Hello! Happy Tuesday. I have a few things to tell you. Here’s a list:

1. We put two new t-shirts and a long-sleeve in the store, which closes end of day on Friday for this issue. One new shirt features issue #7’s cover, and the others has a simple “Train Songz” design. Shirts and sweatshirts are pre-orders and will print and ship in about a month. Hats and coffee are ready to go. All items are priced around $10 profit for Train Songz, and all printing + handling money goes to Forest City Press, who both prints the shirts and handles shipping, and all dyeing money goes to the Doodah Man Dyes. Small business, baby!

2. Please do this survey to tell us a little more about yourself and let us know what you thought about issue #7. If you can believe it, we’re already hard at work on #8, which will mail around the second week of December. We will be taking all feedback from this survey and implementing it in the next issue. It’s very important to remember that this is Train Songz, with 1100 subscribers, and not the New York Times. We read every piece of feedback and genuinely care about what our readers think. There’s not that many of us! Make your voice heard! Niche democracy rules! As a sign of our appreciation for taking 5 minutes to do this, one lucky respondent will be notified about 99% off merchandise on Friday morning.

3. Join us for our first three hosted shows. The zine team will be shaking hands, kissing babies, and tooting whistles. We’d love to see you there:

   • Brooklyn, New York • Thursday, November 13 at Jalopy Tavern. Music with my guitar teacher Christian Apuzzo and the Brooklyn Bluegrass Collective from 9–midnight. See you at Billy Strings in Newark the next day. This is a free show, bring cash to tip the band. Fill this out to stay in the loop.

   • Austin, Texas • Friday, December 12. Details to follow — this will be a ticketed show with a band we love. See you at Billy Strings in Austin the next day. Fill this out to stay in the loop.

     • Issue #8 release party

   • Asheville, North Carolina • Thursday, February 12 with our friends the Asheville Mountain Boys. Tickets here. $20 + fees. This is the day between Billy Strings’ four-day run in Asheville.

     • Issue #9 release party

4. Did your zine not arrive yet, and it’s been over two weeks since you ordered? Email me! At the scale of mailing 1500+ I’ve learned that we are bound to lose a few, or it might show up a month late. The USPS is funny. I don’t want you to worry about it, and we’ll ship you another for free, as long as you gave us the right address the first time.

Don’t forget about our playlist collection. The spreadsheet is a little lowfi, but it gets the job done for now. Love & Sound also has their own playlist collection for Train Songz here, which you can also access by clicking the disco ball on within the digital portal of your zine, accessible through the QR code on page 4.

Instagram also has this private group chat feature where I share random stuff, which you are welcome to join here.

–The Conductor