All my updates for free over on my Patreon
My Patreon is here and I post regular updates to everyone that follows me, including the free tier. Please sign up and consider becoming a Patron over there Thank you, S.
'Work With This' from Speicher, Husum last weekend
Here’s the first song from my long set at the wonderful Speicher up in Husum on the north west coast of Germany last weekend. I’ll probably put together a collection from this evening for my Bandcamp and Patreon pages in the next few days as I remember it being a nice concert.
I’m just home after other enjoyable concerts at the beautiful Buchhandlung Blattgold and Prinz Willy’s lovely little bar in Kiel. In between I spent most of the week on the little island of Bornholm in between Sweden, Denmark and Germany. No concerts played there sadly, but some writing and much fuel for further songs.
Big thanks to everyone who came out and helped. Later this month I’m in Karlsruhe, Freiburg and then Ulm. Anyone up for coming along please get in touch.
More to follow then,
Stephen
September 2020 - songs and set lists from the concerts
A quick note about this entry - I spent an hour or two and wrote a long post here but somehow closed the browser without saving so lost it all. Right now I’m posting the set lists for those that asked and some choice recordings from each night that I have and will follow with more words about each night and more photos, videos, etc when I get the energy to write it all out again. Bah.
Anyway, I just came back from some shows and they went like this:
Lindwurm, Hannover 03/09/20
i was in the north before the fall
the royal canal
down down down
lover o lover
deserter
barbara allen (traditional)
super good advice
fold culinary
song for a coalman
carrion call
so long song
we could have, we should have, we didn’t
we swam a little song
Prinz Willy, Kiel 04/09/20
when i was away
the royal canal
down down down
lover o lover
deserter
a carrion call
fold culinary
i do wrong
barbara allen (traditional)
song for a coalman
song for fee
super good advice
from the willows by the weir
so long song
we swam a little song
Kulturschlachterei, Rendsburg 05/09/20
when i was away
the royal canal
down down down
i was in the north before the fall
lover o lover
pure black coal
fold culinary
song for a coalman
make each other anew
super good advice
barbara allen (traditional)
polly vaughan (traditional)
so long song
Garden Concert, Rostock 06/09/20
when i was away
the royal canal
down down down
i do wrong
pure black coal
fold culinary
lover o lover
make each other anew
it don’t stop the bleeding
super good advice
so long song
when i was single (traditional)
we swam a little song
Rostock, photo by https://www.instagram.com/alex_ottoxo
Alice, Copenhagen 07/09/20
it don’t stop the bleeding
the royal canal
down down down
i do wrong
pure black coal
fold culinary
lover o lover
deserter
when i was away
make each other anew
super good advice
polly vaughan (traditional)
so long song
we swam a little song
Copenhagen, photo by https://www.instagram.com/__leilu___
Tonfink, Lübeck 08/09/20
song for fee
the royal canal
down down down
lover o lover
deserter
delia (song by blind willie mctell)
when i was away
i do wrong
winter (song by the diamond family archive)
we could have, we should have, we didn’t
super good advice
so long song
fold culinary
we swam a little song
Wohlerspark, Hamburg 11/09/20
when i was away
the royal canal
down down down
lover o lover
i do wrong
pure black coal
fold culinary
we could have, we should have, we didn’t
winter (song by the diamond family archive)
super good advice
paper birds
so long song
song for fee
Hamburg, photo by https://www.instagram.com/janina.rrr
Fotostudio Gezett, Berlin 12/09/20
when i was away
the royal canal
down down down
i do wrong
pure black coal
fold culinary
lover o lover
deserter
polly vaughan (traditional)
we could have, we should have, we didn’t
super good advice
pretty peggy-o (traditional)
so long song
Berlin, photo by https://www.instagram.com/gerald.zoerner
Jazzkeller, Zürich last Friday
Here’s a couple of impressions from a night in Zürich last Friday. As with most of my concerts down there the original date was cancelled due to the Coronavirus so Marcel invited me to play a set before Flo Bauer. The audience was small but super enthusiastic, I ate like a king and Flo and his buddies played a tight set of imaginative blues. Was an easy fine night.
