Greetings my friends
How are you? Did you have a good summer? Did you do anything really cool?
My summer was super busy. I'm still feeling a little overwhelmed, but this is just day 4 of kids being back in school. I still have time to catch up.
I thought I'd share some of the things that are happening and coming up. Sooooo this might get a little long. I hope you like it… and even find it inspiring. I'll do my best to make that happen.
COFFEE SHOWS RETURN
First up is the Coffee shows. Coffee with The Celtfather returns next Wednesday, Aug 16 at 11:30 AM Eastern. Shows will continue to be on Wednesday at 11:30 all season. They are about 20 minutes long, depending on my playing mood.
The Regular shows stream privately on YouTube. I will post a link to the shows on Patreon on Weds morning to remind you (and I'll do my best to remember). If you don't see anything by 9 AM, feel free to let me know. hehe.
At least once a month, I offer a public show. That will stream on Facebook.
Find a link to the one next week, right here.
FOLK CONCERT IN ATLANTA
I only have one local show this month. Fiddler's Green Coffeehouse is an event put on by Atlanta Area Friends of Folk Music. It's a folk music concert, and I'm really excited about it because it will attract folk music fans locally, and hopefully, I'll get more folks to some of my other shows when they happen.
Tickets are just $10. And I would REALLY appreciate it if you could make it.
You can find out more about it here.
POST-GEN CON THOUGHTS
Gen Con was just incredible this year. I had some truly stellar shows, a lot of success with album pins, and well… I'll tell ye.
I confess that I sometimes get a little manic at Gen Con. I have trouble calming down. I'm so excited and trying to work extra hard.
But this year, I was a bit more relaxed….forcibly so.
Kenzie came to Gen Con this year for the first two days. I know my introverted kid enough to know that if I was manic, I would stress them out as well.
So I forced myself to stay chill. It not only benefitted Kenzie. It made for a much more relaxing and awesome con experience.
The Comedy Music Cabaret was more packed bigger than it's ever been. We had the amazing Mikey Mason, Dan the Bard, and newbies, The Faithful Sidekicks and Ginger Slingshot. It was a blast! I heard a lot of great comments about Ginger Slingshot in particular.
After that show, Mikey Mason and I joined forces for a two-hour Firefly Drinking Songs show. Again, attendance was brilliant. We went back and forth singing songs throughout the show.
I even borrowed Mikey's guitar and played the guitar in public for the first time in 30 years. It was kind of weird but amazing!
I think it was weird because my identity is so wrapped up in playing the autoharp. But I've been playing more recently since I started teaching Inara how to play it.
I was nervous and not at my best. But I was proud of myself!
Hobbit Drinking Songs and Sci Fi Drinking Songs both went great too. There was a good turnout. And the number of people saying, “you have c-deeeess!” is growing and infecting every other musician's show. LOL
As usual, the response to the album pins was amazing. People kept saying, “What a great idea!” as they picked up the new format. About half my sales were album pins. But then again, I discontinued some of my more popular CDs like Sci Fi Drinking Songs, Firefly Drinking Songs, Don't Go Drinking With Hobbits, and As Long As I'm Flyin'.
I'm still debating whether I'm gonna totally discontinue those or if I will have copies of some at Dragon Con. But as of Gen Con, I did not have them. In fact, I only had about 5 titles available (How America Saved Irish Music, Scottish Songs of Drinking & Rebellion, Pirates vs Dragons, Kilted For Her Pleasure, and the newest of new CDs).
DRAGON CON COMING UP
Andrew and I will be back at Dragon Con this year. I have another Firefly Drinking Songs show with Mikey Mason, Hobbit Drinking Songs with the Bards, a Bards show, and a Pub Songs & Stories show. Plus, there'll be panels. I'm hoping we can pull together a few more shows before it all comes together.
Find out more about our shows here.
CELTIC EARTH AND IRISH & CELTIC MUSIC PODCAST
The Kickstarter for the Irish & Celtic Music Podcast finishes up tomorrow. I'm so grateful for all of the support I've received. I am planning to do this once a year to help cover the cost of new album pins, reprint some of our compilation CDs, and…
One of the big reasons I decided to do this campaign was because I realized there were some months where I spent a lot on buying albums and promoting the episodes. This greatly reduces my monthly income that I pay to my family. I figure having a buffer for those soft months would balance out my life and make it a little less stressed.
You can support the kickstarter now. The campaign ends tomorrow morning.
PUB SONGS & STORIES RETURNS NEXT WEEK
I have a new episode out next week. This one is a live show from the Maggie McGuinness Pub earlier this year. It was an incredible show! So much interaction. And having played there for well over ten years, the audience is truly amazing!
I was debating how I wanted to do this podcast: weekly, monthly, same format every time, different format.
I finally decided (at least for now LOL), it's just absurd that I keep trying to stick with one format. So my goal is to put out something about every two weeks. But it's gonna vary. It might be more. It might be less.
