November 2025
Hey y’all,
Here’s the Austin B. Sweeney newsletter coming in hot for the month of November. I put these out once a month to keep you updated on upcoming shows, what I’m listening to, general musings, lyric breakdowns, and much more! I hope this newsletter will provide value for you, if for no other reason than it may introduce you to music you haven’t heard before!
Let’s quit wasting time here and jump into it, here’s what I’ve been listening to in the last week:
Song: “Beyond” – Leon Bridges
Album: “Born & Raised” – John Mayer
Artist: Tedeschi Trucks Band
My new single, “Longhaulers” is available now! My new EP, “WAGON” drops NOVEMBER 14th. The music video for “Longhaulers” as well as many other music videos are available as well on my Youtube, Instagram, and Facebook.
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Two things: First off, I did an interview with Bold Journey in AZ that you can find HERE
Second off, one of my all-time favorite writers is Hunter S. Thompson. I ran across this letter he wrote in 1958 to a friend of his that I thought I would share. In essence, don’t look for goals, look for a way of life. Here we go.
“Every person is the sum total of their reactions to experiences. As your experiences differ and multiply, you become a different person, and hence your perspective changes. This goes on and on. Every reaction is a learning process; every significant experience alters your perspective.
So it would seem foolish, would it not, to adjust our lives to the demands of a goal we see from a different angle every day? How could we ever hope to accomplish anything other than galloping neurosis?
The answer, then, must not deal with goals at all, or not with tangible goals, anyway… To put our faith in tangible goals would seem to be, at best, unwise. We do not strive to be firemen, we do not strive to be bankers, nor policemen, nor doctors. We strive to be ourselves.
But don’t misunderstand me. I don’t mean that we can’t be firemen, bankers, or doctors – but that we must make the goal conform to the individual, rather than make the individual conform to the goal. In every person, heredity and environment have combined to produce a creature of certain abilities and desires – including a deeply ingrained need to function in such a way that their life will be meaningful. A person has to besomething; they have to matter.
As I see it then, the formula runs like this: a man must choose a path which will let his abilities function at maximum efficiency toward the gratification of his desires.
In doing this he is fulfilling a need (giving himself identity), he avoids frustrating his potential (choosing a path which puts no limit on his self-development), and he avoids the terror of seeing his goal wilt or lose its charm as he draws closer to it (rather than bending himself to meet the demands of that which he seeks, he has bent his goal to conform to his own abilities and desires).
In short, he has not dedicated his life to reaching a pre-defined goal, but he has rather chosen a way of life he knows he will enjoy. The goal is absolutely secondary: it is the functioning toward the goal which is most important. And it seems almost ridiculous to say that a man must function in a pattern of his own choosing; for to let another man define your own goals is to give up one of the most meaningful aspects of life – the definitive act of will which makes a man an individual.
A man who procrastinates in his choosing will inevitably have his choice made for him by circumstance. So if you now number yourself among the disenchanted, then you have no choice but to accept things as they are, or to seriously seek something else. But beware of looking for goals: look for a way of life. Decide how you want to live and then see what you can do to make a living within that way of life. But you say, ‘I don’t know where to look; I don’t know what to look for.’
And there’s the crux. Is it worth giving up what I have to look for something better? I don’t know – is it? Who can make that decision but you? But even by deciding to look, you go a long way toward making the choice.
I’m not trying to send you out ‘on the road’ in search of Valhalla, but merely pointing out that it is not necessary to accept the choices handed down to you by life as you now it. There is more to it than that – no one has to do something they don’t want to do for the rest of their lives.”
Hunter S. Thompson was a lot of things. Writer, provocateur, drug fiend, psychonaut, political journalist, professional wild-man, but also an incredibly keen observer of the human experience.
Much of his brilliance gets lost in the booze-and-drug-fueled tales of debauchery in books and films like “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas”, “The Rum Diary”, and “Where the Buffalo Roam”. However, as you can see in the above passage, Thompson was a salient voice that cut to the heart of life and the Art of Living.
Sure, the wild times created a caricature out of Thompson. He succumbed to much of the pressure put on him by publications, talk shows, audiences, and readers, who simply wanted to see him transform into “Raoul Duke”, his character in Fear and Loathing. Hand him a couple of tabs of acid, a bottle of Chivas Regal, and a cigarette with a plastic filter and just let him run with it.