Here’s a cover of the blind Willie McTell song ‘Delia’ and a stomp through ‘I Do Wrong’ with Marcel spontaneously joining me on the drums. Thanks to him for the invitation, fine food and nice company - I hope to be back and see a few more of you there too.
Flo Bauer
Tomorrow, Friday, Bandcamp are waiving their 10 / 15% fee on all sales in an effort to highlight the losses a lot of musicians are having because of cancelled shows, cancelled travel and all this. If you were thinking of picking up some music from me or any other musician that uses Bandcamp to sell (and not only stream) music then tomorrow would be a fine time to do that. My page is here but you might also visit the Woodland Recordings page with other brilliant people here.
I’m also uploading a completely new song I played at this concert to my Bandcamp subscription here, so there’s that too.
Anyhow, stay well all.
Stephen
Fritzen, Hamburg (free download)
Photos by Jenny.
I recently got invited to play a concert in the wonderful little Fritzen design studio / gallery / shop in Hamburg. Was a real pleasure and a lovely visit and I wanted to share a couple of songs, some photos, brilliant sketches and illustrations from the evening. You can imagine the crowd were all hot creative folks so there was a fair bit of sketching, photographing and that sort of thing going on. Please click through the links, download the songs and share and all that - the people up there make lovely stuff and are incidentally the best hosts. Thanks Kathrin and all fine Fritzen folks.
Photo by Kathrin.
The following illustrations are also by Larissa Bertonasco.
Zürich and Luzern
So I get to El Lokal, a beautiful old bar, restaurant and music venue in a military building in the centre of Zürich, surrounded on both sides by water and busy streets. I’m perfectly in time of course and we start an easy soundcheck. My friend Sophia arrives halfway through to join me on violin and then we sit upstairs and enjoy a fine dinner before the concert.
I’ve played here once before, a couple of years previously and the experience confirmed what I had long suspected - it’s one of the nicest places to play in the country as far as I’m concerned. It’s super friendly, nice and small, sounds brilliant and everyone there seems to do everything right. Their program is imaginative and brave and many people I respect and listen to have played there - Will Oldham, Damien Jurado, Jason Molina, Lambchop... This month Scarlet Rivera will bring her violin to the little stage, C.W. Stoneking is back - it goes on.
Anyway, I’m fortunate enough to have a nice audience this Sunday night and, although Sophia and I don’t play our greatest ever concert, it’s a super warm and friendly time on the island.
Later, I stay at Timo’s house and we sit up talking for a couple of hours before I sleep the sleep of death in a most comfortable bed. Delicious breakfast and then back to the venue for lunch - lunch too! It’s too much. I stagger out of the door to catch my train just as Maclcom Middleton turns up. Wish him a fun evening and then kind of skip down to the station.
I arrived in Luzern as the weather turned dark and the rain came. Opted for a bus ride up and over the hill to Nade’s house for a little Wohnzimmer concert she had arranged for me that night. Normally I’d be at her Phrontistery in town, but we thought we’d try something else and I think it was a change for her to invite people to her beautiful apartment.
We sat and talked before the guests came and then I played a kind of quiet set of songs, not all the usual things I rely on. Was refreshing and enjoyable. My buddy Karl turned up in time and was a fine evening.
Next day a wash out but also a day off so I kept warm and dry for as long as possible before making a dash for the station and a short ride back to Aarau for an evening off. Would be at Garage Bar the next night so this was a chance for stinky raclette and early to bed.
I realise normally I’d be uploading recordings from these shows and sharing them here. I have been taping everything and recordings will come but I haven’t quite managed an easy method to edit live recordings and get them up here without my laptop right now. I have everything I need except the desire to sit at my iPad for an hour importing and learning a good way of managing it. Perhaps tomorrow morning, let’s see what sort of a late night we have here in Bern. I’m at Zar bar, starts in an hour or so. Come quick.
