Here's the summary:

Friends! Neighbors! Fellow Creatures! It’s been nine months since Sufferwell released, and I’m beginning to scheme and dream up a new project. Yes, in this wild, manic, dicey era, I am still in the business of foolishness, which we call art. I still believe beauty will save the world, bit by bit, with a steady hand, in slow currents. And let me be so bold as to say that this project is / can / will be a thing of beauty. Here’s why:

I worked with my new friend and producer Ethan Nathaniel to make my song “Gardens Alone”, which released this August. Ethan has an incredible gift for building and bringing songs to life, so when he agreed last week to help me record and produce this upcoming project, I was thrilled.

It will be a collection of 4 of my original songs and will be centered around the theme of divine belonging; more words on that below. But I’ll cut to the chase —recording and producing (especially when done well) is an expensive and exhausting beast of a process. The studio equipment is not cheap, the hours are weird and long, and the editing and arranging of each song takes a massive toll on both brain and body. Ethan is about to undertake this process with/for me, and I want to compensate him for it.

Before I knew Ethan, I listened to his music and really respected his musicianship from afar. He is unbelievably talented, intuitive, kind, and wholehearted. (I’m still pinching myself that I get to work with him.) 100% of the money from this fundraiser will go toward compensating him for the excellent, painstaking work that he is about to do on this project.

I know there are a million and 1 worthy causes to give your money to these days, but if you’d consider donating your money to make this project a reality, I’d be so thankful. And regardless of whether you give or not, I’m so glad to have you in my corner.

Here's the story:

For those of you who don't know me, my name is Delaney Young. I am a full-time 2nd Grade teacher living in Chicago. I also write songs. I consider both of these streams of work to be vocational; they enable me to shape the world around me, and they shape me as I engage in them.

My story with music began when I was young. I grew up in a family and community that loved to sing, so music was the water I swam in. When I started taking classical piano lessons in elementary school, I was immediately taken with it. But after a decade of practicing in such a precise and tactile form, I wanted to find a new way to engage with music that was less about performance and more about community and honest self-expression. In this way, I sort of stumbled upon songwriting and fell deeply in love with it. It has enriched and infused so much meaning into my life, and has become one of the most powerful ways I know how to engage with my community and world.

In the last 8 years, I've thrown myself into the craft, participating in workshops, co-writing with other artists, playing shows, touring, and releasing some of my original music on streaming platforms. Almost 3 years ago, I released my first song "Wrestle", and it’s been a little miracle to watch this song make its way around the world and resonate with so many friends and strangers alike. It’s been listened to over 70,000 times across streaming platforms and has been used in several church services.

In a comical and probably God-ordained turn of events, “wrestling” has kind of become my brand. I’ve turned into the neighborhood wrestle enthusiast, the spokesperson for suffering well, the God-haunted soliloquist, the bruised reed that sings about its bruises. Listeners thank me for making them cry. Happy, uncomplicated people have never heard my music. And so it goes.

I released my first EP 2 summers ago, entitled "pilgrim memos". The project is a collection of live, unedited voice memo recordings of songs I wrote while backpacking through Europe on a solo, self-proclaimed pilgrimage. The project’s style and format aim to mimic the content of its songs: raw and honest words to and from God about doubt, discovery, and journey. Then, this past February, I released my Sufferwell EP, which explored themes of doubt, suffering, and surrender to God. The culmination of the EP is the realization that suffering is an invitation to come near to God, to be blessed by our limits and dependence, to express our needs to an ever-present Spirit and stumble closer to our Maker in the darkness.

The project I’m beginning to work on now is, in some ways, the conclusion and sum of this pilgrimage + suffering equation. These songs are about the discovery at the end of any experience of wandering and wrestling—that we belong to God, and God belongs to us. This belonging feels like many things: an inconvenience, slowness, rest, a load to bear, need, a relief, a joy, a process.

In short, this project will be a study of relationship with the Divine. These songs are pure, tender, curious, and bright. Of all the songs I’ve ever written, they’re my favorite. I can’t wait for you to hear them, and to hear what you hear in them.

The glory of art is that, in a world of armor and hurry and expense, art endorses vulnerability and slowness and revival. It has the power to draw us out of our isolation and into communities of solidarity and shared experience. This is what I hope my songs do, specifically for people trying to walk with and toward and alongside God in love.

Art is also so reciprocal, and I am constantly receiving that companionship and solidarity from listeners in return when they tell me about how my music connected with or spoke to them. So thank you so much. The love, support, and enthusiasm I receive from you is an ineffable gift. I've had many, many moments this year where I've asked myself, "How did I get so lucky?!"

I really believe in this project and I can't wait to share more about it in the upcoming months. Thank you for being a patron and walking this road with me. BEAUTY WILL SAVE THE WORLD!