Showcase, and a couple appearances in the Alberta Room.  The staggering schedule can be seen after sign-up here.  Seriously, dip your foot in, it's gonna be something to behold. 

Unbelievable as it seems from our frosty abode, it's looking like we've only got two Indoorables shows left (likely March 20 and April 17) before Pamela and I head out to BC for our bike tour!  All depends on how things go with the public health situation, of course, but it's something to look forward to.  Get in touch if you'd like us to make a stop. 

Oh yeah, "Say Can You See" won the Folk category in the 2020 UK Songwriting Contest!  And folks are still ordering multiple copies of Tangle of Souls to share with friends, which makes me unbelievably grateful. 

That's all the news for now, pals.  I love you, and I'm thankful for every bit of light you're shining into the world from wherever you are in it.  Keep it lit, 

s

Hey pals, 

I hope this finds you smiling, and this new year's treating you well so far. I've got my eye out for small victories these days, maybe more than ever, and I'm counting my blessings every day. I live with Pamela, in a house! We're well fed, and well-friended, even if we don't get to see them much in person lately. The sun's coming up earlier each day. Our lazy old hound still jumps up like a puppy when it's time for a walk. Stacey Abrams' and other folks' organizing work turned Georgia blue and flipped the US Senate. And scary as it was, the violence in Washington really wasn't as bad as I'd feared it might be. 

No doubt, everything could be better, and I'm gonna do what I can to make it better, like writing our provincial Environment and Energy Ministers just now, starting work on a song, and thinking of any other creative ways I can help oppose the opening of Alberta's Eastern Slopes to mountaintop-removal coal mining. But undeniably, everything could also be much worse. I met today––Martin Luther King Jr. Day, as it happens––on my yoga mat, listening to the Dr.'s speech "Beyond Vietnam," preached exactly a year before he was shot, and thinking how so much of what he said is still central to our struggle. He was murdered for speaking the truth. They put his name on a day so we wouldn't forget. There's another small victory. 

If you haven't heard it, you can read or listen to the speech here, and it's well worth your time. 

Pamela and Elliot are both over-employed and studying at the same time nowadays, so they're taking a break from learning new material this month, and I'll be doing the monthly show from my study. I've got illustrious company in any case: I'll be joined by two of the finest songwriters I've crossed paths with in all my years of rambling. Flash flat-picker, poet, photographer and livestreamer-long-before-it-was-cool Jonathan Byrd will be joining us from his home outside Chapel Hill, North Carolina. And the guy who made my hands-down favourite record of 2020, Justin Farren will be joining us from the house he built with his own hands in Sacramento, California. These two fellas are hella inspiring, and I can't tell you how excited I am for this show. We've also got our Riverdale Community League president Danny Hoyt coming on to talk a bit about community-building, something I've been thinking about a lot since I found myself living in such a sweet one. Showtime's 4:30 here in Alberta, which makes 6:30 in Ottawa, 11:30pm in London, 10:30am Sunday in Canberra, and half past noon in Wellington. You can tune in on either of my Facebook pages, on my YouTube channel, or right on the front page of www.scottcook.net, just scroll down! 

For last month's show we had David Newberry from Toronto, Melanie Horsnell from Australia, and none other than Corin Raymond from hiding in Hamilton with a brand new song that gave me chills! Our neighbourhood rabble-rouser Rocky also joined us for a bit of a chat, which mostly involved her turning the tables on me, picking my brain about Murray Bookchin and what could make a troubadour stay in one place. If you'd like to watch after the fact, it's still good TV, and it's here. 

Speaking of troubadours staying in one place, on February 2nd the folks at Home Routes/Chemin Chez Nous are bringing me, Corin and Jonathan together for a show called The Stay-at-Home Troubadour Revue!  It's a ticketed concert on Zoom, which is a really different experience from our monthly broadcasts. It's like we're all in the same room. It's the closest I've gotten to a house concert in the online world. And swapping songs with these two guys is pretty much my dream festival workshop. Please get a ticket on www.homeroutes.ca and join us, it's gonna be a night to remember.  Help us out and spread the Facebook event around too if you're so inclined.  This'll be a chance to hear a lot more from these fellas than the monthly variety shows allow, and there'll be time for questions and as well. Oh, and I'm saving my newest stuff for this one, 'cause the boys are bringing a raft of new material, including some spoken word and poetry. If you're a lover of words, get your household a ticket and get in the room! 

As 2020 drew to a close, I was really honoured to see Tangle of Souls make some year-end best-of lists, including AmericanaUK, Music Riot, Fervor Coulee, CKUA Radio Network, Folk Music Notebook, Folk Routes with Jan Hall, The International Americana Music Show, Just Us Folk, and the Edmonton Journal. The book even made the Journal's year-end local book list, which was a first for me.  I also got this truly wonderful review in Ireland's Lonesome Highway music blog last week.  Oh, and "Say Can You See" was the second-most-played song of 2020 on Folk Alliance International's folk radio charts! 

Alberta's been under a pretty strict lockdown up until today, so we three Indoorables rung in the New Year by ourselves with a fire in the front yard, and Pamela and I were tickled to make it to bed just before midnight––the first time I didn't stay up to count it down ever since I had the option. 

I've been making resolutions more of a daily thing this past while, believing more and more that habits are what a life's made of, and finding real joy in everyday discipline. As I mentioned a couple Travelogues back, I'm using a daily checklist, dividing my work up into 25-minute increments with 5-minute breaks in between, and it's changing my life. I submitted six years of unfiled taxes. Things I've been meaning to do for ages are getting done. And despite the ever-present uncertainty, I'm dreaming my way into the future. Pamela and I are looking at a bicycle tour of the islands in May. And I'm starting to look into small outdoor shows around BC and Alberta with the Second Chances in June and beyond. Drop a line to scottcooksongs@gmail.com if you're interested in any of that. And keep your eye out for small victories. 

Love and luck, 

s

Hey legends, 

I'm gonna try and keep it short this month. Let's see how I go! 

First, our Indoorables Holiday Variety Show's going out this coming Saturday, December 19th at 4:30 Mountain Time, which makes 5:30 in Winnipeg and Wisconsin, 6:30 in Toronto and Terre Haute, and 11:30pm for our friends in Glasgow and Glastonbury. For our friends on the other side of the world, it'll already be Sunday––7:30am in Taipei, 10:30 in Canberra, and half past noon in Wellington. It's impossible to pick a time that lines up just right for everybody, but we'll be doing some differently-timed things in the new year for folks who wanna tune in around the world. 

