Joan Shelley

I didn't want to post this at first because of my imperfect Spanish pronunciations. But in light of recent events, I decided to post anyway because it is a song that always moves me, from a culture and language I adore. It's meanings are universal and the melody is a wild trip. I learned it from the recordings of legendary singer and actress Amalia Mendoza (1923-2001) who was born in Michoacán in Mexico (check out her original recordings on youtube). Thankful for the beauty you have brought into the world. Lyrics: Cuando nadie te quiera, cuando todos te olviden, volverás al camino donde yo me quedé; volverás como todas, con el alma en pedazos a buscar en mis brazos un poquito de fe. Cuando ya de tu orgullo no te quede ni gota y la luz de tus ojos se comience a apagar, hablaremos entonces del amor de nosotros y sabrás que mis besos, los que tanto desprecias, van a hacerte llorar. Cuando nadie te quiera, cuando todos te olviden y el destino implacable quiera ver tu final, yo estaré en el camino donde tú me dejaste, con los brazos abiertos y un amor inmortal. Porque quiero que sepas que no sé de rencores y a través de mi madre me enseñé a perdonar, y una vez que conozcas mis tristezas de amores, aunque tú no quisieras, aunque nadie quisiera, me tendrás que adorar --- When nobody wants you, when everyone forgets you, you'll return to the street where I still am You'll come back like everyone else, with your soul in pieces to find in my arms a little faith When your pride has left you and the light of your eyes begins to go out, we will talk then about our love and you'll know that my kisses, the ones you scorned so Will make you cry When nobody loves you, when everyone forgets you and the implacable destiny wants to see your end, I'll be on the road where you left me With open arms and an immortal love Because I want you to know that I don't know of grudges and through my mother I learned to forgive, and once you know my sorrows of love, Even if you didn't want to, even if nobody wanted to, you will have to love me

“No animal was aware that the altitude of his death was more important than the manner of his dying.” “It did not occur to him that [the Fates] might be busy casting dice against gravity; that mice and men, soils and songs, might be merely ways to retard the march of atoms to the sea.” -from Aldo Leopold’s essay “Wisconsin,” the section titled “Odyssey” When the heart’s pain muddles the world, I find that there’s nothing like Aldo Leopold’s essays for expanding and clarifying the atmosphere. When I first encountered the words “Like the River Loves the Sea,” a line from the Si Kahn song “Like Butter Loves Bread,” it appealed to my sense of love as something like a natural law, a force. But it sparkled of this other meaning too: one of love as an ecological story. Of mountains and gravity and the delicate ecosystems that our atoms are a part of. Love as the brief and collaborative entwining on the way to the sea. I first read Leopold 14 years ago when I studied environmental ethics. “Thinking Like A Mountain” was the first essay I read, and it rang all through me. If you haven’t read before, that might be a good place to start. I believe you can find a cheap copy of the book in most secondhand bookstores.

If Lost River Sessions ever ask you to meet them in the barn loft, accept (;

“Scrims of trembling strings and the purr of a Wurlitzer are among the subtleties lifting this song about love's unpredictability to shattering levels of compression and bittersweet release” Of the new song “Cycle” via NPR. “Like the River Loves the Sea” comes out at the end of August! I’m ready for it, are you? Soon I’ll be talking too much with people more eloquent than I am about things I couldn’t say in the first place (and that’s why the songs exist) 🙂 https://www.npr.org/2019/07/31/746618715/npr-musics-top-20-songs-of-july

Please enjoy this, as I did, the opening sentence from a feature they did on the new album in the new Uncut Magazine ! Who wouldn’t want to hear what happens next? Photos for the magazine spread by the unstoppable Mickie Winters What a funny and amazing thing for this music and my home place to be talked about so widely. Thanks for the honor. (And a note for those who love Nathan Salsburg, the record collection pictured there is his, not mine, and I wouldn’t dare take that credit)

