First Substack

*~ Choo Choo Woo Woo hopping on the Substack train ~*

Why this! Why now!

I’ve long admired the art of the mass email (could not think of the word when I began this but: NEWSLETTER. NEWSLETTER.) - I have some friends who write beautifully, and every time I receive an email update from them I read the entire page and giggle to myself at their humor and creativity. Friends include recipes, what gigs they are playing, what music/book/show/art piece inspired them that week, jokes, little things they noticed while living life. The range of frequency/infrequency of the updates is part of the charm to me- I never know when I’ll get a little nugget of information from my lovely buds. Some are dedicated updaters, some update when they feel compelled to.

I am giving in and starting A SUBSTACK. I don’t know what this will be or if this will turn into anything, but I do know a few things. There are shows I’m playing that I want you to know about, incredibly mundane things I want to share with the world, writing skills that I vastly want to improve! Instagram and Twitter are growing increasingly full of ads and while YES- I do love the internet more than I care to admit- I want to change my relationship to it, and to the people who want to hear from me. I cannot guarantee I will update this regularly, but I can guarantee that I will try my best (or at least think about it.) I was a child of Xanga and Tumblr, let’s see how I do with this. At the very least- I’ll tell you about the shows that I am playing :)

Update lil update lil update lil update

This week I got to play a show at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center in Nashville, TN with Makaya McCraven. Such a beautiful building. I grew up playing classical music, and playing in places like that always seemed like the stuff of dreams- so I felt really lucky to be on that stage and play with some people I hadn’t seen in a long while. The day before the gig I met up with my good friends Eric + Natalie while I was there and we had dinner. Eric made GOOD. SOUP. Side note: it also had potato chips in it - maybe this is the recipe. In fact, that is the recipe. I had two big ol’ bowls.

I’ve been reading this book slowly but surely-

Shoutout *Steve Marquette* thank you for letting me borrow this. It made me tear up on the plane back to Chicago from Nashville. I read a few chapters and was so moved when he talked about his relationship with his mother, his relationship to his performance persona throughout his life and how it has changed, and his general approach to finding grounded-ness through religion. I find that I really enjoy learning about how people operate in the world, and what motivates them to keep going. The book is also written as a conversation which feels very intimate- I imagine that I am sitting there listening to two people talking. The information sinks in differently.

Upcoming Shows

2.18 - Berman/Wallace/Ali/Harris with Macie Stewart & Lia Kohl -
Playing at Constellation in Chicago with Lia’s and my duo project. Love to improvise with Lia so much-

2.19 - Gather Series at Golden Dagger - Macie Stewart & Ishmael Ali - 2pm
This will be beautiful and chill- Ishmael is wonderful. Also, matinee show! Kind of the dream.

3.2 - Stewart/Stein/Finnegan with Jackson/Adasiewicz at Elastic Arts - 8:30pm
New crew! Classic spot! Looking forward to playing - last Chicago impro show before tour :’)

MARCH TOUR

Touring with the dreamiest trio: Lia Kohl and Michael Hilger. Lia is even opening up most of the shows with her incredible solo project. Check that out *- here -* Meeting up with some great musicians in all of these places- and seeing the west coast. Every show on this tour is as a trio except in Knoxville for Big Ears. More updates on that later :)

Get tickets here if you want: TICKETS 2 THE SHOWS

Alright I can’t type anymore- If you read this- just know that I appreciate you so much.

SO.

MUCH.

-MS

---