Sometimes, it'll just be what's new followed by a story from one of my songs. Sometimes, I'll highlight amazing bands. Sometimes, I'll dig into the sustainability topics that are close to my heart. Sometimes, I'll have some live recordings. And sometimes, I'm just gonna do something different, like a return to Canton Radio… (That would be fun to revisit).
The goal is to have fun and to remind you that I have CDs… (your response is….?)
If you're not subscribed, click here.
FYI. Patreon is also now linked to Spotify, so you can listen to all of these podcasts and my Stories from the Road episodes on Spotify… not sure how yet… It's brand new. But it should be possible. LOL.
NERDY NOEL
A couple weeks back, I played an event called Nerdy Noel. You can read about that event here.
I loved that Nerdy Noel so much that I decided to organize my own on Sunday, December 3, 2023 at The Lost Druid Brewery, in Avondale Estates, GA. I'm working with Amanda Carman to create this event.
I have zero details. But we will be looking for people to help out the event. Let me know if you're interested in volunteering.
LIVESTREAMING CONCERTS ON BANDCAMP
I am planning more live-streaming concerts this fall. The first one will be on THURSDAY, AUGUST 24 at 7:30 PM on Bandcamp. I'll officially post the link a little closer to the date.
That said, Bandcamp is now offering Listening Parties. I thought I'm might try those out in the near future, during a day time, so that I can sit around and chat with you as I listen and work.
What album would you like to do a listening party with?
SUSTAIN THIS!
My new CD Come Adventure With Me won't be officially released online until next year.
But you can pick up a copy early when you see me live at a show.
I'm excited about the new album for many reasons. One is that I'm working sustainability into my merch production. My goal is to decrease the amount of single-use plastic I bring out.
The new album is not wrapped in plastic.
It just occurred. What happens if one of the albums gets wet. Do I toss how both the CD and the wet jacket?
Nope. The CD is still good. I even know how to print homemade jackets thanks to a test run I did last year.
So even if there is a problem. I'm ready to adjust!
Most of the time, I do my best to reduce, reuse and recycle, for both business and in my personal life.
One of the things I love about the Carbon Almanac is that it focuses on the positive. “It's not too late!” is the mantra.
It's extra work to do REDUCE, REUSE and RECYCLE. But it is also empowering to know that we can make change.
It starts with individual change. Like, did you know that one of the biggest polluters by individuals out there are gas-powered leaf blowers. Read this. It's kinda crazy.
Personally, I hate gas-powered anything. I also hate the noise of them. I still rake by hand. Tho it's a lot of work in our tree-covered neighborhood. But I don't mind.
Eventually, we can do better things like my retirement mutual fund doesn't invest in big oil companies. That can make a huge impact. Hear more about that at 49 minutes here.
Oh! And apparently, there's something called Plastic Free July. I want to look into that next year.
RUN WALKING FOR FUN AND HEALTH
Summer was pretty good for running and walking. I ran in Ireland, France and Italy this year. I also ran one day in Indianapolis and a few times at the beach. It's been great.
I also started reading Arnold's Pump Club newsletter.
I have zero desire to look like Arnold Schwarzenegger. But I love his newsletter. It's a daily dose of healthy inspiration for me. It's packed with research backed tips on health plus occasional workouts.
A couple things I learned:
- Active muscles for a better workout. I do a light Yoga stretching workout every morning, just to wake up.Afterward, I do this Plank thing. I'll do 15-20 reps to “activate” my muscles. Take a 4-5 breaths for a break. Then do 5 reps. 4-5 breaths, 5 reps, 4-5 breaths, 5 reps. It's very simple and I can feel it working. Now I just need to do other exercises. lol
- If you can't spare an hour to walk or run, then as little as 10 minutes of a high intensity workout, does wonders.I usually run on mornings on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I will some times just do fairly quick 15 minute sprint runs. It gets my heart beat pumping. I feel a bit better about life afterward.
- Going for a fast walk outside works well too. The big goal is to get your blood pressure up a bit. I just saw an article today about needing just 4000 steps to stay healthy. But 7000-13000 is ideal. As long as you keep moving, you're doing great.
I hope that helps you. I've fallen in love with exercising these past few years. It's SOO difficult to make the time. But as soon as I decided to do it, it got easier.
I still love how my friend can only watch shows if he's working out.
What a great rule!
I need to implement something like that myself… Maybe in the coming months.
THANK YOU!
Thank you for continuing to support my music. It means a lot. I know I do something different… something Selcouth. And there are a LOT of great entertainers out there. In fact, I highlight a lot of them on my podcasts.
Sometimes, I feel like I go out of my way to tell you that there are better musicians than I am. And yet, so many of you are still here on my Patreon…
I am so grateful to have you in my life.
Thank you for you kindness.
Thank you for supporting those other musicians.
Thank you for buying my music and subscribing to my Patreon.
You are wonderful!
Slainte!
Marc
