taking a break from my Nat'l Book Awards reading to talk about the fall tour dates, which we have now officially rescheduled. a THREAD about ~All That~

we don't postpone the dates we have until we can reschedule them, because we are essentially hopeful types. hopeful types who like to think about world-devouring monsters! but still

like many of you, I'd guess, I had a lot of hopes for 2020. the first three solo shows of the year, in San Francisco, were, along with last year's opening of City Winery Philadelphia, the beginning of a thing I was gonna do where I do multi-night stands:

digging deep in the back catalogue, rehearsing intensely to make some special shows. Those San Francisco shows are an emotional lifeline for me now: they are, most likely, the only three shows I'll get to play in room with y'all this year.

I have lived my life since 1996, and very intensely since 2003, in rooms with the people good enough to lend their ears to our songs, to raise their voices with ours against the encroaching darkness, a darkness which we both repel & recognize as kin because that is how we are.

"their" here means "your." Your voices, your presence.

Those nights in those rooms with you, they are such a huge part of who we are. So when I say with a heavy heart that we're working on rescheduling all 2020 dates, that's how it is. It's a weight.

And yet, Romans 8:25, "But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently."

Between working on new writing & doing the Nat'l Book Awards reading & being a parent at home in this disorienting school year, I'm working to get my now-grey-whiskered face in front of you. It would be sad if even one person were denied the glory of my quarantine hair.

some of you have noticed we have a YouTube channel now. That'll likely be one place to find me. I'm told that getting subscribers helps; please make us the most popular channel on Youtube. Imagine how many of our mutual enemies that would annoy. https://www.youtube.com/themountaingoatsmusic

All the tapes y'all bought, the humbling preorder which I'll again link for the new album, that helps, too. Thank you. I really think you'll love the new album, we worked hard on it and were stoked for the tour. https://www.hellomerch.com/collections/the-mountain-goats

I'd rather be weighted down with rocks and drowned than expose any of you to risk of infection at our shows. There'll be a vaccine, may God speed it safely into use, and then we'll see you in the flesh.

Please be assured that, in the possibly apocryphal but, for our band, canonical words of Jim Dandy from Black Oak Arkansas, we will, when that safe time comes, return to attack the stage with the ferocity of a caged wolverine.

WITH THE FEROCITY OF A CAGED WOLVERINE I SAY.

until those wolverine days come, I will make every effort to maintain such connections as we can form in this messed-up time.

power to the people, respect to labor, bare knuckles to the fascists, I will see you on the other side of this by hook or by crook. LOVE TO YOU FROM ALL OF US, jd. /thread