Hello there!

First, let’s get to the point…

YOU CAN GRAB A ZINE HERE!

That feels pretty damn good to say after a few months of hard work. I’m very proud and excited to share it with you.

• It’s called “Ol’ Zinefoot”

• The covers combine “Ol’ Slewfoot” and “Leadfoot”

• There are 3,502 copies…he’s letting them ponies run.

🤝 How You Can Help

• Spread the word!

• Send the link to a friend!

• Engage with this Instagram post!

🚝 What’s New!?

• You’re paying up front, instead of after

• $7 is recommended as a fair contribution

• $0 orders will ship after I’m done shipping paid orders

🚂 What’s The Same!?

• It’s still “pay what you want”

• You still get two (2) mystery stickers

• It’s not a subscription. New order each time!

💰 State of zine finances

True to my word, I continue to invest more and more money into the zine as your contributions have grown. You’ll see that in the quality of this one. (I personally cannot believe how far it’s come since the first issue. We’re learning!)

This issue cost me about $9000 up front, rounding up for unexpected costs that I’m sure will come up. This is higher than usual, and should be a new baseline, because I made the decision to pay contributors for their time. I value their work at $20/hr or a flat fee.

A look at what things cost:

• $2,700 for 3,600 postage stamps

• $2,300 for printing and shipping

• $2,500 for labor and artists

• $500 for envelopes and materials

• $200 for 4 hand-carved cover stamps

• ~15% fees paid on each zine purchase

I’m down to about $1,500 in the zine-bank, meaning I need this zine to replenish that before we run another. I’m confident it will, with the change of a suggested price and paying up front, plus the merch store proceeds.

🛍️ Merch open October 4

Merch is not out yet. The store will open on October 4. You’ll get an email when it’s open.

📻 Train Songz Presents…

I’m working on an audio-only “Tiny Desk Concert” situation for bluegrass bands. The first one will come out next Friday on this here email list.

🎶 Nugs Playlists

I sent a survey around, and we got some summer ‘24 nugs playlists out of them.

• Favorite old-timey covers.

• Favorite jams.

(Remember to go to 2nu.gs/trainsongz if you’re thinking of joining nugs…I’ll get $15, which I’ll put in the zine-bank.)

🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Contributors

I’d like to thank everyone who contributed to this issue:

Art Director … Liza Chaplin (@liza_chaplin)

Co-Writer … Promontory Paul

Copy Editor … Brakeman (@freight_train_boogier)

Cover Artist … Logan Walker (@logan.walker.art / @foolproof.brand)

Hand-Carved Cover Stamp … Casey (@caseyart__)

Caboose Artist … R.E.B. (@darkstaratlas)

Engineers … Austin, Noraflora, Crewman Cort

Sr. Slow Train Surveyor … Lexi Borb

Vibe Stylist … Big Train

Puzzler … Tara (@swamptroll)

Choo-Choo Advisor … Chessie

Creative Designer (Web) … Harley (@harleydenise_)

🫶 Sponsors

Very grateful to all of the sponsors who helped cut my upfront costs for the zine by about 30%. Please consider doing business with them! These are all small businesses or individuals within the community. Show them some love.

💻 Online Sellers

• Northbound Coffee Roasters

• rosy.garlands (Cute Crafts!)

• Beast Hot Sauce (code BMFS for 20% off!)

• Do You Even Burn? (Candles)

• Radgnar Snow Co. (Hats, Beanies, Apparel)

• Imprint Rolling

• Doodah Man Dyes

• bouthalfpastdead (Lot Memorabilia)

• high.lonesome (Grass Seed)

• Terp Style

• Grant Peterson (Animator)

• Chris Harman (Stickers)

🏬 Physical Stores

• Black Cat Cohasset (Cohasset, Massachusetts)

• Grateful Fed (Baltimore, Maryland)

• Snappy’s Small Bar (Washington, D.C.)

• Mountain High Fly (Union, New Hampshire)

💌 Shipping

Timeline: As soon as I can. Maybe slower than you’d like. This ain’t Amazon. Slow train. Long ride.

Notifications: I’ll email you when your zine ships.

Lost? We’ll call it lost after two weeks from shipment. I’ll send another.

🤳 Instagram Stories

I love sharing when you get the zine and tag me, but you need to make sure you have a public profile. If you’re private and tag me, I can’t see it. (Don’t want you to think I’m ignoring you!)

Mountain Grass Unit

They have a new EP, Runnin’ From Trouble, out today.

Give it a listen!

That’s all for now…expect to hear from me more often over the course of this zine release! Talk soon :)