Venue – Moskus Great to see old friend Tor.. A legendary promoter who has been booking me in this area for the last 10 years or more. Tor is in competition for promoting the venue of the year… Moskus.. this cool little place we’re playing tonight. This revered venue that holds only 70 people has been sold out for weeks now. Aside from being a venue, Moskus is one of the coolest little beer and whiskey bars on the planet. It has an amazing vinyl collection in shelves throughout the entire area. And like the great bars around the world including Parnell’s in New York, the Akkurat in Stockholm and Siste Reis in Halden, Norway ..one of the attractions is the wonderful music they play. In all these bars I’ve mentioned it is some kind of combination of country, americana… or rock ‘n’ roll… All edgy stuff.. nothing main stream.. In this venue when they choose an album to play, they play it in its entirety .. I love that… It reminds me of the 70s!! As you enter the venue, the actual bar is on the right.. and a very cool smallish stage is on the left with a velvet red curtain .. kind of reminds me of one of those old western stages… just enough room to fit Goran and me tonight. After a great Indian food meal complements of Tor.. big thanks my friend… we hit the stage at about 9:30. Note: there was an opening act tonight… A country band I think by the name of Hawk and Dove… Or something similar to that. Sorry to say I didn’t get a chance to hear them… But I heard very good things about them when we got there. The Show Because of the opening act we made the decision to play one long show tonight. As is the case with all of our shows in this town for the last several years… the audience is comprised of mostly fans of various age groups. Because we broke in Scandinavia about 12 years ago with an album called Black and Blue America… to a mostly college audience… there are lots of young folks here. This was sort of a love- in from the start… Goran Grini was amazing tonight as always.. so inspiring to me!! The highlights were far too numerous to mention .. aside from Last Chance favorites and Johnny Cash’s big River and the hits… It seemed like the songs from the new album… A Song I Can Live With.. some inspired by my wife Joan.. were especially revered.. actually Joan is sort of the secret weapon of this tour …after the shows everyone seems to want to get to meet Joan.. who will be arriving in Oslo in about five days!! I just asked my great friend and road manager for this tour, Peter, what his favorites from last night were… and here are his selections.. Crazy Girl and A Song I Can Live With (both from the new album) ..Fuck All The Perfect People.. and our final song for the night… Holy Shit.. which I sort of pulled out of the hat when the audience kept clapping as we walked off the stage after our second encore… I hadn’t done that song in a long long time.. it ended up a huge fan favorite tonight with everybody singing along and toasting each other at shows end. This was some night!!! Thanks to all who attended! Said hi to several and including: Friethjof.. Nice talking to you… Thanks for the good questions… see you next time! Hi Steve hope the “Ted’s” enjoy Rock ‘n’ Roll Joe ..my best to the family.. and a big hello to your plumber friend… don’t forget to set your alarm for 5:30!! Hi Mick and Peder and Ola. Anja Thomas.. thanks for the kind words… hi Goran and Per Arne.. Hi Ingunn.. Nice to see you…hi Frode and Roger Hi Helge.. good to meet you after the show… very nice to see you as well Stephanie!! .. hi Stina and Sofie and Eirik.. and so nice to meet college freshman and would be singer songwriter, Mona.. so glad you were inspired to come to the show .. thanks so much for the kind words looking forward to your song!! Big thanks to Lars for the sound.. and a very big hello to our new bartender friends Eirik and Magnus. Great seeing you guys… Big thanks! Tor .. my friend!!!! Great to see you as always!!!!!! You have such a great spirit in the way you bring music to people… So glad to be part of that for all these years! And here’s hoping you win that award… You certainly deserve it!! Look forward to next time! ps Love to Ingrid!… Tell her I was sorry she wasn’t able to make it… forgot to mention that Block Out the Sirens of This Lonely World was certainly one of the highlights of the entire night!! pps Just a heads up to all… The great Goran Grini (wearing his producers hat) and brilliant vocalist Paal Flaata are up for a Grammy award this week.. for their special Townes Van Zandt tribute album. Let’s hope they win.. we will all celebrate big time!!!!
