Posted 29 June 2002 Road report: We're at the and of this mini-leg of the tour. Then we'll be home in New York for a few days (during which we'll be recording a track to contribute to a Patsy Cline tribute CD) and then heading back out on 5 July to spend the remainder of the summer rocking the good ol' U S of A. We have a new title for the next leg of our tour — the Illing Me Softly tour. We're still reeling from our encounter with Prince. Yesterday I went to the Sam Goody in the Circle Center mall in Indianapolis and picked up Prince's The Hits Collection DVD. It's a collection of his music videos, spanning from 1980 through 1983. It's a trip to watch it all in one sitting, from "Uptown" to "Alphabet St." to "Raspberry Beret" to "7." The visual style changes, the musical sounds change, but there he is at the center of it all. (Strangely, it starts me thinking about what it will be like to watch all nine of the Star Wars pictures in one sitting, when they're all done.) Prince is just the bestest. Since our Chanhassen trip we've gone from purple to indigo. Opening, that is, for the Indigo Girls four shows in a row. We've done three so far and tonight is our last, in Columbus, Ohio. Last night was a special treat, as the Indigos invited Norah and me to join them on a rendition of Gladys Knight's "Midnight Train to Georgia." The four of us — Norah (standing, w/o piano), Emily, Amy, me (w/ guitar) — lined up across the front of the stage, with the Indigos' fabulous band bringing up the rear. Norah sang her sweet ass off, as did the Amy and Emily and their band. I tried my best to be a proper Pip, but it proved nearly impossible. Instead, I did my best Bobby Womack impression on the guitar, tossed in my "whoo-whoo" in the choruses, and sang whatever that line is on the ride-out. Way cool! Sorry, I don't have any pictures of Norah and me with the Indigos, but I do have one of our band from our opening set, and a couple of other cool ones.... At the Murat Theater in Indianapolis, 28 June, opening for the Indigo Girls. [Photo courtesy of Noofoto.] The marquis from our 19 June show at the TLA in Philadelphia. [Photo courtesy of Noofoto.] An in-store appearance and radio broadcast at Borders in Boston, Massachusetts. [Photo courtesy of Noofoto.] Posted 26 June 2002 Road report: Okay, so the past 3 days may have been the wildest yet on this tour. On Sunday, we found ourselves in Tennessee for the Bonnaroo festival, a gigantic music fest featuring tons of bands on several stages. For us, huge. Like playing Woodstock. I'm ashamed to admit that I didn't check out many performances there. We got there just a few hours before our show, and I was more concerned with changing the strings on my guitars (no, we're not so famous that I have someone else changing my strings for me!) and rewiring my new pedal-board. By the time I got through with all of my geeky guitar business, there wasn't much time left. Just enough to watch a little bit of The Last Waltz on DVD aboard our tour bus and visit with a couple of friends who drove down from Nashville. From a distance, I heard Bela Fleck & Edgar Meyer, as well as the Campbell Brothers. And I did get to hear Mofro and the Gabe Dixon Band up close. Both bands rocked hard. The Gabe Dixon Band had opened for us on our three previous gigs so we got to know them a little bit. Super nice guys, and a hell of a band. Check them out: gabedixonband.com. From Tennessee, we flew to Minneapolis and then shuttled to Chanhassen. Ever heard of Chanhassen? That's the locale of Prince's Paisley Park complex, and that's exactly where we were headed. We played there on Monday night, 24 June, as part of his annual Xenophobia week-long music celebration. During Xenophobia. Xenophobia is a get-together for 1,000 members of Prince's NPG Music Club. Prince plays nightly over the course of this week, has different opening acts every night, and has music & music-biz workshops each day). We were the openers on the fourth night. You can see a few photos of our show on the NPG Music Club site. (I never thought I'd see the day when there'd be a picture of me on Prince's Web site!) The 1,000-strong crowd was really interesting, a collection of all kinds of people, all ages, all races, people from all over the world. And though they were definitely there to see/hear Prince, they gave us a very warm reception. After our set, Prince was waiting for us near our dressing room, to congratulate us on a gig well done and to tell us what a great job our front-of-house engineer Lee Moro had done in delivering our sound to the peeps. Prince and his crew were way cool to us. Very supportive. Made sure we had everything we needed. Then he coolly took the stage and blew our minds with a solo set. That's right, Prince sat alone onstage, with nothing but an acoustic guitar and, of course, his ultra-fine voice. His solo set included many of his own amazing tunes — such as "7" and "Alphabet St." — plus wild cover versions of "Whole Lotta Love" (by Led Zeppelin), "A Case of You" (by Joni Mitchell), and the folk song "Motherless Child" (with an apparent nod to Richie Havens). With all due respect to the rest of the world, I don't think anybody can sing better than Prince. Technically and emotionally, he's got more going on than any singer I can think of. And he's so damn sexy. After his solo set, there was a short intermission. Then he came back out, seated at the piano, with the NPG band and they played "How Come You Don't Call Me Anymore," "Diamonds and Pearls," "Beautiful Ones," "Free," "Starfish and Coffee," and more. Our band, reclining on plush black leather love-seats in Prince's private listening area at the back of the club, all freaked out over "Beautiful Ones" because we had just watched Purple Rain two days before on the bus and he sings the hell out of that song in the movie. Nothing compares to Prince. Okay, now here's more rock, less talk. Photos from the road....

