Andrew McMahon In the Wilderness

I was late to the Kacey Musgraves party but when I got there I became a super fan. Golden Hour has been a staple in my home and everywhere else I listen to music since Kelly and Cecilia first introduced me to it last year. I’d cover the whole album if I could but "Slow Burn" felt most like the song I could bring something unique to. It doesn’t hurt to have Butch Walker behind the console when attempting something some might see as sacrilege. It’s a beautiful song and we had fun taking some chances with the production. Listen to my cover of "Slow Burn," available now on Amazon Music https://amzn.to/2KsjOvD

Hi friends from beautiful Hawaii. Today at Dear Jack Foundation we launch our annual Raise Your Voice challenge campaign. This year we have set our most ambitious goal yet. I personally invite you to join the challenge at dearjackfoundation.org/getinvolved to help us raise $300,000 by 11/11/19. Any individual or team who raises a minimum of $5,000 as part of the challenge will be entered to win a private living room concert by yours truly. Our amazing friends at Mspark will be matching your donations dollar for dollar up to $10,000 through June 21, 2019, so get started early! Thank you for your continued support of Dear Jack.

Today is National Cancer Survivors Day so it seems appropriate to talk about one of the most important things to come out of my survivorship. The Dear Jack Foundation. When I started Dear Jack 12 years ago, I honestly had no idea what I was doing or what the shape of my survivorship would look like. I was still in shock, reeling and trying desperately to reclaim a life that was now on permanent display in the museum of youth lost too soon. I would spend years attempting to reconcile that history and the mythology of my life prior to cancer. It was the beginning of a journey that continues to this day in earnest. It began at the intersection of my past, my hospital year and my unknown future, where at least one thing was abundantly clear; young people with cancer were getting a raw deal. We were under-researched, under-insured, unprotected and unprepared for the real-life tilt-a-whirl cancer strapped us to. A ride that with luck might let us off still spinning, but asking the difficult question….now what? My fans, friends and family were truthfully the genesis of the Dear Jack story. It was their inclination to start raising money and awareness as I fought for my life that led to our humble beginnings. Reflecting on those days I am reminded that even as I wondered if my story might end in a hospital room on a hot summer day, the community I had built through my songs had already become activists for a cause I hoped to be well enough to champion one day. Luckily for me that day came and it is now the air I breathe each morning when I rise from bed. I may not have known where Dear Jack was heading when we started, but I have a tremendous sense of pride in sharing with you where we are today. This past year has been a remarkable one to say the least. We have exceeded every benchmark we set for ourselves. Our LifeList and Breathe Now programs served more patients, survivors, caretakers and families than any other year on record. We nearly doubled the capacity of our reach. Between our 200k challenge, brand partnerships, touring income and special events we have had our largest fundraising year to date. We’ve also have the good fortune of welcoming an exciting new addition to our staff; program director Kayla Fulginiti. She holds degrees in social work and her previous posts include a staff position at City of Hope, where she was a pioneer in calling attention to the needs of Adolescent and Young Adults (AYA’s) facing cancer. Most recently she held a position at a Denver-based non-profit focused on suicide prevention. So much of the work we do at Dear Jack is based on the unique effects of cancer on the psyche of AYA patients and survivors and I’m so excited to have Kayla’s expertise as we continue to fine tune our outreach and program objectives Simply put, we are growing exponentially thanks to the passion of our donor community, partner hospitals, DJF staff and those who have been directly impacted by the services we provide. The word is out about Dear Jack and it turns out, that when AYA’s hear about the thoughtful platform we have built, they are eager to join our community. Something I never could have dreamt up when we started. With luck and hard work this growth will continue in the years to come, allowing us to serve our community without ever having to turn away a patient or survivor whose cancer journey could be aided by the unique and transformative services we provide. Thirteen years have passed since I joined the ranks of so many AYA cancer patients and survivors. I will admit, the early days of my activism were not easy. I had doors slammed in my face time and time again by people telling me that the issues of the adolescent and young adult cancer community were not significant enough to warrant specific attention. Today If you look up AYA Cancer I am pleased to say, you will find that the medical and philanthropic communities are starting to change their tune in a big way. I feel both proud and humbled by the fact that Dear Jack is regarded as the very first non-profit organization to step up and claim Adolescent and Young Adult cancer as a worthy and independent cause. I never intended to do such important work. Since the creation of Dear Jack and the implementation of our mission, AYA cancer has become a national conversation. When this began for me, I was just a sick young man surrounded by an incredible community who lifted me up and pushed me forward. In all honesty the best of the work we do as a foundation is based on a similar principal. Surround the patient, surround the survivor, surround the family. Give them love and hope and relief. What an honor it is for us to be there with them on their journey’s. I hope you will join me for another year of growth. We launch our annual fundraising challenge this Thursday on 6/6/19. I personally invite you to help us continue raising our voices on behalf of AYA’s everywhere by joining the challenge at www.dearjackfoundation.org/getinvolved. Please consider contributing, talking to your friends, families, communities, politicians, employers and anyone else who might be moved by the overwhelming needs of young cancer patients and survivors throughout our country and the world. It is through dialogue and awareness that we can turn the tide for young people fighting cancer. We are grateful to each and everyone of you, who through your passion for our cause is helping to educate the world about this important issue. Warmest Regards, Andrew McMahon 📸 Shane Timm