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I was nervous about this show … Goran and I guessed that we wouldn’t have many Island fans… And since it was the dead of winter fans might not be traveling from long distances to see us But as soon as we hit the stage we felt a very big warm welcome from the wonderful folks who attended. And it turned out that some actually were fans .. long story short we loved playing for these kind and warm folks … Goran was amazing all night and the audience let him know it at every turn We started with the story and songs of growing up in the Voight family household… Listening to the Motorola radio and taking a ride to the train station… then we played some of the brand-new songs from the new album… A Song I Can Live With.. and just kept going with the loose storytelling.. with songs evolving from them like Dance With a Hole in Your Shoe.. Loved this one tonight… I didn’t follow any particular set list .. The warm feeling with the audience help guide the entire show. Just before we started the second set someone told me that her aunt Sylva had a request… when Sylva requested Fuck All The Perfect People, I about fell off the stool! So it was another one of these very special shows from beginning to end. And when we got to the end and played Wild Thing and then Fuck All The Perfect People I thought the show was over… but the audience kept clapping so we played I Wasn’t Born in Tennessee.. the clapping continued as we left the stage… so we came back and played the title song of our new album.. A Song I Can Live With… And that seemed a beautiful way to end the show. Loved talking to some folks after the show Hi to Live, Maric ..Who kindly offered to cook dinner for John and I next time she comes along with me.. hope the ginger works!! I could use some… Hi to Surla and Arne.. and Trini and Trond .. and another Anne.. both kind and lovely… hi Tormod .. thanks for the kind words.. Hi Gunner who used to sail with a merchant fleet.. so nice to hear you talk about music and your life hope to see you again Hi Tove and Frode.. and Sylje and Bjorn.. so nice to see you toward the end.. Tormod .. so good seeing you and thanks so much for those precious words I will not forget that meant a lot to me.. Hi to Yonas Morgan and Sebastian and Tone and Jimmy and Linda and Camilla… Good to see you all! Ingrid… It was so good to see you toward the end of the show ..I hope everything works out with the shop… and hope to see you again .. it was great to see some youngsters in the audience in the beginning I wish they were able to stay… And it was so good to see young Peter there.. son of Torild and Roar Hope to see you all again before too long. We left Ostersund a little past 10 heading across the mountains through Are ..the leading ski resort in Northern Europe. This is an amazingly warm January… Not nearly as much snow as they’re usually is for this time of year. But this trip through the mountains .. particularly high in the mountains had its share of snow and ice… Peter did an amazing job negotiating the turns and getting us safely to low-ground.. but the view from high in the mountains was amazing. It took about five hours to arrive at the beautiful Stockoya Island.. and our venue, Stockoya Sjocenter which sits right on the water. Our new friend from Ostersund, Fia, took the journey with us to share in some cooking duties at the Skocenter with her friends and kind hosts Torild and Roar. We were exhausted from lack of sleep for two nights and a long long drive over the mountains… But we decided to do a sound check right away at the offer of Terry.. an extraordinarily good soundman …which we did rather quickly and efficiently. then we were served the most delicious mussels I have ever had ..so fresh and flavorful… Torild mentioned that this is the area where you would find the best of certain shellfish… mussels being one.. local cod was the main course and it was delicious as well. after dinner we crashed for about an hour and a half before getting ready to go on stage The day of our show here in paradise down at the boathouse.. which doubles as my beautiful apartment sitting right on the water overlooking the sea. Once I woke up and came upstairs to have a little breakfast. The effort had begun by Fia and Martin to convert my apartment space into the venue room and they worked all day. They also worked to set up the space for the pancake vendor who would make these unbelievably delicious, over saturated in butter, pancakes for the patrons just before they entered into the boathouse for the show The wonderful thing about Fia and Martin is that in their work effort they never express just pleasure – it’s a joy to just continue working through the day with a goal in mind and work they did… It reminds me of my mother when she had something on her mind to do. She just didn’t stop until she was done The sound check The room was set up by mid afternoon. Yonas and Morgan… the soundmen – wonderful guys… Got the equipment set up and sounding good and Goran and I did about a half hour sound check and felt like we were totally prepared The show. .. A local singer songwriter in the image of Townes Van Zandt… But a fellow that has his own thing to offer… A wonderful voice and sincere quality ..did a wonderful opening set of about five songs in the audience really took to him and let him know it – nice job Marcus! Our show I cannot imagine a more memorable or magical show.. One of the things that surprised me was the age of the folks that came there were quite a few young people in their 20s and early 30s and several older folks as well .. I heard later that there were several musicians… Whatever… This was about the most beautiful and attentive audience you could ever play for so they totally got the best out of you with the sincerity of all the songs. We didn’t skip over any. It was total passion tonight. There were too many highlights to mention but let’s go with Charcoal Sky which sounded so warm and felt so real to me on stage.. I absolutely loved Crazy Girl… ended with Until it Hurts.. The total passion of that one was simply still and floating around for everybody was and it got to me and Goran on stage.. and just to point a finger at Goran .. he was so soulful and brilliant as always and always the connection between the two of us was so spiritual and magical it brought chills to my body throughout the night. Some more songs totally got to me were Block Out The Sirens of This Lonely World, Little Angel Wings and oh so soulful version of Hey Lou… Which really got some