16 April. Snow (the last of the year, I hope) last night; it’s mostly melted away this afternoon, but there are still a few traces of it in the shadows. I’ve just packed up the last of my things for our only Europe tour of 2014, which starts in a few days; as usual, I’m mostly hauling gear and merchandise (including screen-printed posters and the tour-only Missing Islands disc), with a little room left for a change of clothes and a few books (which include Yashar Kemal’s Memed, My Hawk and William Stolzenburg’s Rat Island).
We’re playing 18 dates in a row on this tour—a record for us, I think—and I’m looking forward to revisiting some of our favorite places, and hoping for good weather and good audiences, especially since I have no idea when we’ll be back.
These are the last shows of the Fellow Travelers tour, meaning (probably) the last shows of this year and this lineup, and though these have been some of the shorter tours we’ve done they’ve also been some of my favorites; our runs on the east and west coasts of the US might have been the most enjoyable runs of dates I’ve done, thanks in no small part to the kind and attentive audiences who turned up everywhere. (After spending most of 2012 playing in front of other bands’ friends, it was a shot in the arm to finally see and meet our own.)
But as for the upcoming shows: if you’re in Europe/UK and haven’t seen us, or haven’t seen us in a while, this would be a really good time to come. As in the US, we’ll be playing a mixture of older songs (some of them for the first time in years), along with a few selections from Fellow Travelers and a surprise or two.
We’re honored to have Jesca Hoop onstage as part of the band on these dates; she’s also opening the shows in all except the UK dates, where we’ll be joined by My Sad Captains. The dates are on the website.
In the coming months we’ll be hard at work on the new album, which I’m pretty sure will be called Jet Plane and Oxbow. It’s a wild record so far; we’re partway through it already, and it’s safe to say it’s unlike Fellow Travelers; maybe unlike anything we’ve ever done. So far the album’s included work by me, Lucas, Danny, Cully Symington, Brian Reitzell, and Howard Draper (who last appeared in the Palo Santo and Rook days). I’m sure there’ll be more names on that list (including Jesca’s) before it’s done.
– JM/Shearwater
(P.S.: here are some stories from the road you might not have heard before.)
Available for preorder now at your friendly local record shop, on your favorite internet music service, and/or at our Bandcamp page.
A friend spotted this on the shelves at the excellent @thirdplacebooks in Seattle, and it warmed my heart to know it’s still alive in the world.
I’m always happy about a wild sighting of AMRC…and with the holiday coming up, I hope it’s not out of line to give you guys a gentle reminder that it makes a wonderful gift for anyone who needs some caracaras in their life, but doesn’t know it yet.
And many thanks to Rafe at Third Place for such a kind review.
JM
This is a sad/happy memory for me because back when it came out, I actually did give a copy of this to my friend the ornithologist Robert Stein, who recently passed away. He loved it - said that it was the best book about birds he'd read in a long time.
It is such a brilliant book. I learned so much and loved the writing. It was magnificent.
Mine is sitting right here on my nightstand as I text. Good read so far!
This will be something to look for during my next library visit.
Fabulous book.
I LOVED this book
A birder musician YAY to you <3
I'm listening to the audiobook... Intrigued...
Really enjoyed it!
I have audio book. Now I just need to listen to it! 🙂
It’s excellent, Jonathan! I had no idea what caracaras were before reading your book, and I’m grateful to have that situation corrected. They’re fascinating birds, and your writing does them justice. Highly recommended!
This week's been quite a ride; I'm reeling along with everyone else. Conversations with friends have ended mostly in tears or gallows humor. Or both.
But I couldn't help thinking about how every time we make an album, it seems to anticipate the future, in hindsight—Jet Plane and Oxbow, for example, was finished just before 2016, and we all know how that turned out.
And The Great Awakening, though it was written in 2019/2020, seems like a perfect match for the feelings I'm having right now, and maybe you are too: grand terrors, tempered by small (but profound) mercies. I wonder if it strikes anyone else this way—and if so, if it helps. (The full-album video is here: youtu.be/8eN3s7s9YBM?si=PLuIppLHMJ1jJhF3 )
It makes me wonder what the album taking shape right now will turn out to be. Here's hoping.
Hugs to all of ye.
