This is one of my favorite places to play in Sweden and Katalina is one of my favorite people to visit. She is the proprietor of this quite large beautiful and beautifully kept place.. she who does everything from cooking the food .. hosting the events people overseeing the bar .. she is extraordinarily hard-working, very straightforward and nice and best of all… My friend.
Ulf’s Music room is quite charming holding about 100 people with a little stage .. perfect for Göran and me
We are so fortunate tonight to have one of the best sound men in the business, my good friend John from Norrtalja, to come here especially to do our sound… to Göran and me, it sounds amazingly good in a matter of minutes… And it stayed that way for the entire show… The way you can observe a great sound man is to see if he is still sitting behind his desk or he is out in the audience enjoying the show. If he is out in the audience enjoying the show then it means that everybody is happy and there are no tricks played with the sound. And that was the case tonight …John was out the audience from start to finish. Huge thanks John.
The show
Again, it was one long show tonight for an amazingly warm and responsive audience.
It was certainly like we were playing for a bunch of friends and the spirit of that kind of show is the best for us… Plenty of interaction … wonderful highlights
We started out with the trilogy of “Last Chance“ songs… The Real Thing, Son of a Rotten Gambler and I Wasn’t Born in Tennessee… These all seemed to connect and we were on to the new album of new songs, “Fix Your Words” with “Whatever Devil is in Me“ and the title song “Fix Your Words“..
These seem to connect on a very high level with Goran and the audience and me . A requested “Track 224” got us a bit on the lighter and more up-tempo side and showed off the virtuosity of my great friend from Norway!! The audience seemed to love this, interrupting Goran’s playing with bliss of clapping here and there.
Sometime soon after there was a wonderful segment that let the audience get to know my wife Joan a little bit better and join my wife and me at one of our typical evenings at a Japanese restaurant run by Chinese people.. with Joan Joan Joan – after playing that we ended a little segment with the Joan inspired song …the title song of my previous album, “A Song I can Live With“. This was definitely one of the big highlights!
Shortly after a warm version of “Angel of the Morning “
with the audience singing along we did a loose version of “Wild Thing” which had the audience whispering the chorus in such a soulful manner…just great! Loved all of this.
But I guess my favorite part of the show came at the end when we did the song I wrote for the prisoners which is now a Spotify hit, “Fuck All the Perfect People” ..with the audience singing along..
Then we drifted to more special requests; for my friend Tony Pankhurst, who had just flown in from England for the show, we did one of his favorite songs.. “Here I Am” which was my first hit song as an artist back in 1962 on Warner Bros.
Then we did a requested “Charcoal Sky” from my album “Yonkers New York“.. then it was another request, “Theme for an American Hero”.
As we were about to leave the stage, another request came from the right side of the room for one of my favorite songs, “Block out the Sirens of this Lonely World” I loved doing this tonight!
We ended the night with a favorite of mine that I hadn’t done for a long long time from the album “Black and Blue America”… “The Ship“.
What a night! One of my favorites in memory!
One thing that should be said is my cohort, Goran Grini. loves to be on the edge… Having to play according to certain inspiration that he feels… And that’s the way it was all night particularly with the requests which we haven’t played in a while… or that he had never heard before…And that always leads to a connection with us that makes the show so so inspired and rewarding.
Said hi to several including:
Heli, Sophia and Jasmus, Who were there a full hour before the show just the nicest young folks you could be.. thanks so much for the support… so nice visiting with you… Heli send best regards to Ted .. here’s wishing you both a very happy anniversary! .. say hello to Yari and Lena… hope to see them next time!
Hi Andy thanks for the kind words… Hi Gernana. Thanks for the kind words as well look forward to seeing you soon..
Hi Stephanie Daniel… so great to see you on the side singing along with so many of the songs… And thanks so much for your request of “Block out the Sirens..” I loved singing that for you!
Hi Hilding! Great seeing you again and again.. thanks for all your support over the years and very big hello to your friend Eva.. so nice to meet you.
