​May 22, 2019 - Oslo, Norway - Last Train

This is the first of two sold out nights at this very cool venue. The place sort of reminds me of New York’s Mercury lounge… Where the audience is packed into a relatively small space ..all standing.

​One of the great things about the venue is that when the show starts it is easy for the artist to know that everybody in the venue hears you perfectly.. I guess that is in part because of the way it’s set up, with speakers all throughout the room .. But it is also in part because of their great soundman, Marty… We arrive at about 6:30 and Marty gets us very good sound within a short amount of time... plenty of time to have dinner at a great little restaurant a few blocks away… I think it was called Restaurant Oriental.. Great food and great service… And very good timing… We (Paal, Goran, and me and my wife Joan) finished dinner and headed back to the club and arrived just in time to get on stage and start our show.

The show

Similar to last night in Malmo, we started our show with Paal and Goran doing a couple of songs together .. the audience reaction was over the top from the front of the room to the back… Standing off to the side, I could tell this had the makings of a special night.

I was then invited on stage and after a rockin version of, “I Wasn’t Born in Tennessee“ from my Last Chance album back in 1974… I started introducing the songs from my new album, “Whiskey Salesman”.. at every turn the audience seemed to be totally with me.

One of the special things for me is being on stage with Paal and Goran.. with Goran’s vibey piano playing coupled with Paal and my “straight from Memphis” way of playing acoustic.. it reminds me of the sound of those great Sun records sessions by Elvis and Jerry Lee Lewis and Johnny Cash and the rest. This is a special little band.

So for the rest of the night I continue playing songs from Whiskey Salesman.. many of those love songs for my wife Joan who was sitting in a special seat off to my right ..next to Paal’s lovely daughter, Maya.. throwing in some songs from my Little Prayers Trilogy album and some of the hits from the early days

Paal and I traded the spotlight throughout, Paal playing songs written by writers such as Mickey Newbury and Townes Van Zandt and others… Me included in that mix.

It’s hard to pick highlights because it seemed like the audience inspired so much magic tonight..

But there was sure a lot of magic in the last few songs we played.. “I Love You Today“ from Whiskey Salesman… to Paal and Goran’s beautiful interpretation of Angel of the Morning.. such an absolute highlight.

Then came a very cool interactive version of Wild Thing… One of my favorites in memory... with the audience so much a part of it.

After Paal sang an amazing version of “Spiritual“… came the song I wrote for the prisoners, “Fuck all the Perfect People“… We ended with Paal’s wonderful interpretation of the great Kris Kristofferson song, For the Good Times.

This was a very special night… Thanks for all who jammed themselves into this great venue!

Said hi to several:

Hi to old friend Knut.. A big Hollies fan.. like me... Hi to Freda at the bar and Eli and Sandra who Joan and I met outside before the show

A big hello to my dentist friend, Leila.. Who plays Red Dog Tracks to relax his patients! How cool is that! Great talking to you, Leik..

Hi to Terje.. hi Gunni and Anita!! so good talking to you both..hi Sindre.. glad you brought your “magic girl“ tonight.. love to Anne...

Hi Kare..(sounds like “Corre”).. thanks for the kind words see you at Paal’s sisters place!.. hi to old friend.. another “Knut”.. Great seeing you again!

Hi to Lizabeth and Haron... and special hello to young Rock and roller, Ulf.. thanks for those kind words.. and Egil.. so great that you guys stopped by!!

Big hello and love to Maya.. Great seeing you .. see you soon

Big Thanks Svena.. see you tomorrow

And thanks to all who came I know I spoke to several others, but I didn’t quite get the names… Thanks for being there.