Due to an amazing article in the newspaper by Frank De Blase on the hard work of Danny Deutsch .. it was wall-to-wall people fitting into Vibey/cool bar venue.
This was one of the most unique and beautiful shows I ever remember playing. The master John Platania and I took the stage at approximately 8:45 and played for almost 2 hours.. many unexpected things jumped into the spotlight and I will tell you about them.. but you start with let me say that John Platania was amazing from start to finish tonight! We started out with a great version of my sort of theme song from last chance, “ The Real Thing” Then we started playing songs from my soon to be released album, “Whiskey Salesman”.. with its alternate title, “love songs for Joan“.. we let the audience know that the video of the title song, had recently been accepted to the New Media Film Festival as a film, not a video and it was placed in their SRC section which means “socially responsible content”… so the song that I was about to play them …about whiskey and horses and my local bar and Joan and my friends … was considered socially responsible content .. nice! I explained to the audience that the one thing that separates this album from others, was that there were little videos attached to each song. As we played each song I found myself describing little parts of the video and it seem like a charming way to get the audience closer to the song. After the title song we played “Hold Her”, then “I Love You Today”.. which this audience absolutely was in total communion with… what a beautiful response! Then we played “A Sip or Two of Good Scotch“ which talks about the perils of drinking too much (suggested by my wife Joan) and brings in hints of my friend John Prine‘s new album.. where he talks about being in heaven and having such a great time with the new band and drinking vodka and ginger and smoking long cigarettes. The audience clapped along with this one and cheered at the end. Then it was a tribute to my hometown of New York City and the lovely human kindness showed in its streets by so many, represented here by the song “Some Hearts“.. folks seem to be very touched by this one as well. Then came the story of Joan and I visiting Naples two years in a row to watch the women’s golf tournament and part of the journey in the airplanes and terminals kind of resulting and being the inspiration for our new single, “I Like Ridin’” which, by songs end, the audience was singing along with us. Then came further introduction to the golfers we went to see there in Naples… Brooke and Brittany Henderson.. and Brooke’s courageous entree into the LPGA and her meteoric rise to be one of the best of the best. At that point I asked the audience if they would like to know how she was doing at this very minute…. as she was playing in Hawaii and she was approximately on the 10th hole in the final round of the prestigious Lotte championship. The audience was having fun with this and cheered to know where she stood… In the audience was a very good friend of Joan’s and mine ..Mike from Rochester who is a friend of Brooke and Brittany and the family …so he was cheering louder than anybody else. So I reached over and picked up my iPhone that was already tuned in to the live leaderboard of the tournament. I came back to the microphone and said there’s good news here …Brooke is leading the tournament by three shots on the 11th hole!! The place erupted in applause and Mike screamed louder than anybody else! So then we played Naples .. The song that finds Joan and I sort of “vacationing“ for the first time in many years in Naples and eating at an outdoor patio and walking on the beach surrounded by a beautiful sandcastle and some sand birds… The audience fell in love with this song and the whole story attached to it… This was certainly one of their favorites of the night… And now they had the Brooke Henderson story running right in tandem with it. All along, every five or 10 minutes we checked the golf score and at each checkpoint Brooke was leading by at least two …most the times three … and the audience kept cheering!! Then I sang about a bad night at my local bar Parnell’s.. with the song, “It’s midnight… Turn the Clock Back Again“ and the audience got into the chorus by the end, singing along with us .. and it sounded serious but very emotionally connected. We ended the Whiskey Salesman section, with the final song on the album, “In the Stillness of the Night“.. and throughout the last courses the audience sang along with us it was a magical replay of the album and this audience was the perfect one to play it for. By the way, when I played Whiskey Salesman to start the show, I spoke about being in my writing space at 1650 Broadway where, aside from writing songs, I was making bets with my bookie Meyer Lansky… Meyer’s runner George would collect and pay every Monday (mostly pay)… The audience loved this part of the story then and love the continuation of it .. when at this point I said “We are now going to the “Meyer Lansky” section of the show… here come some hits” We started this section with a great version of a song my friend Al Gorgoni and I wrote for the Hollies and Linda Ronstadt called “I Can’t Let Go” , along with the charming story of how that song that written. Folks clapped along with the beat of the song and cheered at the end. then I went back to check to see how Brooke was doing… Now she was on the 14th hole and two up So at that point I broke away from the Meyer Lansky section and sang the song I wrote for Brooke and Britney Henderson, “I’ll Carry For You”. The audience absolutely loved this! Then it was back to the Meyer Lansky section and we played a beautiful version of “Angel of the Morning “ where the audience joined in for about three straight choruses with us at the end… then it was a totally rockin “Wild Thing” with the audience clapping and joining in and having as much loose fun as you can have. Next came my current hit on the streaming sites, that I wrote for the prisoners, “Fuck all the Perfect People“ .. and this was magic, total magic with everybody dead serious singing along