folks… Including me. In between the sensitive stuff we had an amazing version a Big River and Clean Your Own Tables… With everybody singing along… Just to remember that the audience singing tonight was absolutely astounding… was special and almost like it was a prepared choir and it was so much fun to hear that One of the highlights for everybody tonight was Wild Thing… As I invited Fia and Martin’s son Pele to join us on stage playing guitar and he did an amazing job! ..with a smile on his face and a guitar on his hands he looks like he belongs there! Way to go Pele – you were a star tonight! We ended the show with a wonderful version of Fuck all the Perfect People which was never more sincere than it was tonight. The looks on the faces that I saw from the stage was just amazing. I had a fire all over me through so many of the songs and certainly that one in the chorus with the sing-along just sent chills up my spine thanks to this wonderful audience for giving us back so much. We ended with a rockin’ I Wasn’t Born in Tennessee.. and said hi to some wonderful folks – Hi Gianna’s and Bjorn… Young this works for the local favor and be on the local radio station got that and they did simple and beautiful interviews with me before the show and actually got me in nice spirits before I hit the stage so thank you guys take a load to Yolanda and I know you guys are so special Lovisa and Victor and Marcus and leaf and Jimmy and Linda Yonas and Morgan thanks so much for the great sound and tone .. so nice to see you at the end. Quick to see what the end Sebastian and thanks for making those wonderful sandwiches for us and talking about the wonders of nutritious and beautiful bread… Lovely stuff So finally… I just like to say a big thanks to all who were here and all the wonderful comments you made to Goran and me ..we appreciate it more than you can possibly imagine… we felt so connected to you it was great .. wouldn’t it be nice to be spending many more days together.. something beautiful happened tonight. Big thanks to our Peter Soderlind..our friend and escort for this whole trip was so much a part of the spirit of all this good stuff OK your knees and out of 24 January and we are ready to leave for a next venue and we are stealing Fia .. she’s coming to cook for us there as well – what lucky guys
We checked out at 2 o’clock and started the slow journey to our next town Ostersund… we have a day off there and a show on the day following. We arrived at the Paradise on the lake at about 5 PM ..greeted by amazing hosts Fia and Martin and .. a bit later ..their great kids .. Pelle and Emmylou.. what a blessing for us to be here… Beautiful accommodations.. amazing dinner by an unbelievable cook… Known in the region and throughout Sweden for her accomplishments in that area and others.. including politics… and her kind and gracious husband Martin .. an extremely interesting guy… among other things… A hunter… loved hearing about his thoughts about the balance of the universe regarding animals and all things important to the sustainability of the universe.. amazing stuff Goran, who was playing with Paal Flaata in the south had to take three airplanes to arrive for sound check at Box at approximately five o’clock .. by the way I just found out that this was the first ever show at the Box whiskey distillery. Big thanks to hostess Katerina and great sound man Thomas We sound checked for about an hour and a half.. not so much to check… but to rehearse and be ready for the show. The Show This was special! Goran and I started out with the song inspired from listening to the Motorola radio when I was young kid… The Real Thing… then it was on to a visit to a train station in the 1940s with mom and dad and my brothers with the song Charcoal Sky.. Over two sets we played lots of things from the new album “A Song I Can Live With” mixed together with some of my favorites from other albums .. several from The Little Prayers Trilogy. Some of my favorites tonight were “Dance With a Hole in Your Shoe”.. A spirited version of a song of mine that Johnny Cash recorded, “Clean Your own Tables”.. I haven’t done that one very often… It was special tonight .. then “Joan Joan Joan” was so nice… The audience seemed to love the story about Joan and I and our visits to the Japanese restaurant .. and the story about me writing the title song of my new album for Joan.. “A song I can live with” Wild thing was crazy good tonight ..different than we have ever played it .. very loose and soulful… With the audience singing in from start to finish. Other favorites were songs for prisoners – Solitary and Fuck all the Perfect People. We ended with everybody clapping along to I wasn’t born in Tennessee … Goran was amazing tonight.. after we said hello to several Great to see the CEO Thomas there… Nice to talk to Gregor.. a local reporter who has some very pertinent questions that kind of inspired the early part of our show Hi to Ingrid and Erica and Soren and Bride and Kirstin.. hi 0laf and Gig and friends Zander’s and Agneta.. please send my love to Sofia.. hi Stefan.. see you next time Frederik .. great to see Saga’s grandparents Yvonne and Kurt Again big thanks to Peter and for Parnilla and my great friend Saga… Saga thanks so much for the picture I loved looking at it after the show! Jan 19-20, 2017 – Travel Left New York from Newark airport at 5:30 arrived in Stockholm at 7:30… after passport control, I went immediately to The Radisson Blu Hotel inside the airport to rest for a few hours as there were eight hours between flights to my final destination ..Sundsval airport .. one hour from the venue I would play the next day in Nylan – the home of Box whiskey. Although I didn’t sleep at the hotel it was good to lay down for a few hours before getting ready to take the flight to Sundsval. After a short one hour flight I arrived there at about 5 o’clock and was met by my great friend Peter Soderlind and his terrific 11-year-old daughter Sags .. also my friend. Peter .. a fan of country/Americana music… has worked for Box whiskey for five or six years. We first met several years ago when I was touring with Carrie Rodriguez and look forward to seeing each other whenever I come this way touring. It was approximately a one hour drive to my very comfortable lodging… the Kraam Hotel .. not too far from the Box Whiskey distillery/venue which Goran Grini and I would play tomorrow. After a great dinner at the hotel’s upscale, yet very warm, restaurant I finally caught up on some needed sleep. |
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