5/26

The What’s Cookin’ gig was really good; we’ve gotten used to playing London now. Where it used to be intimidating, now it is another place we play. We’re looser about the big city shows, less self-concious. Much better that way.

5/27

Drove to Leicester after London show. Got in about 3:30 AM. I skyped home. Exhausted, I still had to wind down for about an hour in the dark, just listening to my brain chatter on and on.

Woke around 11 AM, showered and got out the door for a noon pickup. Paul Needham and his assistant Leah took some photos of Tommy and me. They got some great shots.

And then we were off to Nottingham. We had a truly fabulous show at The Maze. I don’t know what else to say about it; we played a couple of hours and then were called back for three encores.

5/28

Back down and around London for our last UK gig: East Grinstead. In contrast to how it sounds when you say it, East Grinstead is an old market town, and now a London bedroom community. Pretty cozy town,. Jeff and I strolled down and took a look at a row of 13th Century daub and wattle buildings, still in use as businesses and residences, I even encountered a couple of piss-drunk young guys who I could imagine in medieval garb giving me the same looks and comments 700 years ago (one of them made farting sounds with his mouth as I walked by). Funny.

East Grinstead was good gig. Decent crowd. They really liked the music. There was one lady who seemed to have had one too many drinks. She got excited a few times and started stomping and clapping in a rough approximation of the tempo of the song that had her going. In the tiny venue, we had to hunker down and really concentrate to keep the groove. But the promoter, Steve, was a great guy and treated us well.

5/29

I was up at 4 AM to get it together for our London-Berlin flight. I mistakenly thought that Gatwick Airport would be less busy early in the morning. Dream on. It was a zoo. There were several hundred people lined up for Easy Jet. The good news for us was we were on the verge of missing our flight by the time we really got in the huge line, so they moved us up to the front of the line. Then they moved us up to the front of the line to pay our overweight baggage fees. Then they pretty much waved us through security. Turns out we had plenty of time to wait in another long line to board the flight. The flight was fine, though, and we landed in Berlin.

Ralf, the promoter from Lauchhammer, picked us up and drove us to his house. We got a taste of 100 mph Autobahn driving—zoom up to the back of a semi, slam on the brakes, pass, zoom up to 100 mph, brake, etc. Very exciting. Ralf’s wife, Iris, made us a real nice lunch, then Ralf took us to a B and B so we could take a nap. I got a good one in, and by sound check I was feeling ok.

The gig was great. Real Music Club is a cool room with pretty amazing sound. It’s a real home away from home for American musicians, many of whom (like us) have a hard time getting the big gig in Berlin proper. The house engineer, Marcus, brought his Strat and his amp and let me use the rig, so our show had some loud and proud electric guitar.

It was a very rocking show to a very appreciative audience. Hats off to Ralf, Iris and Marcus for treating us like kings.

5/30

Got in late; Ralf wanted us to hang with him at the club, so we did. It was fun, trying to learn some German and teach some English to the small and friendly staff who were hanging around drinking some post gig beers. Got up and caught a ride with the nice old guy who owns the B and B. Made it to the station at Lauchhammer. The former East Germany—we are right along the Polish border—is a trip. They are still rebuilding after the Communist era. It’s dreary looking and eerily quiet at times. But everyone has been so nice to us.

On the train now, two line changes—Lauchhammer to Ruhland, Ruhland to Cottbus, and now Cottbus to Berlin. My dear old friend and former roomate Clark is picking us up for our big day off in Berlin. Our only day off of this tour, until we get to Amsterdam on June 6. We are tired but feeling pretty good.

We arrived at Berlin Hautbahnhof and Clark came to pick us up with his two wonderful kids. Then he took us on an auto tour of Berlin. What a mind-boggling city, especially for history buffs like Tommy and me. We saw old Prussian history, WW1 history, Nazi and WW2 history, the Berlin Wall, the Soviet influence on East Berlin, the thriving modern city of today.

And then we went home, had a cocktail, played with the kids, ate dinner, sat around talking music and life. Off to bed.

5/16

Played Dragon Park Summer Music series with Daddy in Nashville. John Deaderick couldn’t make it, but we had a good show anyway. The bagpipers played, the parade went on despite the rain. At some point, we were playing under the awning and the crowd was just out there in the pouring rain. Bless ‘em!

5/17

Flew out of Nashville with Tommy. Layover in Charlotte. Flight to London Gatwick went fine.

5/18

Landed. Took train to Burgess Hill. Train did not stop there, though, so we went all the way to Brighton and then back. Cab to Travelodge. Promoter Mike picked us up for gig. Brighton gig sparse attendance but good for first jetlagged gig night. Paul and Jo Needham there, as well as the other Two Pauls. Driver Jess met us at gig with merch.

5/19

Surprising good Little Chef roadside breakfast. Jeff drove us to Swansea. Great gig at The Chattery. Nigel and Alex, the father-daughter proprietors, treated us with the utmost hospitality. Great food, great sound, nice place to stay. We were so happy we stayed up way too late (mainly just laying in bed surfing the internet).