Anyways, be well all, thanks for sticking with this.
Stephen
Heidelberg, Darmstadt and Ulm
Train creeps into Zürich Hbf, people on the platform impatiently pressing the buttons to open the door even before it stops, mild panic on their faces as the carriages crawl to a stop. We have ten minutes before it leaves for Luzern, sure we’ll all make it on.
I left my room in Fürth last Wednesday to spend an in between night in Stuttgart before returning to Heidelberg for a house concert at Sandra’s beautiful loft apartment. Five floors up and a warm welcome at the top of it. This was one of those rare occasions where someone had written to me proposing a concert - an invitation as opposed to a response to my request. It does happen that people somehow come upon my music and think to invite me to their homes. Seldom for sure, but brilliant.
Anyhow, this was one of those happy occasions and soon enough a lovely little audience to play to. Sandra had printed flyers advertising a secret concert with an email address attached and, yep, people she didn’t know had written and come along and seemed to enjoy it. As if by magic.
Photos by Moritz Hettich. His Instagram is here.
We shared a late night and an enormous breakfast and then suddenly my train was leaving for Darmstadt. Packed and noisy carriage, but a short trip and soon enough I walked the mile or so to the Schloss in the centre of town. Endless renovation work still in place but Christian there to meet me and a simple setup at the Keller Klub underneath the old building.
I had played here about ten years previously, with Thirty Pounds Of Bone and I remember a great gig and somehow a tricky audience setup. The room is long and narrow and many people were camped at the bar happy to chat through the evening. This night, many years later was a little better and certainly more people there for the concert. Friends along too and a little bit of work needed but I played what I wanted I think and after the concert slipped into much conversation and drinking at the bar for some hours. Young Orson Welles was there, unbeknownst to himself.
With Thirty Pounds Of Bone in 2011.
Photo by Özlem.
We walked ten minutes after the concert to Christine’s place and her skittish cats and almost dawn before flopping into sleep. A late morning and a sunshine walk back to the station and delayed slow train south to Ulm.
I was a little early in the cathedral town so I dropped the cases off at Volker’s place and did my usual exploring of an unfamiliar town. I’ve played in Ulm a bunch of times but there’s always more to see anywhere if one takes a different route. On this trip I’ve been reading David Byrne’s ‘Bicycle Diaries’ and his bike rides around various cities has been an inspiration and a nice companion whilst I’ve also been making much more modest stops of it. The basic point of the more you look the more you see and a walk, or in his case, a cycle ride, can reveal places in unexpected ways.
Andrea had also proposed this concert to me many months ago so here we were together on a cool rooftop with the long promised view of the cathedral as a backdrop. I usually struggle with playing outside, especially in the colder months, and so it was here. That being said, it was a loose, friendly evening and I think we made the most of it. Fun conversation and brilliant food, courtesy of Hakuna Matata, and again the promise of a late night, early morning. But I kind of lucked out with an opportunity for a relatively early night and got dropped off at Markus’s place around midnight and bedded down in his front room. Naturally he forgot I was there at 5 in the morning when he came back but my objections sent him out quick enough. He did the same again at 7 and alcohol can play devilish games on the short term memory it’s true.
But, nothing to fear - as if by a miracle and like a phoenix from the flames he rose with the birds, drank thirty cups of coffee, smoked a pack of cigarettes and seemed fit enough to drive me to the station, knock my wind out with a bear hug and off I was to Zürich and a run of shows in Switzerland - always a thing to look forward to.
I have a day off today but for the rest of the week it’s concerts in Aarau, Basel and St Gallen. Next week Hamburg, Oberhausen and Essen. More to come then.
Stephen
Into Switzerland
Riding the train down into Switzerland from Germany and every single time this gets me.
Video: 'Pure Black Coal' from Kröpelin last weekend.
Here’s a video filmed by Marv from my concert in Kröpelin at de DROM.
This was a difficult night for me somehow, perhaps due to the events of the night before (see this post for that) but the room sounded grand and there were enough people to shout this stuff to. Perhaps it’s time to put this odd, spiteful song away for a little while though - have been singing it with a little too much joy and relish for my liking recently.