It's a full-on variety show this month, with guest appearances by our Riverdale neighbour Rocky, Toronto wordsmith David Newberry, Aussie songbird Melanie Horsnell calling in from Candelo, New South Wales, and a word with an as-yet-unannounced fellow troubadour hibernating in Hamilton. It's gonna be a show to remember. You can tune in on either of my Facebook pages, or my Youtube channel, through this link. If you're on Facebook, we'd sure appreciate you sharing the event.  Tell a friend! Start a watch party! And be sure to say hi in the comments. 

While this show'll be broadcast from around the Christmas tree, my next few online appearances will be coming from my study.  As many of you readers know, I made my home in a series of minivans for thirteen years. I named different areas according to their function: the tailgate was the kitchen and bar, the back was the bedroom, and the front seats were the office, with the dashboard as my desk. Since moving into an actual house with Pamela early this year, I've been luxuriating in having whole actual rooms set aside for these purposes. There was an even an extra bedroom upstairs that we designated my office. It felt kinda office-y, with white walls and white light, and it soon attracted the sort of office clutter that used to occupy my dashboard and annoy my passengers. It was functional, but certainly no place to broadcast a cozy livestream from. So about a week ago I painted it the same muted peachy-golden hue that covers the walls of our music room, hung up a picture, and even welcomed one of Pamela's hardier houseplants to the scene. Now it's too way pretty to be called an office. Henceforth, this snug room wherefrom I type this very Travelogue shall be known as the study. And these shall be the Study Shows: 

Thursday Dec 31 at 7:30pm Mountain Standard Time I'm appearing on Black Oak Artists' all-day New Year's Eve show, Coronathon 4: Bye Bye 2020! Music runs from 3pm-3am Eastern Time on their FB page, and I'm sandwiched in right between Ben de la Cour and Kora Feder, both of whom you should really check out. Come on over for Ben's show at 7pm MST/9 Eastern to see just how handsome a folksinger can be, and stick around for Kora afterward to hear just how brilliant these young wordsmiths can get these days ;) 

Tuesday Jan 5 at 8pm Mountain Time (which is 2pm Wednesday in New South Wales), I'll be swapping songs with my Aussie songwriter pal Melanie Horsnell for her Date Nights series. She's a brilliant songwriter and a great hang too. You can get an inkling on our variety show, but I reckon you'll want a full dose. 

Sunday Jan 10th I'll be singing a few songs for the Don Heights Unitarian Congregation in Toronto, who are meeting on Zoom. The speaker that week will be Paul Taylor, the CEO of FoodShare, a food activist, educator and really interesting guy. If you live in North Toronto, and/or are curious about Unitarianism (which is about as friendly a religion as you'll find anywhere), go by their website and sign up to attend. 

Aaand Tuesday, Feb 2nd, I'll be doing a Home Routes Zoom concert alongside my pals, mentors and inspirations Corin Raymond and Jonathan Byrd! It's an idea I've been thinking about since the beginning of the pandemic, and I'm so excited that it's finally coming together. It's the dream team stream. We're calling it The Stay-at-Home Troubadour Revue, and tickets are on sale starting TOMORROW right here! These Zoom shows are really special, 'cause we can actually see the audience, and the Home Routes crew are excellent hosts. It feels cozier and more interactive, more like a house concert than a broadcast. And swapping songs in the round with these two gents is pretty much my dream festival workshop. 

Jonathan Byrd's an old hand in the streaming game, having gotten into it with his weekly Shake Sugaree Residency from the Kraken outside Chapel Hill, NC way back before the pandemic, and he's still broadcasting a three-hour livestream every Wednesday, one of the best shows on the internet. Corin Raymond's a technological neophyte, but he's arriving in style, not only on the livestreams but also on Patreon, where he's offering his fans a peek inside his songwriting process, a window into his voracious reading, and a general inside track on all things C-Ray. I must admit, it's the first Patreon I've signed up to support. If it sounds like something you'd be into, come join me. 

Huge thanks, as always, to the kind folks ordering Tangle of Souls, and especially those who bought extra copies to spread the songs around.  I'm happy to offer bulk deals to grapevine-rustlers, just drop me a line!  Thanks also to Donald Teplyske for the indepth review in his blog Fervor Coulee, saying "Tangle of Souls is replete with intense, well-constructed songs that connect on personal and universal levels...  Cook’s writing—like his songs, confessional, reflection, recrimination, and call to arms in equal measure—is thought-provoking and hopeful; one appreciates that he has lived his life—scars and bruises, falls and celebrations, joys and elations—as he has deemed necessary: not all of us have elected his path, but reading his words, we become transfixed vicariously...  Scott Cook is now firmly positioned on my favourites shelf."  Shouts out also to Nick Burbridge for his four-star review in RnR Magazine: "his heart, as they say, is entirely in the right place, and it is a constant pleasure to hear him 'meet his doubts every day' while he avers that we 'need a revolutionary change in the way our societies are structured.'  His songs and tunes are equally genuine and affecting.  Sometimes to be most fully human is to be exposed exactly in this way."  Since several folks have asked whether I still have copies left, I have thousands, and I stand ready to mail and ship to anywhere in the world from my store. 

One last thing before I go: at the end of last month's show, we premiered a movie about everyone's favourite Indoorable Foxy. It was my movie-making debut, and by all reports, it brought a lot of people a lot of joy. In case you missed it, here's five minutes of cinematic glory you'll wonder how you lived without. 

As always, thanks for reading, and for sticking with me during these strange days. It means a lot. It's gonna be a weird Christmas, no doubt, but I hope you can connect with some of the folks you miss (my family'll be playing games on Zoom), take joy in the little things, remember how good we really do have it, and look forward to the campfire singalongs out there on the horizon. 

