Shows and other shenanigans

Last Thursday, June 4, I set out north for shows and other shenanigans.  Within five days I drove about 2,500 kilometers (roughly 1600 miles) , played four shows, recorded some stuff and made new friends. On Thursday night I drove to Bockenem to stay with my friends Achim Sauer (of Juli Kapelle fame) and V.B. Kühl.

On Friday morning I laid down a vocal-guitar track at Achim’s 7V-Studios for Wild Coyote, a song that was a hidden track on my first album “Gunslinger’s Tales” in 1997. We’re going to reissue that first album with some bonus tracks and “Wild Coyote” is one of them.  My second take was a keeper, then I overdubbed some strummy stuff playing Achim’s beautiful Martin.
In the course of doing the strummy stuff, Achim’s equally beautiful Duesenberg electric kept beckoning me to try it out so I also overdubbed some heavily tremoloed e-guitar stuff that came out real nice. My first ever electric guitar overdub, I think. When I grow up I wanna be a guitar player J
Achim made me a rough mix to listen to and on I went to Oldenburg for a gig at the Umbau-Bar.
My publisher/friend/manager Thomas Meyer had set up the gig and booked a beautiful hotel for me.
The Umbau-Bar is a funny concept. As I understand it, the owner installs the Umbau-Bar for months at a time into places that are empty for awhile about to undergo renovation or a change of ownership. So the bar and its concept will move to a different location every few months. 
Before the show we had a nice bite to eat with Jens, the owner of Flyerheaven, a major printing company. It was signaled to me that if the show went well, Jens was going to sponsor me and help me with stuff that I need printed, flyers, posters, CD booklets and whatnot. Nothing like a little pressure to keep you on your toes.
Sound was good, a good-sized crowd had showed up. Some folks that had come specifically for me, some for the Umbau-Bar in general, and some for the country/rockabilly/psychobilly DJ night scheduled to follow me. In the second set I started throwing in some Johnny Cash and Elvis and people started dancing. Very cool and unusual to get a bunch of folks dancing if you’re a solo singer-songwriter. So that went well. I hung out a little afterwards and enjoyed Thomas spinning some cool records before I retreated to my nice hotel.

The next day I got up around 11 am and drove to Hamburg where I was supposed to pick up my online buddy Sven “Boogie” Augustin and head to Balcony TV. Balcony TV is a very cool little show on local Hamburg TV and on YouTube where people play on a balcony overlooking Hamburg’s famous Reeperbahn. As we got there, I had never seen or heard Boogie play so we retreated to a quiet corner and ran real quick through The Things That Count. It quickly sounded good enough to keep and I was relieved to know that Boogie was as good a picker as he is a cool dude to follow on Twitter.
We recorded our short segment and did ok (I think). Hung out a little afterwards with Hamburg siren Verenice and her guitar player Christian before we ambled on.
I had brought my laptop but not my electrical cord – how stupid can one man be? – so we needed to find an internet café since I had some arrangements to make for the rest of the trip. Later that afternoon  we met Rolling Stone writer and all-around good guy Jörg Feyer for coffee and a sandwich. Jörg was very complimentary about Tom Liwa’s recent album recorded at, wouldn’t you know it, 7V Studios in Bockenem. Small world. After a pleasant chat that ended it with all three of agreeing that Southside Johnny’s “Better Days” is a heck of a record, Boogie and I made our way to Down Under right next to the Logo. Sound was set up quickly so we ran through a few songs with Boogie playing my sweet Walden guitar in open C tuning.
The gig was an alright bar gig. Some folks who said they would did not show up, some surprise guests did show up but mostly we played for the bar patrons or, truthfully, for ourselves. Since some of my songs are not that easy to play along with, I threw in a few rock’n’roll or country classics for Boogie to shine on. We had a good time and ended at around 11.30 pm. After that I had Boogie to drop off at home and about three hours of driving ahead of me. I wanted to get to Magdeburg that night because I needed to be near Aue at 3pm the next day. A long drive but it all went ok. The only problem was that I hadn’t managed to connect with Carrie Clark and Camille Bloom, two Seattle songwriters who were going to share Sunday’s house concert with me. I had left a couple messages on Camille’s cell but hadn’t heard back. Hm.

So I drove on for another three hours on Sunday morning and about half an hour from my destination, Camille sent a text message that they were on their way. Her European cell had given out but she had somehow managed to retrieve my phone number from the SIM card. Whatever … I was relieved.
The house concert near Aue had been recommended by my Nashville buddy Doug Hoekstra and it really turned to be very nice. I first stuffed myself on strawberry shortcake, then enjoyed Carrie’s and Camille’s sets.
My own set went very well, the 70+ crowd enjoying themselves. In the course of the trip I’ve been throwing some new songs every day. Seems like “Skinny Teddy”, “Fast Forward” and some others are keepers. For an encore, Camille & Carrie joined me on “Twistin’ The Night Away”. Great fun – also thanks to the great sound we had on stage.
The show ended around 8pm then we ate and drove right back through the pouring rain to Magdeburg. Even though my GPS got confused, we managed to get there by 12.30 am. Smoking right outside the hotel was Mike Wenzel, a former Gunslinger, who was as surprised to see me 500 miles from home as I was. Ah, the touring life.
Since this was practically Camille and Carrie’s last night in Germany – they had to drive all the way back to Haarlem/NL after next night’s show – they were in a mood to celebrate and share road stories. We stayed up late, shared tall tales and the room.

On Monday morning we were glad we had taken that nightly trip. It allowed us to venture into Magdeburg for a glorious breakfast and some shoe shopping. Camille has an addiction she gave in to that day but what the heck, it was her last day in Europe and she had been making good money on her month-long trip.
And onwards for our gig at the Mojo Café in Osnabrück. Just as we were loading in, Heinz Rebellius pulled in. Heinz had written a story on me for Gitarre & Bass magazine a couple years ago and we’ve stayed in touch since. He puts on these monthly Songwriter Nights at this very cool venue and was able to accommodate us on a Monday night.
We had great sound, Heinz was going to sit in with me and that sounded good, the ladies were going to sing with me, this was going to be a good night.
And, indeed, it turned out to be just that. The place was packed, we were all in good form and Camille in particular rocked the place. We did some encores together again, the girls joining me on Where Do Go From Here, Straighter Road and Twistin’ The Night Away. Damn, they can sing. And they’re soooo nice. I hope they’ll come back soon.
Soon after the show, C&C took off for the Netherlands, I drove towards Bockenem to spend the night at Achim’s. Got in yet again at 2 am.

V.B. Kühl is designing the CD booklet for the reissue of “Gunslinger’s Tales” and we talked about that some on Tuesday morning before I drove back home with a few bucks in my pockets and some memories made.