This is a wonderful thing.. Heidi is the nicest person and a great fan… both of Paal’s work and mine. I love seeing her and her husband, Kjell. The last time I saw them was in New York at the Cutting Room.
 
Heidi’s friends, including my great friend Tom Shejekleseter and his lovely wife, got together and planned a surprise party.
 
They asked if Paal, Goran & I could make an appearance and sing a bunch of songs in her honor. We all said absolutely to count us in!!
 
Which is what we did and it was absolutely wonderful... we played for about 40 minutes.. all our favorite songs from our set list… including Angel of the Morning and Wild Thing and our latest favorite… “Fuck All The Perfect People“.. for 30 or 40 special guests and celebrated Heidi’s birthday in the nicest way. Heidi shed tears for most of the show… But I’m sure it was tears of joy for it was one of those wonderful nights .. A bunch of friends focusing their attention on a much loved friend of theirs!
 
Happy birthday Heidi
​
Joan and I send our big love that that’s so glad to be part of this celebration.

​This is an amazing venue along a canal..
 
This is an old refurbished boat house with amazing atmosphere.. there are 30 or 40 seats set up Close to the stage, the rest of the people will be standing
 
All the shows have been sold out, including this one ...there will be 300+ people there.
 
Kjell Ove did great job with the sound, allowing us to head back to the hotel and check in. About an hour and a half later we came back to the same area… Just one block away from the venue…for our amazing meal at The Troll .. an upscale restaurant run by now friend Lars.
What an amazing dinner! The starter was a reindeer with several other ingredients that were so so delicious and the main course was a hell of it… I would say exactly the same for that… just sensational. after this feast, we headed over to the backroom area of the venue to relax for a few minutes before showtime.
 
The Show
 
What will last in my memory that the show is the faces and the kind people who were here tonight ..just wonderful folks to play for.. I have built up a bit of a following here from playing at a place called Credo, run by my great friend Tor.. … This is a continuation of the wonderful spirit these folks bring.
 
It seemed like all night we were playing for people who were our friends or were about to be our friends.. I love that feeling.
 
I am writing these notes in the Trondheim airport.. We have to take a plane in a few minutes to Oslo to do a special birthday party afternoon show for a friend of ours before we do our regular show tomorrow night.
 
So, these tour notes won’t be as in-depth as some others. But this night was very special and I hope at very minimum this message comes across.
 
Paal and Goran opened with a couple of soulful songs .. then I joined them on the stage and played several from Whiskey Salesman with my wife sitting on to my right. Many of the songs on my new album are dedicated to her. One of the great things about tonight is that she got to be friends with so many of the people ..so many people were so kind to Joan.. that made me feel great!
 
One of my favorites of the early part of the set was “I Love You Today” from Whiskey Salesman, which found a total connection with this warm. and kind audience.
 
After, We drifted in and out of some very soulful songs Paal and Goran were amazing ..and when we got to the end it seem to takeoff like a rocket ship.
 
I played “I’ll Carry For You“ .. my tribute to the golfing girls from Canada.. which was used in a beautiful commercial in Norway .. filmed by revered director, Marius Holt, which helped it become one of my biggest Spotify hits. It was so nice to see the faces in the audience as I sang this song .. so many of them were singing along to this testament of sisterly love.
 
The same reverence was paid to Paal’s interpretation of my “Angel of the Morning“.. he totally rocked the house with this one ...with the most beautiful audience vocals backing him almost from the start...this was totally chill time for me.. after, the applause seemed to go on forever.
 
And then we all united with a rousing performance of my song written for the prisoners... “ Fuck all the Perfect People”, as this has become more and more popular, people are more apt to show their camaraderie with the true spirit of the song. And the chorus vocals from these wonderful audiences are coming louder ... what a wonderful together feeling that brings!
 
We ended with the beautiful Kristofferson song that talks about leaving friends or lovers, knowing that the good things and the good times will never disappear .. just as I feel about leaving this place.
 
I feel like I have so many genuine friends here ... I will always look forward to coming back again and again!
 
Hi to :
 
Great to meet Thea when we first arrived .. what a warm welcome.. Maya, loved meeting you as well!!
 
