Hello there!

Good news, if you're reading this on April 21, 2025, and you ordered a zine before Friday... Your zine is in the mail! (If you ordered over the weekend, it'll be in the mail in the next few days.)

I'm very excited for you to get this one, as sharing with you the 44 pages we've been pounding with a nine-pound hammer for the last three months is the best part of making this thing.

Once you get it, please reach out on Instagram or email to let me know what you thought about this issue. Each piece of feedback helps us shape the next one! This is not Rolling Stone...there's only 1,200 or so of you, and we are shaping this little niche publication together.

If two weeks pass and you don't get it—I'll be better able to help you out on email rather than Instagram DMs: find me at conductor@trainsongz.net, and together we'll overcome USPS' mistakes.

Welcome to Smokestack today. Quick one. (It's never meant to be that long, just a fun little thing to open weekly with a few good links. I encourage you to click around. That's the unique value of this medium over print and social media.)

We'll start off with a fun little April 21st bluegrass joke for you, inspired by Promontory Paul over two Sunday night Narragansetts and the sweet sounds of Kensuke Shoji, Grant Gordy, and Jacob Joliff. Girls' night out.

• Listen to the Kentucky Colonels' recording of "420 Special"
• And then listen to "Way Downtown"

Notice anything in common between the two!? Leave a comment...

420 + 1 ... call it that 4/21 special. Ba-dum-tiss. Happy 4/21!

Doldrums of Wikipedia

The more you know... catch me riding that 4-2-0...

Also I met up with some local zinemakers yesterday as part of my ever-increasing obsession over inspiration of the niche and printed variety, and I want to leave you with Skateboarding Jesus from a zine entitled Christ Air:

Thanks Andrew and Adrian for the zines!! If anyone reading this is local to the New York City area, Andrew teaches a course on zines called Making and Breaking the Zine. Check it out! I could use to take the course, because I'm building this steam-powered aeroplane while it's flying and figuring out zines as I go, but he asked me to come speak... I will do my best to spread the good Word of The Train.

Have a great week!