What is often missed is his philosophical and sensitive side.
He was a young man once. He dealt with the same dread, insecurities, fear and loathing – pun intended – as the rest of us.
Throughout my life, I’ve run into the same issue as his friend, the recipient of the letter. I think my life is going in a certain direction and aim all my work and effort towards it. I moved to Nashville to pursue a music career when I was 22. I ran out of money and moved back to Oregon. I farmed for another 4 years. I moved to Arizona in 2019 with my buddies. Restarted my music career. Had some wild times. Met a good woman and settled down – at least as much as any musician can settle down. We now live in our fifth-wheel camper – The Bandwagon – and travel around playing shows.
The vision I had for my life when I moved to Nashville is vastly different from the one I envision now. I can be certain that the vision I have now will also continue to shift with the changing winds. I will sharpen my craft, hone my skills, start a family, move states, etc. I will continue toward a vision that I have, but the variables that will spring up will inevitably require another shift, and, I can only assume, many beyond that.
Vague and undefined goals are a bad way to achieve life satisfaction. As Jordan Peterson has said, “how can you hit a target when you don’t even know what you’re aiming at?”
Defined goals help light the way. But maybe the goals we set – while well-defined – shouldn’t be material. Maybe they should be psychological. That’s where goals and meaning cross paths. It’s too simple to aim for a life where you’re always happy. Happy is a vague term anyway. If we aim for a life of meaning then everything that comes along – good, bad, or otherwise – is a necessary stepping stone along the path we call “a meaningful life.”
As Nietzsche said, “He who has a strong enough why can bear any how.”
Whether it’s factually true or not, I’ve chosen to see the events of my day (and summarily the events of my life) as the way it was supposed to happen. Positive or negative, each event went the way it was supposed to go, and it requires acceptance and not frustration. Learn what needed to be learned.
To paraphrase Ram Dass: “If life is our teacher, we might as well pay attention to the curriculum.”
I’ll end with one more quote – in an essay full of quotes – that sums up our relationship with vision and goals. It has stuck in my head ever since I read it. I can be prone to anxiety – or, to put it another way: constantly ruminating on unknowable future events. There’s no telling what my life a year from now will look like, and that’s ok. If I take care of what needs attention in the present, the future will work itself out. It could go no other way.
Here’s the quote:
“It’s like driving at night. You never see further than your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.” – E.L. Doctorow
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Here are the shows that are coming up in the month of November, might book another couple so keep your eyes peeled on my socials.
· 11/1 – Skies, 3-6pm (Apache Junction, AZ)
· 11/6 – Rooster’s Country Mesa (w/ Ben Danaher & Laura Hamlin), 7pm
o If y’all have the ability, come out to this one. Ben Danaher is a tremendously good songwriter out of Austin, TX and it’s going to be a hell of a show. I assume most of you know Laura Hamlin, but she’s also one of my favorite humans and also a tremendous songwriter. Get your tickets for this one. I’ll post the link soon on socials.
· 11/7 – Old County Inn, 6-9pm (Pine, AZ)
· 11/8 – Desert Valley House Concerts (Songwriters in the Round – w/ Laura Hamlin, Robert Creelman, and Grady Hoss), 7pm.
o If you miss the songwriter show with Ben Danaher and Laura Hamlin, come to this one. Or come to both. It’ll be a beautiful night in Apache Junction. I'll post the link to this as well soon on socials.
· 11/9 – Good Time Charli’s, 2-5pm (Chandler, AZ)
· 11/14 – De La Cruz, 5-8pm (Gold Canyon, AZ)
· 11/15 – The Monastery (w/ Laura Hamlin), 3-7pm (Mesa, AZ)
· 11/21 – private show
· 11/22 – Skies, 3-6pm (Apache Junction, AZ)
· 11/28 – Valley Taproom, 7-10pm (Queen Creek, AZ)
Stoked to see y’all soon.
Austin
Listen now!
https://open.spotify.com/artist/433eTr5V5LEv1VtP1ejbkt?si=Jlzl5oz8RvulN-ocxrGqyg
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