Kjell Ove (KO). .. Great to see you again and thanks for working so hard to get us such a good sound
 
Good to see Olav .. my now old friend... at the door. Thanks for the kind words Olav I won’ forget them!
 
Great to see owners/ Booker Sveinung at shows end .. with friends and Mexican restaurant owner, Guillermo.. hanging out with Jan, our friend from troll... very nice talking to you with my wife Joan
 
Brit.. Vebecas mom.. I love seeing these last two years and yes I saw exactly were you sitting and played some of the songs specifically for you!!!! ...much love to you my good friend
 
Hi to Sebastian & Matha... it was so great seeing you thanks for the kind words and Sebastian.. wonderful job keeping the folks a little bit more reverent!!
 
Hi Anita..hi Ann & Sven.. hi Togger..and Erik... and hi Vadar and Maylinda ... so good to see you all and thanks so much for the kind words
 
Hi Leo ... thanks for the wine… Thanks for the kind smile..,hope to see you soon
 
Hi Magne and Terrje.. and Elisabeth & Nina and Astrid and Jannike
 
And all the other great incoming people that I said hello too but did not get a name… I wish you all well and hope to see you soon!
 
Love from Joan and me.
 

This is the second of two nights at this great place
 
It is the next morning and we have about an hour to get ready to catch the plane for Trondheim.. so the tour notes will be short this morning ..that has nothing to do with how great the show was last night. It was particularly special because of the great interaction between the fans and us on stage. Anyone who was there felt something very powerful last night ...I can’t say I ever felt anything quite like it.
 
I loved sitting in the audience and listening to Paul’s wonderful soulful intro with Goran .. and I love following up with my stories and songs about my new album Whiskey Salesman which contained many love songs for my wife Joan who was sitting in the corner.
 
I loved playing The title track “Whiskey Salesman” it seems like everybody in the room was drifting off with me to all the places that song covers. It was more like a play or a movie.
 
And the first hit from the album, “I Like Ridin” that is so warm and sweet tonight and that was such a warm response from the audience for it… Again one of those times that the chills were strong.
 
And there was such a connection with one of my favorites, the precious “I Love You Today” .. actually, the connection was never better... and an off-the-wall charming thing happened with the song “Hold Her“. we got to the end of it and all of a sudden this little tingling sounds came to be very much a part of it and it was sort of in time ..and sort of not ..and sort of magic … Then I found out it was my phone ringing and I pulled it out and we let it do its thing for a few seconds and then put it away. ... and we laughed and smiled together about it and got on with the show to great applause.
 
I got off the stage briefly to let the show focus on the great Goran Grini and the over-the-top and soulful performance of this one-of-a-kind singer, Paal Flaata who performed a soulful gospel song and then the beautiful “Moon is a Harsh Mistress”. These brought the house down.
 
When I returned I played one of my now big Spotify hits.. A tribute to the golfing girls from Canada, Brooke and Britney Henderson (who had overcome serious obstacles in their quest to become members of the LPGA) The long and short of it is Brooke is now ranked number two in the world and the song I wrote for them, “I’ll Carry For You“ is now a major hit due to the wonderful Norwegian commercial that was made this year, filmed by the amazing Norwegian director Marius Holt.
 
I couldn’t believe that when I started playing this song everybody in the audience was singing along with me… It totally sent chills up my spine..
 
That amazing spirit stay through the whole ending including Paal’s soulful version of “Spiritual“.. his beautiful interpretation of my song, “Angel of the Morning“, a totally rocked out version of “Wild Thing“ and then came the highlight of any night..
 
We played “Fuck all the Perfect People” with everybody singing along from the very beginning answering every line of the verse .., or: when I said, “to be or not to be” they said “to free or not to free” and that’s the way it went for the whole song.. they needed no coaxing in the interlude when I started to sing “sleepy eyes, waltzing through”.. The entire audience, without being prompted was singing along with me. The power of this little song that I wrote for the prisoners was never more prominent than tonight!
 
I will never forget that moment. We ended with the touching performance by Paal of the warm and sensitive Kristofferson song, “For the Good Times“
 
What an amazing night… Goran Grini was absolute magic. Thanks to all who attended and joined in the spirit.
 
