Erin McKeown Is Holding Her Nerve

Erin McKeown is one of the most honest songwriters on the planet, and she writes the best newsletter. I’ve been thinking nonstop about her recent newsletter—”hold your nerve.” She recounts how hard it is to put yourself out there artistically at the best of times. During the pandemic, it’s near impossible.

She has a new album out, and she’s currently touring as safely as she can. But ticket sales are down because audiences aren’t coming, and she talks about the balance she faces between continuing with what she needs to do and pulling back—something everyone faces at some point with the pandemic. Everyone has to hold their nerve and do something:

Maybe you have to as well in whatever your situation is. Maybe you have to hold your nerve and send your kids to school even though it worries you sick. Maybe you have to hold your nerve and keep working at a job you hate because there is no other option.

She also fears—”I have probably scuttled my career further by not writing you a cheery essay about how great everything is going.” Except the opposite is true. Someone pointing how hard it is to be creative in the best of times and comparing it to being creative in a pandemic is exactly what I wanted to read. It’s what makes her such a great songwriter; her deep honesty and vulnerability.

P.S. Her upcoming tour dates (masked and vaccinated) are at the bottom of the newsletter.