Hiya guys, happy new year!

These are big times in the house of Rill. The new album The Things That Count will hit the stores this Friday, January 18.
(To be honest with you, though, I'd prefer it if you ordered your copy directly from me by sending an email to markusrill@yahoo.com. For those of you in the US, check CDBaby and MilesOfMusic.)

And I’ll be hitting the road this weekend. First it’s off to the Netherlands for some dates with Dutch guitarist and dobro player Lazy J. His partner Sonja Markowski will be sitting in with us to sing some harmonies.
Then I’ll be hooking up with my buddy Robert Oberbeck for some shows up in the north of Germany for some duo shows. The week after, I’ll be playing a show in Berlin and another one in the Netherlands – in conjunction with a radio appearance. All in all I’m sure it’ll be a good run.  I’ll be hitting some towns and venues I haven’t played before, so please come out, enjoy the shows, and say hi. Looking forward to seeing you!
Find the exact dates below.

Reviews for the album are pouring in and so far they’ve been unanimously positive. I’m trying to put them up on the website as fast as I can and translate them into English as well.

Indulge me in a look back on December.
Guys, thank you so much for coming out to the CD release party in Wuerzburg. That was a really great gig. Andi and I had a terrific time.
And, oh, how much fun I had at the Blue Rose Christmas party the week after. Really, I can’t put it into words. Everyone who was there knows what I’m talking about.
Thank you to Biber Herrmann who accompanied me in my solo slot. We had a hard time soundwise and weren’t really satisfied with our 15 minutes but the all-star jam more than made up for it.
Anyway, I had such a great time rockin’ out, it makes me want to play some more band shows this year!

Here’s the upcoming dates:
January 19, Plato, Den Haag/NL (5pm)
January 20, De Waag, Haarlem/NL (5 pm)
January 20, KHL, Amsterdam/NL (8.30 pm)
Januar 21, De Oude Mol, Den Haag/NL (8.30 pm)
January 23, Cafe VEB, Hildesheim (8.30 pm)
January 25, Tennessee Mountain, Lotte/Wersen (8pm)
January 26, Agora Café, Hatten-Sandkrug (8pm)
January 31, Aufsturz, Berlin (8.30 pm)
February 2, Velvet, Rotterdam/NL (3.30 pm)

See you around,
Markus