Hi to:
 
Roger and Tone.. and Anna Lise.. So good meeting you so early on… And nice looking at you at the side of the stage during the show so good seeing you so early on…
 
Hi Andre and Folke .. thanks to all for all the nice words..
 
Hi Frank and Petter and Anna.. a big hello to Hartvik and Reider... and Lucy and Morten
 
And Hilda .. and Terrry!! Great to see you guys...
Hi Morten .. wish you were here… Hope to see you next time.. Heidi, Great to see you and Frank...so nice that you bought that for your dad
 
Hi Cathrine and Karina at the bar
So great to see my old friend Vibeke! Thanks so much for coming.. much love to you!
 
Thanks To all the others whose names I’ve missed but who helped make this night so special
 
Thanks Svena! please remind Martin of how much I appreciated working with him. The sound was amazing! I love this place ..let’s do it again next year!

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.
 

I broke in this part of the world, with an album I had out in 2000, Black and Blue America.....I came over here at the request of one of the most revered musicologists in all of Scandinavia, my now great friend Hakan Olsson.

His company, Rootsy, is now one of the biggest music companies in all of Scandinavia for booking anything that’s roots oriented .,, folk or blues or alt country ...

Hakan .. has booked this show at the Victoria theater as he has several times over the years.

Joan and I arrived at the venue at approximately 6:50… Showtime was scheduled for 7:30.

Waiting for us at the stage door were some of my most favorite fan/friends on the planet .. Runer and Irene, Lars and Marita.. and my great friend Anders.. Who comes my shows alone now as his precious Maria has gone to the heavens.. I know a lot of the spirit of Maria will be floating around the show tonight.  I had felt that way before I arrived in town.

Just then, my dear friend Hakan and his wife Monica (who had picked us up at the airport on the previous day) arrived and we all gathered for a photo that hopefully will be posted on the tour notes .. in this photo are Runer & Irena who have seen me over the last 20 years .. as many and 35 times!

​Note: One of the interesting things about this venue is that, although it is a proper theater, they keep the downstairs floor filled with tables and chairs and allow the patrons to bring their own food and wine and beer with them. It’s sort of like a fun evening picnic with a show.

Luck with my shows the room is absolutely still… You could hear a pin drop… So we make sure to give a substantial break between halves of the show.


Paal Flaata is a revered singer in Norway. He has won a Norwegian Grammy and has been up for several others… But the interesting thing is that being the star in Norway does not mean you will be one in Sweden. And such is the case with Paal.

So tonight I will introduce him as our special guest and let him do a few songs by himself so that the crowd can see just how absolutely brilliant he is on his own. The equally brilliant Goran Grini will accompany him .. and then we will play as a trio most of the night... this is a very special thing for me… I love playing with Goran whenever possible but to play with Goran and Paal together it’s sort of amazing to me and ... I can’t wait!!

The show. ... I took the stage first to introduce the boys and this was a really enjoyable few minutes for me to make a connection with these fans that I’ve known for all these years it was just so special to me that when I finish feeling that camaraderie with them, I told them a bit about the boys who would soon take the stage .. how amazing they were and how proud I was to share the stage with them.

The show

Paal and Goran began their little two song intro set with a beautiful old gospel song… And followed that with a very strong country blues song .., the audience absolutely erupted in applause at the end.

Then I join them on stage and for the next hour and a half (with a short break in between) played them the bulk of the Whiskey Salesman album, which they absolutely loved. The set also included some great ones by Paal like his version of my song, Weaker Moments, and some duets which including a totally rockin' version of I Forgot to Remember to Forget Her. Paal also sang a magical version of Bless Us All by Mickey Newbury.. with me joining in for the second verse.

There were so many highlights of the show so many moments that it was such a stillness of the chills which totally went up our spines - I’m sure on the stage and off… It was just a magic show like that ..I will call attention to a few those moments.

After Bless Us All, we closed the first set with a song from the Little Prayers Trilogy, “Trying to Let the Angels Know” ...I introduced it saying that little prayers and friendship… The friendship that we share in this room tonight is all that matters.

