The photograph above is the emblem of Hamburg, officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg. This is where my adventure began on the 10th of September when I arrived by train and ended on the 27th when I flew back.
This has been a good tour. In Germany, just as in the UK, it’s difficult to get people out of their homes to enjoy live music. This seems to be partly still a remnant of Covid but also there is so much more these days for people to watch at home. Nevertheless, we had very enthusiastic audiences all the way through and finished with three full houses.
Along the way we met many interesting people and heard a lot about what is going on in Germany and it’s not that different from what is going on in the UK. I used to feel that touring was like being in a bubble and isolated from the rest of the world. I now realise that travelling this way is the opposite – you meet different people and learn more about the world.
My first highlight is the gig in Bremen at Paganini’s. This is a whiskey bar with regulars who enjoy good music. Ray’s friend Willie played fiddle on two tracks. When Ray sang Falling Like Thunder, many of the audience sang along to the chorus.
Each show had its own highlight:
Starting with a lovely meal by the river in Winsen and my first show with Ray for a year.
Then a lovely theatre in Bad Bentheim followed by a house concert in a garden.
It was worth the long drive north to Flensburg for a days sailing with a concert in the evening, then back south again for a show in the Magic Mill.
Two more drives took us to first Leverkusen then Hildesheim before the short drive to Antikhof Drei Eichen. Another long drive took us to the lovely Büchner Bühne theatre in Riedstadt and then a short drive for a Cowhide house concert. We had another short drive for Ray’s birthday gig at Alte Tanzsaal then a day off in the Odenwald.
Finally, we had the three sold out shows in Herne, Paganini’s in Bremen and the renovated barn in Moorhausen. When I wrote the post about that last gig in the barn, I forgot to mention that in the first half when Ray played The Wind (a ghost story) on the piano, he woke up a bat that flew around for a couple of minutes and then disappeared again.
My final highlight is the song Even For A Shadow. Sometimes Ray will open a show with it; sometimes it’s the final encore. It’s a song about being on the road and playing a show every night.
That’s all for now folks.
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