Love and luck from our house to yours, 

s

Hey friends, 

I'm writing from our place in snowy Riverdale, Alberta, with a couple Indoorables announcements!  First off, we're broadcasting again tomorrow, Saturday, November 21 at 4:30pm Mountain Time, which makes 6:30 in New York, 11:30pm in London, 7:30am Sunday in Taipei, 10:30am Sunday in Canberra, and half past noon on Sunday in Wellington.  Those last three countries, incidentally, have covid case counts in the single digits (Taiwan had 2 new cases yesterday, Australia had 7, and New Zealand 2, compared to Canada's 4645, the USA's 187,428, and the UK's 22,915), and in the last two of them it's actually springtime(!), so I'll certainly understand if folks there have better things to do than look at a computer screen.  But nevertheless, we hope to bring a little joy, hope, and heart to whoever tunes in, wherever you in the world you are.  You can join us on my Facebook fan page and start a watch party if you're so inclined, or you can tune in on my YouTube channel through this link.  We'll be able to see the comments from both feeds on Streamyard, but as far as I can tell, YouTube's got the best-quality stream.  Kindly click "subscribe" while you're there; I hope to do more with that channel as time goes on. 

This show's being co-presented by the Golden Link Folk Singing Society out of Rochester, New York, and we'll be using a platform called Streamyard which'll let us bring in some special guests including Golden Link's concert Concert Co-ordinator Janice Hanson; Edmonton singer, songwriter, actor and ethnomusicologist Dana Wylie; and our neighbourhood bike repairman J, as a living, breathing, archetypal example of a Real Canadian for our friends from afar.  Oh yeah, and we'll be premiering my first foray into cinematography!!!  I assure you, it's five minutes of silly glory that your life will be incomplete without. 

After the show, the Golden Link folks are hosting a Zoom hang which everyone's welcome at!  It's kinda like we'll leave the stage, then come around and meet you in the lobby.  That'll get going after the show, around 5:30 our time (7:30 in Rochester), right here. 

"Tangle of Souls" single release today 

The other big bit of news is that I just released the third single from Tangle of Souls to the streaming services today!  As you may know, I'm not a big fan of those sites, mostly on account of the model that earns them billions in profits while artists get paid in fraction of cents, but also for the way that having everything inevitably kinda cheapens it all.  I think we lose something if we lose the experience of listening to an album as a whole, and savouring the art and liner notes while we're at it.  You might say that my latest 240-page, cloth-bound, hardcover book's a bordering-on-the-absurd overreaction to that trend.  I wouldn't argue with that, though I prefer to think of it as just a vote for the kind of world I'd rather live in.  Nevertheless, I also acknowledge the world we actually do live in, and want to stress that I don't judge anyone for getting their music that way––it's not their fault that the system's set up like it is, and streaming really does introduce new music to ears around the world.  With that in mind, I've decided to share one last single, the title track.  I'd really appreciate it if you'd add it to a playlist or share it with a friend who'd enjoy it.  Interest in the first few days has a lot to do with what goes any further on those platforms.  You can stream "Tangle of Souls" on Spotify, Apple Music, Google/YouTube Music, Amazon, Napster, Deezer, Pandora, TikTok, and anywhere else you care to look.  And those of you reading this in email form (I love you) will find a download link at the bottom of this page. 

If you want to hear more songs from the album, you'll have to find 'em on Bandcamp (an artist-driven exception to the exploitative norm) or from my website. Speaking of which, I want to repeat my thanks to those of you who pre-ordered Tangle of Souls, and those who recently bought multiple copies for Christmas presents and such.  I was particularly honoured to hear that it was the monthly pick for a Toronto-based book club, and I even got to join the good people on a Zoom call to talk about it a bit.  You kind folks who still relish books, who still believe in albums, and who still support artists directly––you've made this crazy dream a reality, and I can't thank you enough for that. 

A bit about the song-incubation process 

Over the years, lots of folks have asked me about how songs get born, and on the day of its release, I'd actually like to tell a bit about the long trip this one took into the world.  Feel free to scroll past this if it's a little too deep-divey for you ;) 

Through all of my traveling and crossing paths with people who struck me as nothing short of heroic, I've been repeatedly astonished by the staggering size of this world, the uncountable souls struggling and winding their way through it, and the serendipitous ways our paths intersect.  It's something that overwhelmed me at times, but I could never put into words.  I still don't think I have.  But that's the tilting-at-windmills nature of art, of trying to say the unsayable.  Poets always fail, but the good ones fail admirably, and keep failing. 

For the most part, my songs don't get delivered to me whole; it's more like I cobble them together from spare parts.  This one's musical feel was inspired by something I heard my friend J Wagner play in a random, standing/staggering midnight jam at the crossroads in the campground of the Kerrville Folk Festival in Texas.  His song's called "Houston."  It's got a slow feel on the recording, but he was pushing it along that night, banging out a steady strumming pattern with a chop on the backbeat that made it feel like something Springsteen would sing.  That feel stuck with me, and came to mind when I was in Guatemala in January of 2019, toting a cigar-box ukulele my late friend Maurice Jones gave me and kicking ideas around for a song about this big ol' world.  One morning on the roof of our guesthouse I started to get some words together.  The idea hung around all through that trip, every time I felt awestruck by this big suffering, dreaming, struggling, loving and dying world we're all making our way through, and occasionally I wrote down another line or two.  Back home I wrote a few more lines, and when it started to feel like it was becoming less pliable, I changed it up, slowed it way down, even played it on electric guitar for a while.  It felt sadder and more personal at that pace, and gathered a couple more verses like that.  I must've written ten or more, though they didn't all make the cut.  Some of the images and turns of phrase were things I'd kept around for years.  One came from my buddy Jason Williams, who produces the Wild Mountain Music Festival in Hinton, wandering back to camp through the misty boreal sunrise at the North Country Fair.  "Lost and profound!" he said, and I said, "there's a song in that."  And then I did the most important thing writers do that non-writers don't.  I wrote it down. 

Regrettably, when I was writing the book I talked about a whole bunch of other things the song made me think of, and totally forgot to credit Jay for that turn of phrase.  I mean, it's been said before (there's even a Canadian band by that name), but his brain birthed it on its own, and he said it in earshot of a songwriter.  So thanks for that, Jay :) 

Shortly after our tromp around Guatemala, I flew to Australia to tour with the She'll Be Rights and record the album at the end of it.  This song wasn't quite finished, but the idea of this big ol' tangle of souls started to feel like it might be the unifying thread that ran through the whole collection.  I brought it to the band, and they helped me hugely in fleshing it out.  The heartbeat feel at the beginning and in the breakdown later on, the descending line between the verses, the way the ending of the verses alternates between IV - V - I and ii - V - I; all that's down to the musical genius of Liz Frencham, Bramwell Park, and Esther Henderson.  Bram also came up with a guitar part that moved it along much better than the original kernel I'd taken from J Wagner to begin with, so I gave the guitar to him, and played his mandolin on that song for a while.  Since I'm not a mandolin player, it never really sounded that good, and eventually they convinced me to just sing it, hands free.  That always feels scary for me, but it turned out to be the right choice.  With nothing to hide behind, I could focus on the words, and notice the places where I didn't want to look the crowd in the eyes as I sang them because I didn't quite believe them.  When it comes to editing, a room full of live humans is the best barometer I've found. 