Starting on 6/6/19, I personally invite you and the Dear Jack Foundation to join this year's annual fundraising challenge campaign for your chance to win a private living room concert by me in 2020. I hope you will join me for another year of growth and help us continue to raise your voice on behalf AYA cancer patients, survivors and their families. To learn more about this year's challenge, visit DJFs website at dearjackfoundation.org/300k-challenge. 🎥: @darin_k_

When I first reached out to Matt Allen about collaborating on a poster series, neither of us were quite sure what that meant. I knew I wanted to celebrate lyrics that had become iconic within our community but I also wanted to make art that could hang on anyone’s wall whether they listened to the music or not. We set out to make band merch that was not band merch. There would be no logos or project names and each would be printed on the highest quality paper using the most well regarded printing techniques. 5 years and countless posters later I am so proud of this endeavor and so honored every time I see a picture with these posters hanging framed on your walls. Through some strange magic we found an unopened box of one of the prints that started it all, holiday from real. We thought it would be fun to show it beside our most recent escapist print from the upside down flowers record. All my thanks to Matt for years of incredible art. I hope to make more for years to come. Head to the store now to get all of our available prints at a discount over the weekend: https://shop.andrewmcmahon.com/

The Zombies in America and The Pen and the Piano Tours could not have been more different but in a way they celebrated a philosophy I’ve been trying to cultivate since I started the Wilderness project years ago. Having toured for years my goal with the Wilderness has been to bring unique and interactive shows to stages around the world. On Zombies with the help of our friends The Windmill Factory we were able to implement a unique use of video as well as dispatch an enormous rubber duck into the crowd, on TPATP we turned the stage into a neighborhood for friends to share stories and express a genuine affection for each other and the audience I’ve grown up with over the years. These tours were an evolution of purpose for me as a performer and will forever be a benchmark for what I want to bring to the stage when people are kind enough to spend their hard earned dollars on a ticket to one of my shows. Like the tours the posters take on very different aesthetics, but both are such honest reflections of the shows the represented. One scrappy and hand drawn like the set we crossed the country with, the other a tight and curated aesthetic reflecting an upside down city and far reaches of space, the heart an album whose songs we shared for the first time on those beautiful evenings.

Patrick Concepcion has been one of my favorite collaborators since as far back as 2005 when he created some of the first designs for my then fledgling solo project, Jack’s Mannequin. If you were a fan back in those days there’s a good chance you’ll recognize this era of poster art. In so many ways this series is the genesis of my love for lithography and artist collaborations. Both posters were created for tours supporting The Glass Passenger. It was during this period of that Patrick created some of my favorite visual art and we embarked on a project that led to the creation of a unique poster for every date on a tour. Pat’s gone onto write books, create art for acclaimed musicians and be published alongside some of the most prolific and celebrated graphic artists working today. It’s a huge regret that I didn’t maintain an archive of each of those prints but I am glad to share the last of them with all of you.

