Hey you beauties!

It’s high time I wrote. It’s been two and half months and there’s way too much to tell.

The biggest news—which I told my Fellow Travellers on Patreon a week ago but haven’t announced to the wider world until now—is that Pamela flew back to Edmonton after Tucson Folk Fest and I’m finishing out this tour alone. Don’tcha worry, all’s well with us, and we’re still very much in love. I’ll say more about the reasons below, but for those who don’t read that far, she’s happily tending the home fires and I’m flying solo for the remaining shows. I’ve already played two in Arizona and New Mexico, and I’ve got eighteen more to go:

Wed Apr 16 • Tulsa, OK • Guthrie Green
Fri Apr 18 • Norman, OK • Red Dirt Folk Salon w/ 
Sat Apr 19 • Fayetteville, AR • cameo at OMNI Center's annual gathering
Sun Apr 20 • Fayetteville, AR • concert at OMNI Center
Wed Apr 23 • Kansas City, MO • Waldo Folk
Fri Apr 25 • Nashville, TN • WMOT’s Finally Fridays at 3^rd and Lindsley
Fri Apr 25 • Nashville, TN • house concert w/ Bryn Scott-Grimes and Kate Kibby
Sat Apr 26 • Asheville, NC • private house concert
Sun Apr 27 • Weaverville, NC • Stage 11 House Concerts
Wed Apr 30 • Roanoke, VA • 3^rd Street Coffeehouse
Sat May 3-4 • Lewis Center, OH • Central Ohio Folk Festival
Sun May 4 • Ferndale, MI • Music at the Gazebo house concert
Sat May 10 • Maple Plain, MN • Sun Dog Farm
Mon May 12 • Ellison Bay, WI • Kick Ash Coffee w/ Katie Dahl
Tue May 13 • Appleton, WI • Stone Arch Brewpub
Fri May 16 • Galien, MI • Ray and Al’s
Sat May 17 • Chicago, IL • Acoustic Renaissance w/ Heather Styka
Sun May 18 • Bishop Hill, IL • Bishop Hill Creative Commons 

I must admit, I felt pretty naked playing solo at first, but I’m settling back into it—it’s what I’ve done most over the years, and it’s got its own power and potency. As always, all the dates and deets are on www.scottcook.net if you wanna catch me somewhere along the way. 

After a couple long days’ drive across the Chihuahuan Desert I've landed in Tulsa, Oklahoma at a place Pamela and I stayed three years back called West Bend RV Outpost. It’s an old industrial complex that a bunch of pirates transformed into a creatives’ collective and RV park, just off the Arkansas River and Route 66 and within biking distance of the Woody Guthrie Center, the new Bob Dylan Center, and all my favourite Tulsa music spots. My main mission this week is writing the book to go with the new album, but I cruised around town on two wheels today and yesterday, and probably will every day this week. Tulsa’s one of my favourite cities — the onetime home of Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys, Leon Russell and The Church recording studio, J.J. Cale, Black Wall Street and generations of jazz history that still holds huge and mostly-unnoticed talents today; a once-booming oil town with Art Deco architecture, big old mansions, urban decay, and start-ups aplenty; a crumbling concrete train and truck town with new bike lanes; a big ol' mix of rich and poor and black and white, broken and beautiful, just like America. I’ll play a lunchtime show on Guthrie Green this Wednesday before I set off again, and hopefully I’ll have made some strides on this book of liner notes by then.

I’m still turning out a new song each month (45 and counting!) for my monthly supporters, and this month I offered them the chance to sing on one of the songs for the new album. A few have already sent me their takes, but there’s still time if you wanna join them—sign up on Patreon or my website at whatever rate feels right for you, and look for the instructions in my latest post. We could especially use more gals’ voices, and more shouters!

Roads in the rearview

Last I wrote we had just returned from Ireland and were embarking on my first-ever February tour of the BC coast. Canadian folk legend Shari Ulrich set us up for a show on Bowen Island, and we got up before dawn the next morning for the first of three ferries we’d need to catch to make our gig that night in Powell River. The sea lions were barking across the bay as we backed Roadetta out of her parking spot and realized, as soon as I touched the brakes, that she wasn’t far from sliding down the frosty hill. We hated to get Shari up, but luckily she had rock salt, which we spread along the road to ease the big van past all the parked cars and scoot to the ferry just in time. On Quadra Island a couple days later we got such a dump of snow that we had to put the tire chains on to get out of the driveway of the cabin we were staying in. That same snow dump delayed our house-sit at our friends Jen and Matt’s place on Salt Spring Island by five days, and when we did get up there, we still had to cart everything up the hill by hand. But we did get in a glorious few days of downtime—working on the book, sitting around the woodstove, playing games and even doing a puzzle!—and earned our Canadian Winter Touring Merit Badges.