There was such a chill in the air throughout that song. 20 minutes later we were back with the second set

Set Two

We started this set off with another tribute to my wife Joan .. The audience already heard me say that if we did not call the album whiskey salesman it would’ve been called “love songs for Joan“ . The song was “Hold Her”... I had just taught the song to Paal about six minutes before we got on stage... so it surprised me that he learned the song so quickly and just jumped in singing harmony with me… And Goran did his brilliant thing and so there was a certain new magic floating around the room and it was just great!
After I did a couple more from the Whiskey Salesman, including a rockin' version of A Sip or Two of Good Scotch and a gentle still, beautiful version of “I Love You Today” .., which was certainly one of the fans favorite of the night according to many that I talked to after the show... I left the stage briefly to let Paal’s soulful magic take over again… And trust me, it did!
 
He killed them in his little three song set and he made friends forever ...they will never forget this night and they will never forget the soulful magic Paal brought to it!

We ended the night with an amazing version of a song Paal often sings, spiritual... this is another one of those wonderful prayer songs that list you and is certainly listed everybody tonight… And we continued that spirit with a fan favorite for sure, my current big hit that I wrote for the prisoners, Fuck All the Perfect People. The entire audience was singing this one and brought the audience to their feet.

We are on court with a Kris Kristofferson song featuring Paal.. The amazing For the Good Times. I love sitting back and listening to Paal in the room like this together and then jumping in every so often and singing harmony with him!

Oh yeah so I should definitely mention that throughout this tonight the audience was so attentive to the brilliant playing of Goran .. his great playing was acknowledged with applause several times... he always is absolutely amazing but never more than tonight… This was an astounding performance by my great friend!’

Say hi to many including;

Again, so great to see my old friends Lars and marita.. runer and
Irena... and Han Ake..and Anders.... I have been thinking about all of you and it was so great to see you again

Hi to Lassa and BO and Inger .. and old friends Per Olsf snd Agneta .. what great memories and hi Johan and Judith... thanks to all for the special and kind words.

Hi Ola and Ace. Great to see you guys… Sorry my type writer does not put the dot over the A! So happy that you were here tonight!

Hi Gertrud and Karin...and Birgitta and Tommy and Sven (what a great fan you are!!)

Hi Max thanks so much for coming please send my best regards to your son Gustav.. hope to see you both next time.

Hi Sonny.. so good to see you and was it Elin... hope that’s close..

And thanks to the entire audience who showed such support and love tonight... this was as special as it gets!!

By the way this was a very special night for Joan… Certainly about her favorable of all time..She sends her big love to all of you!

Our great friend from Rootsy, Hakan Olsson and his lovely wife Monica pick us up and shortly we are driving over the long bridge to Copenhagen arriving at our destination at exactly when we were scheduled to, at 3:30 PM. .. where we met our kind booker and promoter of the show. Christer. Thanks for all your help Christer. ... great to meet you!

Goran and Paal arrive shortly after and we go downstairs into the basement of the cool little club and leave our personal stuff in the dressing room and go out for sound check.

Mikki is our young soundman and he handles the sound quite amazingly good.. The club is as cool as it gets but the sound system has strange monitors overhead and they have the same balances the house speaker have, so it’s a little tricky… But Mikki got us sounding good really quick and we stopped in time to have a delicious dinner that was shortly there for us… Cooked by our amazing hostess, Charlotte… A real character - the lovable kind.

One of the things that I noticed during the sound check was the blend of Paal’s guitar and mine and Goran’s oft Jerry Lee Lewis runs, made it feel like we were part of a group signed to Sun records in the early 50s… I loved this band and this sound!

The idea was to do the show in blocks of threes where either Paal or I would be the featured singer in each block..

The first block featured three of my songs including a couple from the new album, Whiskey Salesman.

This section sounded so strong and it seem like people were very into the Whiskey Salesman immediately… With his silence and life lessons sort of things.

Then we featured Paal singing on three. He chose as his first song one of my favorite songs from my “Fuck all the Perfect People” album, “Weaker Moments”. He absolutely killed this one. The audience loved it!

Then we did a duet together of Elvis’ “ I Forgot to Remember to Forget Her” and Paul was featured in the beautiful “Bless us All“ , the great Mickey Newbury song.. The audience love this as well..Me too!

