Hey, I'm Autumn Rhodes. I'm a full-time self-employed music teacher and musician, playing Irish traditional music on flute, concertina, tin whistle, and uilleann pipes.

A few Decembers back, I came up with a Christmastime project that I called "The O'Neill's Chistmas Tune Tradvent Challenge." For each day of Advent, I picked a seasonally-titled melody from O'Neill's Music of Ireland (the 'Holy Bible' of Irish music). I learned atune and recorded a video each day.

Folks seemed to enjoy the project. Many of the tunes I found have yet to be recorded commercially. Several of them are really unique, quirky little gems that I think should make a comeback into the session repertoire.

This winter, my plan was to record and release a simple digital album, something between an EP and a regular album, of the 25 wintery Tradvent tunes. The hope was to have it ready if not in time for Tradvent, then at least in time for the 12 Days of Christmas. I made mockup cover art and decided on the title 'The Humours of Winter.' I was in the process of reviewing, arranging, rehearsing, and generally preparing to go into a studio.

But instead...I got sick. For the last few weeks of November, it was on and off. I kept thinking it would get better, but more than a month later, it hasn't.

It eventually went into pneumonia and I've coughed myself into a bruised or broken rib. I'm between insurances at the moment, and the additional medical bills have put me more and more behind on bills. Unfortunately, there may be more medical bills to come, as the pneumonia isn't responding to any of the medications I've been taking.

Throughout this, I haven't been able to perform at gigs, lead sessions, teach my online students, or record EPs. Annoyingly, I don't know how much longer it'll be before I am back to normal.

So...my goal in asking for donations is first off to get help getting back on my feet financially - to help pay my rent and important bills. But it's also to fund the recording process for my Humours of Winter digital EP. You'd be helping me personally and artistically!

If you can spare a donation, you will I will give you a link for a digital download of 'The Humours of Winter,' whenever I'm well enough to get it finished.

Thank you all so much for reading and for friendship.