Bobbo Byrnes

This is probably the nicest bar I’ve ever slept in. 

By the time I wake up, Nathaniel has already been here, received deliveries and checked in on me. Breakfast is happening at 10 amand he has made Rare Tea Co’s Speedy Breakfast for me. 

As we east breakfast Nathaniel tells me about things in the pub and how some of the beams actually come from some other building and were repurposed for the Shakespeare Pub - this building dates back to 1730. That’s pretty cool. 

I pack up my bags, backpack on front and back and guitar and walk about 50 yards/meters to the city center and wait for my bus to Dortmund. I know this was only two days ago but already I have no memory of arriving in Dortmund other than walking out of the train station, crossing the street, climbing some stairs and going into another hotel room.

Touring is hard. 

It doesn’t matter if you are driving, taking busses and trains or planes. There is a feeling of constant movement and always having to be “on” that really drains you. I’ve been doing this for a good chunk of my life and I’m still not sure the best way to do it. I think in terms of touring a lot. And what I mean by that is I’m always trying to reduce my footprint. Carry fewer things, have equipment that can double for other things because I saw the economical side of traveling with less stuff. Someone like The Edge travels with 40 guitars on tour and his pedalboard and amps are so famous that even his guitar tech is famous - his name is Dallas. 

I still wish I had achieved a larger status than where I am. The idea of not carrying all my own stuff or stepping on a plane and my stuff being brought to whatever venue I’m playing next - that still sounds nice. But my DIY aesthetic will always kick in.  That said, I know so many other, more talented, folks that will never do what I’m doing now and so a certain gratitude sets in as I’m currently, at this moment, sitting in a hotel restaurant in Frankfurt, Germany drinking red wine and typing away. 

But still, the tour is over and one cannot help reflecting on the past month. 

———
My last show is at Wohnzimmer im Piepenstock in Dortmund. I’ve played this venue a few times and even a few times when it was in a different location. Marco runs the place and he’s a musician and actor here in Dortmund and quite a character. He’s big and bold and everyone loves him. 

From downtown I couldn’t figure out a bus to the Wohnzimmer so I opted for a taxi and I have a great a conversation with this driver who has moved to Germany from Tajikistan. Admits the U.S. is better with Biden but to most of his world sees no difference between him and Trump. “It’s all the same to us.” Which is telling and disheartening but I get it. He drops me off in front of the Wohnzimmer and I’m early, a few hours early. Marco won’t be here for another 90 minutes and I don’t go on for a couple of hours but I don’t have anywhere else to go or to be. I have everything on my back so I’m not about to start wandering around, shit gets heavy. 

So I sit on the front steps, take out my guitar and start working on some new songs. Across the street from me is a small park. More than anything else it’s just where some locals get together to drink and smoke outside. I can hear them laughing and joking and before long they wander over to where I am. 

I was quite content to just sit by myself but they won’t let me. They are so kind and welcoming. I’m offered a beer, a shot, pot, a smoke… They just want to hear a song. So I play them a song. I’ve just finished the chorus of the first song and the dude is freaking out. He’s pointing to his arm and I can visibly see that all the hair on his arm is standing straight up. “Gänsehaut.” Is what she says and points to her arm too. Goosebumps. 

They pick up my bags and make me come across the street to where their friends are and I’m hesitatingly following. I’m not a fan of folks grabbing my stuff and even well meaning…I’m skittish about such things. But they are all super nice, friendly and open and just want to share with their friends what I just did. It’s absolutely amazing. I play a couple of songs for them, one of them takes video and asks if it’s ok to put it on TikTok. We take pictures and it’s truly very pure, sweet and wholly unexpectedly beautiful. 

Marco arrives and I say goodbye to my new friends and cross back over to the Wohnzimmer and set up for tonight. 

Now the Wohnzimmer Live in Piepenstock is a music venue only. It’s got a bar, a stage and a Soundsystem. Sometimes plays get put on here. There’s a back line of amps if you need them and a piano on stage that if I had my stuff with me, I would’ve tuned. 

Soundcheck takes a minute and a half and it’s probably the some of the best live sound ever. Marco is an attentive soundman and adjusts reverb levels during the songs and I can hear him adding bits here and there as part of the performance. It’s nice. 

And then it’s time to wait for showtime. I take out my pillow, find a spot on one of the benches and lay down and fall asleep for about 30 minutes. 

Folks start filing in and I’m told that it’s going to be a thin night as there is a Football match here in the city as well as it being a museum night which I think means that the museum is free tonight and lots of folks going to that. It’s alright, I’ve learned that you play to the folks that are here and not the folks that aren’t. 

The first set is alright. I’m trying to read the room and it’s all folks sitting and listening. I test the waters with a bigger song, more aggressive strumming and they react positively. So when the second set starts I really turn it on and they react in kind. We hit a few nice high moments together and when I end, they won’t let me. Zugabe! I play a few more and call it a night. 

Thank you Dortmund. It’s been beautiful. 

Back at Marco’s, his wife Ingrid has made up a bed for me to sleep in. I sleep quickly and wake at 8 am with Marco asking me if I want breakfast. They have made me toast, tea and eggs. 

I am a lucky man.

xo
~Bobbo
 

I have played the Shakespeare Pub here in Herdecke (pronounced Head-aka) a couple of times before. One time with Riddle & The Stars when it was so hot, no one wanted to go inside for music so we just played busking style out in front of the pub. Then the next time I was there I couldn’t figure out why I had no memory of playing inside until someone reminded me of the outside playing the last time.

You see, there’s lots of gigs and it’s damn near impossible to remember everything from every gig. I’ve been going over some of my older tour diaries because I have an idea for a book and reading things I have written and experienced and have no memory of it nearly all the way through the reading. It’s my life but sometimes I’m watching the show too.

But last year when I played here I sat down after an incredibly long train trip where the trains were all canceled across Germany because of a terrorist attack and I had to figure out a way here* and when I walked up Nathaniel asked me if I’d like a cup of tea and he made me a cup of Rare Tea Company’s “Speedy Breakfast”** and that became my favorite tea ever.

Anyway.

Today, I get dropped off by the bus and walk the half mile here, mostly downhill even, drop my stuff and walk around the corner to an Italian restaurant and get some spaghetti and a glass of wine*** and I enjoy it as the skies open up and rain pours down. I eat and watch the rain from under a large umbrella outside. I’m the only patron not eating inside the restaurant and it’s so incredibly calming to me.

Back at the Shakespeare Pub my new musician friend from last year has been texting me and I’m chatting with Philipp. He’s an aspiring musician from Germany that taught himself to speak great English by watching Friends re-runs, loves country music, is wearing cowboy boots and is just a super nice guy. He texts me on WhatsApp every other month or so and he’s been really digging the new October album.

As I’m setting up, a dude in a Riddle & The Stars shirt walks in with about 6 friends and takes there place right next to where I’m performing. That feeling, of being somewhere remote or far away and wearing your shirt - it’s truly indescribable. Like, sometimes you look at a room full of folks you don’t know and it feels like starting from scratch but when there’s someone, even one person in the room that is already a fan - it feels like starting on third base.****

And then Alina Sebastian, Niklas Herzog, Jonas Vallan, and David Tarakona all show up. They are a band here locally from Osnabrück, Niklas has played drums with me and they have just put out a new album and she’s brought me a copy and I’m excited to hear it. I feel a connection to it already just by looking at the photos inside as they were visiting the US and borrowed my guitar for some pics - so my guitar is in their cd pics!  Woo-Hoo!

As I start off I feel like the little engine that couldn’t. I’m struggling. The table to my left is loud even though most of the rest of the place is listening - they’re oblivious. And when I say to my left - they are like one meter*****away. And it’s distracting me because I haven’t really had to deal with this much. At one point I’m playing a guitar solo and they get super loud during it and I just thrash away at the strings for a second to drown them out in volume. And it does work briefly to quiet them.

Then I’m able to center myself. Don’t play to the fuckers who aren’t here to hear you. Play to the ones that are. And I look to my right and see them all watching me and listening. I make eye contact with Alina and she’s digging it. Phillip is at the bar just staring at me. And I find it.

It’s amazing that after all this time that there’s still a struggle at some gigs to find yourself but the internal dialogue and the external indifference meet up in weird ways to distract the brain.

Oh and I only slept for less than three hours last night so I cut myself a little slack.