Then we did three in a row from the Whiskey Salesman album, “I Love You Today“, “A Sip or Two of Good Scotch” and a beautiful version of “Some Hearts“

Then there was a break and I got off stage and enjoyed Paal and Goran performing a couple of songs by themselves ending with a beautiful version of Townes Van Zandt’s “Flying Shoes“.

We ended the show with one of my new Spotify hit’s, “I’ll Carry For You”
Dedicated to the golfing girls, Brooke and Brittany Henderson .. The audience seems to love this song so I am wondering if somehow they were familiar with the beautiful advertisement that uses this song in Norway.

Paal then sang the most beautiful version of my song “Angel of the Morning“, with the audience singing along at the end like we were in a chapel… Just beautiful... then came a very cool – – off-the-wall – – version of Wild Thing … This was kind of a special tonight . It went in cool loose directions and the audience sing-along and it was just a bunch of cool stuff!

We encored with the song that Paal always knocks me out with .. his beautiful “spiritual“, where I join in with harmonica and harmony vocals… I love this and so did the audience. The same can be said for our new Spotify and YouTube hit “Fuck all the Perfect People”.. A song I wrote for the prisoners which seems to have a good heart for all the people that hear it and sing along with it.. we thought we had ended with our second encore which I chose to do Kris Kristofferson’s “For the Good Times”. Which Paal sings as soulful as a song can be song... but the audience didn’t let us go there ... they kept applauding so finally we came back on stage and ended with a rockin version of one of my favorite all-time songs, Johnny Cash hits, “Big River".

We left again to a standing ovation this time we took a deep breath. put our guitars away, and came out and said hello to the folks and sign some autographs for the folks.

Good to see Connie and Frank… Tell Steen and Inge I sent my
Best...thanks so much for coming..

Hi Lars and Benny and Gorgen and Hand, thanks for the kind words!!
Good to see you Henrik and Benny again and Pierre and Linen , thanks for the thoughts and great to see you all

Hi Katje.. thanks for being so helpful and thanks for the kind words at the end of the show… So glad you were into it that way.

Hi Casper in the front row it was wonderful to see you… And a big hello to Goran and Paal’s friend Marria .. it was great to see you and hope to see you again.. Mette.. Best of luck with your own music.

Got such kind words from all you it was just great to meet you and so happy you were here hi again to Bennie and Pier and Lena and Maria and Casper you were part of an amazing audience tonight thanks so much for making us feel so comfortable and so wanted

Again loved meeting my new friend. Charlotte, kind owner of this place with a really good smile and sense of humor.

Again, Huge thanks to Christer for booking and promoting the show! Great to spend some time together.

​Elon and Monica with Joan

Joan and I left on the evening of the 18th from JFK to Oslo on Norwegian Airlines it was a great flight but no sleep! We had A two hour layover in Oslo to catch a plane to Copenhagen.
Met some new friends in the airport ..very nice people Birgit and Carston.. would’ve like to spend more time with them. Met Monica Olsson waiting for us and headed for our Noble hotel in the heart of Malmo. I love this place as long as it’s not summertime it’s perfect the windows open up as wide as you want them to and they supply me with the fan. Couldn’t be better. Took a shower and headed out to early dinner… Joan and I sat around the corner from the hotel at an outdoor café and had a delicious dinner it was starting to get a little cool but we had our jackets and they had their blankets. All in all it was perfect.

Now the problem will be the jet leg and I don’t do well with that, so hopefully I can get a couple hours sleep and Joan can do the same and we wake up tomorrow halfway ready for the show back in Copenhagen

We do just that that.  We get a couple of hours sleep and we’re halfway OK as we head out for the show in Copenhagen.

​What a way to end a tour!!
Standing room only in this wonderful music venue.. as you walk, in the bar is on the left .. on the right is where the seats are and the stage at the very end.
What a great group of folks attending…. this is as good as an audience can be! Most are long time friends of my music and also duets of Chip Taylor and Carrie Rodriguez. many are fans of Brooke and Brittany Henderson so they’re all ready when that part of the show comes up.
We sound checked an hour before the show and soundman Evan has us perfectly ready in no time.. Big thanks Evan ..you did a great job!