The place we played in Philadelphia, the Theater of Living Arts, is located on South Street near 4th Street. A hip little area with lots of great places to buy cool shoes or vintage clothes.

South Street also has some fine places to eat and drink, and some places that encourage both activities — such as the Copa Banana, where we unwound after our show at the TLA.

This view of the Copa includes the Theater of Living Arts marquis in the background. The night after we played, Chris Robinson (from the Black Crowes) was playing. The night after that, as you can see, the Melvins were scheduled. Following the logical musical progression from our mellow style to Chris Robinson's rock thing to the Melvins' over-the-top rock circus, I can't bear to imagine who would've played there on the next night. (Actually it could have been anything at all. They have a very open-minded booking policy.)

From Philadelphia, we went on to Washington, D.C., where we played at the 9:30 Club. Here's me at the 9:30 club.

Here's Andrew Borger at the 9:30 club.

After Washington D.C., we motored to Charlottesville, Virginia, where we performed at Starr Hill, conveniently located next to Mel's, where they serve amazing home-style food. Eat at Mel's! Oh, yeah — eat at Starr Hill, too!

Norah and Lee (w/ Andrew in background) at Starr Hill in Charlottesville.

Posted 20 June 2002
Road report: Boston was hectic — excuse me, wicked hectic. In the first place, it's a 15-hour drive from Indianapolis to Boston, and I was feeling seasick for at the last half of the ride and continued to feel that way when we arrived late Sunday afternoon. Flu? Food poisoning? Lovesick? Who knows, but there were moments when I thought I'd have to get off the bus and to home. I'm better now, thanks, but Sunday was a lost day, for sure.

Saturday was a double-header for us. We played at Borders at Downtown Crossing in the afternoon, and then played at the Regatta Bar in the evening. The Borders show was a smash for the store because they had their biggest crowd ever for such an event, and a smash for us because we all felt that we played a rock-solid show for the peeps. And, as extra gravy, they let us go on a shopping spree. We got a Scrabble dictionary for the bus (badly needed, so we can now play the game proper like) and stocked up on juicy paperbacks. Andy and I coincidentally picked the same Raymond Chandler novel, Farewell, My Lovely.

Now we're in Philadelphia. Played last night at the Theater of Living Arts, with the Gabe Dixon Band opening. An interesting thing has happened for me in the past 4 days: I've moved from the Stone Age of guitar gear (i.e., pedals all over the floor, cables everywhere, effects running on batteries) to the Space Age (proper pedal-board, with all pedals powered by electricity, addition of Line 6 Delay Modeler pedal, Velcro). To non-guitarists, this may not seem like a big deal, but for me it's a huge leap forward. Especially considering that I used to play without any effects at all. Now I'm not only using effects to craft my sound, but I've actually got a "system." Photo forthcoming.

And, speaking of photos, I've been making little movies on my new digi-cam. And when I say "little movies," I mean "little movies" — 5 seconds long. My latest effort is a triptych about shoes. I asked three friends (our bassist Lee, our drummer Andy, and my pal Carrie — her segment is poorly lit but the audio's good) what they like about shoes. Here's the flicks:

Lee's Shoes   Andy's Shoes   Carrie's Shoes

Just before Andy, Lee, and I went shopping for shoes and vintage shirts, I snapped this shot of Andy & Lee in the back alley behind the Theater of Living Arts, where there is all this wild mosaic work.

