Stillwater Black: Dispatches

 

It's been two years since our last release.

One of the things I am most proud of with Stillwater Black is our sense of priority. We have obligations to ourselves, our families, and our communities that come before the sheer joy and magic of our coming together to make music.

 It's hard to live with obligation, but we lean into those responsibilities to make sure they're handled.

And that's why we had to write this song. This was an obligation.

September is National Suicide Awareness Month. Young people are disproportionately affected by suicide, quite often through a phenomena called by some the "same-day suicide" effect.

Young people have neither the experience nor the neurological development to support long-term thinking. When life throws them a desperate curve ball, they often have no confidence in the possibility of things ever getting better. Suicide can become a sudden and very compelling option.

Veterans are at terrible risk. Addled with injuries and trauma from combat, the loss of friends, and the moral ambiguity of contemporary military campaigns, this is a population that suffers tremendously. And, like other at-risk populations, they are unlikely to seek help.

The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is a critical resource. For many, it is their only link to survival.

And that's why we have made the decision to forward ALL proceeds from this song through the month of September to the Lifeline.

This is a situation where your money could actually save a life. And you also get what we think is a pretty good song.

Please give what you can here.

Keep well and take care of one another.