Then it was just on. I rocked, played loud songs, quiet songs and everything in between until I started going hoarse. Told some stories too. There is a physical difficulty of performing somewhere where folks are talking as you have to sing over them and you end up pushing your voice and I had to do that in the first set and I can feel my voice is getting tired.

I announce last song and then get two encores.

The second set of last night’s show was probably one of my best overall performances I’ve done in recent memory. I’m not saying it was technically perfect. I’m saying it was a great performance. I connected differently and floated. As I sang, I could hear Tracy’s voice singing her parts. I could hear Matt’s rhythm driving the song. And yet I was all by myself.

I miss my band. I miss my wife. One more show. It’s time to go home.******

There’s a woman that was here last year and she comes and buys a cd, I can’t remember how to pronounce her name but she is super nice and gifts me some chocolate after buying a cd. I only put out about 8 cds tonight as I wasn’t expecting a rush but they all sell and I have to run upstairs and get more.

I say my goodbyes and go upstairs and fall asleep. It’s not even midnight and I sleep for nearly 9 hours.

See you in Dortmund.

xo
~Bobbo.

*This is totally different from today’s long travel day here where I was just booked 450 miles away and had to take 11 hours worth of taxis, trains and buses. 
**This is NOT a paid promotion.
***Because the last time I was here Nathaniel didn’t have food and he bought me a pizza and I wasn’t up for pizza today BUT I’m an idiot because he does have food now and blerg… whatever. It was a good glass of wine. 
****Sorry to European readers for the baseball analogy. If you’re in the UK or Australia, it’s like starting with 2 wickets already knocked down. Germany, it’s like having Thomas Muller taking your penalty kicks. 
*****About 39” away or just more than a yard. 
******Don’t read anything into the band missed being before my wife. I wrote it both ways and felt it flowed better in this order. You say them the other way and tell me I’m wrong.

It’s a short walk from the flat to the bus stop to take the 1A into town and then it’s just 17 stops, get off and walk about 500 feet and I’m at the venue for tonight.

I don’t really have a frame of reference or other venue to compare Tjili Pop to.* It’s a small multi level bar. It’s two steps in off the street and then the main room with tables on the left and right with some bench seats on the left and chairs on the right. Further to the right is a narrow dedicated stage area, hanging PA speakers, mixing board all packed in tight. If you walk straight in from the front door you would walk up a couple more steps to the bar and from there you can weave your way either left or right to other adjacent rooms all designed for maximum leisure and hanging out conversing.

It’s really quite unique. The decorations are eclectic as well with a pair of old broken guitars adorning the wall above the stage. There’s a feel of hipster here but more like this place was like this before hipster culture would have appropriated this aesthetic and thus, at some point this place will be out of style with hipsters. Kind of like how wearing a flannel and ripped jeans in 1990 was just what you wore and then it was “Grunge fashion” in 1993 and then in 1999 when you were still wearing flannels and ripped jeans you were not cool again. Kind of like that.

Jacob greets me when I come in and again tonight I am the feature of an open mic. There’s a couple of familiar faces from the show the other night so that’s cool. We do a quick line check, I’m not using any pedals tonight. Keeping it simple.

I’m checking out these bottles of light soda, they are small bottles with fruit on the label, lime, peach, lemon, orange and this guy next to me just starts explaining all the different flavors and which ones he likes and which are good as mixers. I try to pick the orange one but get the peach one instead. They taste kind of like a carbonated version of those frozen treats that came in the long plastic skinny sleeves when we were kids.

There’s a good crowd here and Jacob does a couple of songs to start off the night and I’m paying attention to the chords of his first song and I’m normally pretty adept to just like following along but this song is skipping all the familiar progressions that I’m used to hearing. And I mention this just as an aside of like what music is like here. My ear is being pulled in a different direction from what I’m used to hearing and it’s really refreshing.

I play after him and I launch into it. Folks are digging me and it’s going well. I’m feeling uncomfortable with the sound as the speakers are in front of me and I’m just not feeling it. It sounds great out front but from where I’m standing, it’s a bit unfocused and a lot of this is likely just ME. I’ve been conserving energy all day for tonight and I still feel like I need about an 18 hour nap.

So with a couple of songs left, I unplug. I ask the folks if they’re ok with this and they are into it. I move the mic out of the way and walk down to be in with them in the room and just casually step on a chair and up onto the table in the middle of the room.

Ah, that’s so much better. No PA, just natural room sound. Also I have to really compliment this table as it is really solid and not wobbly at all. As soon as I’m up on the table I see a bunch of phones come out and video and pics being shot. I have to say that I wasn’t getting up on the table as spectacle, it just looked like the best place in the room to sing and strum and I was right.

From there I go around and talk to most everyone in the room and the next act sets up, a dude playing accordion and going from everything from Tom Petty’s “free falling” to the theme from MASH “suicide is painless” and the range is incredible. The rest of the night is just being amazed at all the talent that I just performed for. Roxy shows up after my set and we have a good hang. She asks me if I would be up for backing her up if she sings a couple of songs. Sure, of course. What do you want to play? She says she knows most songs and that’s just an absurd statement but the first two that I suggest she is like “I know those.” And we get up and do completely un-rehearsed, never before performed together versions of “Dreams” and “Tainted Love” and they go over great too. I talk with two sisters for a while, one sister performed and the other is an artist. They moved to Copenhagen from a small village in norther Italy and I love learning about how one sister got into pen and ink dot style art and the other became a singer songwriter. I compliment her chord changes too - as listening she seamlessly went from your regular chords to interesting jazz inversions while never sounding cliche or pretentious.** They just flowed naturally. I talk with another dude that has a great baritone voice and delivery (and plays in drop C tuning) and he asks me about getting nervous before performing and anxiety and all that. When he takes the stage you would never guess that he is nervous but when he sits back down his hands are still shaking. He’s trying to get to the place where he isn’t nervous anymore and that’s just great that he’s working through it.

I chat with some other folks and this was a great first time performing in Copenhagen as I’m encouraged about my next trip here as I’m given leads for and someone wanting to book me shows here as well.  I can’t get over how welcoming everyone has been to me.

Saying my goodbyes, we all promise to meet up next time and i walk the 500 feet back to the bus stop and take the 1A back to the flat and a bit of a re-pack of bags so I can travel with them again and before I know it, it’s closing in on 3 am. The 5:30 alarm is gonna sting.

———
Roxy is meeting me at the central station for a handoff of the apartment keys and she brought a friend for me to meet - her bearded dragon. Yes, she brought a lizard to the train station. I have never patted a lizard before and I kind of can’t believe that I’m doing it at 7 am in Copenhagen’s central station. Roxy is super sweet and she has gifted me a small present for me and Tracy. I give her a hug and say goodbye and board the first of my trains today.

As I sit down a woman with more bags and a much bigger backpack than me sits down next to me and that’s how I first meet Tessa from Netherlands who has been everywhere. Already 6 of the 7 continents and she’s on her way to someplace she’s never been ~ Osnabrück and weirdly, I have been there. We have a fantastic conversation. Beyond explaining things like the country of Suriname and the dish “Surinamese roti met kip” which sounds amazing. Her husband used to work for Amazon, she just got a job as a travel agent (I didn’t know that was still a thing but she’s going to be amazing at it) and how her grandfather was in a Japanese concentration camp after the end of WW2 and wrote a book about it.

I had been planning on sleeping on this part of the trip but before I know it we are rolling into Hamburg.

Tessa and I elbow bump goodbye and I go to my next train, Hamburg to Dortmund and other than a bit of last minute changing of gate, all is easy. From Dortmund, I walk outside, wait about 5 minutes for the RB52 bus to Herdecke and once I get to Herdecke, the bus drops me off a little less than half a mile from the Shakespeare Pubs and I just hoof it the rest of the way.

By the time I get to the Pub, I have been traveling for a little over 11 hours across two countries and about 450 miles. I drop off my bags upstairs in the band room**** The last time I was here, Nathaniel the owner of Shakespeare Pub, didn’t have food. Or maybe he had food but he still went down the street and got me a pizza. So I have it in my misshapen head that he doesn’t have food and I walk down to the city center, find a spot under an umbrella and order some spaghetti and a glass of merlot.