Great to see a couple of university new fans and friends… Hi Joe… Thanks for being here and thanks for telling your friends Hannes about my music… Hannes, thanks so much for being here as well and I hope you enjoy “Yonkers New York”.
They hello to my friend Eric and other friends from Norrtalja.. and huge thanks to John for the great sound all night.. it doesn’t get better than this!!
Huge thanks to my great friend Hakan Olsson. Who has been a great tour guide for this entire show… But most important is just great to ride with a friend.. the road does not get better than that!
And a special hello to Will for organizing this show in this town so nice to meet you will and your lovely friend Karen …what a nice couple

We are staying in the city center area of Malmo.. One of my favorite places on the planet with its cobblestone streets like SoHo or Williamsburg .. warm little outside restaurants and trendy not so trendy little shops and at this time of year, a sun that doesn’t set until 10:30 or so.
We are staying at a rather simple but very nice hotel: noble house .. has an amazing staff.. with the venue we’re playing at within two blocks at the corner of one of the most beautiful little squares in Malmo.
It’s a wonderful venue to play .. this a charming / intimate space that has a little café for sandwiches and salads and certainly whatever you want to drink .. A nice little stage facing about 60 or 70 folks seated wooden chairs facing you. . With some folks seated off to the side or standing in the back.
Urban .. The host and a friend in a fan for several years greeted us at the door… Johan .. also by now an old friend… Does a great job getting us good sound in short order.
The Show
I have a general idea of what songs I might play but no definitive set list but we followed a similar path to what we’ve done in the past at the start of the show… It was stories and songs from Last Chance … Leading into the new album, Fix your Words. We added “Track 222“ from “the Little Prayers Trilogy” to this set and I’m glad we did, as Göran was so brilliant with his solos and the audience so appreciative.
By the way, this was an amazingly great audience to play for from the start and we were just coasting along enjoying ourselves on stage… We ended the first set with the first song I ever wrote, “Faded Blue“, and the folks seemed to love the story… The way brother Jon tells it… and the song… We ended the set with an extremely warm version of the “Angel of the Morning” that gave me chills.
Set two
This was a set that I won’t forget for a long time… It was such a connection with the audience and Göran and me.
Certainly one of the things that made this so special was that at half time I got several requests for songs that I haven’t done in a while and we did them all intertwining them with my normal second set songs which end up with “ Wild Thing” and the crowd loving “Fuck all the Perfect People“.
The songs that were requested were “Getting Older Looking Back“, “Theme for an American Hero“, “Holy Shit“… And my own request for these great folks, “Block out the Sirens of this Lonely World.”
This ended the show… One of my favorite shows in memory
Said hi to several folks most of them I’ve seen before mixed with some new fans.
First and foremost let me say hello to my great friends Anders, Rune and Irene.. Lars and Marita.. and JN-Ake…”Holy Shit“ went out as a request for them… And “Block Out The Sirens Of This Lonely World“… Was a special one for them as well as my great friend Elin Olsson who is here tonight and who is mentioned in the song.
Said hi to several including ; Zollo and Tommy.. Tommy thanks so much for the request of “Theme for an American Hero”.. Love singing it  tonight.
Hi Anders and Sunny and lovely Elinor..So good talking with you all and Anders thanks for all your support… “Getting Older Looking Back” was especially for you and me
Hi Andreas .. thanks for the kind words and support… Hi Inger.. tell Jackie I said hello.. hi Martin and your friend… I know the name starts with E was it Emma. Good to see you.
And a special hello to the two kind staff members Marlena and Molly! You were such a great part of the audience!

Soundman Leo worked hard to get us a very simple good sound tonight.. by the time we were finished sound checking, it sounded very comfortable.. and that’s the way it was for the entire show.. thanks Leo.
The Show
This was a Sunday night show on Mother’s Day in Sweden.. a special audience..we loved playing for them.
From the stage I saw some old friends immediately… always s great feeling!
Again, we started our show with some “Last Chance” songs then drifted onto the songs from new album, “Fix Your Words”.