Anyhow, more to come from this show perhaps. For now, here comes an early night. Hope you’ve had a lovely weekend.
Stephen
Bag, laptop, hard drives, unreleased music and videos stolen
As some of you may be aware my rucksack was stolen last weekend after my concert at Kolibri near the Reeperbahn in Hamburg. I had a lovely gig with a great crowd and a few hours later when most of the guests had left i was told to bring all my bags into the main room and we sat outside the venue chatting and apparently keeping an eye on the front door. Not so well as it turns out.
Suffice to say when I popped in to use the toilet I noticed right away that although my suitcase and guitar were right where I had left them my rucksack was not. Felt immediately sick. Inside the rucksack were the following
• Apple Macbook Air laptop. Kind of old but with a few weeks work that I hadn’t backed up yet. Also expensive to replace.
• Three external hard drives. Probably the worst thing lost - two were full of a brilliant collection of films and tv shows I had spent years collecting and were invaluable on long train rides and the other had six years of live recordings and videos I had filmed since coming to Germany. This included a couple of videos I had just edited for songs from the new album, stuff from my trip to Naples with my mother earlier this year, a session recorded just that morning on a boat in Flensburg and dozens of other concerts mixed and ready to be made available at some point in the future.
I know, I know - I backed things up but then I took the backup along with me and even kept it in the same bag as the original copy. Noob move.
The music / videos one is password protected - so that’s essentially worthless.
• Current diary. I write lyrics for my songs in my journal first, mostly whilst travelling. I also tend to fill it with contacts and random personal thoughts along the way. This isn’t worth anything to anyone else I’m sure. Paper and ink, straight to the recycle bin. But I lost a bunch of ideas and all the next big hits for sure.
• Nintendo Switch and many games and all my save files. Mother fucker.
• House keys, headphones, 100€, bag of sunflower seeds, biography of Virginia Woolf. Flotsam and jetsam basically.
For what it’s worth the rucksack looks like this:
I don’t expect to see any of this stuff again and I’ve already started making plans to replace things I need to carry on working in the way I have been, with a little more security of course. But, as is often the case with this sort of thing, most of what was stolen is worthless to anyone that has it. I get that you can sell the games console right away and perhaps wipe the hard drives and get rid of those for a few euros each. The laptop is password protected and has other security enabled but I guess someone will buy it and do something with it. The bag is quite tasty and in good condition I suppose.
Anyway, had a nice little trip up north - met some fine folk and had some lovely shows but this whole thing made a very distracting time of it. I recorded half a dozen songs on the boat in Flensburg that I hoped to share with you but they are really gone. I do have some live recordings still on my audio recorder and I will post some music in a few days.
For now this is a belated moan and perhaps a call out for anyone in that area to keep an eye out for a rather anonymous looking black rucksack with a book of depressing lyrics inside. Who knows.
From the lovely people at Fritzen.
I’m in Stuttgart today, getting set to leave for Thun tomorrow morning where I will play in the beautiful Schloss Hünegg. Details about that here - please come if you can, I need a lift.
Stephen
Thun in the rainstorm (free download)
Here’s something of a random post - I was making space on my hard drive and found my recording of the concert I played in Thun, Switzerland last month. This was organised by my good friend Reto of Mundwerk at his summer residence the Strandbad. A lovely place with incredibly tasty food, a thick cut above the usual swimming pool chips and burgers I grew up on.
I rode down there for this one show, was a kind of stop between home and a little trip to Italy. I left in the morning sunshine but by the time I got down there and walked around the lake to the pool there was a dark storm brewing and, whilst we ate amazing steaks outside on the terrace, it soon began to rain. The room was fairly full and as soon as I started it lashed it down outside and the thunder started up. As such, much of what I recorded is rain and all - grand enough but there are other places for that kind of thing.