JM
I am struggling to picture what another album could possibly harbinge. Maybe it’ll be the year aliens finally make first contact, descend from the heavens, take a look around and utter their equivalent of “fuck no” and leave again.
JM, your albums have always been a wonderful gift. Every Shearwater record is just so magnificent. Thank you bringing your talents and art into the world, to share with all of us ❤️
I completely forgot how so many songs on this album seemed “politically inspired”. 🤯Omg. Have we gone full circle? “Look kids, it’s Big Ben.”
I was literally just wondering, what does Jonathan Meiburg make of all this? Shearwater has been a voice of reason among calamity all too often. Love this album and always love your insight!
Just wanted to say psp psp to the kitty. And tell you how much Shearwater albums mean to me
Thank you. It’s been incredibly traumatic.
Writing, composing, creating…all of it is resistance
I love this album so so much! I’ve already told you that though… gonna give it a whole new listen tonight with current affairs in mind. Thank you Jonathan!
Congratulations on your new and timely creation. 🎼
If you're truly portending the future with your albums, you know what your mission is for the next one ❤️
who's the baby? 😃 she's a cutie! i watch cat videos whenever i can to help with this unease
I’ve been listening to a lot of music since Tuesday, to keep me from constantly doomscrolling and obsessing over something that I cannot change. Your music has meant so much to me over the years and I count it among my favorites when I need comfort or validation for my feelings. Thank you for reaching out to your fans and thank you for sharing in such an intimate way. It helps those of us who are struggling breathe a little easier. 🩷
Two amazing albums.
You are a gift to this world!❤️
I listened to this last night on a long drive home in the dark.
This album is a helping hand and a comfort. Thank you for your music and looking forward to the new record (and if there's a Shearwater Plays Lodger reissue on the horizon it'd be just super)🙂
This part right here: youtu.be/AtzevD109xk?t=99
Do you still have any of the vinyl available for the great awakening? I didn't get a copy yet.
I want to add my thanks to everyone else's. As a fellow bird aficionado, I'm not only concerned about our country and what this may mean for the world, but also for all of the world's animals and wild spaces. Keep making music, please. We need you.
Si nous estimons que l'avenir de l'Humanité et de la Planète est entre les mains de quelques dirigeants fous, alors cela peut effectivement être effrayant. Mais je ne le crois pas. Nous sommes tous et toutes les décideurs, les game-changers, chaque jour, dans nos actes, nos achats, notre lien et notre manière d'interagir avec bienveillance plutôt qu'avec de la colère. Nous sommes le changement et il y a des raisons d'espérer.
Get out of your lazy bed and come back to France !! 😂
Thought I'd jot down a few words about last Tuesdays's events. I have a general idea of who might be reading this, and I want to level with you for a bit. I know you're feeling sad right now. Sad and confused. How could this happen? It couldn't be that the average person cares more being able to afford groceries than they care about the opinions of Taylor Swift? It couldn't be that you knowingly, willingly, enthusiastically, put a feeble and very obviously senile man in charge of the free world and switched him out at the last second for a DEI hire after pretending he was at the top of his game for the past four years? It couldn't be that decent, well-intentioned Americans do not appreciate being called "bitter clingers", "deplorables", "garbage", "fascists" or "Nazis"? It couldn't be that when you chose to censor, cancel and deplatform us instead of refuting our arguments with arguments of your own (because, let's face it, deep down you knew you couldn't), we didn't just disappear into thin air? It couldn't be that your candidate ran on the message that Christians were "at the wrong rally", ethnic minorities should stay in line and vote as they're told, and that anyone supporting or so much as sympathizing with her opponent was a dangerous bigot? It couldn't be that people, across the political spectrum and from all walks of life, respect a person who gave up their billionaire lifestyle to be dragged through the mud for a decade, who got shot in the ear to defiantly raise his fist seconds later, and who, for all his faults and for everything one might disagree with him on, clearly has genuine love for the country he serves? It couldn't be that your vitriolic screeching about saving our democracy might sound the tiniest bit hollow when you have used the institutional power you were so foolishly entrusted with, not to improve the lives of the people who gave you the mandate to improve their lives, but to imprison your political opponents, to unashamedly wish them dead, to ruin their lives, to silence them, and to take away their means to defend themselves? Unfortunately, history dictates that you likely will not learn. That you will try to remove or report this comment for hate speech, or opt to respond to it angrily or dismissively in a vain attempt to cope with this loss. That you will spend the next four years doubling down on your vitriolic screeching. Somehow radicalizing further, if that's even possible. Tearing down what we build. Ungratefully resisting the policies that you too will undeservedly benefit from. We know. Hell, we know that in four, eight or twelve years, the tables might turn. That in the long term, a national divorce is the only peaceful solution. But for now, in this very moment, and over these next couple of days, weeks, months and years, there is something else we know. It is that we have the electoral college, the popular vote, every swing state, the Senate, the House of Representatives, and the Supreme Court. And Twitter, because why not. You, in this moment, have nothing but your own tears. And that feels pretty good, to tell you the truth! :D
My sub rosa 2024 speaking tour—which began ten days ago with several events in (actual) Iowa and one in (virtual) Scotland—concludes this Saturday in London, where I'll be speaking at 2PM at Kings College as part of the mad and marvelous TetZooCon. tetzoo.com/convention
It will surprise no one that the title of my talk is "Why the Caracaras Would Like to Meet You".
