An Update In my blog post last summer, pagansong.com/a-pagan-artist-in-residency, I shared my experience applying to and preparing for an artist residency at Osage Arts Community (OAC) in Belle, Missouri. Best Laid Plans I arrived October 1, 2024, and settled quickly into the River House on the Gasconade River. Eager to begin, I set up my …
How I am preparing for my winter artist residency as a songwriter After years of dreaming of and researching artist residencies around the US, I have found a great fit, and am excited to announce that I have been awarded a five month artist residency with Osage Arts Community in Belle, MO. This winter I …
Songwriting is such a strange process. I often spend months and much research on a single idea, and it might take a year for the actual song to emerge and mature. I have even said that a song isn’t a song until I have played it 100 times, because it will morph even after it …
Pagan Songwriters and Songs That Write Themselves Read More »
I spent my first years in the Pagan musical community hiding from my fellow musicians every time they asked for folks to sing, play or otherwise contribute to something that they were working on. Why? My reasons might be different from others, but what it came down to was imposter syndrome and my belief that …
1971 and I was 9, living an almost idyllic childhood, deeply loved and sheltered from the world and news of the Vietnam War, riots, racism, and rising feminism. But that summer, the protest lyrics and subversive rhythms that began drifting through the car window at stop lights, on the radio at a friend’s pajama party, …
I am a traveling Bard and a student of Kaballah. It can get confusing, as I am in a constant state of reconciling my mundane and magical perspectives into an “it is all One” state of being. My musical and spiritual paths are not simply intertwined. I honestly cannot pry them apart. From creating, recording, …
I sat on the couch – five and a half months pregnant. My husband pointed at my belly and said, “I can’t do this. You are the strongest woman I know. You’ll be fine.” He walked out forever. And I spiraled swiftly and deeply into a depression that seemed to have no bottom. I stopped …
Ah, my fellow Creative Souls – and we are all Creatives, are we not? Do you feel side-tracked by a global pandemic? Has your quiet, inspirational source been drowned out by the drums of war? Have your bills and fears been piling up so high that you can no longer reach your guitar in the …
The last couple of years of COVID-19, social distancing, career pivots, and cancellations has been hard on live performers. Even career artists are feeling pretty rusty as they step back onto the stage. It’s a good time to remind ourselves of our strategies for showing up at our best as performers. Here are ten tips …
I am a musician with a mission statement: To make people feel something, and to focus on hope, even within the saddest songs. How do you write of joy when you do not feel it yourself? How do you deal with writer’s block and stagnancy? How do you cease treading that killing loop that says …
