Turn the page
(not a Metallica fan-fic)
Happy Tuesday, my friends. I am coming down from a weekend crammed with performances at the Capitol Theatre, interspersed with moments of magic as an audience member at Cultivate Festival. I am so heart-full and just a little bit tired. In case I haven’t said it enough lately, those of us living in Northumberland County are spoiled for music and art offerings, and Cultivate and the Capitol Theatre are among the best. Support them whenever you can, by attending their events or donating to them. They make our community a better place and they both put on a damn good show!
I know it’s not quite October but waking up this morning felt like turning the calendar page to a fresh month. For the next little while I’m putting my performance hat on the shelf (with the exception of one We3 collab in November that I just can not resist).
The wheel of the year has clicked into a new position for me.
After a very quiet, insular winter and spring I needed to make music with and for other people, to pull myself back out into the public sphere and have fun. And man oh man, I really did. Playing live this summer and into September brought a part of me back to life. It was exactly what I needed.
Performing demands a focus and energetic output that makes it hard for me to do any writing or other creative pursuits when I have a show on the horizon. I have to practice a lot to feel confident and ready for a show; that is doubly true for a show like the one I was in last weekend, where I had to learn four new songs with less than two week’s notice.
August and September were all about that kind of focus, using my energy to polish things up for an audience. Today I am delighted to be tucking myself into some solitude to write and edit, to do research and flesh out new project ideas, and…to record! It’s been three and a half years since I released any recordings and damn it, it’s time. I’ll have some new offerings for you in winter 2026 and beyond, so stay tuned here for those.
And because this newsletter celebrates Joy Just Because, I’m gonna leave you with this short video of the Trash Panda Brass Band leading a parade of ten foot tall goat puppets around the Cultivate Festival grounds.
xo
Shannon
Upcoming Shows
Save the date Thursday November 20 for a reunion of We3 (Katie Hoogendam aka MERKAT, Saskia Tomkins and me). More details to come!