Anyway, here’s two songs free to download - the first played for Reto (check out that gnarly thunder at 1:45) and the second played for that unpleasant 50 year old German man that seems to appear at every concert and ask me about Brexit. I hope I don’t see him this month, have had quite enough of that.
As it happens, next month I’ll be back in Thun on the 7th of September playing at the Schloss Hünegg as part of a poetry slam event my buddy Marco is putting together. Hope to see some familiar faces there.
Have a lovely weekend everyone,
Stephen
Atelierkonzert in Stuttgart last night (free download)
Photo: @helle.helle.helle
I played a concert in Dirk and Danielle’s studio yesterday evening down here in Stuttgart. First gig in a couple of weeks - was wonderful to be invited (perhaps I invited myself) and a very enjoyable evening.
I played kind of ok, the room was high and open with a lovely wooden floor so I played most of the set acoustic. Some new songs got out of the house for the first time and here’s a free download of the first performance of ‘It Don’t Stop The Bleeding’ from the new album.
I’m here for a couple more days and then will play a short set in Fürth on the 12th of August with dear Julia Laura at the Babylon Kino. A handful of dates at the end of the month in the north of Germany to come too. It all goes on.
Have a lovely Sunday,
Stephen
ps - adding this one too, which was dedicated to Dr Lamb and whose good stuff is here.
St Arbogast - part two (free download)
Backstage at golden hour.
I have showered 4 times each day and sit here now in my darkened room dripping and sliding about the place. We have shade under the trees but the sun burns through. The heat is incredible, I suppose this week the most common thing to say and hear pretty much anywhere in Europe.
I’m still at St Arbogast Folk Festival - it’s Sunday afternoon but I’m going to write some words about Friday night and Saturday here and then I’m off to find ice cream and the breeze. I remember such a thing.
Friday night Buntspecht played on the main stage in the evening and killed it. Fantastic players, brilliant performance all the good stuff and I’m already looking forward to seeing them again in a couple of weeks somewhere in Germany. Some of the performance stuff is a little too cabaret for my taste but they all play so well and this night it just grew and grew and had such momentum and dynamics. Amazing.
Earlier Paul Plut had made a great racket too and basically I have been well happy to be surprised with enjoying hearing new people for the first time. I don’t really get to go to festivals and generally tend not to like most music I hear played live. I’m sure I don’t try hard enough to make the effort and I suppose I have a bit of a grumpy attitude problem.
Anyway at some point in the afternoon, I’m not sure when but the sun was certainly high and hot, I played under the linden tree to a lovely little crowd gathered in it’s shade. As I wrote yesterday I’ve been approaching this weekend with the idea that I could play different songs and it’s true that’s been happening. That being said here’s a song I know by now recorded under the tree.
Right after this, another shower and then I played back up the hill in the woods. A scrappy, messy set and little worth sharing from this I’m afraid. Can listen again and check later. Met some fine people up there and it was nice enough. Afterwards I retreated back to the dark room, another shower of course and then I recorded some songs in here for an hour and I think I’ll have stuff to share from that in the future.
I hope you’re having a fine weekend too,
Stephen
St Arbogast - part one (free download)
I’m at the Folk Festival in St Arbogast, near Götzis, Austria for the weekend. It’s absolutely scorching hot, people are being super nice and the area is very beautiful. I have a three day residence here and trying to play and write as much as I can - the weather and the countryside are distracting and inspiring in equal measure.
I played a short set in the woods yesterday afternoon and here are a couple of recordings from that. I’ve been preparing some folk songs and unfamiliar material to play for this weekend and if ‘The Royal Canal’ isn’t so new for me at least ‘Soldier Johny’ isn’t a song I’ve not really played before and is kind of based on a traditional song. This was a simple acoustic concert, sitting on a log in front of 20 people in the middle of the forest and perhaps there are photos and videos to follow but this should give some impression if that’s what you’re after.
I’ll write some more words about the weekend when I get the chance but I’m scheduled to play three more concerts today, more again tomorrow and there are some locations here where music could sound grand so hopefully more recordings to come from this most pleasant place.
