Help send Lauren to 2025 Masterclass Songwriting Camp

Hi, I’m Lauren Oxford, a singer-songwriter and filker.

Many of y’all know that I was the recipient of a grant from FanFare Music that sent me to John McCutcheon’s Summer Songwriting Camp in August 2021. This was a life-altering experience for me; at that camp, I met Sage Christie and Emily Johnson-Erday, who would later introduce me to Gray Buchanan, who would later all end up forming The Starlight Darlins together. Through connections I’ve made at that first camp, I’ve played concerts, had places to stay when traveling, and gotten involved with a festival in Kansas that I now go to every year. You’ve heard songs of mine that were a direct result of that camp, including “Soaring Still”, which is on my first, self-titled album, along with the final version of “What Rings True” that I perform to this day. I’ve also, along with Cat Faber (who went with me), shared some of the knowledge and techniques I gained via songwriting workshops at filk conventions.

In 2023, John McCutcheon decided to hold an invitation-only Masterclass Songwriting Camp, and I and all of my fellow Darlins were invited. In the lead-up to that, Kathleen Sloan (with help from Blind Lemming Chiffon) organized a GoFundMe and convinced me to let people help out. This wondrous community that I somehow find myself in the presence of showed up and singlehandedly enabled me to attend that camp, which was also life-changing. At “Fancy Camp” as it came to be called, all of us were able to dive so much deeper into the nitty gritty details of craft and received heavy-hitting prompts. From that camp, I got my song “Grace,” along with one I’ve reworked a bit called “Little Girl.” I also made more connections that have similarly opened doors for shows and concerts, along with places to stay when traveling. I learned so much about myself, and feel that I grew leaps and bounds as a songwriter because of it.

I thought the Masterclass Camp was a one-off thing, so imagine my surprise when (after opening a show for him in Asheville as the Darlins), John mentioned a second Masterclass Camp in 2025. After ironing out more details, this second camp is happening late in August, at the same place it was held last time.

This year, I set a goal to do it myself—to pick up extra shifts at work and do some freelancing gigs on the side to save. But doesn’t life in 2025 have a way of absolutely wrecking your plans? Between unforeseen car repairs (with even more that need to happen that I’m definitely putting off ) and other surprise expenses, I’m staring down a deadline and don’t have a whole lot to show for it. I’m planning to donate plasma later this month and in July, so that’ll go towards some of it.

I am, along with pretty much all of you, acutely aware that the world is broken. At the risk of clambering atop my soapbox, everything is so expensive, and wages are NOT keeping up. People are hurting. People are struggling with daily expenses. This doesn’t even get into folks with astronomical medical bills or funeral costs or car payments or skyrocketing rents. It doesn’t touch children who are, when not dying to bombs while sleeping, dying of acute malnutrition because aid is being withheld and sabotaged. I want to make it crystal clear that I’m not making this GoFundMe to siphon off money that would otherwise go to urgent, crucial causes. If any extra pocket change you have can only go to one thing, then PLEASE, for the love of god, send it to anything like what I mentioned above.

But, IF AND ONLY IF you still have an extra $5, $10 bucks leftover after making sure the things that truly need our attention get it, here’s a potential place to throw your spare change. At the same time, however, if I can’t afford the camp, then I can’t afford the camp! I’m fully prepared for that, and I know that sometimes, things just don’t work out and it’s part of life. Trust me, I already feel weird and gross enough as it is asking for help with something like this when there is so much actual suffering in the world that needs our attention.

But hey, this camp has a habit of breaking one open in the best ways, and maybe I’ll find that missing thing that unlocks something in my brain that lets me write a specific song to illuminate injustice. And if this ends up getting funded, my goal is to take painstaking, specific notes with the intention of sharing them in workshop formats at filk cons in the future. I fully intend to eke out every tiny little thing that can possibly be eked. I know what needs to happen from me and how I need to show up so that I can pass along new knowledge as a thank you for passing me along to camp.

As always, I am in awe of this community and pinching myself every day that we all found each other. Thank you for reading this far if you did, and for caring. Sending out all my love to each and every one of you.

Love always,

Lauren