Some of the highlights for me – “Whatever Devil is in Me“ and the title song “Fix Your Words“ .. they felt so haunting on stage..when I feel like I am learning from a song on stage then I can be fairly certain it’s connecting to others in a similar manner and that’s the way it was tonight.
Goran Grini was off–the–charts amazing and soulful all night. When we perform a song, at our best, we leave ourselves on the edge with it ..that’s what gives the song an honest spirit that’s different from night to night..It was like that all night tonight… a good audience like this one encourages that spirit.. we got lots of that sort of encouragement tonight.
We played one long set which included the hits “Angel of the Morning“ and “Wild Thing“. The performance of those was met with huge applause and sounded special to me on stage but maybe the ones that sounded best to me were a few songs from “Fix your Words“ that we have rarely if ever done… “When he Goes he Goes“, “Crazy Dreams Crazy“, and “You Just Think You’ve Changed your Mind” These sounded so precious and real to me .. so prayerful .. another highlight of the night was my little tribute to my wife Joan . With the song, “Joan Joan Joan“ and “A Song I Can Live With“.
We ended the show with Johnny Cash’s “Big River” which had this great bunch of friends singing and clapping along… This was a special night with a special group of people in attendance
Got a chance to say hello to several, including:
Goran’s Great friends Miriam and Hokana.. lovely Jessica and Pontus… friend and legendary presenter. Leif. Great seeing you again Leif!!
Hi to Anna and Jonas and Patrik. So good to talk to you all and good to see you Richard and Lars.. memory of those great shows at SXSW..
Special hi to my old friends Agneta and Per-Olaf .. thanks so much for your support over the years look forward to seeing you next time
Special hello to my friends at the venue, our wonderful hostess and Kim and sound person for the night Leo.
Leo you did great we appreciate your hard work and thanks very much for your kind words and little gift at the end of the night
Hi to  the new friends in the back on the left.. one interested in which strings I used.. hope to see you both again. Thanks for the kind words..
Again the magic for me about being on this tour. is having at my right hand side my favorite keyboard player and soulmate Goran Grini.. Great Göran!
This was a special night with a great audience.. huge thanks to all!

Paal’s kind sister Gunn owns and manages is extremely cool little Traditional food serving Norwegian restaurant .. held in a beautiful backyard space that holds slightly less than 100 ..the theater of our early evening show.
We started at 6 o’clock …the show will go down as one of our most memorable.. just before the show was about to start we were paid a surprise visit by Paal’s lovely wife Steine, who drove 150 miles from Skein to surprise us.
It was a wonderful thing to see my dear friend walking across the parking lot toward the venue. That meant it was going to be a family night because my wife Joan had just come in from New York a couple of days before… so for the first time in a long time or maybe ever… both our wives would be there together to support and encourage us.
So in spirit we were playing that show for a bunch of friends and family and it was a very nice spirit.
Again we started with songs from last chance then drifted into some Paul magic with “Weaker Moments“ and “Bless us All“, which brought down the house as usual.
We shifted to some songs from my new album,”Fix Your Words”.. which was met with pin-dropping respect.
We ended up with a tribute to the radio with the song from my new album “When I was a Kid“ and then Paal sang as amazing version of “Angel of the Morning” as I have ever heard, with the entire crowd singing along.
We played our expected final song, “Fuck all the Perfect People”, then encores with Kris Kristofferson’s beautiful “For the Good Times“
And when this kind audience wouldn’t stop applauding, we came back 10 minutes later and wound it all up with Johnny Cash’s “Big River“… which had the audience singing and clapping along.
Big thanks to Gunn in the special staff that kept the beer and the food flowing from start to finish and this party like atmosphere that health such respect for the show… It was a special night ..beautiful weather beautiful place… We were so blessed today
Ps.. so good to see Paul’s beautiful daughter Maya there. It’s been a couple of years since I’ve seen her.  That was special… As well as seeing my old friend Sanna.. another one of my favorite people.
Thanks to all who attended… This will be a very nice memory… Hope to see you all soon!

We arrived at around 5 o’clock and did a very quick and efficient sound check with great soundman Espen.. Nice to meet Julia… Who would handle the lights for us… As well… Very nice people.