Friends and mountain lovers, It is release day for “Pine Mountain Sessions“ An album of Kentucky musicians and writers raising funds for the kickass Kentucky Natural Lands Trust, assembled and recorded by pal Daniel Martin Moore. The first track features yours truly with Maiden Radio singing an original round unaccompanied, so you can hear the edges of the thick stone chapel’s acoustics, which cloaks each of the 44 tracks on the album. Poets and writers include Bell Hooks, Wendell Berry, Rebecca Gayle Howell, Silas House, Maurice Manning, Marianne Worthington, and +++ Musicians include Catherine Irwin, The Other Years, Nathan Salsburg, The Local Honeys, Jim James, Warren Byrom, The Savage Radley, Rachel Grimes, Teddy Abrams, and +++ If you buy it, you’re helping out the mountains through KNLT. Get the beautiful physical record at: www.okrecordings.com Or digitally through iTunes. But it’s also up on Spotify and some places for free streaming (though nothing is free and the future is in the forest my loves) Thanks for reading! and enjoy

When Nathan read me this headline in the new MOJO magazine, I couldn’t resist doing several cha-ching arm motions because AT LAST! Someone has landed a Joan of Arc pun that I didn’t know I’ve always wanted. You’re a real champ Jude Rogers https://www.mojo4music.com/articles/mojo-310-september-2019-tom-waits

I made a "Like the River Loves the Sea" mixtape // playlist -- enjoy #NowPlaying

A nice little something from Aquarium Drunkard

You’ve heard the mounting digital whispers, perhaps. There’s a whole shiny new album waiting in the wings. “Like the River Loves the Sea” will come out August 30th. This video (made by the peerless Douglas Miller) is for “Cycle,” the second of two singles from the record. It is a song for those of you who especially love the fall for its sensorial/chemical cues to let go of things that may need to sink back into dormancy... to see what still has life come the spring. We went to Iceland to record this album, with the help of Colm O’Herlihy and engineer Albert Finnbogason. I asked James Elkington to produce after years of loving working with him. Had my dear Nathan Salsburg by my side, joined by some incredible string arrangements played by the Icelandic sisters: Þórdís Gerður and Sigrún Kristbjörg Jónsdóttir. We’ll be setting out on tour in the fall (many dates with *Jake Fussell, whose new album is out and reliably incredible). Those dates here: 9/6-9/8 – Pete Fest – Louisville, KY 9/13 – Glema Mahr Center For The Arts – Madisonville, KY 9/27 - Denver, CO - The Walnut Room 9/28 - Fort Collins, CO - Elizabeths 9/29 - Colorado Springs, CO - Lulu's 10/3 - Los Angeles, CA - Moroccan Lounge 10/9 - Sisters, OR - Suttle Lodge 10/10 - Portland, OR - Mississippi Studios 10/11 - Seattle, WA - Auditorium 10/12 - Bainbridge Island, WA - Treehouse Café 10/24 - Knoxville, TN - Open Chord * 10/25 - Nashville, TN - City Winery Loft 10/26 - Atlanta, GA - Eddie’s Attic * 10/27 - Asheville, NC - Ambrose West 10/29 - Charlotte, NC – Stage Door Theater * 10/30 - Carrboro, NC - Back Room * 11/1 - Roanoke, VA - Spot On Kirk * 11/2 - Lexington, KY - The Burl * 11/6 - Cincinnati, OH - Southgate House * 11/7 - Nelsonville, OH - Stuarts * 11/8 - Thomas, WV - Purple Fiddle * 11/9 - Washington, DC - Jammin Java 11/10 - Charlottesville, VA - The Southern * 11/13 - Philadelphia, PA - Boot & Saddle * 11/14 - Brooklyn, NY - Park Church Co-Op 11/15 - Boston, MA - Cafe 939 11/16 - Woodstock, NY - Colony * 11/17 - Rochester, NY - Bop Shop Records * 11/19 - Toronto, ON - Drake 11/20 - Ann Arbor, MI - The Ark * 12/4 - St. Paul, MN - Turf Club 12/5 - Sheyboygan, WI - Paradigm Coffee 12/6 - Stoughton, WI - Stoughton Opera House 12/7 - Milwaukee, WI - Collectivo Coffee 12/8 - Chicago, IL - Old Town School of Folk So, that’s two songs let loose, two points on the compass. Please listen freely, share widely, and pre-order on Bandcamp or No Quarter websites, And in the meantime, take a break to float a while on this little sonic pond: https://youtu.be/95WaiDfPwu8