Set one
Right from the beginning it was like playing for a bunch of friends at some special party.
John Platania was so magic tonight!
We started with “The Real Thing” and then we went into the title song of my new album, “Whiskey Salesman”… I told the audience that it been acccepted to the New Media Film Festival and placed in their SRC or “socially responsible content“ section.. I love telling that story tonight!! …we all some fun with that.

Then we continued with a few other Whiskey Salesman songs… inspired by my wife, Joan. The connection with these were so strong you could hear a pin drop… Just beautiful!
We ended the first set with a song about the town I grew up in, Yonkers New York . John’s solo in toward the end of the song was just amazing!

Set two
Started this one off with a tribute to some fans, Lori and Ron, who got married about two weeks ago and used as the theme song for their wedding, the Chip Taylor and Carrie Rodriguez song, “We Come Up Shining”  I hadn’t played that song a while but somehow it came so easy and felt so special… so glad you guys spent the evening with us ..congratulations!

Somewhere in there someone called out for “Must be the Whiskey”… so I took a chance and played a little bit of that and it really was fun!

We then went back to “Whiskey Salesman” songs with some of my favorites like “I like Ridin’” , “Some Hearts“ – – this was so special tonight …again. I got chills and tears came close.
I had the same feeling when we played “ Naples” .. that talks about a special visit my wife and I in made there .. lots of the chill factor stuff depends on the inspiration but much of this great stuff comes from the communication with the audience and it was just there tonight.. it was just a beautiful connection.

Another one of the favorites tonight was the final song from the Whiskey Salesman album, “In the Stillness of the Night“ with the audience singing along with us… That was pretty magic.
Then we went to the Meyer Lansky section (The early hits section)… playing the Hollies big hit “I Can’t Let Go” which I wrote with my friend Al Gorgoni…then shifted back to talk a little bit about the amazing accomplishments of Brooke and Brittany Henderson..  I would say that “I’ll Carry For You“ has been a favorite of these audiences since we’ve hit the road and it was no difference in tonight .. I just love singing that song.

We ended the set with a beautiful version of the “Angel of the Morning “… again with the audience singing gently along.. then a rocking version of “Wild Thing”.. with a special tribute to Reg Presley and the boys (the Troggs) for the amazing record they made of the song which inspired the Jimi Hendrix version.

Then came the tribute to the prisoners with my current streaming hit “Fuck all the Perfect People“ .. with the audience singing this course loud and clear, like we were in church.  We ended up with a huge audience sing-along with another of my current Spotify hits, “I’ll Only Be Me Once“

This was a special as it gets… Thanks to all who were there.

Said hi to many, including:
Ian and Sue … Who made a special trip from London to see the show… Great to see you guys I will see you in London on September 2nd… again big hello and congratulations to Lori and Ron…wonderful to see you guys!

Good to see my old friend Richard Flohil and his lovely daughter Jill… so glad you were able to come!

Hey Melissa so glad you came for a double dose .. it’s always great to see you… Much love.. and Dave and Darlene… Was that you? So glad you came to the show again!
Hi Arthur and Lalitha …so nice talking with you both…thanks for all the compliments.. see you next time.. hi Scott nice talking to you about the early days and 1650 Broadway… The Brill building was OK and had some great writers but the real heart and soul of rock ‘n’ roll was 1650.
Hi Judy… So nice talking with you thanks for singing all those pretty harmonies… Good luck with all your folks singing… Sounds like good times

Hi Diane and Malcolm… Very good to see you ..thanks for the nice words
Hi Robert thanks for coming in so good to see your son… was it “Andy”… it’s hard for me to read my writing… But one where another glad you came .. very nice talking with you Robert… thanks for buying all those CDs.. much appreciated.

Actually, thanks to so many for supporting us in that way
Hi Brad …thanks for your support with that very nice article… Yeah I think you should stay in Tarrytown when you come to New York… there are a few nice hotels not too far from the train station

Thanks to the very nice mom and daughter who came in at the very start of the show ..I’m not exactly sure what the names were but I think the daughters name is Joan … how can I forget that! So good to see you both!!!
Good to see Gary, Joyce and Al at the beginning… hi Mark and Anita… Good to see you and thanks for the good words
Great to see all my friends through my connection with my great friend Neil MacGonigill… Okie. Ray, Sheldon, Wayne, Cris,

So great of you all to support me and John!! Much appreciated!!!
Also, special hello to my friend Bob Roper..sorry I missed saying hello.. thanks so much for coming!
Hey Del!! So glad you stopped by great to meet your girlfriend Esther .. and special to see your other friend Christina…. hope to see you soon!
And to all the others whose names I might’ve missed… Thanks so much for being here tonight.. it was a very special night for John and I hope to see you soon again

​Neil thanks for putting this whole thing together and for coming to be with us …it’s about as good as it gets!!

