5/11/14 day 34: Frankfurt, Germany

Up at 7:30 for breakfast at the hotel. Out the door by 8:30. 

(The scene outside the hotel)

Two hour drive through the countryside to the airport. Drove through beautiful Marburg even. Dropped off the rental, hoping nobody saw the scratch that we all agree was there when we got it, and skittled off to the gate. Got to the gate nice and early, enough time to relax at a cafe for a moment. I think I went through security with rapper Lloyd Banks. At least, I think that's who it was.

Frankfurt>JFK>Phoenix

Hard to believe it's over, but the cup is now full. Now it's time to refocus on the new album and all the beautiful opportunities and friends in Phoenix. It's easier knowing I'll be back this year. So many great memories, laughs, and beautiful musical moments. Hats off to Peter (Stormy Dream) and Jeff (BTH) for making these tunes sound so good and being such easy tour hangs. Hugs to Emily for taking care of all the economic logistics, sharing food with Peter, and putting up w fart jokes for three weeks. We were a good crew. Spirits soared. The feedback was overwhelming; so grateful.

Looking back on all the shows, it's hard to find a favorite. So much good at each location. Last night was a real surprise. Didn't really know what to expect and then BLAM; 100 people on their feet demanding more music. So many nights were like that. Excited to see what the future brings here. I love the fact that I can come to Germany, one of my favorite places on the planet, and share music. I'm just completely full of gratitude. Thanks to Kevin Kennedy for continuing to have faith in this music and book us on these magical tours. We are making good progress, amigo.

Alright, Operation Phoenix has begun. There is much to do. See you soon. Auf Wiedersehen. Good night.

5/10/14 day 33: Bad Wünnenberg, Germany

Caught the tail end of breakfast at See Hotel and bid farewell to the staff. Fast forward four hours and we arrived at the hotel in Bad Wünnenberg. Pretty straight forward driving, a little rain, a little verfahren but otherwise it was fine. We had 20 minutes in our hotel rooms before we had to head to the venue which is this old barn perched on the hill. It's such a shame we don't have more time to check out the town. Looks very cool.

Sound checked for about 15 minutes (we are getting good at it) and then sat down to a homemade meal of leek soup, spätzle and beef stew, salad, and a delicious apple tiramisu creation. They even offered a schnapps for digestion. Ok, sure!

(Prost!)

The venue is this old barn that is now a multi-use facility for the community. In fact in the building next door they make their own schnapps. Crazy vibe for days and a great sound system.

(View of the stage before sound check)

What a night we had! Over 100 people in this old barn, amazing vibes, my jokes were killing, my German flowed... The harms were on point, tasty guitar licks, smooth grooves. It was all there; the perfect culmination of three weeks of hard touring. It all came together. We were loose. We were tight. It was all very right. Crowd wanted more. Standing ovation for two encores. Last song of the tour was a solo Blackbird to a pin-drop quiet audience.

Jürgen the host presented us each with a bottle of local Obstler schnapps; that's three total bottles of amazing schnapps I'm bringing home. One from Baienfurt, one from Öblarn, one from Bad Wünnenberg. Gonna have to pack carefully, and share liberally.

I was also so stoked that my beautiful host sister Lena showed up with her boyfriend. I met her when she was 8!! I lived with her and her three siblings in Aachen in 1994. I still see that little girl in her but she is an amazing, sweet woman now. So awesome to share this music with her and so grateful she made the drive from Köln.

After the show we had a ceremonial drink in my hotel room. We are already planned Spring of 2015. Big plans!

All in all a great end to a great tour. Blessed and tired. One more blog update tmrw and then this blog will sleep until the fall tour. Gute Nacht.

5/9/14 day 32: Neuruppin, Germany

Imagine there's no heaven... Is inscribed in the ceiling around the large circular opening to the sky above the salt pool in the spa of the See Hotel Fontane, our hotel and venue for the evening. The idea is to float naked and motionless, completely relaxing your every muscle and letting the salinity of the water buoy you. Tilt your head back in the water and hear the calming instrumental music they pipe in. Open your eyes and watch birds fly by the huge oculus. Let the wind slowly pull you across the water. Spinning. Track the low grey clowds as they pass through your peep hole to the heavens. Or close your eyes and focus on nothing. Float. And imagine. And dream.

