From February 13th, the FAI annual folk music conference will take place in Montreal, Quebec. It’s been 14 years since I’ve taken part in this conference and I’m so happy to report that I will be in attendance AND performing at the event. These kinds of conferences are amazing networking events. This one in particular features about 3000 participants, most…   …read more.

I came back from my third Euro tour on December 2nd and got sucked into the cyclone of kids and freelance work and a steady bed and pillow. During my decade (plus) on the road between 1997-2008, this is what I craved: Consistency. A solid home. A routine. A family. But recently, after resuming some bi-annual touring, I admit that…   …read more.

I’m out on the road again in Europe for the third time. Last year (Nov 2017), I was in Europe for the first time in my life and now I feel like an expert (!)… well…. maybe not an expert, exactly, but at least I feel much more Euro savvy. Shows this time are in The Netherlands, Germany and one…   …read more.

The gorgeous high-ceilinged café at the Groningen train station has me gaping. Our train leaves in thirty minutes and I am admiring the woodwork, half-moon windows, detailed stained glass and gilded ceilings of this century-plus building. I’m thinking that, finally, despite this being a Starbucks, even with the global saturation of its corporate image, even this mega-brand cannot homogenize the…   …read more.

I am sitting in a back garden in Eindhoven, Holland beside a small pool filled with koi fish doing lazy circles, the trickling water from its fountain spout creating a layer of sonic presence under the sound of a little guitarlele being played in the living room by Gab, my touring companion. The flowers in the garden seem to be…   …read more.

I have hesitated to write this final tour blog. I’ve been home for one week, officially, and with my life in its former rhythm, my time in Europe seems like a dream. I remember when my “normal life” was the road blur: town after town, new group of people after new group of people, consistency found only in the van’s…   …read more.

My longest journey during this tour started at 5:30pm on a Sunday evening and ended at 11:45am on a Monday morning. I went from Northern Holland (Steendam) by car to Leer, Germany (thanks Peter), then by train to Münster, Basel, Zurich, and finally, Lucerne. With that many stops that included hauling my guitar, pedal board, knapsack and large suitcase through…   …read more.

The Netherlands. There is a reason blue and white is so popular in classic Holland imagery. At least, I have a theory as to why. It’s the sky. The clouds, but coupled with their particular hue of blue, and (as I mentioned in my last post)… the clarity. My last blog was written in Nijmegen where I was booked to…   …read more.

“Five days in Paris.” Even the sentence sounds romantic. Say it in French and my knees get weak. I have passed through the cloud of romantic illusion and I am typing this from the (ironically misty, but) comparatively clear and clean-cut realm of the Netherlands. Right now I am sitting in a poche library in the small town of Nijmegen,…   …read more.

Well, they say things happen in threes. The day of my show in London (October 30th), I started by heading downtown from the borough I was staying in (Lewisham) to a street called Denmark Street just off of New Oxford Street. It was my first experience of downtown London coupled with the subway and the “overground” trains. Honestly, the one…   …read more.