Hi All!!

VanceFunders - I took some of ya’lls album making money and bought 2 extra months of tour support from Conqueroo, the publicity agency that is at least 68.5% responsible for my recent media greatness and general higher profileness (No. Not a good time to say I’m going viral. No. Nope.) That’ll use it up by the end of April, and that’s great, because that’s what it was for. I can only thank you for your faith in me.

Thank you.

That said, here I come:

3/6 - 3/13 - JOCO 2020 Caribbean Cruise https://jococruise.com with Aimee Mann, Liz Phair, Jonathan Coulton (SOLD OUT)

3/14 - Columbus, OH - Columbus Performing Arts Center http://www.sixstring.org

3/15 - Ann Arbor, MI - The Ark http://www.theark.org/ (whooo hooo! - lots of Model Airplane people come to this show- come meet them. Some are the origin of Old White Men!!)

3/28 - Middleboro, MA - https://studio84houseconcerts.webs.com

4/3 - Easton, MD - www.avalontheatre.com

4/6 - Silver Spring, MD - Institute of Musical Traditions www.imtfolk.org

4/17 - Marblehead, MA - www.meandthee.org/

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Good Good Man - the album - a mess of ways to get you some o’ this musick. Streaming, CD Babying, even from me. Rave reviews from Bluegrass magazines to jazz-leaning publications.
• PayPal to - vancefunder@gmail.com
• check for anything between $10 - $20 and up to Vancefunder P.O. Box 17 Arlington, MA 02476
• **If your name is on the CD, you’re a friend, family member, promoter, radio/podcast personage, cash strapped, or anyone else that thinks they should just have one, send me your address and just ask and I’ll send it.**

-Private/public/houseparty things, coaching of songwriting, performance & voice, house spider naming (we do that here, and we DO NOT kill spiders in our house...) available upon request

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Texas Trooper Encounter #2 -

She is stunning, and I’ll call her Megan, for while this story is pretty innocuous and good natured, I’m keeping here anonymous just in case. She self-describes as “full on dyke” with crew cut hair, startlingly blue and friendly eyes that seemed to simultaneously say “no nonsense” as they said “How’s your day going?” She’s built like both Adonis and Athena, long, 6’2” at least, like a chiseled blue woodcut in her uniform, yet, as Richard Thompson would say in Beeswing, she could “crush you right where you lay”. Her mouth takes up most of her 14-year old boyish face when she smiles. Late 30’s and she is a 5-striped sergeant. My Good God she is also a practicing lawyer, and we got to talking backstage at a venue, her eating dinner as I was packing up to go.

She ends up being one of the most wry, funny storytellers I have ever met. Everything from diet to the Charger she drives as an official vehicle to the obvious next points of conversation - what kind of music I did, and her being an openly LGBT+ 13 year veteran on a big city police force. She tells me this story that originates from her teaching an all-afternoon, all-officer class on Minority and LGBT issues on the force and in the community.

The pre-class orientation is shared between her and another lesbian co-facilitator on the force, who happens to be African-American to boot. We’ll call her Susan. Megan describes her as a tall, elegant Black woman from a rural part of Texas. The department had split the large class up between them, and these two wanted to get on the same page in their respective classes so they spent the previous afternoon together comparing notes and getting their respective things together.

Says Megan, “So the department somehow figures the best way to ease into talking about these issues is to send all the Black officers to Susan, and send all the White cops to me.” She rolls her eyes. “These things are seldomly joyously received anyway, particularly the first half of them, but this…?"

Megan continues. “So Susan had confessed to me that the ‘rural' part of her personal history made her feel somewhat inauthentic as a Black person amongst these peers. She figured her experience was bound to be far different than the other Black officers she was about to spend the two-part afternoon with. Clearly anxious about it. I knew from experience that my classes would be how they always were - a lot of crossed arms and scowls for the first half, and then by the end of the second half a few handfuls of “Thanks, I learned a lot” offered, and begrudgingly appreciative handshakes. So we decided to just be ourselves.”

"The four hours go by, all the officers leave, and Susan comes out from her room just beaming. I ask her ’So it went well then?’. Susan says, ‘Girl, the first half went just like you say yours usually do. All quiet and stone-faced. Then Part Two, we all just said screw it and opened up about stuff! We spent the last hour arm-in-arm, singing spirituals we all had learned as kids. Honestly, I was great for me too, ‘cause I felt for that hour like I was the BLACKEST person in the whole room!! How was yours?’"

"I told here that it went as per usual, no arm-in-arm, no singing, they were ok with it, and by the second half I too was the Blackest person in my room…”


omg

xovg