The San Francisco Fillmore is one of the most legendary venues in the country. I’ve had the pleasure of playing this room multiple times throughout the years with all of my projects, but this particular show was one of my favorites. The Pen & The Piano Tour was built for a room like the Fillmore, with its dramatic chandeliers, red accents and wall to wall history. This particular show was memorialized in an episode of Bill Burr's Podcast after he stumbled into the show by chance. In his recounting, Allen Stone was an angelic female and I was dressed like the villain in every 80’s film, destined for a devastating coke habit. It might have been my favorite show review of all time. It’s always a moment of excitement and pride when you sell a show out at the Fillmore and are presented with the poster for that night. This particular poster like the show itself is one of my favorites from my years playing the room. The few we have remaining will be for sale in the webstore starting on Friday along with a handful of other gems we’ve been curating for this week’s poster campaign.

Got together with my good friend Butch Walker to perform this stripped down version of "Paper Rain" at Ruby Red Studio! Turn it up & get lost in the music: https://youtu.be/EnqmNWT8hoA

Hello everybody! I've had so much fun getting to know all of you on the road over all these years but it just never feels like enough time together. So...what if we gather a whole bunch of like-minded fans and set sail for a Caribbean vacation where I get to perform for you with help from my friends from In the Wilderness, Jack’s Mannequin, and Something Corporate? Picture this: a couple thousand Andrew McMahon fans, friends, and family hanging out on a ship together in the Caribbean. Big performances, great activities, and lots of shows with other bands we all love - cruising together for 5 days of fun in the warm tropical sun. What do you think? Wanna get away with us? Sound off in this survey and let us hear from you! http://bit.ly/2PcJVGq 📸 Alex Kane Perkins

Had a great time catching up with Entertainment Tonight about music, family & all things happening in the Wilderness world.

“Thank you for joining us in the land of upside down flowers”

Goodbye & farewell to the Rocktail Hour (for now). Sending you off with the recipe for an "Everything Must Go" https://youtu.be/Y0FXAMh5D0c

Going deep into the Wilderness with LA Weekly. Sit back, relax & read my interview http://bit.ly/2HOqO41

The Rocktail Hour rolls on & today we're mixing up a "Careless." Don't worry, we'll save the carelessness for after the show, this one's a mocktail https://youtu.be/fhlqohn2mh0

The Penelope is one of those drinks for the days when the whole world drives you crazy. Watch how to make it on this week's Rocktail Hour https://youtu.be/bauegXI9T3I

Got another strong one for you on this week's Rocktail Hour! Brace yourself & watch how to make a House In The Trees https://youtu.be/_dQQob8KNj8

You're not going to want to be running from this cocktail. Teaching you how to mix up a Goodnight, Rock And Roll in today's Rocktail Hour https://youtu.be/7f9z6GpCWw8

Win a trip to meet me at the Fillmore in Denver on March 9th! Only a few days left to enter, and all you have to do is complete one action via Propeller for Dear Jack Foundation. The more action you take, the more chances you have to win! The last day to enter is February 28. Visit http://Propeller.la for more details.

Oh, it's that time again! Episode 6 of the Rocktail Hour inspired by This Wild Ride is coming at you fast https://youtu.be/klXeUs8r5g8

Dear Jack Foundation has teamed up with Propeller for the Upside Down Flowers Tour! It's been great meeting a few of our awesome volunteers during this tour - but it's not over yet! You can still sign up to volunteer as a Dear Jack Advocate at a show near you - we need more applicants for Milwaukee, St Louis, Denver, Aspen, Salt Lake City, Missoula, Portland, and Las Vegas. While you're at it, don't forget to enter to win a flyaway to meet me in Denver on March 9th! More details about volunteer applications and the flyaway at propeller.la 📸 - Alex Kane Perkins

Not your usual gin & tonic! Mixing up a little something new in this week's Rocktail Hour https://youtu.be/fB85eVaw95M

Is there anything better than some Mezcal on a Thursday? Teaching you how to make a "Monday Flowers" in this week's Rocktail Hour!

You know what time it is! Pour yourself a drink & settle in for this week's Rocktail Hour https://youtu.be/V-B8R38rKH4

setlist.fm