Anyhow, good morning and more later. Have a lovely Sunday,
Stephen
Hannover and Bonn (free download)
Photo: Jolin Masche
Photo: Jolin Masche
Ceven at Komplex 7 has been arranging little concerts for my friends and I for some years now and this week he set me up with an acoustic gig in dreiunddreißig in Hannover. It was a warm evening but the tiny wine shop was full with a lovely crowd and I sat there and I stood there and I played all the songs. After the show we drank some smuggled beers, talked loads and shook hands and all the good stuff.
Later we drove off to Béi Chéz Heinz of course for more drinks and shouting behind the DJ booth watching younger people dance. Assumed the creepy uncle at a wedding position, pretty much
That night I got to sleep in the lovely Trekkers Huus again and always nice enough and the next morning a rubbish breakfast at the nearby supermarket and then I walked the few miles back across town to the station.
Saturday I travelled to Bonn for the only the second time playing in town. The first was at the M********e back in 2008 or something with Tristan Brusch - the less said about that the better and they don’t get a link here and I only mention it because I’m a completionist and a wannabe archivist, etc. Anyway, Timo has been at a bunch of my concerts at different places and invited me to his house for a special concert there. There was a lovely bunch of people for the good company and I sat and tried to break through the floor to the apartment below.
By the end of the set everyone else was joining in and so we have this sort of thing:
Photo: Friedrich (Pape)
Since these shows I’ve been recording a lot and also putting together a live compilation from the concerts in April that I played. This will be exclusive and free for all subscribers to my newsletter so please sign up for that here and I’ll send you a link to download when it’s ready.
Two songs from Ulm two nights ago (free download)
Here be two songs from Sunday night’s concert at the Sauschdall (also Wikipedia) in Ulm, Germany. I like this venue a lot - a super solid old fort building with massive walls and rather crazy acoustics inside. Jazz venue since the 1960’s. The resident sound technician Andreas, a very friendly and capable guy, is nice to work with but it has to be said has a taste for the reverb, the delay and the chorus. The colour, let’s say. At soundcheck, and again in the interval, I asked that we cut the delay and the chorus and keep things simple but I think he felt it necessary to stay busy throughout my set. It sounded a bit random and distracting on the night and going though my recording of this show this morning most of it is pretty unlistenable to my ears at least. Chorus appears out of nowhere on my guitar, some words I sang are repeated, clipped and randomly delayed. Sometimes it’s fine on the night in the room at least, but doesn’t stand up at all when listened later. So it is here.
It’s a funny thing with this simple acoustic setup sometimes - I have the feeling that sound technicians often feel like they have to do something throughout the concert, to stay busy. I get that it’s not the most exciting thing to manage my sound and perhaps some people love the use of ‘colour’ for dramatic effect at different times in different songs. To add dynamics or whatever, but for me personally when playing I like to get an idea of the sound and stick with it. Have a picture to rely on where it is, what the shape of it is and how things are going to come out.
Blah, blah. I’m rambling so anyway, here’s the first song of the night:
And here’s the second to last one an hour or so later. Played as a request, poorly but distracted as I said.
Bit of a shame as it really was a pleasure to play there, like I say the whole crew are super friendly and helpful and the place is great. The Diamond Family Archive will play there in October so if you’re about please make it down and have a listen. There’s opportunities for some really crazy shit going on with their sound for sure, wowee.
Halfway through the evening the thunder and the lightning and the downpour had started on. We left the place in a rainstorm, walked down the hill and a short while later I drove off onto a flooded motorway and all the uneasy feelings there upon.
Photos and two songs from Werkstatt in Baden, Switzerland (free download)
Photo: https://seltsam.ch
Mike at selstam.ch sent me the photos he made from the concert at Werkstatt in Baden a week ago so I wanted to share them with you along with a few more songs from the night.
This was the last night of a two week tour I made in April and the only night where Sophia was able to join me with her violin. We didn’t get a chance to rehearse, instead just working out some basic arrangements in the other room right before we started. This level of preparation is fine for me but it does mean that the pair of us are kind of winging it on the songs we choose to do together. Keeps it interesting and wonderful for me to have some rare support (and surprises) whilst playing.
