Hi friends,

I’m back, or at least it feels like it. We released our first issue this year about a month ago, which you can grab here or apply for a free copy here (we give one away for every 10 sold). Or if you’re a subscriber, you can gift one to a friend!

On top of releasing #9, we hit “print” on #10 today! That will be out and in your mailbox in a few short weeks. If you’ll be at Telluride Bluegrass Festival, Promontory Paul and I will have copies there. I think we’ll reveal the cover and start mailing it at the end of June.

I also posted a meme and video the last two days! I have been a loooooot less generative on social media in the last 8 months or so, because I also work in social media and I had this online-all-the-time job so the last thing I wanted to do was more social media in the skimp free-from-laptop time I had in that time period. Please thank Promontory Paul, Liza, and Brakeman for keeping Train Songz kicking in 2026.

Anyway, that’s done. Nice.

I freelance for work (though I’m told “consulting” sounds more expensive so if anyone asks tell them I am a “social media consultant.” Freelancing means I can pretty much turn the volume up and down on how busy I am, depending on how much client work I take on at any given time. So, my point of writing this email…

Going forward I am going to be leaving room for Train Songz!!!

I love this thing, and I think we have something special here that deserves to be more than an afterthought. That means I’ll book myself to like 70% busy with day job stuff, because a guy needs to “pay rent” and “save for the future,” but I’m going to leave a chunk of time to conduct business around here as well.

My private goal for Train Songz for a long time, but I don’t think I’ve ever typed it out loud here, has been hitting 3000 subscribers. (We’re at 1300, so for those of you doing the math at home I think we have 1700 to go.) 3000 subscribers is “real business” territory at our current pricing of $33 or $55 or $77 for a subscription, $10-20 sliding scale for an issue, and one free issue mailed out for every 10 sold.

Should we reach the “real business” zone of 3000 print faithful, I would continue to claw back the amount of clients I’m taking for work and give more and more time to Train Songz. Maybe that’ll never happen! But now is the time to try, and try I’m gonna.

Again, I don’t pay myself for the zine, nor does Promontory Paul. We pay all of our artists, contributors, etc. Our payment is building this thing into something that could maybe, one day, be a reason to step away from working for other people and work for our own thing. That is a bet I am willing to take!

What’s that extra time look like?

• Put more time into each issue

• Cook up an online radio show

• Post more, write more online

• Overhaul our website

• Be faster at responding to emails + DMs

• Thinking of new ways to get Train Songz in front of new people, e.g. bigger volunteer program to hand out at shows and festivals and the like

My ask to you: If you know one person who would love our weird world of print media, tell ‘em about us. Again, subscribers can gift anyone a free issue. That 3000 number isn’t too far away, if everyone brings a friend along for the ride.

I’m more than happy producing Train Songz as a passion project until the end of time. But for this thing to be everything I want it to be, I gotta try funneling a little more coal into the engine and seeing how fast she can go.

Thank you for your support and care for what we do, whether you’re a day-one subscriber or just getting on the train. I appreciate all of you for resonating with what we do, and we try real hard to put as much as we can into each issue to reflect that love back your way.

– The Conductor

P.S. Please reply to think email if you’re still missing issue #9!