Family Meeting: Cam & Steve Talk About What’s Next Following Hurricane Helene

Well, hey there, family.

If you love old gods of Appalachia and want to help us keep the home fires burning, but maybe aren't comfortable with the monthly commitment, well, you can still support us via the ACAS supporter feature.

No gift too large, no gift too small.

Just click on the link in the show description, and you too can toss your tithe in the collection plate.

Feel free to go ahead and do that right about now.

Well, hey there family.

Steve Schell from Old Gods of Appalachia here with our beloved hedge witch Cam Collins to check in with y'all on some things and do a little housekeeping as we do from time to time.

Hey there family.

Good to be back with y'all again.

We ask that you listen all the way to the end of this message because we've got a lot of information to share with y'all today.

Some of it's good news, some not so good, and some is just the way it has to be.

First and foremost, y'all, we want to thank everyone who's checked in on us, lit a candle for us, or offered any form of support, well-wishes, and love during this incredibly trying time for central Appalachia.

The fallout from Hurricane Helene left my city of Asheville, North Carolina, without power, water, and internet for most of the month of October.

Entire sections of the city were underwater, and the devastation spread through the smaller towns and the mountains, washing some places practically off the map.

Over 80% of my city is currently without potable drinking water, and many are still without power.

Now, my household was very fortunate as we didn't get hit by trees or flooding, but the lack of running water and power combined with our medical needs meant that I have not been able to occupy my home for more than five days total so far this month.

As a result of this loss of production time, basically a solid month scattered to the winds, we regret to announce that the release of season five of Old Gods of Appalachia is gonna be delayed.

Season five will now premiere on December 5th, 2024, just in time for the holidays.

Many roads through the region are still blocked or tremendously altered at the time of this recording.

I-40 from Asheville to Knoxville will likely be closed for over a year.

I-26, the road that normally allows Steve and I to travel to visit or work together, also suffered significant damage, and we're hearing repairs won't be complete until June next year.

The resulting detour doubles the travel time between our towns.

Circumstances like these have led us to postpone the last two dates of the Unhallowed Grounds tour in Marion, Virginia and Boone, North Carolina.

We'll now be bringing Unhallowed Grounds to Boone on June 12th and to Marion the following night, June 13th of 2025.

To address the most common questions we hear, yes, all tickets purchased for this year will be honored for the rescheduled dates.

And yes, the venues will offer refunds for those folks who are unable to attend the new dates.

Please reach out to your venue with any questions.

Western North Carolina and all of central Appalachia will be feeling the effects of this wretched storm for way longer than we ever could have anticipated.

There are parts of my town that can never be the way they were again.

Ever.

My home place is a tourist town and thus is powered by the amazing folks working in the service and hospitality industry, and a lot of those people are hurting.

So we're setting up fundraising efforts of of our own.

For example, hit the show notes of this post to see all the voice actors, including yours truly, available for cameos where 100% of the proceeds raised in the coming months will benefit Hurricane Relief Efforts.

Thank you to everyone who's responded to our initial call for these on social media.

Over on our TeePublic shop, we've released a brand new design bearing the old Gods logo and the phrase, Helen Highwater came and we're still here.

Every dollar made on those shirts will go to grassroots Appalachian relief efforts such as Beloved Asheville and Rise Irwin.

In even more exciting news, Brother Land and Blood has released a new single on Bandcamp entitled Sun Hold On, Killian Song, that was recorded live at the National in Richmond, Virginia, as part of our 2024 Unhallowed Grounds tour.

Those of you who are subscribed on Patreon recently heard this song at the end of September's monthly exclusive, and now it's available for their whole family on our Bandcamp page at oldgodsofappalachia.bandcamp.com for $1 or pay what you can.

Just like our new T, all proceeds from Sun Hold On will benefit Hurricane Relief.

Speaking of Patreon, there are some big changes coming to the ways we ask you to show your support for old gods and deep nerd media.

We made the decision early this year to launch our own paid subscription service powered by the good folks at Supercast.

The Holler will be the new place for our kinfolk to find all the exclusive content you've come to expect from being a paid subscriber.

Build Mama a Coffin, Black Mouth Dog, The Door Under the Floor, Familiar and Beloved, and all of our exclusive content will be available here.

This new platform provides an easier way to access all of our subscribers-only content through seamless integration with all your favorite podcast apps, and that will include the Spotify integration we know many of you have asked for.

Supercast provides subscription services for other popular podcasts like My Favorite Murder and Pod Save America, so they know what they're doing.

Supercast is also offering to pledge a dollar for every person who joins the holler during the first two weeks.

Right now there are over 11,000 of you subscribed at various levels on Patreon.

Imagine how much help we could bring to the folks whose lives were impacted by Hurricane Helene just by y'all clicking a few buttons and swapping services.

I know there are also many of you who left Patreon because you were frustrated with some of its limitations.

We'd love it if y'all gave Supercast a try.

And there's no better time than those first two weeks.

The Holler opens on Friday, October 25th.

That's one week from the day we're posting this.

For those of you on Patreon, I know y'all are going to have a lot of questions, and I'll be making a post there to address those here in the next couple of days so you can be ready.

To answer what I know will be a big one, though, we are not closing Patreon at this time.

If you opt to stick around on Patreon, or if you need to wait a while before you make the switch, that's fine.

We'll continue to post all our monthly exclusives for you folks, just as we have been.

So to recap, family, the final shows of our Unhallowed Grounds tour have been postponed until June of 2025.

Reach out to your venue if you have ticketing questions.

The premiere of season five has been pushed back.

Please look for that on December 5th, 2024.

We have several fundraisers going on right now, so you can get yourself a little something nice and help folks impacted by Hurricane Helene at the same time.

Check out the show notes for direct links.

And finally, we'll be rolling out a brand new subscription service come October 25th that has the potential to raise over $10,000 or more to help with hurricane relief in Appalachia as well.

We know it's a lot to digest, family.

And in the coming days, we'll post all the details you need to navigate joining us over in the Holler.

You can find those on our socials.

And for those of you on Patreon, we'll post specific instructions on how to migrate your membership over to the new Supercast platform.

We'll see you soon, family.

See you real soon.