Touring, Relationship, Transition

7 min readSep 20, 2024

Summer Newsletter 2024

Greetings from the last day of a summer filled with touring, relationship, & transition. It’s been a busy time! My efforts to slow things down are questionable, I admit, even as I’m off the heels of my second immersion in a silent meditation retreat. You can read about the first one I attended in September 2022 in more detail here.

Touring -

What’s with all the busy, Brian? Well, Brene Brown says that when your goals are things you prove to yourself are achievable, you feel hopeful as compared to hopeless. So, a goal I gave myself this summer was to play at least 6 out of town shows in 6 cities I’d not yet performed in. By October’s end, I will have hit 10, and counting, with a few talks still in the works. Here’s a list of shows I’ve been fortunate enough to play so far* this summer.

5/30 — Nashville, TN (Golden Hour Concert Series)

6/1 — Memphis, TN (Memphis Pride)

6/2 — Asbury Park, NJ (New Jersey Pride)

6/9 — Maplewood, NJ (North Jersey Pride)

6/14 — New York, NY (Album Release Show @ Mercury Lounge)

6/15 — Enfield, CT (Enfield Pride)

6/23 — Tuckahoe, NY (Tuckahoe Pride)

7/13 — Poconos, PA (Camp Out Poconos)

8/11 — Chicago, IL (Market Days)

9/12 — Fire Island, NY (w/ The Judies)

*Scroll to the bottom for a list of upcoming cities and dates.

Given that some of my tour will take or has taken me to places I’ve never been, there’s a good amount of time spent outside of New York as I attempt to capitalize on that. I mean, how do you perform a half hour from Zion National Park and not visit?

As many artists will tell you, touring has its challenges — from the hard work of coordinating everything to managing met or unmet expectations — but I feel oddly at home in that hustle. Luckily, I’m not in it alone. It takes a village and I’m slowly building one. I’ve begun working with various booking/touring managers/assistants, plus photographers, designers, stylists, and other talents. To anyone supporting me in any capacity at this stage in my career, you know who you are and hopefully, you know that I don’t take it for granted. And of course, let’s not forget the guy who’s been on the road with me the most — snapping pics, selling merch, and cheering me on — my partner, Allen.

Relationship -

If you remember from my Spring newsletter, the big thing on my mind at the time was an upcoming bucket list trip to Italy with my partner. I’ll share a peak & a pit. Peak? Probably Venice. People really undersold Venice:“It’s too touristy.”“Don’t spend more than two nights there.” “All there is to do is eat and drink.” Well, Allen and I spent three nights there and, although it was a tough call, it was our favorite area of the five we visited (Cinque Terre, Rome, Florence, and the countryside of Puglia). I could’ve walked along the canals of Venice forever. With each corner I turned, I literally gasped. It was all so picturesque! And we found some wonderfully “non-touristy” experiences that really made this leg of the trip stand out, such as a local yoga class all in Italian, and a starlit, romantic dinner on the outskirts of the city. Pit? Probably either a rough travel day from the south end of Italy to Venice — which was filled with heavy rain, long delays, and lost luggage — or simply being a vegetarian in a country seemingly designed for meat-eaters and pescetarians alone. I basically ate bread and tomatoes for two weeks, but extremely delicious bread and tomatoes at that!

If traveling to Italy and a full tour schedule wasn’t enough, we ventured to Canada, as well as Cranberry Lake in NJ to visit a friend of Allen’s, and also visited his family for a yearly camping trip at the Stony Fork Creek Bluegrass Festival in Pennsylvania. Yes, I went camping. You read that right. (The things we do for love.) Did I mention I’m also coaching about 18–20 clients a week and am enrolled in a plant-based nutrition and personal fitness training program? Ahhh!

If you’re still with me, you may be wondering what the big deal is. Busy is good, right? That’s what we’ve been taught anyway. The issue is that I’ve come to disagree. Rest is good, balance is good, connection is good, intentionality is good — all things that are easy to undervalue when busy. But when I consider my relationship to that which keeps me busy these days, including music and Allen, I find they contribute to my happiness, my wellbeing, and an innate sense of authenticity and play. So, a busy schedule seems to be what is right now and I’m leaning in because there’s no sense in arguing with what is.

In between all these experiences, my travel companion and I have been enjoying our new digs in Park Slope, Brooklyn. If we’re not spending time in my favorite part of New York City, Prospect Park, we’re likely indulging in our favorite local fro-yo spot, Culture, or decompressing at home with his kitty Candy Corn; who is somehow growing simultaneously more affectionate and impatient as he approaches the age of 17.

The lump on his head is a benign cyst that allows him to see into the future. Let’s be honest, you were going to ask.

Transition -

I’m entering an exciting chapter I call “creative mode”. After spending the last year and a half promoting my album and a subsequent deluxe version of it, I’ve exited what I call “release mode”. Each functionality requires a much different energy of me. Truthfully, “release mode” feels very vulnerable and exposed and is largely focused on securing the short term attention of people on social media. “Creative mode” is a much more introspective time, where I get in touch with myself on a deeper level and figure out what I want to say next and how I want to say it. I plan on spending more time in the latter mode in the coming weeks and months and so I likely won’t be as active with new content on a regular basis. I want whatever I create next to be something I’m really proud of and I can already feel myself becoming more available mentally and emotionally to what that might be. There’s a lot of pressure on artists these days to stay relevant by continually churning out material that will “feed the algorithm”, so it actually takes a decent amount of conscious effort for me to allow myself this period of transition. Hats off to my peers who can toggle between “creative mode” and “release mode” while also tending to their day to day lives. I find that I’m more of a one-thing-at-a-time kind of person, or at least, I’m forever trying to be.

Other -

I’m experimenting with a new format for these newsletters, if you couldn’t tell. They’ll be more like a blog entry and will, in fact, be posted to my blog or you can receive them directly by subscribing here. This feels like a more fulfilling opportunity for me to share myself with you in a longer form, but a list of shorter form items desiring attention is still listed below for your perusal and enjoyment.

Latest release — “Gay Country (Deluxe Edition)”

The intention has always been the same: To take the sounds I grew up on but didn’t see myself in and blend my stories into them without negating any part of myself in the process. Since incepting this project several years ago, country music has already changed in some ways. I love to see that there are many diverse voices looking to create a lane for themselves in this genre. This project is for everyone and you don’t need to be gay or even into country music to enjoy it but I am gay and I am into country music so the title is more a commentary on how long I felt like those two things couldn’t go together. I’ve poured my heart, my soul, my time, my energy, my finances (I could go on) into this record .. and with this deluxe edition, I can finally say I’m ready to leave it as is. It’s yours now. Enjoy.

Upcoming shows -

9/22 — Los Angeles, CA (Melrose Trading Place)

9/23 — Los Angeles, CA (The Gay Agenda @ Ziggy’s Hotel)

9/28 — St. George, UT (Pride of Souther Utah)

10/5 — Havre de Grace, MD (Upper Chesapeake Bay Pride)

Follow me on Bandsintown for all details, tickets, & to not miss a show!

Merch highlight — “Same Old Country Love Song” Tee

I had the pleasure of working with a brilliant Brooklyn-based artist, illustrator & friend, Cara Search, to create this custom designed artwork to go with my song. Shop the all new Official Brian Falduto Merchandise collection here!

Recent press -

The Daily Flash

PA Live!

SiriusXM’s TikTok Radio

Twisted Male Magazine

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