Listening repeatedly to Jimi Hendrix — Albert Hall Experience (on Charly Records, catalog number SNAF 822 CD). Incredible!

Posted 16 June 2002
Road report: Yesterday was remarkable. We played the Indy Jazz Festival, in Indianapolis, IN. They had four stages, and we were on the American Music Stage. On the same stage, on the same day, there was Peter Case (solo), Richard Thompson (solo), Steve Earle (solo), Bruce Hornsby (band), and Aretha Franklin (orchestra). So I'd say we were in good company. We watched Peter Case, then we played our set, then we watched Richard Thompson. But a storm blew in just before Bruce Hornsby was about to take the stage, and they had to clear not only the stage but the whole festival crowd as well. It did indeed rain like crazy — with thunder and lightning — so most of us left the fest and went back to the hotel. But the whole thing was over in less than 30 minutes, so the festival attendees went back to hear more music. Meanwhile, our band did mundane things back at the hotel — laundry, working out, napping, eating dinner, and so on. But we all made it back to the fest eventually. I missed Hornsby and Earle (I was napping), but saw Aretha Franklin's entire set. She is so amazing. She looked great, sang really well, and put together a set that included crowd pleasers, such as "Respect" and "Chain of Fools," as well as some unexpected treats — Etta James' classic "At Last" and her own stylized version of "Bridge Over Troubled Water," a favorite of mine ever since I heard her sing & play it on Aretha Live at Fillmore West. To watch her deliver that song from just 20 feet away, it was just too much!

When it was all over, we went back to the hotel to pack up and check out. Shared an elevator ride with jazz legend Roy Haynes. Wow. Besides being one of the finest drummers alive, he's a hell of a snappy dresser. Cowboy hat, leopard print shirt made of some very plush fabric, slacks that flared at the bottom — and the flares were vented, and the vents had large bronze buttons — and snakeskin cowboy boots. Double wow.

Posted 15 June 2002
Road report: I forgot to include my requisite culinary anecdotes in my last posting, so here's a word or two about the vittles in Montreal. The thing to eat in Montreal, we were told, is poutine — a French-Canadian snack composed of french fries, cheese curds, and gravy. (Mix the fries & cheese curds, then pour hot gravy over the top to coat the fries and melt the cheese curds.) We tried it at the insistence of our Canadian record-label rep, and it.... was.... really good! We had it at supper time, though I think it would be better appreciated early in the morning, as a hangover cure. Yum! Our EMI rep also insisted that we try the bagels, and he brought us a dozen each from his two favorite bagel bakeries. Being a New Yorker (and a Jew), I was suspicious of Canadian bagels, but I have to admit that the ones we had were really quite good. Another New Yorker offers her review....

Click here to watch 5-second QuickTime movie.

In Midland, MI, we got lost on the way to the gig. Well, not exactly lost. What happened was that a shuttle driver came to pick us up at the hotel and drive us to the gig, but he thought he was supposed to drive us to the airport. We didn't figure out what was going on until we got to the airport. Then we had to turn back and actually go to the venue. With extra time to kill in the shuttle van, Norah and Andy and I got to thinking up band names.

Watch the 5-second QuickTime movie, Take 1.   Watch Take 2.   Watch Take 3.

And, as promised earlier, here's a couple of pics snapped on my new digi-cam. (I hope to improve my photographic skills with practice.)

One last thing — we had quite a long drive last night, from Indianapolis to Boston. 15 hours. On such drives, the only time we stop is to refuel and to browse the truck-stop convenience shop for unusual treasures. Last night I picked up a HeaterMeals dinner, which is a self-heating meal in a box. No kidding! Inside the wrapping box, the food is sealed in its own box atop a chemically treated tray. Just add 2 oz. of water to the tray to start the heating chemical reaction, put everything back in the wrapping box for 14 minutes, and you've got yourself a hot meal. The package includes cutlery, and even includes its own packet of water. Everything you need to heat and enjoy your mashed potatoes, gravy, and flame-broiled turkey breast is all right here, for just $4.99. I haven't actually tried it yet. I'm waiting for a slow (and hungry) moment on the bus. Stay tuned.