In the studio we hashed it out with Bram playing both the guitar and mandolin, but didn't get to the finish line before we had to leave the country.  Kat Mear played the fiddle on it months later, with Liz engineering and me on the other side of the world.  Kat added to the feel with the double-time offbeat chops that run through the verses, and laid a blistering solo on it too.  But it still didn't feel done.  Eventually, in December 2019, I asked an Aussie dobro-playing friend of Liz' named Pete Fidler to have a crack at "Just Enough Empties" and "Right to Roam," both of which just didn't feel finished, and within a couple days he sent me some straight-up audio gold.  It was so good that I sent him "Tangle of Souls" to work on in January, and "The One Who Stays" and "Passin' Through" in March as well.  I really don't think this song or this record would be what it is without Pete Fidler's dobro.  And a big part of my motivation in reaching out to him was Corin Raymond's underwhelmed response to "Right to Roam," back when I sent him the rough bounces for the album.  Same goes for some crucial lyrical edits on the album––directly or indirectly, they're down to Corin.  He's one of those craftspeople who aren't easily satisfied; who won't settle for good enough, but keep chipping at things until they ring true.  That's the kind of iron that's always sharpened mine. 

The rest of the news that's fit to print 

It's really gratifying to see Tangle of Souls hanging around on radio three months after the release––it just re-entered the NACC charts this past week, and it's still on the most recent Folk Alliance charts, at #6 album and #4 single for "Say Can You See".  As always, I really appreciate those of you who take the time to call your local DJ (or write to Tom Power of CBC's q, for that matter) and ask them to play the album, it really does make a difference. 

Reviews are still coming in, too––most recently, UK publication Songlines said "In simple, descriptive turns of phrase, Cook sings about social ills and personal travails with perspicacious precision...  In the tradition of Woody Guthrie, Hazel Dickens and many others, Cook is carrying on the good fight."  There's also a review coming in the January issue of Vintage Guitar that'll hopefully bring the songs to some new ears.  Most importantly, though, the album's been well-received by the good folks I've met traveling around the world.  Here's a picture from the backyard of Guy Fordy in Katoomba, New South Wales, a town that gets name-dropped in the song I just released today. 

And Kelowna musician and promoter Dan Tait wrote: "Finally finished Scott Cook’s most recent love letter to the world, Tangle of Souls. It took me this long not because it was a difficult read, or because I struggled with it in any way - rather, I didn’t want to finish it. It was just what I needed while getting through the pandemic, while dealing with the floor dropping out of the music industry, while watching the insanity of the 2020 election year, while biting my nails trying to understand what’s going to happen with our local and global climate, and while feeling torn away from everything that is real and true by the tantalizing allure of social media. It’s been just what I needed. It’s a beautiful, meaningful and inspiring piece of art - and the record is fantastic.  If you’re looking for a beam of light in the darkness of these uncertain times, please look into this book and this album. If I may borrow a few lines from Scott... 'We’re already living in Eden. Earth’s our only home. We’re made of it. It doesn’t belong to us, we belong to it.  If you ever feel like you’re losing your grip, go out and remember where you came from.'" 

It's always been a mystery to me why some albums get attention that others don't.  I've been pleasantly surprised and humbled by the welcome this one's gotten so far.  But one new album that I think deserves a helluva lot more recognition is Justin Farren's new record Pretty Free.  He's a Sacramento-based songwriter with a disarming sense of humour, dazzling fingerstyle guitar, and a lyrical honesty that's all too rare.  He's been killing it in obscurity for years now, but wow, this latest record is his best yet, hands down.  It's fun, funny, and real as it gets.  The first time I listened to it, I just sat in the van sobbing at the beauty and tragedy of the world.  I haven't been this knocked out by an album in a long time.  Hear it here. 

Before I sign off, a brief word to my fellow Americans now that the election's over (even if the loser hasn't conceded yet) and the real work of mending our relationships has just begun.  A recent poll showed the majority of Americans thought that if the other side won the election, it would be the end of America.  I admit, I'm among that number.  From where I sit, another four years of Trump would have done irreparable damage to our democratic institutions, fanned the current racial and social conflict into a wildfire, sold off what's left of the common wealth (including the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge) to the highest bidder, and basically fired up the outboard motor on our collective paddle up shit creek.  But to plenty of other Americans, Joe Biden represents the thin edge of the wedge of a socialist, totalitarian takeover of the country by people who hate the very things it stands for.  Never mind that Joe Biden's not a socialist, or that his brand of neoliberalism isn't very different from his predecessors in both parties.  What I find more interesting is how the view from my side is similar to the view from the other side––in the hyperbole with which it's presented, and in the all-or-nothing, good-against-evil framing of the conflict.  As Spencer Case argues in his recent essay "Against Political Totalism", we shouldn't be surprised that some people seem willing to disregard democratic norms if they think the very survival of their way of life depends on the outcome. 

As we start down the difficult road toward reconciliation, I think we could all use to look at the biases in our own media diet, the way we've been driven to extremes, and how crazy some of the things we say could sound from the other side.  And I hope we might consider how the deep division over issues of race, gender, history, religious freedom, and political correctness––in short, the culture war––can be a distraction from class war, from the way the top 0.1% are still sucking up wealth on a mad dash toward annihilation while the rest of us are busy fighting each other.  Tribalism and outrage are great for getting us to spend more time on our screens (please listen to Sam Harris' interview with Tristan Harris if you haven't already), but they aren't helpful for bringing the country together to face the very real problems of a raging pandemic, an ongoing corporate takeover, and looming catastrophic climate change. 