with it with their fists in the air. We ended the show with another song that talks about the prisoners, “I’ll only be me Once“… Again with the entire audience singing with us in the choruses… What a chill feeling this was. Before getting off the stage I went back to the iPhone again and quickly told the audience that Brooke was now up three with two holes to play!!! They erupted in cheers… lots of new Brooke and Brittney fans out there tonight including owner Danny who was so into it and sat with us at a small table watching on my iPhone as Brooke raised the trophy!! So… This will go down in memory is one of my favorite shows..thanks Danny for having us ,,,thanks to all that packed the place and made it such a special night! Said hi to a few including: Frank De Blase (Who wrote the amazing article in the paper) and his lovely wife Debra… wish we could’ve spent more time talking thanks so so much for coming. Oh by the way thanks so much to Greg for the great sound tonight ! .. much appreciated Greg hope to see you soon. Special hello to my friend Mike from Rochester who is the huge Brooke and Brittney fan who met Joan and me in Naples two years running and hopefully many times to come… It was so special to be here and see the show unfold as it did with Mike in the audience and very warm hello to Mike’s friend Dana… Dana please send big love to your daughter Bridgette.. hope to see her next time Hi Eric and Bob… The “Last Chance” fan.. so good to see you… and hi Don and Donna.., and a big hello to Gerard, Who got turned onto my latest recordings by listening to Sirius radio and hearing the outlaw channel playing “Ukrainian Girls” Nice stuff Gerard ..I appreciate it.. and hi to your friend Jim… Look forward to seeing you guys next time And a very very big hello to Joe… Who is celebrating his birthday tonight… I didn’t quite get it this year 69th or 70th?… But whatever it was it was a good one and I am so glad you were here! See you next time And at the bar good to see my old friend, Tracy and lovely Kelly… thanks so much you guys Thanks so much Danny… I hope things go well… Count me in – I love it here.
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It was just John Platania and me tonight.. I guess the good thing about that is that so much focus can be put on John who deserves all the credit for so many amazing years of magical playing. What a great venue to play… Played here years ago when it was called the Towne Crier… such a comfortable place .. with an extremely good sound system and wonderful people hosting and doing the sound… big thanks to Peter and Alex for that! Again we focused on Whiskey Salesman tonight. After opening with a song, “The Real Thing“ from my 1974 album Last Chance.. we played 10 songs in a row from Whiskey Salesman. There were so many highlights tonight but I’ll name a few from WS .. first of all, I had such fun when we performed the title song, Whiskey Salesman. There seem to be such a connection with the audience and lots of good natured smiles floating around the room. “I Love You Today“… this is one of the many songs from Whiskey Salesman seem to totally connect. I had chills when we performed it.. it’s nice when it’s like that, where you can enjoy the connection as much is the audience ..that song can take me good places.. and it certainly did tonight. I loved “A Sip or Two of Good Scotch” tonight… which talks about my friend John Prine‘s last album and ends with great solos from John Platania! The simple little song, “Some Hearts“ always seems to connect on a huge level… With me and the audience… It is certainly did tonight… I probably would say the same for “I Like Ridin’” .. which is the new single… Which also means the video is available to be seen as well!! I think you will all like it. As simple as it is I think it’s special. Probably the three songs mentioned most after the shows were “I Love You Today“, “I Like Ridin'” and the song I wrote about Joan and me visiting Naples Florida called, “Naples“… lots of talk about this one after the show and the previous show. Another highlight for me was singing the song that I wrote for the golfing sisters Brooke and Brittany Henderson. “ I’ll Carry For You”. By the way, as I am writing this Brooke is tied for the lead in the LPGA Lotte Golf Championship from Hawaii. I am writing this from Rochester and last night we had a day off. “We” means John Platania, my great friend from Alberta Canada, Neil McGonigal and me. Neil flew in to help tour manage this excursion to upper New York State into and out of Canada. So last night, with the day off we relaxed with the Golf Channel and rooted for Brooke and her sister caddy Brittany.. it was a good night! Back to the show Daryl’s House: Love the version of the Angel of the Morning tonight – beautiful to hear the audience singing along with this just like they did at the Loft in New York… Wild Thing was spirited and sexy and fun tonight and the song for the prisoners, “Fuck All the Perfect People “ was certainly a highlight …maybe the biggest one of all .. Don’t we all love to sing the chorus! Tonight we encored with another song from “ The Little Prayers Trilogy“…. “ I’ll Only be me Once” …with the audience singing along by the end ..and how beautiful that chorus sounded! Thanks to all for a great night the brilliant John Platania and I enjoyed every minute of it Said hi to several Wow!! So great to see son-in-law Frank’s lovely cousin Jean and husband Carlton.. The nicest people …along with their friends Chris and Vicky. Joan and I just loved seeing you guys.. thanks so much for making the long trip! So great to see my old pre high school great friend Bill Kraft And brother…… Bill ..great that we’ve stayed in touch over the years I always love seeing you… I should’ve played “Yonkers New York“ for us tonight … shame on me! It was great to see my old friend Eddie Solan and his wife Rory.. just at the end of sound check sorry I missed you at the end it said that hope all is well and thanks so much for coming! What a great surprise!! Great to see my old friend Zeek… One of my son’s neighborhood friends from the