​​This venue is one of my favorite to play … has been for a couple years.
It’s a soulful bar/music venue, run by Dwayne, Ken, Dwayne‘s son Jason and Mark and others.. in the last couple years they built an overhang so folks can watch the show from the ledge above the stage… it has a very ample stage overlooking the main floor with the overhang a little above eye-level. All in all, it’s a very comfortable setting for an artist to perform.

​It was a totally reverent audience tonight.. most seem to know me from not just the hits but from my albums over a period of time. And the fact that John Platania and I have been playing since 1972 was pretty apparent shortly after we started this set… John was just amazing all night.. and we could interact so easily together because of the brilliant sound thanks to the soundman Jacob… The magic vibe on stage lit up the entire show.
We divided the show into two sections

Set 1
We started out with my theme song, “The Real Thing“ and quickly went into songs from my soon to be released album, “Whiskey Salesman” . You could hear a pin drop …it was just a total silent reverence… I love telling the story of Whiskey Salesman and the love songs for Joan, “Hold Her” and I Love You Today.” It was a wonderful feeling to feel it and see it.
 
We then played a very cool version of “A Sip or two of Good Scotch” with references to John Prine and his latest album “Tree of Forgiveness”.. and then a song I hadn’t played in a while the title song from “Yonkers New York“. It was only a 40 minute set but it was a very rich one!

Set 2
We came back to the stage and I talked about traveling with Joan to Naples Florida and the joy we have doing that together. That led to the first song, our new single, “I like Ridin’”
Then we turned into a glimpse of New York in the song “Some Hearts“ which seem to have some to the point of tears.. there was another big sing-along tonight with the final Whiskey Salesman track, “In the Stillness of the Night“… Just love doing all of this.

We shifted to the Meyer Lansky part of the show and started playing the hits. The hit that Al Gorgoni and I wrote for the Hollies and Linda Ronstadt, “I Can’t Let Go“… Which totally rocked.
We shifted back to the Brooke and Brittany Henderson story… And played “I’ll Carry For You“… the audience absolutely loved this and again somewhere close to tears.

We went back to the hits with a beautiful version of “ Angel of the Morning“ .. Very cool “Wild Thing” …then came a very reverent version of my song for the prisoners, “Fuck all the Perfect People“…. with the audience singing the title song like we were in a church choir… so beautiful!
We close the show with I think my favorite ever version of “I’ll Only be Me Once“ with the audience singing loud and clear along with us by song’s end.

What a night!
​
Said hello to several including:
Jason and Paul and Katy and Susan and Dennis and Bobby and Lynn… So great to talk to you Bobby… Wonderful to see Denise… Wishing all the best for your sister Joan.. Dave great to see you thanks for talking about the Steve Earle show I loved doing that.
Great to see Elmer and Steve again… Steve .. wish Nick could have come wish him all the best on his third album .. look forward to hearing it.. very good wishes to Ron and Liz… So good to see you guys there!
And great to see you Mark… Mark is the son of one of the greatest trotting drivers of all time, Buddy Gilmore … Who I remember very well from the late 50s and early 60s where he raced at Yonkers Raceway. Mark continues Buddy‘s legacy as a behind the scenes guy for the state authorities in the racing commission.. Great talking with you Mark.
Mike from Rochester… My cohort in rooting for the amazing Canadian golfer, Brooke Henderson and her sister Brittany who gave up her own playing to caddy for little sis. Just two days ago Brooke won the championship in Hawaii and is now tied for the most wins for any Canadian golfer.
Sorry to miss Ken… Dwayne, Jason it was great seeing you guys tell Ken I missed him
Huge thanks to all of this great place!