Just as my food is served, the skies open up and it is raining buckets. I am dry under these umbrellas and I actually really enjoy eating outside in the rain. I take a short video. And I sit there and finish my meal and just chill out for a bit before walking back to the pub.

The Shakespeare Pub has a PA system, it’s a couple of speakers on sticks, a small PA, mic stands and cables and it is an easy set up. I’m shocked by the graphic eq settings as I really hope no one was playing with those settings. (Everything from 1K and up is maxed out, if you don’t understand that, just imagine all the high end cutting through your ear drums. ). I dial in a good sound in about 30 seconds and I’m ready to go.

the night started slow but just kept picking up steam but now I must sleep and tell you about a truly fantastic show that is so fresh, my ears are still ringing from it.  Part 2 tomorrow.

xo
~Bobbo

*Oh and I found out the history of Literaturhaus where I played the other night and how at one point it was, and I’m going to get some of this wrong but, it was a church that was purchased by a couple who turned it into some kind of “sexual church”? Where parties would be held and…really, my brain kind of couldn’t comprehend anymore.
**Yes, chords can sound pretentious. And me stating that a chord is pretentious is bordering on me being the arbiter of cool and what’s acceptable and I don’t care. It happens, it’s a thing.
****The band room used to just have a comfy couch to sleep on but now there’s two single beds up here, a bathroom, a big screen tv and so many books.

I technically had today off but still found fun and some great rock and roll by the end of the night.

This bed is very comfortable for me and so sleeping has been easy. I’m super appreciative of my buddy Brett for letting me crash at his place here and have been trying to maintain a small footprint in his space and just dirtying a teacup and teaspoon and washing and reusing the same ones.

Touring always reminds me to try and keep life simpler.  It’s definitely easier said than done.

I get a message from Roxy that there’s some good music happening tonight in the Freetown Christiania section of Copenhagen* at a venue called Loppen and how she can get us in and sends me a link. The show is Jason Ringenberg (Jason and The Scorchers) and Dan Stuart (Green on Red) and I’m like “I know that dude!”** So I send Dan a message and tell him I’m coming to his show tonight and he sends back “you’re on the list.”

Dan also has a book out and he’s been weaving in a reading from his book as well as his stories an songs - so I’m really looking forward to seeing him and I’ve never seen Jason live but every performance I’ve seen online is a house on fire type of show.

But before that we’re going to the Christiania food market for dinner. We’re meeting at 7 pm at the central station and I proceed to walk to the wrong bus stop and get on the wrong bus. The fantastic bus app still won’t work for me with my throttled signal so I pull up Apple Maps and just sort of chart out where I’m going on the buses I’m on.

When the bus I’m on takes a turn in the wrong direction from where I’m going, I press the stop button and get off at the next stop. Cross the street and take one going back the other way. The Central train station is only about 3 miles away and I’m able to do it in 4 of the wrong buses and was about to keep riding the one I was on when I realized I was in fact at the station where we planned to meet up.

I’m waiting for about 2 minutes when she shows up.

“Come on we’ll take the long cut, we’ll make it eventually.”***

The next bus drops us on off in the Freetown Christiania section and we walk to the food market - a huge collection of shipping containers of restaurants and beer gardens and a beach area and ocean. There’s most every kind of food here. Thai, Vietnamese fried chicken, Louisiana style home cooking, pizza, vegan, hamburgers, Indian, Turkish, Pakistani - I can’t even remember them all but we do a once around to see what we want. I go for some Indian tikka masala and it’s delicious. Roxy gets a vegetarian bowl and the wind is howling through this area. The huge beer garden roof, which is a super heavy duty tarp, is blowing enough that we move to a different table.

(Stopping here to fall asleep)  

It’s not far to The Loppen, whose motto is “Going out of business since 1974”, and it’s got a great stage and sound system. When we arrive there’s plenty of seating and we wander backstage to find Dan and say hey. Coming back up stairs to find a seat and the place is now full. No empty seats to be had. We go to the side of the stage and sit on something that looks like stairs but not like stairs to anywhere, just stairs in the middle of the floor. It works.

Dan’s set is a classic lesson in being comfortable in knowing who you are as a performer and trusting your instincts to carry you through. There is no set list, he tells stories and weaves a “choose your own adventure” story type of performance and lets the show flow where it wants to go and then he takes out his book and reads an excerpt from it. And this feels just as much part of the show. Yeah, he’s reading but it’s also a performance. Wow. I am full on inspired by him.

Roxy is taking pictures, I think she said for the venue but maybe not. She has a nice DSLR camera and spends the show at the edge of the stage snapping away.

Jason takes the stage in a flourish of tall, lanky, country showman and he is all that. It’s great stories of getting signed and opening for the Ramones and an extensive history of Crazy Horse and the Native American’s plight in the 1800s - into a story song about Crazy Horse.**** To me, Jason has always been the red snap shirt wearing dude that I saw perform on Conan in the…90s? Shit, I have no idea when it was but when I bought the same snap shirt, it is who I was thinking of and the Scorchers were exactly that, a white hot band.

The one-two combo of Dan and then Jason is inspiring to me as they are singer songwriter dudes out in the world still troubadouring it up and making those connections.

I talk with Dan for a few and we commiserate over the difficulty of traveling with cds and merchandise and how it might not have been “better” in the 90s when you couldn’t sell cds at gigs because the label wanted folks to buy them from a store, but it was “easier” to not have to travel with cds and vinyl.

Jason and I talk for a brief moment after the show and I tell him it’s my first time seeing him live but it won’t be the last. We talk briefly about the music and traveling and even though I know I’m not at these guys’ level, reputation and experience, I feel a kinship through my years on the road as well.

I’ve done a lot, I’ve seen a lot. I’ve been on labels, I’ve opened for heroes, but I never had the money or expectations of a major record label on my back and I wonder how that affects the performer you become. Does having that kind of business behind you make you perform differently or think about what you do differently? This is a fleeting thought as I will never have that kind of dilemma, there aren’t even that many record labels left and the ones that are left are not signing dudes in their 50s.

It reminds me of the time I was approached by a hockey scout in Huntington Beach, CA and offered a tryout for the Long Beach Ice Dogs. “I’m 39” was all I said and the guy said “Ok, thank you.” And walked away. You still have the dreams of stardom but what “stardom” means, changes. The room they played to tonight was pretty great and if you could find rooms like this that you could travel to scattered around the world, well that’s a different kind of success.

We say goodnight and I hope to see Dan again soon. I dig his stuff, I’d love to work with him again. Jason says he’s going to look me up as well. That’d be cool. You can’t help having the daydreams of future gigs.

Roxy and I walk to a bus stop talking about the show and she shows me some of her pictures, she’s quite a talented photographer. And it’s super nice of her to make sure I know which train is mine as my app only works when she hotspots me some wifi. I take the train from the central station out a couple of stops, exit the station, walk down the street about 300 meters to the bus stop and take the bus back to the Valby section of Copenhagen.

I am tired now. I have three shows remaining in my tour and this is the place when my fatigue sets in. It could be 60 shows, it could be 25 shows or even 8 - when I get to the last three I am beat.

Wednesday night (tonight) I’m playing Tjili Pop here in Copenhagen. When I get back to the flat I will do a re-pack of bags so things weigh more evenly and I will catch a train at 7:15 tomorrow morning. I’m really hoping for smooth transfers and ease of trains as I won’t be arriving in Herdecke, Germany until 5 pm tomorrow night. Yes, that’s a full 10 hour travel day on trains and then walk a half mile to the venue, sit down for an hour and then play a show. I’ve already gotten messages from some folks going to that show in Herdecke and it’s that sort of expectation that gives you added determination.

Ok, off to rock in Copenhagen now.

xo

*This is an amazing section of town! This is an intentional community commune in the Christianshavn neighborhood. It began in 1971 as a squatted military base. From there it gets more and more interesting - please look it up!
**I played a show with Dan in LA a bunch of years ago with Jack Waterson  and Don Antonio from Sacri Cuori and then I played on the album he was recording at the time as well. I think Tracy sang on it too. 
***From the song “Long cut” by Uncle Tupelo. I should maybe look into learning this song as it does seem to suit me quite well. 
****I started videoing the story but it’s too long, I can’t upload it here.

Waking up in Bad Doberan (near Kühlungsborn) is one of those waking up and not knowing where you are experiences. I have slept here before but in that just waking up alone moment there is a feeling of “where am I?” that feels out of time and space.