Posted 14 June 2002
Road report: After another long lapse in road reporting — wherein we finished our European tour, returned to New York for 5 days to play on the Conan O'Brien show and play two sold-out concerts at Town Hall, and then went back out on the road — I'm not sure whether to play catch-up, or just start from where we are now. Okay, I'll start with the most recent events. We're on the road again. Same folks (Norah Jones, Lee Alexander, Andrew Borger, and me, plus our tour manager and sound crew) in a new tour bus with a new driver. After our second night at Town Hall, we headed for Rochester, NY, to play in their big international Jazz Festival. Aretha Franklin, Sonny Rollins, Brad Mehldau, Medeski Martin & Wood, Sun Ra Arkestra, Terrance Blanchard, Randy Brecker, John Hammond, Dan Hicks & his Hot Licks. Most of the bands stayed in the same hotel, so our lobby was crawling with musicianly folks, toting gig bags and flight cases, wearing t-shirts from other jazz festivals. Didn't see Aretha, but did run into Dan Hicks. I used to play with him — about 10 years ago — and it was good to see him out on the road doing his thing. I dig his music.

Next we played as part of an arts festival in Pittsburgh. We played in a band shell in a big park near Three Rivers Stadium. Totally amazing! There were 3,500 people there — the most we've ever played for. Our gig was right around sunset time, and nature's lighting effects were magical. (Luckily, the sun was behind us.) As nice as it is to play in theaters such as NYC's Town Hall, I also love playing to crowds of all kinds of people — seeing them all spread out on an expansive lawn, eating picnic-style supper, singing along to the songs they like, dancing if the mood strikes them. Actually, there was this adorable little boy doing interpretive free-style dances to a few of our songs, including "Don't Know Why." Kid looked like he was in a state of total ecstasy, and that was inspiring to all of us. When I play guitar, that's what I feel like inside.

Next stop, Toronto, for a showcase for a group of contest-winning fans. Not our best show, I think we all agree, as we were distracted by the media-heavy vibe of it all. Cameras squeezed around us in this tight little space. Made it feel like it was less about the fans than about the press. I guess it was. Ah, well. Maybe you can't have one without the other. Then we moved on to Montreal, where we played a concert for Musimax — the Canadian equivalent of VH-1. Again, there were contest winners and cameras everywhere — some so close up to me and Andrew that I think they were checking us for polyps. But since this was a made-for-TV concert ("An Evening with Norah Jones" or some such), the cameras felt appropriate and we had a great time. I'm actually looking forward to watching the videotape they gave us of the show, and that's an unusual impulse for me. I know I didn't nail every lick perfectly, but as a band we gave a solid performance that will play well on television.

I bought a new amp last week, just before we started this leg of the tour: a Vox AC30. It f*cking rocks! I still love my Fender Princeton, but after hearing several guitarists (Wendy Melvoin w/ Neil Finn, Jeff Tweedy w/ Wilco, Robbie McIntosh w/ Gordon Haskell) recently playing live shows with AC30s, I became sold on their super-rich sound. And visually, on a stage with a grand piano, an upright bass (plus an Ampeg B-15 amp), and a full drum kit, my cute little Princeton just didn't look like much. The Vox looks hunky, and the green thread woven into the grille cloth goes nicely with my favorite green shirt.

We played in Midland, MI, last night. Really good show, I thought, because the crowd was so cool. We couldn't really see them, as the theater was so completely dark and the lights that were on us onstage were blindingly bright. We couldn't see them, but we could feel them there, grooving on the music. We hung out afterwards in the lobby and met loads of fans who had driven for two or three hours to see us, either because we're not playing any closer to their homes or because the shows closer to them were sold out. Wow! Thanks for the support! How far would you drive to see one of your favorite bands?

Speaking of enthusiastic fans, we left Midland shortly after the gig to drive on to our next stop — Detroit, and when we pulled up at the hotel there were swarms of people, jumping up and down, screaming, acting crazy around our bus. The Red Wings had just won the Stanley Cup....

I just got a new digital camera, so expect some pics here in my next road report. Thanks, mom!

