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