One of the things that sets this show apart from others of a similar nature is the spontaneity of what happens on stage with Paul, Goran & myself
We never know quite where were going but follow the inspiration of each other to try to bring it to special places
Combined with this great audience that spirit brought the show itself to a very high level for all of us.
We wandered through some of the songs from my 1973 album Last Chance .. I love how these songs sound with Goran and Paul adding their magic.
Then Paal did brilliant performances of Weaker Moments and Bless us All.. sandwiched in between those two was a magic, magic version of the early Elvis song I Forgot to Remember to Forget her. One of my all-time favorite songs.. nobody does it better than Paal.
Then I did a couple from the new album, Fix Your Words, including the title song and another from The Little Prayers Trilogy, called I’ll Only Be Me Once .. which is somewhat of a streaming hit here in Norway.
Then I left the stage to be a listener to a trio of Paal/Goran songs ending with an amazing version of You’ll Never Walk Alone.
Then I joined the boys on stage again and did one from my new album called When I was A kid.. we ended the show with an amazing Paal version of Angel of the Morning which again had the audience singing long after the body of the song was completed… Then it was Fuck all the Perfect People, my tribute to the prisoners ..and then the beautiful Paal interpretation of Kris Kristofferson‘s For the Good Times.
What a wonderful night… What a wonderful audience
Said hello to many including:
Old friend in music historian Eirik Mosveen and lovely wife Ingvild, great friends Morten and Johnny Borgen
Hi Bjorn and Morton. Hope Lucy enjoys the CD.. hi Ragnhild!! Great to finally meet you I’ve heard so much about you and actually listen to some of your things… I am a fan.
Hi Helge Ellen .. good seeing you before and then in the square.
Hi Halion.. and Inger. I miss the names of several from my notes… But thank you very much for saying hello and all the nice words
Hi Kurt. Thanks for all your help again thanks Espan and Julia. The rest of the staff… Such a great place to show ..much appreciated!

Note: just about the most beautiful days you could ever encounter and the coolest venue right along a canal in one of my favorite places in the world, Trondheim, Norway.
The venue was an old converted boathouse tonight it was sold out they packed in over 300 people.
Before the show I said hello to my old friend Tor, who booked me in this town many years ago at his restaurant/venue Credo. That started my love affair with this amazing place and it’s people… and that has never stopped.
We ate at an upscale restaurant owned by the same people that own the venue. It was an amazingly great and delicious dinner, dining right along the canal … where I said hello to my sweet old friend Eddie who I first met at an open mic at the church in Trondheim .. Great to see you Eddie… Sorry I wasn’t able to spend more time with you.
The show
Well simply.. it doesn’t get better than this.. this was loose spontaneous and magic from start to finish.. part of the magic was the total interaction with this amazing and warm audience!
So it was just one big love-in from start to finish… With songs from my Last Chance album from the 70s interacting with songs from my new album, Fix Your Words .. and brilliant performances by Paal and Goran throughout the night .. leaning on some of Paul’s songs from midnight choir and other albums and ending up with a chilling version of Angel of the Morning which went on for several minutes with the audience singing the chorus over and over by themselves. ..never heard anything as beautiful…then came a totally rockin Wild Thing … a tribute to the prisoners with my Fuck all the Perfect People… Finally encoring with Paul singing the most beautiful version of the wonderful Kris Kristofferson song, For the Good Times.
What a night and what an amazingly wonderful group of people to share the night with. Said hi to many-
But sorry to say I lost my tour notes with names written on them…but I remember meeting some, including Brian at the door. KO Who did the sounds and all the nice people I met on the way to the stage before the show and after the show… Love talking to the people outside just before the taxi cab came .. loved talking to the sisters I wish I remembered your names.. and Vibeka’s mom and her great friends .. it was so great to talk to you and have fun with you at the end and while the others I spoke with several of those tables… I felt I was talking to a bunch of old friends with very good sense of humor .. also… So good to see and talk to my old friend Ingrid .. so good to see you looking so happy!