Posted 26 May 2002
Road report: Berlin was a little strange because we were only there for one quick day, and George W. Bush was coming to Berlin early the following day so the security thing was crazy. In addition to putting all of the cops in Berlin on the case, 10,000 extra German police were brought in, plus Bush's 600 Secret Security agents. And, by coincidence, many White House staff members were going to be staying in our hotel, so things were extra tight there. Still, we managed to have a fun gig at the Tränenpalatz. It was a real live show in a club, and was videotaped for later broadcast. We played a full-length set, and then Gordon Haskell — a British folk-blues singer/songwriter — followed. The crowd was lively, which makes a huge difference for us. When we play in theaters (as opposed to nightclubs), listeners tend to be more polite. Nothing wrong with politeness, but we tend to give better shows when the audiences are dynamic and lively. Gordon Haskell had a badass band with him, including Robbie McIntosh (guitarist in mid-'80s Pretenders, spent 6 of the past 10 years on the road with Paul McCartney) and Hamish Stuart (bassist and founding member of Average White Band). Great players, of course, and nice blokes as well. Robbie and I got to talking about great guitar records, and he recommended the soundtrack from Jimi Hendrix's Experience movie, which is a live concert at the Albert Hall, from February 1969. His main reason for recommending it is "Bleeding Heart," a slow blues that Hendrix stretches out on. I bought the CD — a two-CD set, actually — and it really is stunning. Thanks, Robbie!

Then Paris. Ah, Paris. Three days in Paris! My plan was to visit the museums, but I had an epiphany while riding the Metro (subway) on our first morning there. Talking with a Parisian woman on the train, I mentioned that I wanted to see the museums, she told me that I absolutely should but that she "could never stand to spend more than 30 minutes in any museum." Huh?!? "Oh, no, I'd much rather be outdoors in the fresh air and sunshine. That's where the life is." BZZZKTT! A lightning bolt shot through my mind and I had to admit that, with all due respect to Cezanne, Matisse, and Monet, I don't really get off on visual art. Like the woman on the Metro, I prefer taking a long walk in the sunshine, talking to strangers in a café, experiencing life on the street. For me, museums are a good rainy-day activity, but not my first choice when it's springtime in Paris. Anyway, I had errands to run: a badly needed visit to the local laundromat and a trip to the Pigalle district to buy some guitar accessories. The woman who runs the laundromat was super nice, and when I asked her where I could go for a cup of coffee while my clothes were drying, she locked her place up and took me around the corner to have coffee together. Now that's what I'm talking about! After my practical errands were finished, I took a long walk from the Pigalle district back to our hotel near the Arc de Triomphe, stopping for a while in the Parc Monceau, a gorgeous little park lush with trees and flowers. Sweet! We had dinner that night with Jesse Harris, who wrote Norah's hit "Don't Know Why" and a few others from her album. He was in town on holiday. After eating at the remarkable Autour de Midi (again in the Pigalle district), the band went back to the hotel while Jessie and I went downstairs to the jazz cave below the restaurant and saw Certains L'Aiment Chaud, a swinging old-school jazz group, with a pianist/vocalist, coronet, banjo, sousaphone, and clarinet. All women. No microphones, just the band in the cave, singing and playing American songs from the 1920s and '30s. That's what I'm talking about!

Next day, we had a band meeting over lunch and totally reinvented what we wanted to do with our shows. New songs, revival of a few older songs that we had forgotten, and lots of changes during the show — with Norah playing a few solo pieces in the middle of the set, and then some duo and trio pieces. Such changes were overdue as we've been playing the same set, more or less, for months. When we played our gig that evening at the New Morning in Paris, it was one of our best shows ever, because we had spent a little extra time and imaginative energy thinking about what it is that we're trying to do with our performances. We all felt like a new band. H'ray! Oh, yeah, almost forgot: If you're ever in Paris and are near the New Morning club (in the 10th arrondissement), eat at Flo, 7 cour des Petites-Ecuries.

We flew to Lisbon, Portugal, early yesterday. Upon arrival, our host drove us out to the coast and took us to lunch at a seafood place right on the beach. While choppy waves rolled and broke just 50 yards away, we enjoyed the most amazing grilled fresh fish. After lunch, we ran around on the beach like goofy kids and all got our pants soaking wet. For a moment there, I couldn't remember if we were the Norah Jones band or the Monkees. Okay, Norah Jones, definitely.

We're performing on a Portuguese variety show tonight. The other musical guests are Moby and a French singer I've never heard. Should be fun, playing live on TV on the number one variety show in this country. Next stop, Rome.