As a couple nudges in that direction, I'd recommend the Spencer Case article I just mentioned, and any of Sam Harris' recent podcasts.  Even if you don't agree with everything they say (and I don't), it's at least refreshing to read and hear people disagreeing clearly and politely, without the outrage and jingoism that characterizes so much of our media these days.  And I reckon it's genuinely edifying to read philosophers of their kind, people devoted to clarity and truth, because as far as I'm concerned, so much of our current crisis boils down to an epistemological crisis.  So many of us have lost our grip on credibility and critical thinking, and become willing to distrust any and all authorities––in part, because they've lied to us for so long.  And while folks are distracted by Q-Anon or "plan-demic" theories, the human race is still marching predictably toward self-destruction.  Jeremy Lent's article "The Five Real Conspiracies You Need to Know About" is the best summary of all that I've read in a long time. 

One last thing to mention before I sign off, and it's thankfully far from the worrisome wider world: I've started to contend with nausea from using the computer over the last few months.  It's kinda scary, and I haven't wanted to say anything about it.  Unfortunately, so much of my work is on the computer––it's the email-answering, gig-booking, order-handling, website-updating, social-media-posting, and nowadays even more kinds of tech-fiddling that's allowed me to actually make a living singing songs.  It's not like I can leave all that behind.  But I've made a step in a helpful direction lately.  On our last little tour through BC, someone mentioned the "pomodoro" method: basically, it's about breaking work up into discrete 25-minute intervals, with 5-minute breaks in between, and it's really helping.  Pamela's taken it into her workday as well.  I've made up a weekly checklist with all the things I want to dedicate sustained attention to each day, like songwriting, learning fiddle tunes on the guitar, working through my music books and online lessons, working on my taxes, sitting meditation, and a whole bunch of five-minute exercises like pushups, curls, and playing the harmonica.  The timer drives me through it, and makes my time on the computer more deliberate.  Plus, there's a really satisfying feeling in filling in the squares on my checklist with highlighter.  I'm not strict about it, and I haven't even managed to fill in a whole day's checkboxes yet.  But it's nudging me in a good direction, and I thought I should say so in case you're looking for some inspiration in changing up your habits.  It's a cliche, but it's true: the journey is the destination.  Our habits are what we spend our life doing.  And I know I'm on about Sam Harris a lot lately, but his interview with James Clear about habit formation really spoke to me. 

Alright, that's it for me for now!  I hope this finds you inspired, wherever you are, and I hope you'll join us tomorrow if your schedule allows.  Big love from our house to yours, 

s

Hey friends, 

I'm writing you from my home in Riverdale, Alberta, by the banks of the North Saskatchewan.  I remember marvelling at the river opening up in the spring, when I'd just gotten back from Texas and The Tour That Never Was, and now I'm gonna stay put and watch it freeze over again.  I haven't stuck it out through a Canadian winter in twenty years, but I'm surprisingly stoked for it.  I've got what feels like a lifetime of loose ends to tend to, and a seemingly bottomless appetite for woodshedding.  I'm finally learning my way around the guitar!  I'm working up the courage for a long-overdue reckoning with the Canada Revenue Agency!  I'm gradually clearing the mental space to write some songs!  And I reckon just staying in one place has some valuable lessons to teach me. 

Pamela and I did take a little road trip out BC last month to visit her youngest daughter, and I managed to line up a couple shows along the way. It was a thrill to feel like we were on tour again, even briefly––driving through gorgeous scenery, swimming in lakes, marvelling at starry skies, and singing for small outdoor gatherings of old and new friends.  At Creekside Concerts in Priddis the audience looked glorious, bathed in the golden evening light along Fish Creek.  On our friends' farm outside Salmon Arm the crowd included a pig and a goat, and we savoured the after-show afterglow with fire-lit songs and conversation along the Salmon River.  And on our way back, we reunited with Elliot to play a lamplit barn party outside Camrose called Prairie Oak Folk Fest.  "You're looking at a touring band," I told the crowd, "haven't seen one of those in a while, eh?" 

from the show in Silver Creek, BC, photo by Mikey B 

I attended a couple more chilly outdoor shows here in Edmonton this past weekend (local heroes Lucas Chaisson, Swear By the Moon, and Braden Gates), but I reckon those'll be the last of the season.  Our last one was two weeks ago, singing for a surprisingly large crowd from a front porch in Allendale.  We're taking the rest of the year off from three-dimensional shows, but I'm pleased to announce that the Indoorables are returning to the world wide web next Tuesday, October 20th!  The show's being presented by our friends at the Calgary Folk Club in collaboration with Home Routes, an amazing organization that sent me to the Yukon in 2013 and to northern Saskatchewan and Manitoba in 2015 for two-week runs of house concerts.  It's happening on Zoom, which makes it a little like a house concert––it'll be cozy, and we'll get to see your faces, rather than just sending songs out into the air.  I mean, you're welcome to turn your camera off and watch in your underwear if you want, but I reckon it'll be way more fun to actually see the folks we're singing for.  We encourage the wearing of silly hats and any other interesting headgear. You're also welcome to bring your axe if you want to jam along with your mic muted.  We're gonna have some time for Q&A, a little tour of the place, a chat with everyone's favourite four-legged Indoorable Foxy, and some special guests joining us for cameos from afar, including our Australian comrade Liz Frencham, whose upright bass playing dances through Tangle of Souls, calling in from the backyard studio in Trentham, Victoria where we recorded it! 

We put together a little promo video yesterday, at the Home Routes' team's urging, and I'm glad we did.  Old Man Winter even made a perfectly-timed appearance at the end.  Have a look! 

The show's at 6:30 Mountain Time, which makes 5:30 on the west coast, 8:30 in Toronto and New York, and 11:30am Wednesday in Melbourne, where we hope to provide some entertaining relief for our friends in lockdown.  I've been part of a couple Zoom shows so far, and it's a very different experience from going out on Facebook Live.  I can already feel the familiar twinge of nervousness that goes with playing shows in the real world and wondering who'll show up.  If you want in, get a ticket here.  It's $10-25 sliding scale, and of course you only need one ticket per household.  You can help us out by inviting friends who'd enjoy it, and if you're on Facebook, sharing the event. 