Midway through our island run we flew out to Montreal for Pamela’s first visit to the biggest folk conference of all, Folk Alliance International. She did great for her first rodeo, volunteering in registration, making new friends, and rocking a bunch of unofficial showcases in hotel rooms after midnight. One of the most fun spots we did was a speed round set up by Side Door to introduce artists to house concert hosts, two minutes at a time. It was hilarious watching everybody fit their art and introduction into a two-minute package, and amazing how quickly you can actually get a feel for what somebody does. We even squeezed in a singalong.

Allison Russell gave the keynote address, in conversation with Ann Powers from NPR, and reminisced about how she used to sleep in the cathedral just a few blocks from the host hotel when she was a teenager on the run from an abusive situation at home. She had just finished a 15-week run on Broadway as Persephone in Anaïs Mitchell’s amazing musical Hadestown, playing 8 shows a week and never missing a show, and she talked about the relevance of the work to current events. Characters like Trump and his enablers are playing parts they didn’t invent—tyrants and sycophants are mythical, archetypal roles that appear throughout human history. Which reminds me that there’s also space for heroes in times like these.

We got some great leads out of the conference, work-wise, but the real crux of it, as always, was the chance to gather with the folk community, form friendships, and see people doing what they love.

We flew back to Victoria to finish out the island shows, which felt increasingly potent amid the unfolding chaos in the world. People seem more grateful than ever for the chance to gather and sing with their fellow humans and be reminded of all the stuff that makes life worth living, so little of which manages to trickle through our screens. We finished out the month with the biggest crowd I’d ever played for in Nanaimo (thanks to our friends at Harbour City Concerts), a very well-attended songwriting workshop the next morning (thanks to Andy of South Island Songwriters), a beautiful concert at the Agi Hall on Gabriola Island that night (thanks to legends Bob Bossin and Elizabeth Shefrin) and a magical house concert in Vancouver the next day, with thanks to Mark and Yoo-Mi at Notional Space for hosting, Kathleen Nisbet for fiddling, and our local pals for packing the place. Nathanael Vass shot some great video and stills, and I’ll share more of that soon.

The next day we crossed the border into the States—our first time since Trump got back into office and started all his crazy war-talk toward Canada. Some friends back home asked why we were even going. But tours get booked a long way out (often over a year in advance), and we reasoned that our work on this Purveyors of Hope Tour is even more important under the current circumstances.

We crossed at the Peace Arch border crossing between Surrey, BC and Blaine, Washington, where they built a huge white monument over a hundred years ago to commemorate the long history of peace between our countries. Both flags fly over the arch, and inscriptions on the frieze read "Children of a common mother" and "Brethren dwelling together in unity". Inside the arch are iron gates with an inscription that says "May these gates never be closed".

While waiting in line we learned that Paul Robeson sang multiple concerts in that very park while he was under a travel ban for his communist sympathies. It felt particularly significant to cross the border there just as the current US President was threatening Canada with economic war and eventual annexation, and friends at home were boycotting American goods and cancelling trips to the States. The border guard turned out to be one of the nicest we've ever dealt with, didn't bat an eye at a couple self-described folksingers, and didn't even ask about the boxes of CDs I'd carefully tabulated in case I was asked.

As always, our American audiences have been wonderful. Some nights they broke out into applause before we'd even gotten on stage, when the host introduced us as Canadians. We got to reconnect with lots of old friends. We did our best to sing songs of hope and make space for folks to grieve and sing together and celebrate community. But we were also dealing with the daily drip of news like everyone else. We heard about Nova Scotia folk duo Cassie and Maggie being searched for drugs and questioned about their loyalties. We heard about Trump’s order, on his first day in office, to keep out anyone with “hostile attitudes toward [US] citizens, culture, government, institutions, or founding principles.” We heard about the French scientist denied entry on account of messages critical of Trump on his phone, and the former Costa Rican President and Nobel Peace Prize laureate who had his visa revoked for criticizing Trump. We heard how students like Mahmoud Khalil and Rumeysa Ozturk were snatched off the street by plainclothes agents who refused to identify themselves and are still being held in detention for speaking against Israel’s ongoing terror in Gaza. And we heard stories of people like Jasmine Mooney being caught up in the machinery for no reason at all. I thought ahead to our dates down near the Mexican border, where I've encountered checkpoints on the road before, and eventually decided that I didn't feel comfortable asking Pamela—who's on a valid work visa that we paid way too much money for, but nonetheless a non-citizen—to stick out the tour.