I remember reading that The Replacements used to play a game on tour where they would just randomly point at someone in the van and demand “Day, Date, City?” And the one being quizzed would never have the right details. I always thought it a funny story but if it weren’t for the tour diary, there’s no way I would know the date and I rarely know what day of the week it is anyway. 

It’s a long ride back to Bremen from Kühlungsborn today. I finish up listening to Dave Grohl’s book on the ride and get back to Heike’s garden in the late afternoon. I have about 2 hours until I have to leave to go to tonight’s show at Haus am See in Oterstedt, Osterstedt, Osterstadt… hold on, I have to look it up. I was so close; Otterstedt. 

Haus am See is a sort of locals only restaurant on the banks of a small lake. I say “small lake” because when you’re sitting there, you can see all of it. It’s very cute and feels like New Hampshire and the mosquitos suck like New Hampshire too. I have the option of playing inside or outside and the mosquitos are the deciding factor for indoors. 

I am served up a delicious dinner of schnitzel, potatoes and mushroom gravy. When I ask for “Apfelschule” as my beverage of choice I get a sideways look from the bartender. No matter where you go people are suspicious of you when you don’t drink alcohol.* 

Setting up in the corner of the room, there’s nothing glamorous about this “stage” as it’s literally just the corner of the room. I put my PA speakers up on chairs and dial in a sound pretty quickly. As I start, folks start coming in the room and it’s never like, capacity seating but I play for a mostly full room the whole night. 

Again, folks that don’t know me at all, come in and sit down and listen. I think there’s an element of me coming to where they are that they appreciate. There’s lots of entertainment options in the city but this is in the woods, on a lake…there’s not a lot else going on here. I’m not making fun when I say that. There’s places like that everywhere and I love going to those places. 

I’m asked by a few people “How is it that you ended up here performing?” “I was asked.” 

Sonja and Barbara have come to see me tonight and they sit with Heike while I play. Sonja and Heike have seen a few shows now and there’s this feeling of changing things up a bit night to night just so they don’t get bored. And that’s hard! As much as you rehearse your songs to perform a certain way, there are elements of song introductions that are also rehearsed to an extent so you feel like you’re telling the same people the same story even though most of the people there have never heard it. 

Years ago, Tracy and I went to see Blue Rodeo in Vancouver. It was an amazing show and just before they played “what am I doing here?” Gregg started the introduction of performing in front of a big Ferris wheel early in their career and the woman next to us shouted something like “Yeah, we know!” And Tracy and I were like “But we don’t!” And that is a thing that I think about every time I start a story that I’ve told a few times, there’s new people that haven’t heard it yet!

Back at Haus am See I play some big loud songs, some quiet ones and everything in between. I unplug to sing a couple in the middle of the room with no PA and I am really enjoying doing this. I don’t know if it will fly in other places but I want to try it. Future tour diaries will likely have a mention of when I try this and it didn’t work.

I have a great talk with a few folks buying cds who really dig the music. One guy shouts out for another mandolin song, so I obliged. There’s another table of folks that have come out to see me who have seen me before and I have a nice catch up with them as well.  

When we’re bringing stuff out to the car it is so dark in the parking lot that I am just walking towards where I know I parked. I can’t see the car until I’m right upon it. It feels almost like a campground it’s so dark here. When I plug in the phone and try to use GPS - there’s not near enough signal to find me. Heike and I drive for a bit saying things like “I think we turned here” and the roads are tiny, grown over and almost feel like an oversized sidewalk in places as they are made of not pavement or asphalt but individual bricks. After 10 minutes of driving GPS finds us and we get back to Bremen with ease. 

I’m starting to feel the fatigue of no days off and not retaining as many details the next day. If I write right away, I’m still sharp enough to remember but two days later it starts to blur the details and my writing gets less sharp as well. It’s like the beginning of the Yellow Wallpaper compared to the end of the Yellow Wallpaper.**

Right Now - it’s 8:08 am and I’m on a train. According to my FitBit, I got 3 hours and 24 minutes of sleep last night. I’m hoping for an easy travel day on only two trains - Bremen to Hamburg and then Hamburg to Copenhagen. 

I will rest once I’m on the second train. 



*And Apfelschule is kind of a kids drink. It’s apple juice and sparkling water and honestly, it’s delicious. I make it at home now. 
**another description that probably only works in my head.

Today is our anniversary. Tracy and I have been together for 260 years now. And with the exception of when I’m in a hurry, have canceled trains or am sleeping in a terrible hotel or someone’s couch - I always wish she was with me on tour.

I planned ahead a little bit and ordered some crochet hooks and some purple yarn for her to make her own hat to leave behind somewhere and I’m actually on the phone with her when she opens it so that’s nice.

There is this myth that being “on tour” allows you all this extra time to, you know - be a musician and write more songs and all that but you really don’t. Being on tour is a lot like having a microwave oven. It’s supposed to make things easier and save time but really - you don’t save any time, you just do more stuff.

Seriously, what happened to all the time we were going to save by having a microwave?  Where did it go?

And another thing that happens is that half baked tangents like comparing being on tour to being a microwave oven…makes sense to me.*

Anyway.

Lack of wifi has been causing me some issues. I have T-Mobile, which is also in Europe, so I do have signal everywhere but just using data and maps and downloading podcasts - it’s really bottlenecked and I get messages from T-Mobile saying I’ve used up all the 5G speed and am now getting throttled down to 256K.**

It’s a stupid modern problem but every time I write one of these tour diaries, I write it on my iPad in an email to myself. When I finish writing it I turn on the HotSpot on my phone, wait for it to connect and then send myself an email. This way if something gets lost, I have a copy of it in my Sent folder because it REALLY sucks when you write an entire tour diary on Facebook and then the screen refreshes and you lose the whole thing. Then after a few minutes when the email finally arrives on my phone, I copy/paste and post with pics in the phone on my Facebook page and on my website. There’s always a process and this is the best/most foolproof way I’ve found to do it.

Boy that was boring.

Anyway.

The drive from Bremen to Lübeck is about 120 miles and I’m leaving with plenty of time so that once I get to Lübeck I can find a laundromat and make some clean clothes. It turns out that doing laundry in Lübeck is way cheaper than doing laundry in Amsterdam! It cost 8.50 per wash in Amsterdam and then another 5 euro to dry it. In Lübeck, I did the same thing except all together it was less than 6 euro.

Lübeck apparently not the hotspot tourist destination that Amsterdam is.

I am able to sort of nap in the car while the laundry cooks but it’s not good sleep. This Fiat is easily the least comfortable automobile I’ve ever driven. It’s so bad I’ve apologized to it for bad mouthing it. I feel like I have to be nice to it or else it will turn on me.

But Lübeck is the home of Tonfink, a fantastic little bar with food and a great stage with soundman and monitors and lights. Carolin owns/runs the place and she also does the booking and cooking. She’s there waiting for me and makes me a cup of tea and later on some Thai chicken curry. We confirm details as well as the details for my stay in the local hostel/hotel.

“Don’t lock yourself in again!”*** she warns me.

“I will not do that again.” I assure her.  

I sit down to change the strings on my acoustic and Carolin brings me my dinner. Lübeck is a very cute little city. There’s bikes everywhere and a ton of road construction going on that makes driving here exceptionally confusing - even with GPS. As I’m eating Felix comes up to the table and introduces himself as the soundman and he goes in and sets up stuff and in no time we have excellent sound happening.

There’s a couple that have come and are sitting down near the stage and I recognize her from the last time I was here. Anna has brought her boyfriend Heiko and they tell me about all the concerts they’ve been to in the last year, how they volunteered at music festivals, volunteered for LGBTQ events and worked benefits for women’s shelters and have seen, I want to say 300 shows but that can’t be right. It was a number that ended in “hundred” - maybe it was 100 shows in the last year. She is also wearing a Glen Hansard shirt and he has a Mohawk and they say how much they like listening to metal but the best show they’ve seen in the last year was Glen Hansard. I love that sort of range of musical taste.

She tells me that she follows me on IG and has been inspired by the causes I support and work with when I’m not making music. I’m humbled and amazed by the comment.

I dive into my set and it’s going well. Singing songs, telling stories. I play quiet songs and you could hear a pin drop in the room. I chat with folks during the break. It’s all good.