After two months of monomaniacal mailing, I'm relieved to say that all the orders have been sent out!  The remaining US orders are all in the country and en route by USPS.  If you're in Australia or New Zealand and haven't gotten yours yet, it should be arriving very soon.  Canada Post wanted $44 apiece to air-mail a single book and CD down under, so I opted to ship them in five big boxes, to be sent out individually by AusPost. Yackandandan folksinger Candice McLeod and Bega record shop Sugar Sounds are the heroes helping me with this, and I'm sure they'd be grateful for your support if you feel so moved.  If you're elsewhere in the world and haven't gotten yours yet, drop me a line and I'll try and track it down. 

If you pre-ordered the album before the release date, you should've gotten an email from me a couple days ago with a download code for the one song that didn't make it on the album, a lonesome waltz called "The One Who Stays".  If you were among those who pre-ordered, but didn't get the download, let me know and I'll send it to you. 

If you got a vinyl copy, there's a digital download code inside the back cover.  All the folks who ordered through my website also got download codes on release day, but if yours expired, or you'd prefer a lossless download in another format besides MP3, just drop me a line and I'll get you one from Bandcamp. 

Plenty of friends have been posting pictures on Facebook and Instagram when the album arrives, and I'm very grateful for them rustling the ol' grapevine.  I wanted to share two in particular with you––this one from our dear friends Penny and Jim of Back Porch Swing, demonstrating the proper way to take Tangle of Souls on a paddling excursion: 

And this one from our friend and house concert host Diana Paige, showing a vinyl copy of Tangle of Souls on its way home from the post office in Cumberland, BC: 

A thousand copies have already flown out into the world, but the remaining four thousand arrived by boat from Taiwan last month. I had to rent a utility trailer from Home Depot to pick them up from the shipping warehouse, and it was among the craziest-feeling "am I in over my head?" moments of my career so far, driving down the highway with 2344 pounds of books on two pallets and wondering how my life came to this. 

If you want to help me feel less crazy about all that, and get your Christmas shopping done at the same time, you can get copies here.  Now that the backlog's all done, I'm shipping out orders as soon as they're received, and I'm happy to cut bulk deals for anyone who wants a few, just email me at scottcooksongs@gmail.com.  We've also got Indoorables T-shirts being printed as we speak, so if you want in on that, you can order from my store or just drop me a line. 

Folk radio's been incredibly kind to the album, especially in the States.  "Say Can You See" was the number 1 song on the Folk Alliance International charts for August, and for the month of September, I was the second-most played artist, "Say Can You See" was the second-most played song, and Tangle of Souls was the second-most played album.  I've never had such a satisfying response to a release.  Huge thanks to all the folk DJs who spun it, and to the listeners who called in to request a track.  And since some folks have written to ask me about that, I should be clear: just about every college, community and public radio station in North America should have Tangle of Souls by now, and it really does help if you call them up and request a song! 

Reviews have been coming in steadily as well, thanks to my publicity team of Geraint Jones (G Promo PR) in Europe and Mike Farley (Michael J Media Group) in the US.  Chris Spector in the Midwest Record wrote, "with songs as open and universal as Woody Guthrie at his mightiest, this is a plea for humanity to stop screwing up without a single punch in the chops in the bunch. A modern day troubadour that's doing it for real and without pretense, you'd be wise to enjoy this before this and stuff like it just disappear into the void. By all means check it out if you really need something to wake up your humanity."   Rich Barnard of UK blog Red Guitar Music praised its "honesty, self-awareness and uncommon academic flair (quotes! references! footnotes!)" and said, "as a document of our times, this absorbing musical story of travel and self-discovery really deserves to be on the school syllabus.  As a project that is designed to be held in your hands, seen with your eyes and heard with your ears, Tangle of Souls is more meaningful than anything you will ever stream.  It is a handbook for the soul, and one with a remarkably good soundtrack." 

Gordon Sharpe in Americana UK gave it 9 out of 10, saying: "Sometimes a package arrives that might just take your breath away and, ‘Tangle of Souls’, by Canadian Scott Cook, is one such...  A rich and varied multimedia offering which seeks to confront issues of personal and collective responsibility and the actions that flow from them...  Exceptional words and music to help calibrate the moral compass."  UK blog Three Chords and the Truth said "a little time spent in the company of Scott Cook's music is good for the soul."  Music Riot gave it five stars: "superbly crafted and delivered, and packed with interesting and thought-provoking ideas... 'Tangle of Souls' is an important work from the wider Americana scene this year. It’s a deeply-considered view of individuals and society twenty years into the twenty-first century; the narratives aren’t necessarily cheerful, but the overall message is positive, in line with Scott’s personal outlook."  Dani Heyvaert of Belgium publication Rootstime said (Google Translate-d from Dutch), "Cook effortlessly surpasses all his previous work with this new record...  I rarely get the figurative five stars out of the closet, but for this one I do it without any restrictions: she is a feast for the ear, heart and eye...  This is one of those rare records, where literally everything is right. Masterpiece!"  And Rachel Cholst of Adobe and Teardrops said "Damn, this is a gorgeous album. Scott Cook’s voice -- vocally and lyrically -- is as clear-eyed, optimistic, and straightforward as ever... Tangle of Souls is the medicine we could all use right now." 

I also had a great interview with Ron Olesko of Folk Music Notebook the other day, and a nice chat with Heath Racela on his Quarantine Creatives podcast.  I've been thinking seriously about trying my hand at podcasting myself, seeing as I meet so many interesting people on my travels, and I'd love to give them another place to tell their stories.  Being off the road has given me space to daydream about lots of different creative projects, and I'm thinking of opening up subscriptions for folks who want to support me in those endeavours, and be on the inside track for them when they come out, for something like the price of a coffee per month.  It's just an embryonic idea at this point, but if you like the sound of that, feel free to chime in. 

Speaking of which, our Australian collaborator Liz Frencham has started offering subscriptions on Patreon, and you can support her here.  Her latest solo album Love and Other Crimes is her best work yet, and you can have a listen and download it on her Bandcamp page. 

Another artist and collaborator who could use your support is my old Taiwan pal and UK tourmate Jez Hellard, who features prominently in the twelfth chapter of Tangle of Souls, and is rounding up the cash to press his newest album, which shows the fellas in their finest form, here. 