Anyway, these two I rarely play without Sophia so I thought they would be good to upload and share. Sophia wrote the original string parts for ‘If You Build It They Will Come’ when we made the ‘Turn Your Back On The Crown’ album together, but the music for ‘I Was In The North Before The Fall’ (from ‘The Good Men’) is new. We jump in and hang on, it is what it is.
I recorded almost every concert last month and plan to release an EP of things played in a week or so. Will be back with news on that if I can manage to make something listenable. Otherwise I’m finishing new songs and plan to record those as soon as the weather allows. I’ve my eye on a hut on a hill in which to record but I’m fearful of the cold there within. It was summer for a week but now it’s autumn in the south of Germany.
More soon then!
Photo: seltsam.ch
Landau and Baden (free download)
Sunday: Landau. Friends from Hamburg pick me up at the station and we walk through the redeveloped landscape of Landau to the RIVA bar where they plan an evening concert combined with Ben’s birthday drinks. A wonderful meal of home cooked comfort food and then a rather less than ideal concert experience. We tried it with me inside and the audience outside in the sunshine - bit weird and I could just hear the people at the bar - then we tried it inside but by then apparently the RIVA was the only bar open in town so everyone suddenly had to wear baseball hats on backwards and it was spring break. Anyhow sooner than planned done with and afterwards brilliant company and Lea plays songs and everyone drinks gin and tequila and it’s a fun visit just the same. Late to bed, early enough to rise and jump on the train back to Switzerland and the final night of this tour in Baden.
The journey down to Switzerland was a little fraught as I had opted for regional trains all the way and it was Easter Monday so many people were travelling. I sat with my guitar between my legs to Karlsruhe and then plonked myself in a dark corner most of the drop to Zürich. No matter, Severin picked me up at the familiar station in Baden and always a joy to see his friendly face. We drove the short way to the venue, Werkstatt - a reclaimed metal factory with a bar, studio space and a budget looking but long running nightclub called ‘Moonlight’.
We ate delicious vegan burgers prepared by Severin and Aicha (which you can find as Assa here) and then Sophia arrived and she and I worked out what we might play together. Sophia has been joining me on violin whenever we get the opportunity for a few years now and she also wrote and played the parts on the ‘Turn Your Back On The Crown’ album, for example:
I don’t enjoy rehearsing so much so we just decided on some keys and then the ramshackle room was full and we stood and played some sloppy songs for everyone. I don’t know if we played so good but it was certainly one of the most enjoyable concerts of the last weeks for me so here’s ‘Boys, I Am Worried’ as a free download from the thing:
Baden.
After the concert I got to spend time with some friends I hadn’t seen in years and then was driven back out of town to Severin’s place and straight to bed and the sleep therein.
Next morning not enough time but some coffee and a mouthful of delicious breakfast and then sent on my way. I took a train to Zürich and another to Stuttgart, looked out the window all the way and that’s how it should go.
My next concert is in a couple of weeks would you believe it back in Switzerland - Thun on the 17th of May - then I’ll be in Ulm on the 19th, Erlangen on the 21st and Bonn around the 25th. I have much more to share from these last days coming later this week before that though. It’s so nice that you follow, thank you.
Thun, Basel and Freiburg (free download)
At Carmen’s apartment in Freiburg with an hour to go before I take a couple of trains and also a bus up and across to Landau for a concert at RIVA tonight. Quick update on the last couple of days and a free download from Thun.
Thun.
Thursday: Thun. Back at the Mundwerk with all the good friends there and usually a fun, lovely night and this time no exception. A brilliantly clear afternoon and a walk with Reto up the hill to look upon the mountains for some time before a simple soundcheck and a delicious burger at the venue. Some concerns that the weather would keep everyone outside were pretty unfounded and the room had enough of a great audience to play to. Super quiet crowd and I tried a couple of requests but also played fair enough. I don’t do this song, from the ‘Woe’ album very often and it’s usually when I feel that it will work ok as it’s kind of long and quiet. ‘Make Each Other Anew’:
After the concert we sat upstairs and shared stories and gins and then I dragged the guitar up the tiny stairs of the most excellent Schwert hotel that Reto always puts me in and slept for England.