Super short Guitar Geek Warning:

There’s something weird going on with the phase of my guitar. I’m using my normal two pickup thing but when I bring the second signal in with the volume pedal, the sound gets super nasally. I know it’s phasing out. I flip the phase on my pickup and it doesn’t improve. I flip it back and then flip the phase on the DI and it still does not improve. I am stumped by this. Both of those things should’ve fixed it. I’m also testing the limits of what this SparkleDrive pedal can do. For what I do, it’s very limited. I’m missing my Barefoot FX pedal.

During my second set I play a couple of songs on my telecaster and Felix had helped me dial in a direct sound with it through the SparkleDrive but it’s un inspiring tone tonight. Just bugging me. Then I pick up the mandolin and do two songs acoustically in front of the one mic and they go over too.

I strum a bunch more and as 10 pm approaches I announce that this is my last song. The table with two college age women on my left let out a loud “NO!!!” So much so that I’m actually shocked by it.

“Can this be the song before your last song?”

And in that broken English is the greatest way to ask for more.

“Sure, this is the song before the last song and it’s called ‘Angelia’.”

They scream again.

“My name is Angelia!”

This is an absolute first. When I first called the song that I was looking for a name that would sort of hint at the idea of a Guardian Angel but I didn’t want to be obvious about it and so I changed it to Angelia, sort of thinking I made the name up.**** I sing the song to them and then play another and say goodnight but they all want more. It’s so nice getting that sustained clapping of folks wanting an encore.

Of course I will play more. I actually don’t remember what my second to last song was but I felt like ending with some big rock,

“I stole this next song from a band from Australia.”

And I close with “Long way to the top if you want to rock and roll”*****

It’s great talking to folks after the show, I sell some cds and t-shirts and talk with the couple from earlier.

Heiko asks “What band was it from Australia? Men at work?”

“No, it was INXS.”

“Are you sure it wasn’t Midnight Oil?”

“Oh, it might have been the Go Betweens”

“Ah, yes, the Go Betweens.”

And we both laugh at our collective musical geekery.  

Some dude at the bar buys me a shot, I take a sip. I’m not up for this tonight but I thank him. Felix asks me if I’m going to finish it and I say no and he downs it in one motion. “Made from corn” he says after a grimaced swallow. The two college women are very chatty and they want to be musicians. They ask if I will play another set and I tell them no, I’m done. “But maybe just another hour?”

I’m truly flattered that they want another hour of my music but music stops here about 10 and it’s 10 after.

We sit around chatting for a bit with Anna and Heiko after the show. And then talk with Merleine and Angelia. They ask about how long I’ve played music, when did I start and were my parents happy when I started playing guitar or did they want me to go to college and it’s a funny line of questioning as I can tell the two of them are struggling with it as well. Angelia swigs wine straight from the bottle and non-stop talks and Merleine just smokes and keeps asking questions. They ask questions that are honest but in a kind way. They don’t come out and ask “how much money do you make?” They ask me how successful I am as a musician. Putting it on my terms and it’s such a refreshing way to be asked.

I tell them that I’m not rich, I have to make money when I play, I cannot do it for free but most of my “success” comes from all the people/friends/fans I have met, the places that being a musician has gotten me access to, the extraordinary life that I live - that is success. I wasn’t prepared to have this conversation and my answers surprise both me and them. I can see them thinking and finally she says “I bet bigger bands don’t have the same experiences.”

“Ganeau.”****** I say.

I tell Merleine that she has the same color hair as Tracy.

“This is not my real color hair.”

“It’s not Tracy’s either..”

I tell them that tomorrow is our anniversary and they ask how many years we’ve been married.

“26 years.”

“That’s longer than I’ve been alive.”

Carolin comes to tell me that my room is ready, I’ve been upgraded, I’m in room 6 and the key is already in the door. Because of course it is. I drive to the hostel, there’s no key in the door but the room is open. I go inside and fall asleep.

Guten nacht.

xo
Bobbo

*I feel like it’s when comedian Eddie/Suzy Izzard made the connection that cannibals say that humans taste like chicken so when someone is served chicken he said “taste of human.” And he really lost a lot of the audience with that one. 
**Which makes you feel like one of the beings in that show “Uploaded” where dead people’s consciousness are uploaded to a server thing but their families have to pay for more data otherwise they just end up in the basement all greyed out. Man, that show is way darker than the comedy it was first billed as. 
***Devotees of the Tour Diary will remember that the last time I played here, at the end of the night I went to the hostel, went in the wrong door and tried to exit into a big atrium area only to have the door lock behind me and for a frantic hour thought I was going to have to sleep in that locked area in sight of my illegally parked car with the hazards on because the staff had gone home for the night. Carolin woke up the owner at home and he drove back and let me out. 
****Completely forgetting that not only does Richard Marx have a song called Angelia, but my friend Tawny IS IN THE VIDEO with Richard Marx. 
*****This song is obviously by AC/DC, not the Go Betweens, not The Church, not Baby Animals, not Paul Kelly, not Kacey Chambers…
******Ganeau is German for “uh-huh”. It’s probably the most common thing you hear in conversation here.

Today is our anniversary. Tracy and I have been together for 260 years now. And with the exception of when I’m in a hurry, have canceled trains or am sleeping in a terrible hotel or someone’s couch - I always wish she was with me on tour.

I planned ahead a little bit and ordered some crochet hooks and some purple yarn for her to make her own hat to leave behind somewhere and I’m actually on the phone with her when she opens it so that’s nice.

There is this myth that being “on tour” allows you all this extra time to, you know - be a musician and write more songs and all that but you really don’t. Being on tour is a lot like having a microwave oven. It’s supposed to make things easier and save time but really - you don’t save any time, you just do more stuff.

Seriously, what happened to all the time we were going to save by having a microwave?  Where did it go?

And another thing that happens is that half baked tangents like comparing being on tour to being a microwave oven…makes sense to me.*

Anyway.

Lack of wifi has been causing me some issues. I have T-Mobile, which is also in Europe, so I do have signal everywhere but just using data and maps and downloading podcasts - it’s really bottlenecked and I get messages from T-Mobile saying I’ve used up all the 5G speed and am now getting throttled down to 256K.**

It’s a stupid modern problem but every time I write one of these tour diaries, I write it on my iPad in an email to myself. When I finish writing it I turn on the HotSpot on my phone, wait for it to connect and then send myself an email. This way if something gets lost, I have a copy of it in my Sent folder because it REALLY sucks when you write an entire tour diary on Facebook and then the screen refreshes and you lose the whole thing. Then after a few minutes when the email finally arrives on my phone, I copy/paste and post with pics in the phone on my Facebook page and on my website. There’s always a process and this is the best/most foolproof way I’ve found to do it.

Boy that was boring.

Anyway.

The drive from Bremen to Lübeck is about 120 miles and I’m leaving with plenty of time so that once I get to Lübeck I can find a laundromat and make some clean clothes. It turns out that doing laundry in Lübeck is way cheaper than doing laundry in Amsterdam! It cost 8.50 per wash in Amsterdam and then another 5 euro to dry it. In Lübeck, I did the same thing except all together it was less than 6 euro.

Lübeck apparently not the hotspot tourist destination that Amsterdam is.

I am able to sort of nap in the car while the laundry cooks but it’s not good sleep. This Fiat is easily the least comfortable automobile I’ve ever driven. It’s so bad I’ve apologized to it for bad mouthing it. I feel like I have to be nice to it or else it will turn on me.

But Lübeck is the home of Tonfink, a fantastic little bar with food and a great stage with soundman and monitors and lights. Carolin owns/runs the place and she also does the booking and cooking. She’s there waiting for me and makes me a cup of tea and later on some Thai chicken curry. We confirm details as well as the details for my stay in the local hostel/hotel.

“Don’t lock yourself in again!”*** she warns me.

“I will not do that again.” I assure her.  

I sit down to change the strings on my acoustic and Carolin brings me my dinner. Lübeck is a very cute little city. There’s bikes everywhere and a ton of road construction going on that makes driving here exceptionally confusing - even with GPS. As I’m eating Felix comes up to the table and introduces himself as the soundman and he goes in and sets up stuff and in no time we have excellent sound happening.

