Help JM finish book and tour
Donation protected
Dear Friends,
I'm writing from the road, with great reluctance, to ask for your help. If you were planning to donate to a friend's medical emergency, disaster relief, legal aid for refugees, or an anti-Trump cause, please do that instead.
But if you'd like to help me out, here's the situation.
For 15 years, I've been lucky enough to cobble together a living from the arts—writing words and music, releasing albums and touring with Loma, Shearwater, Okkervil River, and others; and for the past five years I've also been working on a non-fiction book, The Feathered People, that's due by December of this year.
But like many people I know who've stayed in this field over the long term, these projects have come with debts that only seem to grow. And in the current tour of the US and Europe, they've come to a head—even with generous support from our record label.
Every tour is a gamble by nature, and most lose money; but this one, though musically rewarding, has been especially hard financially. To make sure all the musicians, agents, and rental agencies (excluding me) are paid, I have to raise $6500 in the next ten days—a burden I can't carry, having run my credit to the limit. I don't think I could count the number of times people have urged me to keep going; but when I've had to put $10,000 on a credit card to support a tour where musicians are paid well under minimum wage, I wonder not if it's worth it—it certainly is—but if it's possible at all.
Then there's the book.
I'm nearly finished with a draft of The Feathered People. It's a wild yarn—a travel/natural history epic about a strange group of social, intelligent birds of prey that live only in South America; it's also about a biological mystery that stumped Darwin, and a nearly-forgotten South American writer who changed the way we think about animals. As soon as I return home, I'm going to be focused on completing it, so that I can finally share it with you (and start working on some new music).
But to do that, and to spend the dedicated time I need to make it happen, I have to find a way to make the rest of the year's rent and basic living expenses. $5000 would go a long way toward that goal.
So that's why the big number at the top of this page, which is much larger than I'd like it to be; and honestly, I'd much rather not be making this request at all.
But I've run out of options; and so I'm asking for your help to bring these projects into port, and to continue to share them with you. My life in the arts has been tough but wonderful, and I've been lucky enough to share it with many talented and hard-working people I don't want to let down. And if you, or someone you know, is able to help me through this bottleneck of a time, you'll help ensure that there are more words and music from me for years to come.
All best, and with deepest thanks -
JM
I'm writing from the road, with great reluctance, to ask for your help. If you were planning to donate to a friend's medical emergency, disaster relief, legal aid for refugees, or an anti-Trump cause, please do that instead.
But if you'd like to help me out, here's the situation.
For 15 years, I've been lucky enough to cobble together a living from the arts—writing words and music, releasing albums and touring with Loma, Shearwater, Okkervil River, and others; and for the past five years I've also been working on a non-fiction book, The Feathered People, that's due by December of this year.
But like many people I know who've stayed in this field over the long term, these projects have come with debts that only seem to grow. And in the current tour of the US and Europe, they've come to a head—even with generous support from our record label.
Every tour is a gamble by nature, and most lose money; but this one, though musically rewarding, has been especially hard financially. To make sure all the musicians, agents, and rental agencies (excluding me) are paid, I have to raise $6500 in the next ten days—a burden I can't carry, having run my credit to the limit. I don't think I could count the number of times people have urged me to keep going; but when I've had to put $10,000 on a credit card to support a tour where musicians are paid well under minimum wage, I wonder not if it's worth it—it certainly is—but if it's possible at all.
Then there's the book.
I'm nearly finished with a draft of The Feathered People. It's a wild yarn—a travel/natural history epic about a strange group of social, intelligent birds of prey that live only in South America; it's also about a biological mystery that stumped Darwin, and a nearly-forgotten South American writer who changed the way we think about animals. As soon as I return home, I'm going to be focused on completing it, so that I can finally share it with you (and start working on some new music).
But to do that, and to spend the dedicated time I need to make it happen, I have to find a way to make the rest of the year's rent and basic living expenses. $5000 would go a long way toward that goal.
So that's why the big number at the top of this page, which is much larger than I'd like it to be; and honestly, I'd much rather not be making this request at all.
But I've run out of options; and so I'm asking for your help to bring these projects into port, and to continue to share them with you. My life in the arts has been tough but wonderful, and I've been lucky enough to share it with many talented and hard-working people I don't want to let down. And if you, or someone you know, is able to help me through this bottleneck of a time, you'll help ensure that there are more words and music from me for years to come.
All best, and with deepest thanks -
JM
Organizer
Jonathan Meiburg
Organizer