Posted 20 May 2002
Road report: Things have come — well, not exactly "full circle" but more like some sort of concentric circular thing. What I'm getting at it that, here in my hotel room in Amsterdam, I was channel surfing and happened across the Later show with Jools Holland (keyboardist from Squeeze, all-around music wiz), that we taped last week in London. Dang, taping that show was wild experience. They had six bands on — Wilco, Damon Albarn (from Blur), Beverly Knight (sweet-hot British r&b diva), Eric Burdon, the Von Bondies, and us. All the bands set up simultaneously on their own bandstands, in the round, with a live audience scattered all around; then each band plays one song and the host, Jools Holland says a word or two to "link" things together, then another band plays. This continues for an hour, and each band gets to play two or three songs. They tape the whole thing live, in real time, with no stops unless something goes tragically wrong. Now that I've seen the show on television, I can tell you that they do a tremendous job with the audio and video. This show really is all about the music! During our songs, several TV cameras were buzzing around like crazy. There was one camera on a 25-foot boom, and every time it flew to get a tight shot of Norah I was sure that Lee was going to get conked on the head. Didn't happen.

Played a show at Dingwall's in Camden (North London). I think we all felt a little stiff, this being our first actual full-length show in quite a while. Bill Frisell was in town for a show, and he came by with several folks from his band (Greg Leisz, Jenny Scheinman, Tony Scherr). Nice to see familiar faces so far from home, though I felt a little more nervous than usual with such great musicians in the house. That sort of thing shouldn't make me feel nervous, but it always does. Hot food tip for Camden: If you like mussels, eat at Belgo, a Belgian place not far from Dingwall's. Make sure to go early. Between 6:00 PM and 8:00 PM, you can get a kilo pot full of mussels (that's a lot!) and a fat bowl of "frites" (fries) for the price of whatever time you place your order. For example, if you order at 6:45, your dinner will cost £6.45. That's less than $10 for a dinner that could easily feed two hungry mussel grubbers.

After London, we traveled to Köln (show at the Alter Wartesaal), then to Hamburg (show at the Mojo Club), then to Amsterdam (show at the Paradiso), where we are now. The shows keep getting better and better, and it feels great to be playing again. The Köln show was near the central train station, in what used to be the waiting area for train passengers — hence the name, which means something like "the old waiting area." Super-vibey space. Realmy, I'd even say. The Mojo Club is a multi-use space, more known for featuring top-notch DJ action than for live jazz or pop acts. Soon after we were done, stage hands tore down our gear and transformed the club into one big chill-out room. Meanwhile, the band battled backstage on a Sony PlayStation. We played a shaolin fighting game that includes the members of Wu-Tang Clan. I thought I was pretty good at this game until our tour manager, Daru, decimated me. I should mention that the Mojo Club crowd wins this month's award for Most Consistent Rhythmic Handclapping During a Mid-Tempo Song, while the Paradiso peeps win for Most Dynamic Use of Contrasting Silence and Uproarious Applause. Paradiso was sold out, with 850 in attendance. For us, that's a big crowd. But then we just found out that we've sold out two upcoming shows at Town Hall in New York, which is a much larger venue. Also found out that we'll have a few dates this summer opening for the Dave Matthews Band, playing to something like 15,000 people at a time. Yikes! It wasn't so many months ago that we played to 50 people a night on our weekly gig in New York at Makor. Zoom a zoom a zoom a zoom zoom! Still to go on this tour: Berlin, Paris, Lisbon, Rome, Milan, Viareggio; then back home to New York. We'll be on the Conan O'Brien show on 4 June, then at Town Hall on 6 and 7 June, then back out on the road, touring Canada and the States throughout the summer.

Written 14 May 2002; actually posted 20 May
Road report: After an incredible week in Japan with Norah Jones and a smashing Night of Pretty Guitars show with Will Bernard, Jim Campilongo, and Leni Stern in San Francisco, I took a week-long Vacation in New Orleans. That trip totally rearranged my head, in the best possible way! Since then, I've been crazy busy — played the Letterman show with Norah last Monday, moved from Manhattan to Brooklyn on Tuesday, played on the Oxygen Network early Wednesday Morning, flew to Louisville, Kentucky on Wednesday night, played at the 2nd annual NON-COMMvention Thursday (more on this in a minute), flew to San Francisco Friday morning (to see friends and pick up my Martin O-18from my West Coast repairman), and flew to London on Saturday to launch a three-week European tour with Norah. That looks like a lot of running around as I sit here and type it, but I feel like a million dollars. Something happened down there in bayou country — maybe it's just that I forced myself to take a week off and relax, with no agenda and no rules; maybe it was the overdose of great music I saw at the Jazz & Heritage Festival; maybe it was the good friends I went down there with, or the beautiful house we rented; maybe it was the heat and humidity; maybe it was the bloody marys; maybe it was the air-boat tour out on the swamp; maybe it was spending a week below sea level. I really can't explain the change — and why bother trying — but I feel like a new man. Which is good, because before this trip I was starting to feel like an old man. Ah....

