July 2025 | a monthly newsletter from a dependent musician

Edina Art Fair | courtesy of John Swardson

 

If you’re reading this in real time, and you live in the US of A, it’s July 4th! Independence Day.

 

What does that mean in your world?  (oh, that could be so many things)

In your heart? (oh, that could be so many things)

 

In my world, it means that some of the people I love the most get an extra day off from work, and so we convene in my favorite spot and spend a few days all extra intertwined.  AND there’s a parade. 🎆

 

In my heart…I have a son who will turn 16 this month.  When I was that age, I couldn’t wait to get my driver’s license.  I would be sooo independent!  Um…in my parents‘ car, when it was available to me.  😂

 

Our kiddo though, shows NONE of this hit-the-road-excitement.  As a parent, I experience this push/pull of emotion:  1) DUDE-GET-YOUR-LICENSE-IVE-BECOME-AN-UBER and also…2) car time is actually pretty precious with that kid.  There’s a lot of not talking, and there’s also some talking. Both of these states of being together feel worthy of soaking in for as long as possible. 

 

❤️

 

I was also thinking about this idea because…I’m an independent musician.  Like…I’ve made that my job, somehow.  We call musicians (or any kind of artist, or bookstores, or contractors, or or) independent when they aren’t attached to some larger funding source, which in my case would be a record label.  

 

When I lived in Nashville the dream for everyone was RECORD LABEL!  Because…budget!  Music videos!  Records made with top-notch session musicians!  Maybe a tour bus!  Independent musicians were mayyyyybbeee scraping some money together to make a demo.  Maybe.

 

But that was decades ago - since then, the landscape has changed so that being an independent musician is an actual thing.  While the cost of eggs keeps rising, and making a record is an expensive act, recording equipment has gotten cheaper, so I CAN go out and make a record, without a label.  

 

I’ve been working on a new record for all of 2025, actually.  And the beauty of being an independent musician is this…I can make the record I WANT to make.  I do not need someone’s approval. I do not need to adhere to someone else’s timeline.  I get to choose the songs that feel the most urgent to me, I get to work with musicians that leave me oohing and ahhhing like a firework grand finale.  Whoa!  That’s pretty magical.

 

If there’s a beauty to it, there must be a challenge, right?  Yeah, sure! I have to fund it.  But! This challenge is revealed to be actually, a beauty.  Because…the idea of independence here …it’s false.  I would be (ju)Lyin’ to you to say otherwise.  In fact, I am declaring myself deeply DEpendent.  

 

Dependent on:  my husband, my parents, my in-laws, my brother and sister-in-law, parent-friends-who-are-down-to-carpool. My bandmates! My songwriting community, and Pat, Laurel, and Lori who keep it running.  My friends who have nothing to do with music, my friends who have everything to do with music!  The Sarah Subscribers at Patreon!  People coming to shows so that venues say I can play there so that I can sing for new people who might need the song of my heart and might come to shows and and and…this list is for sure missing 75 more things.

 

Often, I’ve been offered a narrative of valor wrapped around independence.  Maybe you have, too?  I see some good in this.  In knowing I can do things on my own.  Except…even as I type THAT I am hit with the ‘nah….you’re (ju)Lyin’ to yourself, Sarah‘.   

 

❤️

 

Everything I do is intertwined with the good graces and the loud cheering and the small kindnesses and the daily, patient allowances of other humans. AND it’s actually, hopefully, FOR the other humans as well.  Right?  YES.

 

That’s why I write songs.  That is always the why.  To say the thing that I need to say in hopes that it is what someone else needs to hear, or is trying to say.  So…allow me to celebrate this day by remembering how DEPENDENT I am.  And, since I’m with a crop of the humans mentioned above, may I go and say big thank yous right to their face.

 

This is all my exploration of it in my musical/professional space, but if you’ve read any of my too long emails before, I suspect you know that I think this TOTALLY APPLIES ALL OVER (in addition to writing many an email about it I’ve written many a song for this feeling, too).