There’s a couple that have come and are sitting down near the stage and I recognize her from the last time I was here. Anna has brought her boyfriend Heiko and they tell me about all the concerts they’ve been to in the last year, how they volunteered at music festivals, volunteered for LGBTQ events and worked benefits for women’s shelters and have seen, I want to say 300 shows but that can’t be right. It was a number that ended in “hundred” - maybe it was 100 shows in the last year. She is also wearing a Glen Hansard shirt and he has a Mohawk and they say how much they like listening to metal but the best show they’ve seen in the last year was Glen Hansard. I love that sort of range of musical taste.

She tells me that she follows me on IG and has been inspired by the causes I support and work with when I’m not making music. I’m humbled and amazed by the comment.

I dive into my set and it’s going well. Singing songs, telling stories. I play quiet songs and you could hear a pin drop in the room. I chat with folks during the break. It’s all good.

Super short Guitar Geek Warning:

There’s something weird going on with the phase of my guitar. I’m using my normal two pickup thing but when I bring the second signal in with the volume pedal, the sound gets super nasally. I know it’s phasing out. I flip the phase on my pickup and it doesn’t improve. I flip it back and then flip the phase on the DI and it still does not improve. I am stumped by this. Both of those things should’ve fixed it. I’m also testing the limits of what this SparkleDrive pedal can do. For what I do, it’s very limited. I’m missing my Barefoot FX pedal.

During my second set I play a couple of songs on my telecaster and Felix had helped me dial in a direct sound with it through the SparkleDrive but it’s un inspiring tone tonight. Just bugging me. Then I pick up the mandolin and do two songs acoustically in front of the one mic and they go over too.

I strum a bunch more and as 10 pm approaches I announce that this is my last song. The table with two college age women on my left let out a loud “NO!!!” So much so that I’m actually shocked by it.

“Can this be the song before your last song?”

And in that broken English is the greatest way to ask for more.

“Sure, this is the song before the last song and it’s called ‘Angelia’.”

They scream again.

“My name is Angelia!”

This is an absolute first. When I first called the song that I was looking for a name that would sort of hint at the idea of a Guardian Angel but I didn’t want to be obvious about it and so I changed it to Angelia, sort of thinking I made the name up.**** I sing the song to them and then play another and say goodnight but they all want more. It’s so nice getting that sustained clapping of folks wanting an encore.

Of course I will play more. I actually don’t remember what my second to last song was but I felt like ending with some big rock,

“I stole this next song from a band from Australia.”

And I close with “Long way to the top if you want to rock and roll”*****

It’s great talking to folks after the show, I sell some cds and t-shirts and talk with the couple from earlier.

Heiko asks “What band was it from Australia? Men at work?”

“No, it was INXS.”

“Are you sure it wasn’t Midnight Oil?”

“Oh, it might have been the Go Betweens”

“Ah, yes, the Go Betweens.”

And we both laugh at our collective musical geekery.  

Some dude at the bar buys me a shot, I take a sip. I’m not up for this tonight but I thank him. Felix asks me if I’m going to finish it and I say no and he downs it in one motion. “Made from corn” he says after a grimaced swallow. The two college women are very chatty and they want to be musicians. They ask if I will play another set and I tell them no, I’m done. “But maybe just another hour?”

I’m truly flattered that they want another hour of my music but music stops here about 10 and it’s 10 after.

We sit around chatting for a bit with Anna and Heiko after the show. And then talk with Merleine and Angelia. They ask about how long I’ve played music, when did I start and were my parents happy when I started playing guitar or did they want me to go to college and it’s a funny line of questioning as I can tell the two of them are struggling with it as well. Angelia swigs wine straight from the bottle and non-stop talks and Merleine just smokes and keeps asking questions. They ask questions that are honest but in a kind way. They don’t come out and ask “how much money do you make?” They ask me how successful I am as a musician. Putting it on my terms and it’s such a refreshing way to be asked.

I tell them that I’m not rich, I have to make money when I play, I cannot do it for free but most of my “success” comes from all the people/friends/fans I have met, the places that being a musician has gotten me access to, the extraordinary life that I live - that is success. I wasn’t prepared to have this conversation and my answers surprise both me and them. I can see them thinking and finally she says “I bet bigger bands don’t have the same experiences.”

“Ganeau.”****** I say.

I tell Merleine that she has the same color hair as Tracy.

“This is not my real color hair.”

“It’s not Tracy’s either..”

I tell them that tomorrow is our anniversary and they ask how many years we’ve been married.

“26 years.”

“That’s longer than I’ve been alive.”

Carolin comes to tell me that my room is ready, I’ve been upgraded, I’m in room 6 and the key is already in the door. Because of course it is. I drive to the hostel, there’s no key in the door but the room is open. I go inside and fall asleep.

Guten nacht.

xo
Bobbo

*I feel like it’s when comedian Eddie/Suzy Izzard made the connection that cannibals say that humans taste like chicken so when someone is served chicken he said “taste of human.” And he really lost a lot of the audience with that one. 
**Which makes you feel like one of the beings in that show “Uploaded” where dead people’s consciousness are uploaded to a server thing but their families have to pay for more data otherwise they just end up in the basement all greyed out. Man, that show is way darker than the comedy it was first billed as. 
***Devotees of the Tour Diary will remember that the last time I played here, at the end of the night I went to the hostel, went in the wrong door and tried to exit into a big atrium area only to have the door lock behind me and for a frantic hour thought I was going to have to sleep in that locked area in sight of my illegally parked car with the hazards on because the staff had gone home for the night. Carolin woke up the owner at home and he drove back and let me out. 
****Completely forgetting that not only does Richard Marx have a song called Angelia, but my friend Tawny IS IN THE VIDEO with Richard Marx. 
*****This song is obviously by AC/DC, not the Go Betweens, not The Church, not Baby Animals, not Paul Kelly, not Kacey Chambers…
******Ganeau is German for “uh-huh”. It’s probably the most common thing you hear in conversation here.

I’m having a lazy Monday morning, doing some guitar playing and working on new songs. The other night I had a dream that I was visited by ghosts of songwriters passed that all wanted me to play their new songs that they can’t share because they are dead. it was a chaotic dream of like 10 people with guitars shouting songs at me at the same time and me trying to tell them - Yes, I would love to hear them all but can you can you take turns? But they all kept singing at once. 

Singing and strumming in the garden is a nice way to spend a Monday until my show tonight.

I decide to make a run into the city center to a music shop and see if they have a pedal that I could really use. The traffic is insane and it takes me nearly 30 minutes to go the 4 miles to the shop. It’s a bit of an overpriced shop and really only go there to see what’s up and shockingly they have the pedal that I’m looking for and at a reasonable price. I try not to carry much cash on me at any given time so I take out my credit card to buy the pedal but currently the store cannot take credit card payments. It’s been like this for about two weeks now the guy says. “There’s a cash machine down the street if you want to get money and come back.”  And there’s no way in hell I’m taking out money and paying those fees when a store can’t process a credit card. Just bizarre. 

So I walk down the street past Litfass and buy a toaster. Then I stop and get some raisin bread and decide I will give Heike the toaster (because she doesn’t have one) but first I will make toast for everyone at the show tonight. 

Tonight I’m playing at Sparkasse, a bank. Yes, a bank. And what’s crazy is that this isn’t even the first time I have played a bank, or rather this bank, or even this chain of banks! I think this is the fourth time I have played a Sparkasse and the second or third time I’ve played this particular Sparkasse! 

I show up and there’s posters for me hanging on the windows, there are American flags hanging up, they have decorated the lobby with balloons and have turned the reception counter into a bar. There’s tables all around for folks to mingle about. The only thing is that there are no chairs and I’m fairly certain that that is because if you have more than 50 chairs it means venue and different laws about having live performances but I could be wrong about that. 

In any case, they have really rolled out the red carpet for me and it’s wonderful - they have turned their bank into a great space to play music in. 

Anja has booked me here and she is helping by bringing out these large cubes that they use for displays and I stack two of them up and put the PA speakers on them. I angle them behind me so the sound fills the room and I can hear them too and for me, the sound was pretty great.* Anja and I have a great conversation about Bruce Springsteen and for soundcheck I play “Atlantic City” just for her. 

Then the room starts filling up. 

Remember, this is a bank. A. Bank.  I don’t normally do a head count but I’m shocked by how many people are in a bank to see me perform so I take a few seconds by the door and just start counting and there are over 70 people in here, after hours, at a bank that has turned their waiting area into a music venue and their reception desk into a bar - on a Monday night!

