A little less than a year ago I was lucky enough to meet a musician named S. J. Tucker when she was on tour with Cat Valente for the Orphan’s Tales show.  I’d never heard any of her music before the night we met, but I was immediately blown away by her amazingness.  (I will point out that I’m a huge music snob, having been a classical voice major myself, so when I say I was blown away, I ain’t just saying the woman can carry a tune.)  Since then I have listened to her music almost every day.  Seriously.  She’s in my Last.fm library and playlist an I have the music inspired by Orphan’s Tales on a nearly constant loop when I’m not listening to Broadway stuff.  I don’t know why, before this, I have not gushed and gushed about her here.

I’m doing so now because S. J. (or, as she is known to friends, sooj) is in need of some help.  She has not health insurance and had to go to the hospital for some rather serious medical stuff.  The letter below explains it all, but I’d like to point out a few key things.  What they need is for 1000 people to send $25.  Just $25.  It can be in the form of a straight donation or, even better, buy $25 worth of music.  Trust me, you will not be disappointed.  There are many of you out there who I know would love her stuff (Mrs. Kubenka, I am particularly looking at you), and there must be someone you know who would love it too/instead.  There are links in the letter below, please check them out, buy a CD, buy some downloads, and help out a person who is not only a great musician but a great person.

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Dear friends,

I know that some of you have already heard about SJ’s recent emergency and hospital stay. It looks likely that it may actually be appendicitis, although the doctors want to confirm this with another CT scan before they do any surgery.

We -do- know that the hospital bills are going to be significant, since this first trip to the hospital involved two emergency rooms, four doctors, a 45 minute ambulance transfer between the two hospitals, a CT scan AND an X-ray, multiple IV antibiotics, nearly daily bloodwork tests, and five and a half nights in the hospital.

Another CT scan and an ultrasound are scheduled after the next batch of test results come back, and if it turns out to be appendicitis, they’ll have to do surgery. If it -isn’t- appendicitis, then something else will have to be done to keep all of this from happening all over again, but we don’t know what.

In short: we’re looking at medical bills that could go as high as twenty-five or thirty THOUSAND dollars by the time this is through.

Have I mentioned that we do not yet have medical insurance?

The biggest reasons that Sooj and I can afford to tour around the country to perform for all of you wonderful folks is that we have been healthy and unhindered by debt. We don’t want that to change, so we’re turning to you for help.

Please help us raise money to pay for these medical bills. Buy CDs. Spread the word. Share links and diggs and do all that interweb magic. What we need is 1000 people with $25. Do you have $25? Do you know someone who does? If you can’t give us money, please tell people who might.

Of course, we want you to get something for your money! Even if you already have every album, you could buy CDs as late holiday gifts for your family and friends. Help us, and make people happy at the same time!

In this spirit, we’re offering a “Give a Healthy Dose of Sooj” sale. All current SJ Tucker CDs are $10 each (that’s our wholesale price). Find more info on the CDs here: http://www.skinnywhitechick.com/discounts.php

We’re also offering digital downloads through an amazing new service called bandcamp.mu: http://skinnywhitechick.bandcamp.mu/

You can download individual tracks and whole albums, and help spread the word by embedding albums or songs in your blogs, facebook posts, and myspace pages!

Now is the time to complete your collection of SJ Tucker’s albums. Now is the time to introduce your friends and family members to SJ’s music. Please go and buy CDs.

Alternatively, you can sponsor SJ’s health directly, and become a Skinny White Chick Sponsor for either a simple donation or a $10 monthly subscription. Money collected through these vectors will be used to cover our medical bills first, and will then be used to set up a decent health insurance policy. Find more info at http://www.skinnywhitechick.com/sponsorship.php

As a special bonus to subscribers and big sponsors, I will begin to periodically upload live SJ Tucker show podcasts to the new forums at http://www.skinnywhitechick.com/forum/ , providing our generous donors with recordings of live shows that Sooj has done over the last couple years. These podcasts will be a mix of past and present shows, ranging as far back as 2005.

Anyone can join the forums to discuss shows and projects, but only sponsors will be able to download the podcasts. This is a forum setup I have been working on for about a year, and it was just about ready to launch in the middle of December.

So, $10 monthly subscriptions as Skinny White Chick Sponsors allows full access to the weekly podcasts as downloads for the duration of your subscription. A $100 or higher donation as a Skinny White Chick Sponsor will count as an annual membership. For donations of $1,000 or more, we will discuss something special to thank you appropriately for your generosity.

Please, take advantage of our wholesale CD prices, give albums to your friends and relatives, become a sponsor, use the sharing tools at bandcamp.mu, and tell people about the music and our fundraising needs. We need your help spreading the word, even if you can’t afford to give financially.

Thank you very much for your time and attention and your generous support.