For avoidance of doubt: all of the above is 100% true. As is the below:
A week ago, I was reading some new work from the pulpit of a chapel in Grinnell, Iowa, and it hit me: I hadn't made sounds into a microphone in front of real live humans since “A Most Remarkable Creature” was published in 2021. Which was a very strange feeling. I've missed it.
I'd like to thank the very kind folks at Grinnell College—especially Hai-Dang Phan, his students, the Center for Prairie Studies, and the great Grinnell College Birding Club, for making a fella feel welcome out there in the wild wild midwest. And I look forward to finally meeting Darren Naish and his fellow travelers this weekend, and anyone else who cares to turn up. It's a good talk, and I'll take questions. You can ask me anything. (JM)
I loved your incredible book!
Thought I'd jot down a few words about last night's events. I have a general idea of who might be reading this, and I want to level with you for a bit. I know you're feeling sad right now. Sad and confused. How could this happen? It couldn't be that the average person cares more being able to afford groceries than they care about the opinions of Taylor Swift? It couldn't be that you knowingly, willingly, enthusiastically, put a feeble and very obviously senile man in charge of the free world and switched him out at the last second for a DEI hire after pretending he was at the top of his game for the past four years? It couldn't be that decent, well-intentioned Americans do not appreciate being called "bitter clingers", "deplorables", "garbage", "fascists" or "Nazis"? It couldn't be that when you chose to censor, cancel and deplatform us instead of refuting our arguments with arguments of your own (because, let's face it, deep down you knew you couldn't), we didn't just disappear into thin air? It couldn't be that your candidate ran on the message that Christians were "at the wrong rally", ethnic minorities should stay in line and vote as they're told, and that anyone supporting or so much as sympathizing with her opponent was a dangerous bigot? It couldn't be that people, across the political spectrum and from all walks of life, respect a person who gave up their billionaire lifestyle to be dragged through the mud for a decade, who got shot in the ear to defiantly raise his fist seconds later, and who, for all his faults and for everything one might disagree with him on, clearly has genuine love for the country he serves? It couldn't be that your vitriolic screeching about saving our democracy might sound the tiniest bit hollow when you have used the institutional power you were so foolishly entrusted with, not to improve the lives of the people who gave you the mandate to improve their lives, but to imprison your political opponents, to unashamedly wish them dead, to ruin their lives, to silence them, and to take away their means to defend themselves? Unfortunately, history dictates that you likely will not learn. That you will try to remove or report this comment for hate speech, or opt to respond to it angrily or dismissively in a vain attempt to cope with this loss. That you will spend the next four years doubling down on your vitriolic screeching. Somehow radicalizing further, if that's even possible. Tearing down what we build. Ungratefully resisting the policies that you too will undeservedly benefit from. We know. Hell, we know that in four, eight or twelve years, the tables might turn. That in the long term, a national divorce is the only peaceful solution. But for now, in this very moment, and over these next couple of days, weeks, months and years, there is something else we know. It is that we have the electoral college, the popular vote, every swing state, the Senate, the House of Representatives, and the Supreme Court. And Twitter, because why not. You, in this moment, have nothing but your own tears. And that feels pretty good, to tell you the truth! :D