Seeing more friends and fans here, Claudia and Oliver have arrived and they brought me a rose that I then place on top of one of the speakers. I’ve never gotten flowers before! Mika, the fireman that gave me a patch from his Fire Brigade a few years ago is here. I tell the story about getting a patch from him and he has brought me a new one. (I brought him a patch from the states last time I was here - apparently, I collect police and fire patches now) And so many people, I’m forgetting names and don’t want to miss anyone. There’s the dude that used to work building ships and he tells me his friend was going to come tonight but he ended up in the ER instead. And the dude in the Steve Earle / Townes Van Zant shirt that tells me how this bank has the good beer! 

And it’s amazing. While I’m performing I look around and see people singing along with me. 

Halfway through the first set I unplug and bring everyone in close and I perform completely un-amplified and it’s amazing. The whole room is silent. Every once in a while I hear a bit of a voice and then three other “shhhhhhhs”.  

I take a break after 50 minutes and start making toast for everyone. I forgot about cinnamon and Anja had her daughter bring some so we are making cinnamon raisin toast for everyone! 

After about 6 slices, the toaster won’t work - I shorted out a breaker or something and I have no power, the PA is dead too. I find another plug over by Claudia and Oliver and they take over on toast duties while I find another plug to plug the PA into. Sadly, this power outage has not opened up the time release system on all the vaults like it did in Ocean’s Eleven but that’s ok, we have music, beer, toast…

I finish up my second set and sell a bunch of cds and t-shirts and USB sticks. Get a few new folks on the mailing list and it’s a great night. Anja brings me a bottle of wine to take home, we hug and say goodbye and she says “Next year we need to have it on a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday so more people come.”  Ok, we can plan that. 

On the way out the door Claudia says to me “No Angelia?” Damn, I would’ve played it. “Yell it out next time if I forget.” She smiles and leaves.

Everything about tonight’s show I can’t imagine happening back home in the U.S. A bank selling beer over the counter. 70+ people going to a bank on a Monday night to see some dude from the states sing and play guitar. 

And having all of that be awesome.

Thank you Sparkasse Bremen, thank you Anja. See you next year.

xo
Bobbo







*It’s a tricky little PA to get dialed in because it is a very inexpensive one - a four channel, 80 watt PA head and two 10” speakers. It has global Low Mid High control and the individual channels have a tone knob. A single knob that makes it more high or more low. And tonight is the best I’ve ever gotten it to sound making a balance of the vocal mic turned tone up higher so that it isn’t muddy and the acoustic turned tone down lower so it isn’t too harsh. On the main eq I turn the Mids down to zero and it starts to sound more natural. But it’s a real balance with this PA of trusting your ears - where it sounds good isn’t always where you think the knobs should be. 








 

I am driving the smallest rental car I have ever, well, shit, it’s actually just the smallest car I’ve ever driven. It, shockingly, has 6 gears too. The name on the side says “Dolcevita” in cursive - I think it’s Italian for “three cylinder go kart”. I take a picture of it because I have self diagnosed “car blindness”* and I don’t want to lose another rental car.**

After picking up the car I re-acclimate myself to driving in Germany and it’s really not that different for me, I feel very used to it. I already pretty much drove like I was in Germany*** Driving here is only difficult if you don’t pay attention or drive like an asshole.

When I get back to Heike’s she is cooking something that smells amazing and it turns out she is making cinnamon raisin bread for me. Unbelievable. I make another cup of tea and snack on some fresh out of the oven bread. We have a great conversation about music and life while I change some strings and put my things together for tonight.

Tonight I’m at the Shakespeare Theater Pub in Weyhe. (Pronounced: Vi-ah) I’ve played here a handful of times before, both solo and with Riddle & The Stars and it’s cool because I can go in the back hallway and see posters of folks that have played here and see a lot of friends names on the posters.

Now Weyhe is a a little town just south of Bremen and has a fantastic city center that is always bustling with activity. They have a super active theater group that performs in the theater upstairs and they have a pub and live music downstairs.

I’m working with Tom tonight, he’s a punk rock drummer that is learning how to do live sound. He assures me he knows what he’s doing and everything is all set up and ready to go. There’s a separate DI Box for me to plug both of my guitar signals into. We struggle with this for a long time until we discover that someone has unplugged the power cord to the DI Box.  After that all is groovy.

My friend Petra has asked if I would have dinner with her before the show so we sit down in the nice restaurant next door and have a proper sit down. I, of course, got the schnitzel with mushroom gravy**** and we have a very nice dinner and conversation.

When I return to the Shakespeare Theater Pub (it’s like a 20 foot walk) I’m greeted by folks wearing my t-shirt! It’s such an amazing sight. I don’t know who it was that said you should never wear the band t-shirt to the band’s gig because I tell you - from where I was standing, it was awesome.

I check in with Petra and HG and he’s got a lead in their theater production of “Murder on the Orient Express.” Manuela is here with her boyfriend. She is so sweet and she makes sure that I send Tracy her love too. Kevin***** is here, wearing my shirt too and he has been filling me in on the renaissance fair work that he is doing and they’re even camping there in like Middle Ages type of tents and making their own shields, it’s cool. Horst and Betty are here and they both have my shirt on too. I still remember meeting them in Achim with Riddle and The Stars about a decade ago! And even my friend wearing the Wien Americana Fest shirt - and I apologize, it’s 2:45 am and I’m blanking on your name but we talked about you coming to the house concert at Heike’s the end of the week. Please email me!

And then I performed.

The first set was pretty good, the room was mostly all listening except about 6 people at the bar who I could tell were annoying most of the other people there. A couple of times I had breaks in a song and the break would happen and it would be totally silent EXCEPT for their talking and it caught them off guard. It was actually quite funny. I struggled a little bit vocally in the first set as I got my monitor mix dialed in while the room was empty but once there were folks in there, it needed to be louder. I found my self pushing a little bit too much.

The second set felt much better to me as we adjusted my mix on stage and then even if those 6 folks were chatting, I couldn’t hear them so much now and I really enjoyed just going with the flow and doing some of the quieter numbers and just diving into them. Tonight was also the first time I’ve played Heroes in a while and I think it went over pretty well. I set up the E-bow part on the looper in the beginning and it was pretty groovy. We all sang APB together and Horst and I decided I should sing it for Norbert. Norbert and Barbara are great supporters of the arts (and are great artists themselves) and he takes so many fantastic photos of everyone that comes through town. I have used photos he has taken of me for years! (Always giving photo credit!) And it’s fun singing that with a bunch of folks that already know their sing along part.  

I go deep during the second set and it feels real good.

There’s a great catch up and goodbyes after the show. A bunch of them are planning on coming to more of my shows this week. That really puts the pressure on me to mix up my set even more and play an even more varied set so I’m not singing the same exact set at them.

There’s some t-shirt selling and cd buying. My CD merch box has a whole bunch of Fallen Stars and Riddle & The Stars cds in there too so I’ve made every purchase of one of my CDs a “buy one get one free” of one of the older CDs, for 2 reasons: 1) I love those CDs but we’re not promoting them anymore so I’d love for them to get into peoples collections and 2) the merch box is heavy, I would like it to be lighter.

It’s a quiet drive back to Bremen and I bring Petra home so she didn’t have to take the train, she lives near where I’m staying so it was easy and did I tell you that she got me some chocolate? Her family worked at the Hachez chocolate company and she knows that I love dark chocolate so she brought me some as well as a Bremen 2 euro coin for my telecaster with all the coins in it.  

I have the best fans/friends in the world.

Thank you, goodnight.

Oh and if any of you have any requests for this week, get them in now!

xo

*I don’t believe the American Medical Association has assigned an ICD-10 code for it as of yet but Car Blindness a real thing. Most all cars look alike to me. I used to always get our Honda Civic confused with a BMW of the same color. I think most smaller SUV’s look like sneakers and there’s really only two cars on the road that will make me turn my head - a Subaru wagon and a VW Eurovan. Everything else, Hyundai SUV looks just like a Porsche SUV to me.  
**Ok, so I didn’t completely lose the rental car but it was misplaced for over an hour with me looking for it. It was in Cologne a bunch of years ago and I was standing in the street looking one way and thinking this road looked familiar and I hit the button on the key ring and the car I was standing next to unlocked. I was standing next to my car and didn’t know it. 
***Keep to the right unless passing, stop at red lights, stop for pedestrians, you know things American drivers don’t do. And don’t even start with me if you think Americans are good drivers, I’ve driven in nearly every state and we suck. 
****Shut it Roman! I don’t care. I know it’s not real schnitzel if it has gravy on it but it was delicious!
*****Kevin requested “part time cowboy” and I was so happy to get a request like that. I love that song but I forget to play it all the time. It was a song that came out pretty easily when I wrote it and I’m always suspect of the songs that don’t fight me too much and having someone ask, “can you play such and such?” And it’s one of your own songs - that’s just the best kind of request to get!