And hope your band mates don't come in and see your Wiener schnitzel...

Ah, screw it. Let them see. Let them all see.

Had a great, late morning. Breakfast at 10:30 with the crew. I think we all needed the rest, maybe me the most. Driving is wearing me out, although last night was a short jaunt from Berlin to Neuruppin (45 min). I still drove 3+ hrs that day from Czech.

Breakfast is fairly epic at the See Hotel. Really nice spread with some fine additions including fresh squeezed celery juice and an omelette bar, which I sadly arrived to late to enjoy.

After breakfast came the spa. A couple different saunas, steam room, herbal steam room, a number of various showers (including my favorite which is just a bucket of cold water attached to a rope. You can reenact that scene in flash dance if you want. Totally same vibe). Then came the floating. And no, no band mates showed up. The band that saunas naked together stays together, or something like that.

After an hour and a half of that, Jeff and I took a walk into town. No real destination in mind. We jumped into a cafe when it started raining and enjoyed some free wifi. Neuruppin is investing in some remodel which is nice. It's a very quant little town with beautiful old buildings and wobbly cobblestone passageways.

(This is part of my Blue Door series)

(This house is like an MC Esher drawing)

(Another blue door)

(Curry Wurst was the right call)

After a short nap, we met in the main restaurant for their Chinese Buffet. It was good. Better than your average Chinese buffet, I'd say. 

The hotel sets up a stage and lights in the lobby and lines up comfy chairs. We ended up having a nice little crowd including some VIPs from London (thanks Mark and Hannah). 

(From last year, signing the wall of fame)

Set went well and after we all had a beer in the bar and tried to soak in all the goodness of the tour. Tmrw night is our last show and it's usually a very early night to pack and get ready and go over all the Acounting. So tonight we tried to just enjoy our last evening knowing Saturday is going to be a long drive.

(Photo Mark Liddington)

We love playing here. We love relaxing here. I'm so grateful for this stop on the tour. Night.

5/8/14 day 31: Berlin, Germany

Breakfast at 9 AM at the hotel. Very modest offering. Hit the road at 1030. Arrived in Berlin, Pankow at about 2:30. Hit some traffic but otherwise a quick trip, all things considered. Drove through intermittent rain and sunshine. Located the Zimmer 16 and devoured nearest Döner. It was the first proper spicy thing I've eaten in a month. It was nice. Getting excited for spicy southwestern food!

Had some time to kill so we parked at a cafe and had coffee and chatted while the patio swarmed with little German kids eating ice cream, falling down, riding bikes, crying, playing tag, occasionally melting down and generally just freaking out. Some things never change I guess. Pankow must be the young family neighborhood of Berlin. It's pretty deep in former east Berlin, so I assume the rent is cheaper than other areas; hence all the younger families.

Load into the club at 6. It's amazing how this music changes peoples attitudes. Take example Rolf, the booking/sound guy. When we rolled up, he was a little ornery, as sound guys can be at times. We didn't really speak much while we got ready to sound check. We sound check one song and all of a sudden Rolf is all smiles and a jokester. His attitude changed immediately. He told me at set break how this was "his" music, and how much he appreciated us being professional, and how he wants us back this time next year. I was flattered.

But anyway, it was a cool show. Had a bunch of friends roll up as well as some brand new faces. It was a smallish crowd of 25+ but the mood was light and they sung and clapped along and were super appreciative. Heard many nice compliments from the staff as well.

(Photo Jörg Heldman)

Venue fun fact, this club was a children's movie theater in the early 70s. They played a bunch of the DEFA Filme here. I thought that was so cool! After working with those films after college, to be in a theater where they were actually screened was so awesome. Shout out to my DEFA Film family!

After the set, we grabbed some dinner at a Mexican restaurant on the corner called La Paz with some of Emily and Peters friends. I think everyone was pretty fried (I know I was) so we headed out to Neuruppin to crash out shortly thereafter.

Bummed to leave Berlin so quickly. Definitely not enough time. I will be back though. Maybe even in October...

Got to Neuruppin at 1 am and checked into my room. I'm not gonna lie, I'm a little bit bummed I didnt get my corner pimp suite looking out over the See, but this will still do just fine.... We are totally spoiled here and I love it. I look forward to this gig all year.