5/20

Long and beautiful drive from Swansea to Anglesea—up through the mountains, along the Welsh coastline. Wonderful Anglesea gig at Victoria Hotel.

5/21

Up for breakfast. Black pudding today. Hmmmm… Lazing around for a few minutes before trundling back into Jeff’s car for the slog to Leicester. Back at The Musician. Should be good: Friday night, Dawson and the Dissenters opening.

It was good; the crowd was smaller than we’d hoped, but they were very happy to be there. Their cheers were loud. We played for three hours, and it felt like about 90 minutes. Had to drag ourselves away from from happy, buzzed fans who wanted to buy us drinks.

5/22

Up at dawn for 500 mile drive up the the Highlands of Scotland. It was an epic slog, but well worth it. We arrived in Strathpeffer in the late afternoon and were welcomed by our hosts, Steve and Clancy, and Rob Ellen. The gig was really good, despite Tommy and I being bloody knackered.

Ross County Staggies defeated Celtic in the Scottish Cup recently and that was all the buzz. Go Staggies.

It was my first trip to the Highlands. Beautiful.

5/23

We slept in and took it easy. Clancy made us breakfast and kept the tea and coffee flowing. I sat around playing Steve’s lovely Avalon guitar for quite a while. Finally we just had to get going to Edinburgh.

Arrived Edinburgh just in time to load in, sound check, eat a quick bite, and play the show. It was a small crowd, and as Edinburgh audiences tend to be, rather quiet. But when we asked them to sing the call-and-response on “You Made Your Bed”, they notched up the volume and sang out loud and proud.

Jeff, Tommy and I spent about an hour with Willie and Claire, a young couple of fans from Edinburgh. Willie’s in the band Delta Mainline. Claire’s his girl. Lovely couple of young people. We found our Travelodge, checked email, skyped home, and got to sleep about 2:30.

5/24

Slept in again. Glorious to feel rested. Hit the road around 1:15. Stopped for roadside snack and headed on. We’ve reached Glasgow and bound for Largs, on the west coast of Scotland, just beyond Glasgow and Paisley.

Played upstairs at Victoria Hotel in Largs. Barely had any people there—Largs has a team in the Scottish Cup football, and the whole town had packed into buses over the weekend, gotten pissed and were not going to come out to hear folksingers on a Monday.f

After Tam and Sean showed us our rooms and we soundchecked (Tam offered three different whiskies at soundcheck), I took a walk along the beach. My first decent little stroll since Brighton. It’s a busy tour.

But there were two separate Allans who traveled in for the gig—one, Alan the younger, from Paisley—big music fan—the other, Allan the elder, in from Islay—yes, the island with a 500,000 pound yearly economy from single malt whisky—Allan the elder heard me on Bob Harris and was intrigued enough to take the ferry at 4:30 AM and get to the Victoria around 4:30 PM for the show. So at least there were folks passionate enough to go to some lengths to see us play. And we played well. There was some drama about our Edinburgh show, coming from booking agents and managers, but we shrugged it off and played it out. Got our rocks off, so to speak.

Pizza and whisky after the gig. A lot of pizza; not too much whisky. Tommy and I drifted off after a bit of ye olde Scottish internet surfing in the hotel room.

5/25

Up at 5:45 AM, in the car and rolling at 6:30. We are to be at BBC Western House in London by 4:30 this afternoon. But after we tape a Bob Harris segment, and we take the tube back out to our suburban hotel, we are off for the night. I hope there’s decent food out there. We are due for a good crash after 9 days of transcontinental flights, long drives and gigs every night. No one can say we aren’t working hard out here. Nor can anyone say we don’t love our work.

In Glasgow traffic. I’m thankful for Jeff’s driving. I’m in the backseat, pecking away at this keyboard. About to catch a little travel sleep.

We made it to BBC right on time, and taped a segment for Bob, who wasn’t there. He has an “Old Grey Whistle Test” CD just out and was appearing on Jools Holland Live in promotion of the album.

We ate Thai in Soho (Thai Cottage, just off Wardour St—excellent!), took the train back out to the hotel and crashed, utterly exhausted after the nonstop hubbub of the past 12 days.

5/26

Late checkout today; feel like I’m rested for the first time since two Sundays ago in Nashville. Drove down to Leytonstone, London, for our What’s Cookin’ gig here tonight. Sat around drinking tea (I admit I had one delicious Greene King Ale…) until we could get in the gig. Now we’re watching Steve the promoter set up the decorations for the gig (you should see how cool his set is!), and our friend Paul Needham just showed up. Tommy’s crashed. Steve and Paul are talking shop. The sun’s back out in London, and we have a show tonight.

Great gig in Anglesea last night. Did I mention that Swansea was great too? Wales has treated us well. Iechyd da!

We are bound for Leicester today, back home at The Musician! See you there.

DADDY in Brighton --- Nice Recording King guitar!