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Dear Everyone, I hope you're enjoying some inspirited moments of the changing season, as I am wrapped in this warmth-and-coolness of autumn in Virginia. On Friday, November 7th, I'll be playing my songs alongside the poetry of Cynthia Henebry, who's releasing two collections The Recovery House and The Abundance is Staggering in Flowerland through her new publishing imprint Deaf Shell Press. Tickets are limited, sliding scale, and going very quickly! A special feature of this show is that ASL interpretation will be offered for both Cynthia's poetry and my lyrics. It's sure to be a beautiful evening at Perk! Coffee in Richmond. Doors 6:30pm, show 7pm. Tickets here. Pictured at the top of this newsletter is my home piano, embellished with the most prolific crop from this year's garden--gourds that grew from last fall's decorations after having been nibbled by squirrels and tossed into the brush. This summer, thick vines began surging across the yard, naturally heartier than any of the plants that I'd been tending and carrying water to. They provided delight as well as an important teaching for me: go easier, and receive unexpected harvests. On Friday, October 10th, visionary artist, inspiritor and friend David Garland releases his new album The Spark, featuring my backing vocals on the sixth track, “All With All”. We'd recorded in his upstate New York studio several years ago, and as with the garden gourds, I'd since forgotten! So it's a fresh treasure to hear David's beautiful music again, now fully realized and ready to go. (Listening is available beginning this Friday.)  Another unexpected harvest--Mouthtrap choir in Sydney, Australia sings “Ink & Needles" by Diane Cluck, arranged and led by Tanya Sparke”. What a dreamy honor to hear this song from my year 2000 self-titled album living on in this way! You can listen to the entire arrangement on Instagram. (For those who don't use that platform, I've temporarily embedded a one-minute video of their performance on my site.) While I'm on hiatus from touring in 2025, I've been enjoying a year of family visits and making memories with my wonderful spouse, Jesse. We married last fall, and I imagine he'll accompany me on some musical travels in the coming time. I'm grateful for the blessings of an expanded sense of family and loving support.
We just returned from a family visit in Pennsylvania, where I served up a batch of this weird, old recipe from my paternal-grandmother, Mock Turtle Soup:  (Personally, I don't eat veal, but the soup turned out well! Like no other food I know--heavy, and from another time--it's made with veal meatballs, shredded veal, dough balls, bone broth, brown roux, and garnished with hard-boiled egg. Several people in my family enjoy it but no one had made it in years.)  As a tonic for digital solitude and daily news stressors, I've been valuing in-person gatherings in my local community. Below is flier from a mending party we hosted a few weeks ago, posted for inspiration with the date/location removed--you're welcome to re-use it for your own event!  I'm still enjoying writing out my song lyrics on cotton khadi paper. “Telepathic Desert” below was recently ordered for a sixteen-year-old's birthday. Various handwritten lyrics are currently available in my online store.  Lastly, I've been stretching my attention span through learning to read books again, and just enjoyed the heck out of the great Neko Case's memoir, The Harder I Fight The More I Love You. Highly recommended!  I'm also greatly anticipating the 2026 release of Kate Crane's Whatever Happened to Eddy Crane?, a memoir and investigation into her father's murder. Crane has been working on this book for nearly twenty years, as long as I've known her. I pre-ordered my copy today--as with musicians, the importance of individual support for independent writers cannot be underestimated! I had the great fortune of meeting Kate in my early NYC days when she was a music reviewer for Time Out New York, and I still prize this quote from her: “Bell-clear and hotly austere, her lithe, dynamic voice hasn’t much kin. Categorizing her as folk is simplistic. (Cluck) emanates something humble but mythic. Appalachia or ancient Athens?”
Wishing everyone good stretch as we absorb the long rays of these precious days. Thank you for your kind reading here.
Love,
Diane 
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