Tmrw's plan: late breakfast, steam room, swimming, napping, gig. And NO DRIVING. Night.

5/7/14 day 30: Kadan, CR

Had a nice little sleep in today. I went full eye mask and white noise machine and sleep until noon. It was splendid.

We took the car the short distance into town (it was threatening rain) and went to a cafe and proceeded to point at pastries until we had sufficiently confused the staff. Enjoyed a coffee and went and visited Martin at Strelnice. Jan and Teresa, Martin's colleague and boss, took us down to the river. They were very eager to show us the new paddle boat/row boat dock they had just put in. So, here we are; Jeff and I paddling while Peter and Emily rowed along the river. Someone took pics, I was more concerned with the very thin line between the rim of the boat and the river water. I don't think it was built for two grown ass men.

We made it out dry and Jan, the head booker of Strelnice, bought us a round.

(The sun made a brief appearance)

We all hopped back in the car and drove the 20 minutes to Chomotov. GPS is being naughty. She stopped talking to us and refuses to bring us to the exact location. We asked a woman on the street where the venue was. She was standing in front of the entrance to the venue and looked at us like we were crazy. Thanks GPS.

The venue is a hotel/spa too. The rooms are nice. We are playing in the restaurant. Martin, our Kadan host, is doing sound tonight, so it's gonna sound sexy.

The show was dope. I mean, let's be real, it was in a restaurant but everyone there was invested. It's unlike restaurant gigs in the states; it was still about the music. Good vibes. And we brought the heat. There was a TV crew from Mexico who filmed some of the show and then interviewed us after. I'll post whatever they share. There may or may not have been some La Bamba...

After the set we met Prema and his wife, and brother and sister in law. All super nice folks. It was Prema's birthday and he randomly found out about the show online today and decided to celebrate his bday w us. We had a killer rest of the evening. Singing songs (Hey Jude in Czech sounds funny) and laughing our asses off. 

We learned some Czech that shouldn't be repeated. All in all, a great night. Loved playing here, loved even more sleeping 100 meters away in the adjourned hotel. No more driving until tmrw. Berlin here we come. Czech we wil see u again. 

5/6/14 day 29: Kadan. Czech Republic

Breakfast at 915 before the walk back through town to the Amerika Haus to get our car. Along the way we walked past the Marienplatz with the Glockenspiel clock. It happened to be at noon, so we checked that out and continued our way to the rental car.

(Beautiful day in München)

On the road at like 1. Had a 3:40 hr drive ahead of us to get to Kadan. Pretty smooth driving on the autobahn, made good time. I did notice the new roads once you crossed the border to Czech Republic which helped to shave a couple minutes off the GPS. I am sure they are trying to get more EU visitors and have in the past year invested a ton of dough in infrastructure. It's very visible. Hope it works.

Arrived in Kadan at 530 and went straight to the venue. Our tour binder mentioned a 7pm show start so we were a little stressed that we were late. We met Martin our host at the venue at about 545 and he told us we started at 830, which was welcome news. We were hungry and needed a minute to decompress. 4 hrs in the car ain't no joke. Pivo, please.

After sound check in the cool, old cellar venue we had a quick dinner at the restaurant upstairs. We ate and drank like Kings (I'm sensing a pattern). Food coma, Czech style.

(Beef Goulash and dumplings, rot kohl)

("Yes, I'll have the Feudal Blowout with a side salad please.")

We had 40+ people turn out on a Tuesday in Kadan!? Awesome! A bunch of folks from last years show and a number of new friends. Olga, our first Slovakian fan, travelled 10 hrs from her home in Slovakia to see the show. Honored and humbled. It was really a nice night. Tunes sounded great. What can I say, we are good at what we do!!

Martin, our awesome host here in town, told us we were sleeping in a monastery not too far from the venue so after the gig he took us over to get settled. We are the only ones here on the property which includes a Biergarten which opens at 11, an oversized pig whose name I can't remember, and apparently ghosts.

It's gonna be an interesting night. Hugs from Kadan.

5/5/14 day 28: München, Germany

Breakfast at Hotel Merkur (which was minimal but decent), a cascading selfie, and then we were on our way. Ready for adventure. Ready for München.