with our powers combined....🌈🌈🌈🌎

New song out today! The family band rides again! Back in the sonic arms of Nathan Salsburg, James Elkington, Bonnie “Prince” Billy and yours truly. Find it in any of the stream services or make all of us smile and call your radio DJ And of course, may I suggest making your plans to listen to this song while on your way to one of these fine evening events just announced: 6/19 - Durham, NC - Music In The Garden 7/10 - The Burl - Lexington, KY 7/12 - The Hideout - Chicago, IL 7/13 - Holland, MI - Virtue Farms 7/26-7/28 - Calgary, AB - Calgary Folk Festival 9/27 - Denver, CO - Walnut Room 9/28 - Fort Collins, CO - Elizabeths 9/29 - Colorado Springs, CO - Lulu's 10/3 - Los Angeles, CA - Moroccan Lounge 10/9 - Sisters, OR - Suttle Lodge 10/10 - Portland, OR - Mississippi Studios 10/11 - Seattle, WA - Auditorium 10/12 - Bainbridge Island, WA - Treehouse Cafe

Part of a Mickie Winters photo Winters Photography Co. -Mickie Winters Art

We'll be back at The Parlor Room this Thursday night (June 6th) with Sam Moss. Hope to see you there!

Ok, I know some of you must be bird nerds on here. So PLEASE help me. There's been these birds calling at dawn and dusk every day for the past several weeks. Comes from about a half mile away, so its got a big call. We finally caught them (pretty quiet still) at the end of recording a demo on the back porch after sunset. ANYONE KNOW WHAT THIS IS?

Joan Shelley's cover photo

In New York next month (Sunday April 7th) playing the beautiful St. Ann's Church as part of the Brooklyn Folk Festival A few more early summer tour dates just announced: May 30 - Phila, PA - The Locks Music June 4 - Boston, MA - Club Passim June 5 - Peterborough, NH - The Thing in the Spring June 6 - Northampton, MA - The Parlor Room June 7 - Peace Dale, RI - Roots Hoot House Concert June 8 - E. Meredith, NY - West Kortright Centre

photo by Erbu Yildiz

It was an honor to represent Kentucky in Sweden, at the U.S. embassy in Stockholm. Nathan Salsburg and I played for a bright room of Swedes involved in the art and science and technology of their place. Inspiring to say the least. A solid crew from the famous Baggpipe studios came out as well and we spent the next day at the studio talking to and playing for students of music production and songwriting. While no ambassador yet resides at the embassy in Stockholm, we were invited and kindly treated by the people who have been working for years there. We were honored to be their guests. My heart has been breaking and re-mending regularly these past few days. These experiences have done the mending. I am heartened by some news from home today. There is so much work left to do, and I am inspired by the people I have met along this way who made my world a little bigger and the view more bright and exciting. One more show tonight in Malmo (at Folk å Rock (Official) and then we head back home to unpack all that we’ve stored up.

We (and many other bands you like) take photos when we aren’t in the car rental waiting room, airport, basement of venue, on the highway and in every “Welcome Break” in the U.K. We are in London now, in the immense Barbican complex, about to open up for Richard Thompson - RT and that is admittedly pretty dreamy

Getting to play and sing with these angel voices has been a great highlight of my life. Tonight Nathan and I will be joined by Julia Purcell and Cheyenne Mize (playing the the smaller butter-bass, not this big one) in Louisville for a hometown show before we go across the sea. We're going to insist on making it a great time, if only to celebrate Julia's getting her first ever passport! Elephant Micah kicks things off tonight! 7:30 doors 8:30 Elephant Micah See you there friends

Photo by Ebru Yildiz

This explains what we did with the "Rivers & Vessels" benefit album, and the benefit show on the boat - the force that helped me and sometimes carried me on this little walk was Revolutions Per Minute and the unstoppable Jessica George to benefit our dear Kentucky waterways through Kentucky Waterways Alliance

My guitar better-half launched his new album of solo guitar songs out into the world last Friday. I am pleased to see the positive response! "Third" can be best found on bandcamp or the No Quarter website, also the other regular places you find music. https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/nathan-salsburg-third/amp/?__twitter_impression=true

The first listen for Nathan Salsburg's new solo acoustic guitar record "Third" is up today on NPR website. You know already that I'm a fountain of praise for Nathan, my #1 guitar player. So I suggest you all try it out and see for yourself. The album comes out next Friday July 20th!