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Dear Friends in Music,

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

I am pleased to share an online concert tonight (March 17th) with my friend and fellow cultural worker, Charlie King. This is our third online St. Patrick’s Day concert in four years. Always an honor and a joy to share music and stories with Charlie. Please join us this evening at 7 PM ET.

This concert will be on Zoom, and you can access the link through Charlie’s website:

https://charlieking.org/d/10586/Night-of-Irish-Song-with-Charlie-King-and-Joe-Jencks

Later this week, I am honored to be performing in New England an in the Hudson Valley. Then I’ll be onto North & South Carolina, before returning to the Northeast.

March 20 ~ Lexington, MA - Follen Folk Nights

March 21 ~ East Bridgewater, MA - Union Coffee House

March 22 ~ White Plains, NY - Walkabout Clearwater Coffeehouse

March 27 ~ Wilmington, NC - UUC Wilmington

March 28 ~ Columbia, SC - TOL Coffeehouse

April 4 ~ Beverly, MA - A Healing in This Night - A Celebration of Bob Franke

More concert listings and details can be found at: https://joejencks.com/calendar/

I hope to see many of you soon!

In Gratitude & Song,

~ Joe Jencks

Essay: What The What?

Copyright 2026, Joe Jencks, Turtle Bear Music

I had a conversation with a friend and fellow traveling musician recently, about how to keep doing the work of bringing music into the world when the lift feels so heavy right now. The conversation stretched into how we engage in self-care, and how frivolous it can seem when the world appears to be coming unglued a bit more every day.

She said, “I'm worried about a lot of my activist friends who feel guilty prioritizing rest. Like, they'll have earned boundaries and coziness once fascism is completely eradicated and perfect equality is here.”

It was a firm reminder that we need to keep engaging in wellness, and the care of each other, even when if feels extraneous. We lose some of our capacity for the larger struggles if we volunteer to be diminished by the chaos and give into the intensity. It is precisely when the world is coming unglued that we need to cling to whatever our practices are, in order to stay as clear and present as possible in whatever piece of restorative work we are able to take on.

I do this imperfectly, to be clear. I have not figured it out. But it is part of the puzzle. A transformation leader / organizer I met in my 20s in Seattle used to say, “The world needs you well rested, well nourished, and well exercised.”

It was a reminder, a mantra, and an invitation. There is much work that needs to be done in any time, in any generation. If we are paying attention, we may see some portion of that work as something we can do. And we will seek to apply ourselves to that work with diligence and care, passion and thoughtfulness. Sometimes that work is on the streets and sometimes it is at a desk. Sometimes it is at the dinner table, in the classroom, or in front of a microphone. Sometimes the work is with an elder, sometimes with a child, and sometimes with each other.

But for me, the ongoing invitation is not to volunteer unwittingly, for some sort of emotional or literal martyrdom. I need to keep going for walks as I am able. I need to keep getting sleep, as I am able. I need to prepare and eat the healthiest food I can manage. I need to guard my mind and my heart from unnecessary sensationalism, as I am able. So that I can bring the fullest measure of what I have to give into the moment, when it is needed, when I am called upon by the time or circumstance.

It is a reminder that going to the gym, time with nature, time with friends, even sleep is essential. However any of us feel called to respond to the zeitgeist, we will do it better if we have not run ourselves into the ground before we even have a chance to be useful to someone around us.

And yes, I also wrestle with the sense of guilt and privilege that comes from living in a place that is not being bombed. I struggle with understanding how I can be of service to people half a world away, whose lives are being taken and or destroyed by a war that I abhor. I am kept awake by expanding notions of empire on which I was not consulted. And by economic hegemony that I am complicit in, just because of where I was born and the currency in my wallet.

And still, I hold to the idea that there are people here and now, who need something I can give. And if I want to be of service, there are ways to do so all around me. I cannot become obsessed with what is happening elsewhere to the expense of the needs of my family, my friends, my neighbors, my beautiful community - spread across a continent and beyond.

Nutrition, rest, exercise, time with friends and loved ones is not frivolous.

It is essential.

We are in a marathon. We will not live to see the end of the work. It is multi-generational work. But we can contribute to the work. We can stay in it as long as we are able and keep moving forward. And we also need to remember that Martyrs and Heroes are mostly people who would rather have been anywhere else. But history and circumstance put them in a specific place at a precise time. And so we honor them.

But we need to remember what they probably wanted, which I am guessing was not notoriety or fame, medals, marches or parades, or overpasses named after them. They wanted to live a long life, love deeply, laugh with friends, be a good neighbor, and to live that long life while continuing to be useful in some way.

A sustainable commitment to work of transformation requires a long-view. If I knew how to do it better, I would be doing it better. But I will keep striving to be both engaged in the world, aware of the world in which I live, mindful of privilege, and seeking wellness on the journey.

I will keep singing. Because that is when I am most aware that I am giving something that is needed and which I am actually able to do. Even when it feels insignificant in the face of global strife, I know that singing - especially singing with others, singing together, is healing and restorative.

Like the ancestors before me, the revolutionaries and the immigrants, the soldiers and the seamstresses, from so many places and in so many times: I will keep singing. It is how I face the unknown and accept uncertainty. I hope you have some practice in your life that allows you to do the same.

~ Joe Jencks (3-17-26)

Joe Jencks ~ March 2026 Tour Dates