Team spirits were high. 3 hrs later, we arrived in München, greeted by a little traffic. Straight to the hotel to dump our luggage and clean up before heading directly to Amerika Haus for the gig. After a quick load in we ventured down the road in search of some dinner. We stumbled upon a real gem; a little Innenhof biergarten. We ate and drank like kings and queens. Es war herrlich...

We snacked on a pretzel while we sipped on Helles Löwenbräu and decided our game plan. I went with the Wienerschnitzel Wienerart mit Pommes... Always a strong choice.

(Before)

(After)

We were stuffed and thankful. The weather was beautiful. We were fed. We were watered. And now it was time to rock. We went back to Amerika Haus and sound checked.

We played from 8-1030. Took a couple breaks, chatted with the folks (over 60 people showed up for the gig), and we melted faces. It was a really solid performance and to be honest, I was relieved NOT to speak German between songs. It was a nice change. We crushed it in merch tonight, actually sold out of North & Prospect. It was an awesome night. Thanks to Meike for having us, Clemens for doing sound, and Jasmine for being such a great hostess.

We planned to leave the rental car at Amerika Haus because there was a parking fee at the hotel. So we put all the guitars in Meike's office after the gig, and started the walk back through the city center towards the hotel. We stopped at a few spots to celebrate life and new friend, Stef's birthday. Sabine, our first München fan, treated us all to some Proseco. Sabine was also at the show in Freiburg on Friday. She took the long train ride by herself just to hear the sweet melodies. She rocks.

(Photos by Ulrike Früchtnicht)

It was a fun stroll home as Sabine pointed out the sites. We found the last open bar in München and all 6 of us sat and chatted for a while.

We all loved München and we will b including this city on all future tours. That is all.

5/4/14 day 27: Lichtentanne, Germany

Had a nice breakfast with Uli, Doris, and Farina at the house before hitting the road. Beautiful blue sky and cold crisp air. The drive was relatively painless. 3.5 hrs on the highway past golden fields. 

We drove right to Hotel Mercur in Zwickau and checked in, closed my eyes for ten minutes, and got back in the car to the venue in Lichtentanne. It's the Sunday after a long weekend, which is why the streets were basically empty.

(Super cool hi-end technics in the hotel room)

The venue is an old church (St. Barbara, built 1630) which was recently renovated into a performance space and operated my volunteers. Really cosey and amazing natural acoustics. Sound system was probably the best of the tour so far.

We met Adreas our host and Mirko the sound technician, loaded in, and sound checked. Great sound system tonight and Mirko was a total pro. We even had time to work up The Drummer to be added to the set.

We had rice, goulash, and steamed veggies for dinner. For dessert, strawberry tiramisu... All gone in an instant.

Had the smallest crowd of the tour, 31, but it still felt really cosey. And while the crowd was at times hard to read from the stage (I thought my stories were hilarious...) they were extremely interested in taking CDs home (in fact we sold over 20 CDs) and they were so appreciative of us being there. After the show we signed CDs and chatted with the locals.

We were home by 11PM which might be a record. Big day tomorrow. We head to Munich for the day. More soon.

Gute Nacht von Zwickau.

5/3/14 day 26: Weilburg, Germany

After breakfast at Hotel Schiller we hit the road. Three hours and change to our hosts in Weilburg. Thankfully, there was little traffic on the autobahn.

We were deep in the golden hills of farm country when we pulled into Lindenkult which is basically the private residence of Uli and Doris. And old farm converted into a performance space. Uli and Doris live in one house, his parents in another.

I immediately went down for a nap when I arrived. It's getting harder and harder for me to drive 3+ hrs and stay fit to sing. Thankfully, there was a quiet room in the guest apartment above Uli's parents house to grab a nap before dinner.

(That may or may not be a love swing. In the middle... Of the room...)

Dinner was set for 530, so I made my way back to the main house for homemade bread and pumpkin soup (Hokkaido pumpkins, mom). It was lightly spiced a curry and was really delicious. Doris had also prepared Caprese salad and some little bite sized pizzas. We sat in the sun, surprisingly. It was cold and rainy in Freiburg but by the time we arrived in Weilburg, it was clear and sunny.

Show started at 8ish. Uli and his band played 20 minutes and then we hit. It felt nice.  We didn't even have monitors, but we still brought the thunder. The room is super cozy, the people were really into it, and we are now on top of our game. During our break, Farina (Uli and Doris' daughter) got up w her band and played a couple songs. They did a great job.