So, Louisville. We had the whole of Thursday free to explore the town. I walked from our downtown hotel along Muhammad Ali Boulevard (yes!) through the West End, a residential neighborhood with some amazing old houses and lots of rich spring greenery everywhere. Saw a few drive-through liquor stores, which I've never seen in any other U.S. state. Are they anywhere else? Talked with a few folks in along the way, but mostly just kept up my walking pace while admiring the charm of the architecture, enjoying the enthusiastic chirping of the birds (cardinals?), and wondering what that hoppy smell in the air is (a brewery?). Speaking of hopps, on the way back, I walked along Broadway and stopped for lunch at Big Hopp's (1600 W. Broadway, Louisville, KY). If you're ever in nearby, you have to there. But only if you like meaty sandwiches, remarkable french fries (wedge cut, sprinkled with Cajun-style spices), sweet iced tea, and great soul music (Tower of Power's "What is Hip?", Donny Hathaway's "The Ghetto", that "Yowsa, Yowsa, Yowsa" song....) playing while you're eating. Big Hopp's rocked my world. On the way back to the hotel, I visited Beyond Belief, A First Experience for a Museum of Faiths, which is a place to meditate and contemplate while they play a wild musical collage (everything from Sephardic clarinet music to Indian sitar music) and show an even wilder video montage that represents a variety of faiths. It's like Laserium or something, but instead of a laser show set to Dark Side of the Moon or Houses of the Holy, it's a spiritual 3-D slide show with a world-music soundtrack. Afterwards, there's another presentation in which Walter Cronkhite narrates a segment that features people from a variety of faiths talking about their beliefs and how important it is for people to check out the other faiths and belief systems that exist in the communities around them. The bottom line, I guess, is tolerance. Amen for that.

Our gig in the Seelbach Bar (conveniently located in the lobby of the Seelbach hotel) wasn't the greatest because there were more than a few people at the back bar who kept talking through our set. I never understand why anyone would go to a music club and talk when they could simply go to a regular bar. They talked through our stunning opener, Ed Harcourt, too. But majority of the people there did listen and we gave them our best for 45 minutes. Afterwards, went to another pub and checked out Dayna Kurtz's solo set while sipping Woodford's Reserve bourbon. Dayna is a soulful singer/songwriter and a hell of a guitar player. Check her out!

Leaving Louisville on Friday, I flew to San Francisco to pick up my Martin O-18 acoustic guitar, which was being repaired by my main man, Rich Hoeg. I flew to London on Saturday afternoon, arriving Sunday morning to find that the airline had left my Martin in San Francisco. I wasn't super freaked out, because I had just had one of the nicest flights of my life (Virgin Atlantic, upper class, full-on rock-star style — with complimentary pajamas, electrically reclining seats that go from normal upright to fully horizontal, nice meals served whenever you request them, a cute little horseshoe-shaped bar where all the drinks are free, and did I forget to mention complimentary?). Played a few BBC radio shows Monday afternoon using a very fine Martin D-35 that was rented to cover for my MIA Martin. Came back to the hotel to find that my own Martin had finally arrived, safe and sound. Just in time, too. We've got a TV show to tape today and a concert to play on Wednesday. Wow — a concert! Not a 10-minute promotional appearance on a radio station, but a real live show in a club full (hopefully) of music fans. Huzzah!

Oh, yeah, I almost forgot — great restaurants we've visited in the London area: Maggie Jones's (6 Old Court Place, Kensington Church Street, old-school British dishes; try the pot pies or the saddle of lamb), Lee Garden (29 Kensington High Street, Chinese food; try the fried crispy seaweed or baked spicy spare ribs for appetizers, and the crispy lamb as a main course; in the latter dish, the lamb is fried all juicy and ropy like Mexican carnitas, and is served mu-shu style — with little pancakes, hoisin sauce, and thin-sliced green onions).

 

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