Tour Diary, Sept 9, 2023

Today I have to start with a short little bit about yesterday’s travels. It is part bragging, part a warning, part a “you probably shouldn’t do it like this” and finally a part of more bragging.

I took five trains yesterday, one of which I had a ticket for.

My first train from Mechelen to Brussels, Belgium was fine. It was on time at 5:58 am and I got there fine but from there it all went to hell. I was supposed to take another train to Cologne and then transfers and end up in Bremen at noon but that train was canceled AND it was too early to even talk to anyone at the International office of Deutsche Bahn and all other options I found going that way had me getting to Bremen after 6 pm and I had a show to get to in Verden at 7 pm ~ so it was time to improvise.

Using 3-4 different travel apps and the map on my phone I was able to figure out other trains and schedules going different places that could eventually get me to Bremen. One of these trains was a connector between Belgium cities and this was the only time I was stopped by a conductor. I showed him my ticket.

“This is not that train.”
“I know. My train was canceled.”
“But this isn’t even the same train line. This is Belgium, your ticket is with Deutsche Bahn.”
“I know. I’m trying to figure it out.”
“…<he studies my face for a second> …alright.”*

Now this train, I looked it up, was about a 5 euro ticket. I could’ve bought it right then if I needed to but I was waiting to see if I *had* to. I had already bought tickets to get somewhere. Might as well see how far I could go without spending more money.

And it turns out I could get all the way to Bremen and by a little after 3 pm.

There was one other conductor that woke me up just outside of Düsseldorf:

“Is that your bicycle?”
“…what? Huh?”
“Is that your bicycle?”
“No.”  

I start getting out my ticket for a different train and he walks away.

I don’t recommend traveling without a ticket because you can get fined if caught, I’m just saying it is possible. And technically I *DID* have a ticket, it was just a different ticket.

——-
Heike picks me up at the back of the Hauptbanhof in Bremen and we drive to her garden house where I will play next weekend.

While traveling I was reading a thing about how in the olden days musicians had wealthy benefactors who would fund the arts and keep things going, like King George bankrolling Handel. And we don’t really have that sort of thing anymore but what musicians like me have is fans who are also fans that make what I do possible.

Heike is a great supporter of the arts and musicians that come to Bremen. I know about a half dozen others that she lets stay at her house, she has house concerts with and when I showed up yesterday she was ready with a TOASTED FLUFFERNUTTER AND BARRYS TEA for me.

I mention this because she is not some wealthy king or queen. She is just someone that LOVES music and loves supporting how she can and without friends/fans/patrons of the arts like this - I, and many others, wouldn’t be able to sustain what we do.

So thank you Heike.

I have so many folks that book me, put me up, feed me - all in exchange for this music thing that I do - all over the world. As I sit in this beautifully green garden typing this there is a real sense of - Wow. How did I get here? How am I this lucky? It’s a great feeling.

And what’s really strange to think - If I had become a bigger deal, like selling out big concerts and huge amounts of whatever type of monetary success you can think of - I don’t know if I would have these other connections, these other friendships, these other, simpler and pure experiences.

I still strive for more but I think I’m already successful.

———
I look out the back window of my bedroom at Heike’s and a large spider guards the window from mosquitos and he’s apparently eating very well. The bed is firm and soft and I fall asleep easily.

Waking up, it’s time to go to the show. Heike is driving tonight to Bootshaus Verden (thank you Jeanette Atherton!), a sort of club house/boat house/ pub on the side of the river in Verden. I played here last year with Tracy and it was a fun night. It’s just in the side room with the windows open and I’m already sweating before I start and I’m also still wearing yesterday’s clothes. I chose sleep over a shower and I feel the need to apologize to everyone I meet as I’m pretty sure I can smell myself.

Heike already has my PA in the car. Nico and Emily were using it the past few days and I think they need it again this week, I have to check. I love the fact that I bought this little inexpensive PA a couple years ago and now it kind of lives with Heike and whoever needs it can just use it.

As I’m setting up, Niklas and Alina show up and they have my telecaster and pedals and big black box full of weird stuff I leave behind.** They are both musicians and good ones too. I met Niklas when he was drumming with Kaurna Cronin and then the next year I worked with him on a recording session with Si Hudson and @sam bernard  on bass. Then the next year Sam and Niklas were playing with me at some shows and festival gigs.

A couple of years ago, or maybe just one year ago, I have no idea when - Alina, Niklas and…(I forget his name) came to the U.S. and we played a show together in San Francisco together and they used some of our equipment while there. And the global music community keeps growing. Alina sings beautifully and I really dig the music they are creating together.

Where was I? I guess I was setting up but also chatting with folks there. Kevin shows up and then Sonja. More fantastic friend/fans. And then it’s time to perform.

I’ve been starting my sets with Glad as it’s just such an inviting first line to sing “sure am glad to be alive…” but I think I have to figure out something else, it has such a long guitar intro thing - I’d like to jump right in quicker. I’m going to work on this. But the show has a pretty natural ebb and flow to it. I had my setlist but I think because I spent the whole day improvising my way across two countries (Jazz Traveling?) that I just go with where the spirit moves me and it feels good.

In between sets I’m having a good conversation with Niklas and Alina about performing and crowds and what-not. This venue has two rooms, one with people listening and one with people drinking and talking and the talking room obviously has no idea how loud they are but it’s spilling into the second room and Alina asks me how I deal with that and honestly, it’s way much less than what you typically get at a bar gig in the U.S. so I tell her that and how you just try to play to the people that are listening. The struggle is real no matter where you go.***

Before I start my second set I ask Alina if she wants to play a song.

“But this is your gig.” 
“Uh, huh. Do you want to play a song?”  

She sings a beautiful song and I look over and Sonja is crying. The power of music is amazing. The music is folk/country inspired and right up my alley.

I turn it back on and having all the windows open here has let in some nice air from outside but also has let in some gigantic hornets and I find myself getting distracted at times and it’s my own fault because I opened the damn windows!

I unplug for a couple of songs and have even been doing some acoustic mandolin songs - since I have a mandolin with me and played my telecaster for a couple as well. I’m finding a nice balance of music and songs. I’m going to bring in some more new songs this week.

The bartender has gone around with the hat and there is more money in there than I thought would be and when I talk to folks outside - they were really enjoying it but didn’t want to come inside. Understandable on this hot, sticky night to stay outside where it’s cooler.

It’s a quiet drive back to Bremen as I am tapped out. Less than 3 hours of sleep, 9 hours of train travel, 2 hours of performance, I’m ready for bed.

Nico and Emily have left me a cut-out of a piece of toast on my pillow and Heike put a marshmallow on top of it. Thanks for the love.

*Essentially using a Dennys coupon at IHOP. 
**Seriously, it is a crazy collection of things that I really need to sort out. Besides a bunch of my previous cds for selling there is also a beard trimmer, a set of wood files for guitar fixing, a Focusrite Solo audio interface, rolls of Velcro for pedalboards, a squeegee for screen printing shirts, Ben Riddle’s scarf, some Riddle & The Stars posters…
***Alina tells me how she gets people requesting “country roads” and folks have to understand how demoralizing it is to songwriters to always get asked to play covers. If you’re at a gig where the performer is playing covers, that’s fine. But if you’re seeing someone perform originals and asking them to play covers - it feels as if you’re trying to make their performance about you. There are cover bands, and that’s their thing and there are original bands and that’s their thing. One of the things I like about not being a cover band is when I do play a cover, it’s up to me to make it my own, and my style. It’s also interesting that in different countries it’s different songs that are always requested - Ireland and Germany, “Country Roads”, England/UK it’s “Wonderwall” and in the U.S. it’s still “Wagon Wheel”.