We crushed our second set and had a couple encores. We did Printemps Á Paris and Bid You Goodnight and they wanted one more, so I did "You Can Close Your Eyes" by James Taylor. We chatted and signed CDs after the show. Another really warm and fuzzy evening of good vibes.

5/2/14 day 25: Freiburg, Germany

We all piled into the VW Touran and made a quick stop by Tommy and Simone's house to say goodbye and pickup my laundry. Such a sweet couple of folks. So welcoming. We will miss our time in Baienfurt.

Thankfully a shorter drive in the car today. Made it through the rain to Freiburg passing through Hirsch Sprung into my old home of Freiburg. We went directly to the hotel and I took a quick nap before heading over to the venue for sound check. It was cold and rainy, but it still felt amazing to be in Freiburg.

We met Ray the friendly booking agent at 6 at the club. He also runs sound and does an impeccable job. That room always sounds amazing.

We walked around the block and sat down to a legit Italian dinner. Tonight I had a green salad and Penne with a bolognese and tomato cream sauce. Food was gone before any pics were taken. We were all pretty famished.

The show was great. We saw a marked improvement in the numbers from last year which makes everyone happy. Our set felt really good. Harmonies are solid, stories congealing, all around good vibes. We even had a triple encore tonight. They didn't want us to leave, and we didn't either. Felt amazing.

Chatted with several folks after the show, many of whom were at the show last year. That always blows my mind... The fact that they remember. This time, it seems like they all brought friends. Ray was happy and wants us back and hopefully, we can have a little more time in the city. After the set, we walked back to the hotel and crashed. The next week is going to be super busy, travel daily, every night shows. Gotta remember to sleep!

I didn't even have time to stop by Euphrat for a Döner or Feierling for a beer. Such a bummer, but we will be back soon. I might even make a short stop over in October.

5/1/14 day 24: Baienfurt, Germany

Day off in Baienfurt is a beautiful thing. We went back over to the Hof Theater and met up with Uli the owner, Tommy the booking agent and his wife Simone and some of their friends and sat outside and enjoyed patches of sun. We were treated to another amazing lunch and delicious Landzüngle beer.

For dessert, Rhubarb Tiramisu. It was stupid good.

We sat around playing guitar and enjoying some down time and then went for a sunset walk around the property. It's really such a magical place. I love it here.

May 1st is a holiday in Germany. And true to form, Hof Theater threw a big dance party. We hung out and shared our killer dance moves with the locals. DJ was spinning some hits and the dance floor was bumping. It was a really fun night. Great way to spend a night off. 

Thankfully there are no pics of the dance moves.

4/30/14 day 23: Baienfurt, Germany

After breakfast we all piled into the car and made our way south. We drove through Ulm which looks like a very cool city. We've driven through it a couple times now. One of these days we'll stop.

Arrived at the Best Western in Baeinfurt around 2. This is a pretty nice hotel by all standards. I spent the next hour napping off the drive. We met in the lobby and made the 4 minute drive to Hof Theater.

Our show here last year was epic and we had all built up our expectations pretty high. It was raining when we arrived this time and Uwe the sound engineer let us in. They had made some cool improvements to the room since last year. Also noticed the top billing on the 3 month calendar...

Tommy the booking agent and all around nicest guy in the world arrived shortly after we did. We did a quick sound check and then had the long awaited Boeuf Bourguignon. It was worth the wait; spaetzle und brot dazu...

Mahlzeit!

(Landzüngle bier: PROST!)

Tommy's wife Simone joined us for dinner. She is due next week with their second child but she said she wouldn't miss the concert. We agreed to change the names of our songs to help induce labor: Birthing in Slow Motion, Birth Song, and of course Birth With Me.

The show was our best yet. The German was flowing and we sang our asses off. And it was the right show to do it too; 90+ people. Packed house. And Tommy invited some other promoters to the how that want to book us next year. It felt amazing. Double encore, super juicy vibes all around.

After the set we took our guitars ink the restaurant and after a killer late night spread of delicious meats and cheeses we had a nice little second set of music and sin along. We even dipped into the famous Hasselnuß Schnapps.

Another amazing night. What a life!