Wow, what a weird and wonderful show tonight. Eva and I played with for the first time with a new drummer, Marian Petrzel, and he worked out great. Kevin Hawkins showed up for occasional harmonica, played very well as usual. We were all happy with the music, but there was no one in the place for the first two sets, maybe three couples or so. The third set was a bit better attended, then at the end a troupe of inebriated female Norwegians came in, one coming up to my mic (not reading the obvious distaste on my face) and singing passable backup vocals with me. Okay, all in a night's work, no big thing. But when we had finished a friend of Kevin's friend challenged me to play longer, and I took it up. Eva and Marian left and Kevin and I played an extra hour and a half. We'd lost any semblance of obligation or responsibility by that point; professionalism gave way to energy, to the benefit of all. Like a Rolling Stone Medley'd into La Bamba, Norwegians sang along with Honey in the Rock. A huge and fantastic time, it was. I looked around while Kevin was soloing and was amazed at the wall of punk-esque energy we were putting out - after the band had gone home. Unique and unforgettable, I was just happy to have witnessed it, much less played a part in it. Better than money, better than sex.
!!

"Depuis l'age de quinze ans" by Courtney Granger. I had never heard Courtney's name before the night at Balfa Camp when he led the afterhours jam. He has as emotional a voice as I've heard, it seems to me almost an open question whether he's really singing or weeping. He only has one album I know of, and this is from it.

I don't remember being so happy with how the shows have gone - and that's only partly because of a short memory. Eva called up yesterday with a vacancy playing as trio on a 3 hour boat cruise up and down the Vltava, something I'd never done before. I was a little apprehensive, thinking the tourists might be expecting jazz; but we came in and had fun and they loved us.

Before that was the Globe, which I'd planned as a solo but Martin was free, so... it's hard not to love playing that cavernous room. I can shout out into the room and then come in close to whisper into the mic, I wind up ...well, very excited. I love it!

Well, I don't know if they taught me how to sing, down there in Lou'zana and Texas, or if they taught me how to play or if they just taught me how to approach a stage and a microphone or what. But something I picked up down there has me thinking a lot less on stage these days, and entertaining a lot more. I don't think there's anything I can add to that!

I don't usually get culture shock traveling from Europe to US and back, but I got some tonight seeing the Pine Leaf Boys at the Eagles Hall in Alameda; they're from Louisiana and they play Louisiana music, and Alameda is on the Left Coast, across the Bay from San Francisco, several worlds away from the Gulf Coast.

Thank you Pine Leafs for the rhythm and the melodies, and especially for Belton's "I don't want you any more" - and y'all remember to Be Careful!. Thank you Jon for the whiskey, you corruptor of your elders! Thank you Cajun culture in general for giving us the Two-step and the Waltz. And thank you Robin, I hope you know why.

I had dis-remembered x-actly how long it been since I write here. Yes I did leave the USA, tho I been back for a visit since. Eva Holicka plays bass with me since May 07 (don't believe the names you see on other pages, they are not updated), and Martin Kreuzberg and Csaba play drums with me, not at the same time. We play regular at Red, Hot and Blues, a Cajun/TexMex restaurant, other places around Prague, and take trips almost weekly to Plzen, Teplice, Beroun, etc. We're not rich, but we seem to be busy.
We hope to be recording - tomorrow, in fact, if the stars align as they're supposed to.
I have new guitars, we play new songs, I do have a new attitude, thank you Patti Labelle (and thank you somebody even more powerful).
That's it for right now, it's the night after the Super Bowl and go figure I didn't sleep much. (the game ended at 4AM here, sheesh).
Keep well, and come see us if you're in the area!

Oooh yeah, leaving the USA again...
I've read that LEAVING is the most common theme in Blues songs, that a high percentage of them mention catching a train, blowing this town, dusting one's broom, etc. "If the train don't hurry," Furry Lewis sang, "there'll be some walkin done." There's dissatisfaction (I'm outta here), plus hopefulness (something better down the road).
And here I go, right now. A close friend and I just finished what was for me a musical pilgrimage, beginning in Memphis, driving south through the Delta (Blues country), staying in Soutwestern Louisiana (Cajun country) and finishing in New Orleans. I've been playing music for years that originated in these parts, and I felt a range of emotions while finally setting foot there.
I'm back "home" (a relative term) in San Francisco now, just long enough to touch down, pack, and hop on another plane, this time back to Praha, the city of a thousand spires, the scene of my crime, where I first played music in public on any kind of regular basis.
Are my guitars packed? Will three of them be enough? Passport current? Gigs lined up? How soon can I get back to Lafayette and play in some more Cajun jams? These and other questions percolate repeatedly, between repeating details of Graceland (amazingly small), Blues country (see http://shackupinn.com) and New Orleans (that's too big a story to get into here).
Hey Praha, keep a candle burning! Hey London, I'll be visiting soon! Peace and successes to anyone reading this, and to everyone not reading this as well!

It felt like we blew the shutters off the Marquis tonight. We got loud, the barstaff liked it, so instead of riding us they rolled down the metal shutters on the big front windows and the police never did come by to complalin. Our friend Justin had told our friend Angela about building sets, "MAXIMUM one slow song for three uptempo", and I had that in mind when asking myself why the first set had been dragging; took out a couple of slow blues, added a couple of quicker things.

Plus, I just walked up there tonight feeling pretty good about playing, and it worked out very well indeed.

Norah Jones was on when we started the second set, and we used to play Turn Me On before she came out with it, so we picked it up in the middle when they turned off the CD and we took it from there. I'd thought we'd give them a quiet set, because the hooligan looking boisterous guys had left and the place felt a little more timid, but there we were, amped up to full octane again by about two songs in, go figure. One Of Us had some jaws dropping, cause it seemed out of left field to people who hadn't heard us before, that we'd cover Joan Osborne in the middle of a blues/rock set. From there into Point of Desire, an American Music Club song we hadn't done in years: "...take your money to the man, walk straight up to the counter, he's gonna take out your heart, he's gonna put in something a little stronger... why should anything be easy?"

All of the requests, all night long were for songs we didn't know (Pearl Jam? You're serious?), until at the end someone asked for Nirvana, so I shouted a few chord names to Mayim and we played the Teen Spirit Waltz we used to rock Scarlett's with in the old days.

The calendar dates are rushing by, this particular Prague chapter is about over, I'll be in California soon, looking up accordion players. There's a zydeco dance every Friday in Alameda, it seems.

Hey, more later...