Before I sign off, I must confess that I'm worrying every day for the country I come from, and what it might mean for the world if the Divided States fall apart.  I hope I'm mistaken, but sometimes it looks like a country on the verge of civil war.  It's happened before.  Back then, Lincoln said "we are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature."  The war came anyway, and over 700,000 American men and boys were killed by their countrymen.  But as the war drew to a close at the beginning of his second term, Lincoln again reached for reconciliation rather than retribution: "With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations." 

Braver Angels, the organization that picked up "Say Can You See" for their songwriting contest, is one of several groups working to depolarize American politics, and I think their work's never been more important.   The challenge, as I talk about a bit in Tangle of Souls, is that we live in such different worlds.  We're almost completely incapable of understanding where our political opponents are coming from, or hearing how crazy we sound to them.   But if we can't find a middle ground, we're in trouble, because fighting starts when talking becomes impossible.  If the country's going to pull back from the brink, it's going to take understanding and empathizing, not demonizing one another.  Randy Lioz' article about Kyle Rittenhouse (the 17 year-old who took a gun to Kenosha, Wisconsin and killed two people protesting the police shooting of Jacob Blake) shows the kind of hard work ahead of us, and the risk involved if we fail.  As he says, "what creates this danger is our constant habit of viewing the actions of our opponents in the worst possible light in order to achieve our full moral separation; our maintenance of the view of ourselves as in the right, and them in the wrong. We’re constantly nudged one way or the other in our interpretation of the intentions and the motivations of those we disagree with, and when we add up all those little nudges, it puts us on the other side of a vast gulf." 

"Kyle Rittenhouse is Not Who You Think He Is" by Randy Lioz 

It's important to remember that all our institutions, resilient as they are, are held together by trust, goodwill, and a sense of common purpose.  That glue seems to be getting weaker by the day.  Vast numbers of Americans don't trust scientists, public authorities, or each other.  Around half of Americans think there's reason to be suspicious of the results of the election three weeks from now, and a majority suspect there's going to be violence.  Borrowing Lincoln's words, Braver Angels is circulating a pledge called "With Malice Toward None".  It reads: "Regardless of how the election turns out, I will not hold hate, disdain, or ridicule for those who voted differently from me. Whether I am pleased or upset about the outcome, I will seek to understand the concerns and aspirations of those who voted differently and will look for opportunities to work with people with whom I don’t agree."  If you can find it in your heart to say that, you can add your name here. 

As you know, not everybody's open to trying to understand the other side.  No less than twenty-four congressional candidates in the upcoming election (22 Republicans and 2 independents) follow QAnon, the story that most of the political establishment and Hollywood glitterati are part of a Satanic, cannibalistic pedophile ring that Trump is secretly working to bring down.  This isn't just a lunatic fringe anymore.  It points to an epistemological crisis deeper than politics, and bigger than America.  This breakdown of our sense of shared reality seems to have a lot to do with the way social media platforms tailor our online experience toward the single goal of increasing our time spent on the site, rather than toward truth.  A new Netflix doc called The Social Dilemma's drawing some attention to the problem, but Sam Harris' recent interview with Tristan Harris, one of the main voices in the film, shines a lot more light on the subject without the sensationalistic flair of the documentary.  In general, I think Sam Harris is the kind of voice of reason we need more of.  I don't agree with everything he says, but I'm always grateful for the fair, cool-headed way he puts forward his points and considers the points of others.  You can hear the first part of his talk with Tristan Harris (before the paywall) here: 

"Welcome to the Cult Factory" on Sam Harris' Making Sense podcast 

While I'm at it, I was also really impressed by Tristan Harris' interview with Taiwan's Digital Minister Audrey Tang, who set up the broadband for the 2014 student occupation of parliament that I mention in Tangle of Souls.  My Aussie songwriter pal David Ross MacDonald forwarded it to me, and it got me excited about the future like I haven't been in a LONG time.  There really are so many ways we could make our societies more democratic and just, if we'd only listen to the right voices.  If you're interested, check out "Digital Democracy Is Within Reach" from Your Undivided Attention. 

Of course, all we ever get is a chance to nudge the needle in the right direction.  And whatever you may think about Joe Biden or Kamala Harris, there's no doubt in my mind that they'll steer the country more capably than the current bunch of grifters and crooks.  There's a lot at stake in three weeks' time, and I hope everyone who believes in democracy will do whatever they can to preserve it, for the sake of our ancestors and for the generations to come.  Make sure you're registered to vote, and make sure your friends and neighbours are registered to vote.  Vote in person if you can.  And if you're able, sign up to help at the polls. There's a record shortage of poll workers this year, and there's only a few days left to apply, here. 

Stay safe, stay sane and stay kind, friends, wherever you are.  With love, 

s

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Hey friends, 

I hope you're well, and finding goodness and beauty in the world around you, despite the carnage and callousness in the headlines. Reach out to your loved ones. These are crazy times, and crazy-making too. Call your friends. 

I'm still seeing plenty of silver lining in my enforced slowdown, but I've also been feeling some unexpected bittersweetness as the chill creeps into the evening air. This time of year usually means leaving for me. Pamela and I will be making a little run out to BC next month to visit her daughter, and we'd love to play a couple backyard concerts along the way if possible––if anyone in Calgary, the Crowsnest, the Kootenays, the Shuswap or the Okanagan's keen to host us in the September 8-13 range, please do get in touch––but that'll probably be the extent of my traveling 'til this side of the world warms up again. I haven't quite wrapped my head around that yet. 

While it's still summer, though, we may as well make the most of it! We did just that last weekend here in Riverdale, Edmonton, where we hosted the first and hopefully last annual Riverdale Folk & Facemask Festival, with performances from Riverdalians and honorary Riverdalians Billie Zizi, Lucas Chaisson and Andi Vissia, Dana Wylie, Bill Bourne, Swear By the Moon, Picture the Ocean, Bramwell Park, Elliot Thomas, and Joe Nolan, who sang while a double rainbow graced the gathering of kind souls. Apologies to the folks who tuned in online, only to lose the feed when I ran out of power, and later, out of data. Too much on my plate, I guess! Melissa came out from Prince George for the show, and it was a joy to play with the Second Chances again. We were really hoping we wouldn't exceed 200 attendees, as that's the provincial limit for outdoor gatherings, and luckily we hovered just under that number for most of the day. And thanks to the enormous generosity of the crowd (as well as an anonymous donor from the local folk community), we managed to get some much-needed funds to a bunch of out-of-work songsters. Thank you all, from the bottom of this new Riverdalian's heart. 

