Tour updates #5-#8

Tour update #8: Yesterday involved a scoop of banana sorbet, two new friends, a 14y.o. Chardonnay/Savagnin blend, a new song, a headful of ideas and a very good band in a very sweaty cellar. Today involves busking and an overnight bus to Brussels. Thank you Strasbourg!

Tour update #7: Slow busking day but I did get a lesson in extracting tourist money from the original Gold Mouth Woman, a wonderful withered Roma Dame who came to me and indicated that I had an OK voice but needed to ‘work it’ more – she sang to me this amazing song of longing and suffering. With her eyes, her voice, she suffered and loved the suffering. She touched her heart and then stretched out the cupped hand as if offering her heart. Then she said, “Shit spot. You need to go by the Cathedral.”

Tour update #6: Wonderful Strasbourg hostess (and skilled whistler) in *fairytale* Petite France district and a profitable busking session today including selling CDs, jamming with local street musicians and pissing off the local busking mafia. Tonight, flinty Alsace Pinot Gris and further wanderings.

Tour update #5: Great show last night in Thionville, but it was so hot my thumb kept sticking to the back of the guitar neck. I started outside, singing on the street and got a hug from the bar owner at the end. Today a festival in Metz and then onto Strasbourg.

Close as a Slow Dance Tour Updates

Tour update #4: Great day yesterday. Climbed around in an old blast furnace, sat in a whirling flurry of birch pollen in Köln, caught a great ride into France via Rheinland Pfalz and Luxembourg. Was driven to an old cloister where the Boumchaka crew, awesome promoters for my Thionville show tonight, were running the kitchen for another gig. Saw the running sheet backstage. Headliner: Mudhoney. Moshed around a hyper-vigilant security dude. Got chatting to the band after the show. Australians, go see them in July. They fucking rock and they’re really lovely guys. Viva la France!

Tour update #3: Small but perfect house gig last night. Today is a travelling day. I go to Metz via Köln and Thionville.

Tour update #2: Made it to Duisburg!

Tour update #1: My Mitfahrgelegenheit driver didn’t show up. Waiting at Berlin Zoo for a possible ride at 10am. Concert tonight in Duisburg. Good times!