Next morning breakfast good as ever and then easy but very crowded train up to Basel and a day off with Joelle. Much needed washing and recuperation but also a couple of sunburnt hours by the wide Rhine, a sweet ferry across and back to her apartment and finally a random choice of brilliant Groundhog Day on the couch. Day off indeed.
Yesterday I took a short regional train up to Freiburg for a return to the KISS cellar for the third time. Micha sitting outside catching some rays and greeting everyone so we sat for an hour with a cold beer and caught up.
Soon enough the little cellar room was pretty full, surprisingly enough for such a warm, sunny evening and I played all the songs and took my sweet time about it.
Babeuf.
Micha, Carmen and I went for a couple of drinks at the Babeuf until we all got too tired and I flopped into sleep and a lovely breakfast on the terrace and here we are.
St Gallen, Luzern and Wienacht-Tobel (free download)
Luzern.
Half an hour in Winterthur sunshine before the direct connection I found to Thun. A slow drive across country over a thousand roundabouts getting beeped at by half a dozen impatient Swiss (?) drivers. A stop in Romanshorn for ice creams after a leisurely morning and a crazy good breakfast overlooking the Bodensee.
Romanshorn.
Where was I with this? Monday: St Gallen. Easy ride from Bern after a day of emails and some walks around the neighbourhood and across the bridge. I sat in the St Gallen cathedral grounds and then dragged the suitcase and guitar up to Sandro’s place for a house concert there that evening. He’s been to about 8 of my gigs all over the place so it seemed only fair that I play in his front room sometime.
We grabbed pizza from Mamma Assunta down the hill and then sat on his roof and watched the city with a beer. It’s times like this that help explain why I enjoy touring down here so much - the time there can be. The closeness of the towns provides ample hours between concerts. I appreciate the not having to rush every day.
St Gallen from Sandro’s roof.
But I saw images and film of Notre Dame burning apart just before I sat down to play and then sang songs with ‘I kept my calm as the chapel collapsed but left there as quick as I could’ and so on. It had put me in a low mood but I played all the songs and people seemed to sit and follow me along.
The next morning I walked up to the three lakes of course, took some clean air and then took a brilliant train route across the country.
I would be playing right near St Gallen the next day but for now I had a concert in Luzern at the lovely Phrontistery. This would be my fourth visit there and it’s always brilliant to sit with Neda and talk and laugh some. This evening Claude had asked if he could make some portraits with me so when he arrived we walked around to the Löwendenkmal and took photos there, whilst all around us a hundred Japanese tourists did the same. Seemed fitting.
I enjoyed the concert that night a lot. From where I sat there was a fun echo in the room so it was a pleasure to sing. I did a pretty straight set of songs, here’s the traditional ‘Pretty Peggy-O’ and I think the rest will follow.
Foto: @thephrontisteryluzern
So an early walk the next morning around the misty lake and then back east to St Gallen area for a concert at the Treichli restaurant. Martina picked me up in Winterthur in her giant german auto and we drove up the hills to most brilliant countryside. An afternoon of walking, talking, cat rubbing and generally just living the life of leisure before time for work. I was a little anxious about the restaurant concert to be honest as in my experience food and my songs don’t mix so good. I can’t really do the background music whilst people chat and eat but I think that was kind of the idea. In the end we compromised a bit and I played a few songs in-between courses but also got to eat some brilliant food and sleep in a super comfortable, tiny bungalow right next door. Obviously the view was nuts, we had a lovely visit and do go there for some fine food if you get the chance.
Treichli.
What is it now? Thursday and Thun and the train’s disappeared into a tunnel under Zürich airport and an hour and a half to go and that’s what it is.