We Indoorables have a few more local shows coming up, starting this afternoon! 

Fri Aug 28 • 4pm on the Art Gallery of Alberta terrace, just one set, free with gallery admission 

Fri Aug 28 • private concert in King Edward Park 

Sun Aug 30 • 5pm and 7pm sets in the parking lot of New Asian Village in Sherwood Park 

Mon Aug 31 • private show in Spruce Grove 

Sat Sep 5 • back alley concert in Ritchie 

Fri Sep 18 • private barn party near Camrose 

Sun Sep 20 • Vermillion Folk Club show at Mannville Riverview Golf Course 

All the info for the public shows is on www.scottcook.net, and friends who wanna ask about wheedling their way into one of the private shows are welcome to drop me a line. 

Those further afield are probably most curious about when your albums might be arriving, and some of you have already written to ask about that. Turns out mailing out 600-some albums is a pretty big task, but after many long days of envelope-stuffing, I'm pleased to report that I'm starting to see the light on the other side. Yackandandan songstress Candice McLeod has been hugely helpful in mailing out copies to the folks who filled out envelopes and paid cash while we were in Australia––a job further complicated by the fact that the book got bigger than I originally anticipated and now won't fit in the original envelopes! If you're among that lot, yours should be en route to you. If you're in the second lot of Aussie orders (that is, if you ordered online), I'll be signing and sending out those real soon. If you preordered from the US and your album hasn't arrived yet, it's most likely in a big box headed to Michigan, where my dear friend Mo will be getting them stamped at the local post office. If you're in the Edmonton area and I haven't made it to you by bike yet, I'm coming! And if you're elsewhere in Canada, or elsewhere in the world, I'm working my way through the rest of the orders, and you should be seeing it soon! I ran into a big issue with single CDs in Canada––they were supposed to be around $5 to mail, but have ended up being $15 or so, thanks to just barely exceeding the 20mm thickness limit for lettermail (despite assurances to the contrary from my manufacturer). I tried my best to find some way around it, shaking my head at absurdities like it being cheaper to mail a CD to Taipei than to Toronto (or cheaper to mail a CD to Canada from the US than from within Canada!), but I've finally decided to just suck it up and send 'em out via the limousine service that is Expresspost. You should be seeing them soon. 

My sincere apologies go out to the kind folks who preordered ages ago, and have had to wait much longer than either of us expected. I mean, they were supposed to be PRE-orders! For what it's worth, you putting your money down in advance provided the much-needed ballast of belief that carried this thing to completion in these turbulent times. I really don't know if I would've made it without you. Additionally, for those who ordered single CD packages in Canada, you got in before I raised my postage rates to reflect the current reality! But as a further token of thanks, I'll be sending out a waltz from the sessions that didn't make the album, exclusively to the folks who pre-ordered. It's called "The One Who Stays," and I sure hope it tickles your eardrums. 

For those who ordered vinyl, as you may or may not have noticed, there's a sticker inside the back cover of the book with a download code from Bandcamp. Everyone who ordered through my website should've also gotten a download code from Bandzoogle on the release date, but if yours has expired, or if you're an audiophile who prefers WAV (or any other lossless format) rather than MP3, just drop me a line and I'll send you a Bandcamp download code. All the downloads include a digital version of the album booklet, but I'll certainly understand if you'd rather curl up with a hardcover book than a 240-page PDF, and opt to wait for the physical thing to land in your mailbox. 

If you've already received yours, I'm really curious to know what kind of shape it arrived in. I've been trying out various packaging options, and am somewhat torn between making less waste and making sure everybody's albums arrive unbruised. If you don't mind dropping me a line to tell me how yours was packed, and how it fared (particularly around the spine), I'd be very grateful for the information. And I'd be glad to replace anything that had too rough a ride, just let me know! 

I'm stoked to report that Tangle of Souls is sitting at #1 on the charts for CKUA (our Alberta-wide community radio network), and by all indications it's gonna stay there another week! CKUA has been hugely helpful to me over the course of my career, but I've never hit the top spot before, and it's really exciting. 

I also had a nice on-air chat with Grant Stovel about the album, which you can hear here if you're interested! 

By now, the album should be available on most college, community, and public radio stations around North America and Europe, so please do call in and request a song if you're so inclined! And if there's a station in Australia or New Zealand that you think should have it, please do let me know, as I'm my own publicist down there this time around. 

Reviews have been coming in as well, and I was particularly honoured and humbled by this five-star review in our local paper by Fish Griwkowsky: 

"Opening with a fiddle-driven two-stepper, Scott Cook’s seventh 'love letter' to the world is all strings and beauty, a 12-song agnostic endorsement of love over fear. 

Cook’s marvellous book, song by song, leads into wonderful, captivating ideas and places, including the fact that he almost killed himself after 20 years drinking, wondering why he was so bent on self-destruction when, really, he had everything going for him a person could ask... As an experienced addict Cook recognizes how much our civilization is acting exactly like one: full of denial and desperate, bad-logic negotiation for just one more fix with a lot of yelling about minding your own business when, in fact, we’re all undeniably connected in the business of humanity. 

But, magically, Cook chooses healthy skepticism over accusatory cynicism — asking us to think about who most benefits if we, on these lower decks together, can’t even manage to get along. 

Which brings us back to the music, and the point of the song Say Can You See: the most directly activist song he says he’s ever written, yet it doesn’t condemn, it summons to one fire... Of Cook’s many records, this one most reminds me of Steve Earle’s masterpiece El Corazon, where the sad, slow songs — and there are many here — dig deepest... Cook’s albums are always thoughtful, moral without overly moralizing, and usually pretty funny at a moment or two. That happens here and there some, to be sure, but I would say of all his records this one simply feels the best, the most earthen somehow, down to the lovely instrumental Right to Roam at the end, which in the book talks about people with no permanent address — but without words feels like a natural kind of freedom, too, like a few days at North Country Fair. 

So while I’m throwing the book on the shelf with Marcus Aurelius and Susan Sontag, the record goes on the turntable again." 

As always, though, the best publicist I've got is the ol' grapevine! Sing the songs if they move you. And tell your friends about the album if you think they'll enjoy it. I want nothing more than to find good homes for these things. 

Big love from here to wherever you are, your fan, 

s