We tumbled it around in our heads as we made our way down through Northern California, marveling at the massive Redwoods, the architectural whimsy of Eureka and the sublime Mendocino Coast. Eventually, Pamela decided that the unpredictability of the authorities, together with road fatigue and family situations better attended to at home, made flying home after Tucson feel like the best decision. In her own words:

Pamela and I are privileged to have Canada to go back to. We can only imagine how much scarier this is for our American friends, especially visible minorities and trans people, and even more so for those without legal status who are nevertheless woven into the fabric of this country.

We played two shows around Sacramento with our pal Justin Farren (who just might be the best songwriter you’ve never heard) and were grateful for the chance to catch up with all three of them—including kiddo in midair back there—for the first time since our first big trip through California in 2022. We hope to bring ‘em back up to Canada sometime soon.

Our hometown pals Sheena and Oliver also intercepted us at our last California stop in San Luis Obispo, and then we were off across the Sonoran Desert, spending two nights camping out in Joshua Tree National Park, and onward to Mesa, Arizona, where Pamela's mom and her husband spend their winters among a great many other snowbirds from Canada and the northern States. They live in a "park model" community that’s pretty much like summer camp for retirees, with fitness classes, dance lessons, pickleball, open mics, jams, karaoke, macramé mat-making for the homeless and so on. Their neighbours across the way had already gone back to Alberta and kindly left us the keys to camp at their place, so we had the space to catch up on things and work on this book of liner notes I’m wrestling with. If only the world would just stay still long enough so I can write about it!

In Tucson, we attended the Hands Off! protest before the folk festival, and it was amazing to see such a big crowd out in support, with only a few Trumpers there to troll. I can only hope these protests grow, and remain peaceful, to avoid providing the media with scenes of violence and property destruction to distract from the message. But it’ll be a tenuous coalition, especially around issues like the ongoing horror in Gaza. To be clear, Hamas are monstrous, but so is a state that would execute Palestinian medics and bury them and their ambulances in a mass grave. Netanyahu has repeatedly endorsed Trump’s plan to ethnically cleanse Gaza and develop it as a resort, and yet almost all Senate Democrats (including Cory Booker, a hero to many blue voters for his record-breaking filibuster last week) voted against Bernie Sanders’ proposal to limit arms sales to Israel. On this, like so many other issues, the world needs way bigger changes than the Democrats can give, and we the people will have to make them ourselves.

Back home in Canada, we're facing a federal election between a Trump-aligned candidate and a field of opposition voices that threaten to split the vote. I encourage friends to check the polls in their riding and vote for whoever stands the best chance of keeping Poilievre out 24 Sussex Drive, and then get back to the ongoing work of fighting for the Canada we want, including passing proportional representation so we don't have to vote “strategically” ever again.

Summer and fall

I’m stoked to announce that we’ll be at the beautiful Robson Valley Music Fest this summer for their last go round(!), as well as a couple more festivals that I’m waiting for the go-ahead to tell you about. I also bought our plane tickets to London in September, and we’ve already got a few shows booked across the pond:

Fri Sep 5 • Worth Matravers, Dorset, England • The Square & Compass
Sun Sep 7 • Priston, Bath, England • garden concert w/ Jez Hellard
Thu Sep 11 • Kirkcaldy, Fife, Scotland • Kirkcaldy Acoustic Club
Thu Sep 18 • Falkirk, Scotland • Falkirk Folk Club
Fri Sep 19 • Glasgow, Scotland • Robinsfield Bowl w/ Sarah Jane Scouten
Sat Sep 20 • Letham, Fife, Scotland • Letham Nights w/ Sarah Jane Scouten
Sun Sep 21 • Edinburgh, Scotland • Wee Folk Club
Wed Oct 1 • Schwalbach Am Taunus, Germany • Cowhide House Concerts
Fri Oct 3 • Duisburg, Germany • Where The Birds Fly House Concerts

I'm gonna do my best to fill this in, so please, if there's somewhere we should play, drop a line to scottcooksongs@gmail.com and I'll do my best to make it happen! I'll be headed to Australia from there, to tour and record an album with my new Aussie band The Little Rippers. We'll be at the 50th annual Maldon Folk Festival, and other festival announcements are coming soon.

If you've emailed me and I haven't answered, I'm trying to get caught up as best I can. If you're waiting on word from me, please don't hesitate to prod. And if you're keen to get your hands on the new album, I'll be opening up the pre-orders soon.

Wherever you are, I trust you're making it a better place.

Love and luck from here,

s