 

We DEPEND on one another.  We do we do we do…

so, what if we loved up on that a bit?  Honored this dependence by smearing an extra layer of kindness on our words, our actions.  

Seeing one another with eyes that recognize the truth of it?

 

Oh yes, please!  

 

 

 

mid-summer-music-making-mostly-with-friends!

includes…

 

an evening at my favorite biergarten with Haley E Rydell,  a morning at my favorite bakery in my favorite town, a night on a front porch in Fosston with Doyle Turner, a trip to North Folk Winery with Matthew French, a night at the Edina Historical Society with The Friend Ship and MORE!  I’ll be joyfully dependent on my fellow music makers each evening!

 

 plus…there is…

 

 

If you're inclined toward full band shows, in a room with a lot of excellence going on:  food, sound, views, that piano…the people

well, let me recommend that you join us at the Dakota!  Monday, July 14. We've got the night to ourselves and we're going to make it something extra lovely.  

 

 

shall we?

and also there is….

 

aka: progress report on that new album!

 

The album is MIXED!  June involved much listening to and commenting on the recordings, getting it jussssst so.  Then figuring out which order the songs belonged in.  I very much depended upon the genius of Dave Mehling and Jason McGlone in this process, and also the cheering and wise ears of Haley Rydell and Lars-Erik Larson.  The artwork is almost done and in fact….LOOK! We have an album cover!!!

 

 

Last month, I shared with you my little album cover dream.  Now I get to share what that LACD became in the hands of my brilliant neighbor Aaron Stottlemyer…AHH!  

 

By this time next month, I could have CDs in hand, vinyl on order, AND tickets available to the album release show, which is….

 

on OCTOBER 10th!!!!

 

If you're a calendar sort of person…you can click the link above!

Calendar invites are my love language!  

 

 

 

 

 

 

1. Nothing To Prove  🌟  There’s a newish podcast featuring in-depth conversations with local musicians and after learning about it I was SO DELIGHTED to see that my bandmate and buddy, Lars-Erik Larson, was a recent guest!  Guess what, Nick Salisbury, Twin Cities’ favorite bass-player also gets an episode!  Learning even more about people you adore is always a good thing!  Click on the picture to learn more! 💗

 

2. Holding Down The Fort  🌟 I spent my June Tuesdays at a new-to-me place, about 50 minutes north of my house and I loved it so much I wouldn’t mind spending all of my Tuesdays there forever.  The Fort, in Rush City, is the kind of place you can DEPEND on.  For great food, a warm, inviting, atmosphere (a cool old possibly haunted hotel) but mostly for KINDNESS.  If you ever find yourself on 35, an hour north of the cities, I say RUSH OVER THERE.  To Rush City! 💗

 

3. What’s Historic is New  🌟  The Historic Auditorium in St. Croix Falls, WI just re-opened as a venue and it is one of THOSE places you wish you could spend all kinds of time at.  I got to spend a beautiful evening there with magical humans Emmy Woods and (pictured) Laura Hugo.  The whole place qualifies as a light.  Also, check out this cool light!  ALSO, it’s dependent on volunteers to run the shows.  And there is something special that happens in those kind of venues, I think… 💗

 

4. GOOD Neighbors  🌟  Oh, I have them (see album artwork above!).  We depend on them, and I hope they feel like they can depend on us.  Recently, our one lawn sign about being good to one another was kaputt due to years and weather, and so my neighbor just went a resupplied us with this beauty!  Yes…Let’s do it…  💗

 

 

 

 

this email is sent with sparkles and bangs and flares and showers of

 

 

Look at them! on the hearts!

There's room for more!  Always :) 

 

I do depend on this crew.  And hopefully, they feel like they can depend on me, too.  At the very least, to show up in their inboxes with something for the heart on a weekly basis. THANKYOUSARAHSUBSCRIBERS!

 

pps - Hello Ted!  It does my heart real good to have an excuse to say hi to you here !❤️