early days, who I spent some time coaching… Loved to see you , Michael and mom Alice… Just great that you could be here! A big hello to Joe from Yonkers and Carolyn a relative .. grandmother on my father side was your grandmother’s sister… did I get that right Carolyn? .. anyway it was good to see you again hope I’m getting these names right.. small world! Hi Mark I think it was Mark. Music teacher from Yonkers? It was nice talking to you and hope we get a chance to do something together to support the cause. you figure something out talk to Chuck, thanks Good to see you Jacque (A very good and kind radio host) and friend Elisa… Hi to Gene .. and Norma and Glenn and Jim and John and Frankie .. hi Ernie and Barbara Hi Craig… good to see you at the end of the night over at the bar area and as you were heading out the door …not many people know JP as long as we do! and Howard… I thought you’d be missing in action again… Great to see you! Actually it is always great to see you and I appreciate your support over the years! Thanks to all for a special night… Hope to see you soon. This is such a wonderful room to play. Wonderful sound, great engineers and great folks to welcome you and take care of you through the night thanks John and all with that… and tonight I was totally blessed to be playing with my favorite people the great Tony Mercadante on base and John Platania, the master guitarist from upstate New York, on guitar.. both my great great friends for many years. Loved this show! photo by Ambrose Blaine
We started out with my sort of theme song from “Last Chance“, “The Real Thing” ..which is the song the kind of put me on the map in the US and in Europe back in the 70s. Then we played my new album, Whiskey Salesman…actually it won’t be released until May 17 but the shipment of CDs came in time for the show so I gave the audience a very good taste of that – in fact we played 10 songs in a row from Whiskey Salesman and the folks seem to be really enthusiastic about those songs .. many a tribute to my wife Joan .. all of tribute to the stuff that’s closest to me including my local bar, Parnell’s – and all the friends that Joan and I have there. I don’t think I have played an entire album of songs all in a row since Last Chance in 1974. And I really enjoyed doing it tonight as I felt people got connected to what album portrays .. as I mentioned, my feeling of love and friendship for my wife Joan and my friends at Parnell’s bar and Parnell’s bar itself… and the friendships with other people wherever. This entire album has that focus and you could feel it tonight. Then we shifted to one of my new hits on Spotify .. the song I wrote for the golfing girls, Brooke and Britney Henderson.. from Smiths Falls Canada, I’ll Carry For You”.. folks seem to really love this one wherever we play it. Then we shifted to what I called the Meyer Lansky section of the show. The reason I call it that is because that was the period of time when I was a staff songwriter at April Blackwood Music at 1650 Broadway .. a building full of songwriters and record labels and producers … people like Gerry Goffin and Carole King, Barry Mann, Cynthia Weil. Bert Berns, Neil Diamond and others. I wrote my hits there – like I Can’t Let Go, Angel of the Morning, Wild Thing, Anyway That You Want Me, and many others. But I was doing another thing there as well .. I was making about three bets a day on the horses. Meyer Lansky happened to be my bookie. So, in honor of those great rock ‘n’ roll days, we played those hits followed by a tribute to the prisoners …with a song I wrote for them which is now a genuine Spotify smash, “Fuck All The Perfect People” We encored with one of the hit songs from a fan favorite album from my five or six years ago, “Little Prayers Trilogy”…a song called Track 224… which totally shows off the virtuosity of Tony Mercadante and the great John Platania.. Joan always asks me to play this song so she can watch and listen to John and Tony in the spotlight… they were magic on this and throughout the show tonight… what a blessing for me. Thanks to all for a special night So many of my friends attended ..friends from Parnell’s .. Carl, Thruston. Dierdra, Mary, Chris and Ambrose, Brian and his lovely wife Lillian and all his gang… and Bonnie.. Ed, Joe and Charlie and so many others ..so nice of you all to come. Also Tom Hayes ( videographer and coproducer of my videos for Whiskey Salesman )and his lovely fiancé Kristina And my Sony Music friends …so great to see you Brittany and James and Lindsey and Megan I believe.. what’s special folks And the Westchester contingent Al and Debbie and Linda and Dana and Elsa and Tom and so many others that I can’t remember. Thanks to the brilliant Patrick Wang who just flew in from promoting his latest brilliant film “A Bread Factory“.. Great to see you my friend. “It was so great to see my friend Charlie Feldman and the folks from BMI.. Charlie, thanks for the great support always and thanks for the kind words tonight… It means a lot. I lost my notes for this show which included a bunch of more names including a couple of new friends from northern Ireland and another fellow from I think Spain who made the special trip here to see the show… Thanks to all of you for making the extra effort… Much appreciated So that’s it we’re off and running on this Whiskey Salesman tour And again to remind everybody that Whiskey Salesman is not just 11 songs there are 11 little videos all focused around Parnell’s bar and my apartment and the spirit of my friends from all over.. so the music and the little films are contained in the package in the form of a CD and a DVD… and as I mentioned to the audience the little video/film of the title track has been excepted in a wonderful film festival called the New Media Film Festival… So on June 4 Joan and I will be walking on the red carpet in Los Angeles, representing the spirit of Parnell’s and our good friends. Hope to see you soon. 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. 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! |
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