Austria and Berlin Tour report

I just got in from Berlin a few hours ago. The trip was really good this year. COLD but....a quick up date-I hit Berlin with Tokyo Bill Benfield. We rode the public transport with bags and all from the airport over to Jake Leg Stomper, Brandon Armstrong's 5 floor WALK Up apt,heated by a small COAL burning stove which he shares with Chris Rannenberg, one of Europe's best blues piano players. In spite of their warm five bottle of wine welcome, I chipped the ice off of my bed and slept in my coat with my boots on! The next night the three of us, Brandon, Bill and I played a show at a small central Berlin night club where we met and played with several good folks who make up the back bone of the Berlin LIVE music circle. It was a United Nations of musicians and beer drinkers alike. And let me tell you they could play and drink!

Nashville Jake Leg Stomper Bill Steber and wife Pat made it into Berlin 3/18 and we rented a van that same afternoon to blast us through the ice and snow for the 10 plus hour trip from Berlin over to Austria for the Spring Blues gala shows. 3/19 found us all up early snapping suit cases closed and dragging gear down the 5 floors and out into the van. After some swearing, shoving and general man handling- the bags, amps, guitars, tuba and saw were finally packed and we headed out pretty much on schedule. We navigated the narrow Berlin streets to drive past loads of spinning German wind energy collectors as we broke out of town with pages of maps, a bag of German dogs and a gallon of black coffee.

After some road rally like driving by Brandon Armstrong, Pat and Bill Steber through the fast German highways and along the narrow snow, ice covered highways and round-a-bouts of the Czech republic and on into Austria we arrived alittle more than ten hours later for the first event at the REIGEN in Vienna with about an hour to spare. Everyone was looking forward to the dinner party and an easy night off. But after the warm welcome full of hugs and good cheer from my friends Erik Trauner and the MOJO BLUES Band along with the event organizers Mr. Wolfgang Windbacher and Dietmar Hoscher not to mention the best sound man ever Andreas Neubaur at the big board, we were asked to play THAT night for a promotional event at the club for about 180 roots and blues fans! SO--We did. We went on stage at about 10:45 Big Fun. Hans Theessink and Terry Evens, the event headliners followed us on stage. It was a great way to get things started! Spring Blues Gala indeed.

3/20 we played the largest of our three Austrian shows which was held in the Vienna City Auditorium, 5,500 sold out, standing room only!!! (I played it solo- guitar, washboard and harp last year....much more fun this time around with Bill Benfield on mandolin and guitar, Brandon Armstrong on tuba and bass, Bill Steber on banjo uke, harp, saw and guitar.) Austrian TV and Radio did live feeds of the event and put together a five minute program on the Spring Blues Gala as well. I did a short interview and they featured us back stage as we were getting ready for the show.

WE were the opening act for the main stage, playing acoustically as all of the other groups on the first stage were electric. At first the crowd didn't seem to know what to think...then once we got rolling and the sound man balanced the sound---they were with us and almost didn't let us off of the stage. Our set was very tight and together AND everyone was ON THEIR GAME! Big Fun! The crowd was clapping from start to finish and cheering at the opening of Midnight Special the second song in. They couldn't get enough of Brandon’s tuba and Bill Benfield’s mandolin and they went nuts when Bill Steber broke out his saw. I played the washboard for them while Bill Steber scatted like a madman. We really missed Mr Hisa Nakase as everyone in the crowd of 5,000 plus clapped and shouted when we “Walked The Dog” home!

After we finished playing our set we went downstairs and set up some Cds on a table near the bar with the hopes of selling a few. The crowd poured out of the main hall like water through a break in a dam after the first stage was finished. Our table was rushed! We didn't have enough hands to take money and sign autographs too. (We sold 160 cds in about 30 minutes!!! For you math oriented folks that is about 5 CDs per minute....or one every 12 seconds!!!! I am sure that Pat got some really great photographs too.)

3/21 the next night. We played to a full house at the club REIGEN. We shared the stage with our friends the Mojo Blues Band of Vienna and John Primer of Chicago. It was another great night of music and international connections.

After a day off in Vienna where we enjoyed the sights of that beautiful city we drove back to Berlin and played three more nights. Small clubs but great crowds...all about 90-150 people, most standing and smoking. The second night out we played a small club, Cafe' Mano, with a crazy group of musicians known as the COYBOY KILLERS. Washboards, string bass, banjo and enough high voltage energy to power most of Berlin! (Many of Brandon's friends and Fulbrighter's hang out at this club along with many artiest, writers and anyone else that could get past the folks collecting money at the door. Many in the crowd were also folks that had seen us play the night before with harmonica bluesman Kieth Dunn including International blues documenter Axil Kustner along with bluesman Chris Rannenberg. The show at Cafe' Mano went down so well that the crowd would not let us leave the stage...literally. We played 5 encores and still had to plead with them to let us take a beer break...Germans understand the importance of beer...Beer is like a magic word. We left the stage at just a few minutes before three a.m.!

The next night we played with a German Skiffle Band known as SEARCHIN' THE ROOTS. It was a really fun night. Those guys had met the Jake Leg Stompers on MY SPACE and it was one of those strange web experiences that had a happy ending. They helped me celebrate my birthday and presented me with a small jelly donut complete with candle and a half gallon of local beer!

The SEARCHIN' THE ROOTS band were really great players with a real love for American roots music. They had a great washboard player who played a get up that had symbols, horns, bells and a little of everything which he played like a drum kit. The string bass was also exceptional. A great, on time, in tune sound. Watch out for these guys they are going international!

(On the plane home I was reflecting on this year's trip and shows in Europe. What a great reception all around. So many of the folks that we met knew something about our music or had been to Mississippi. Many more were planing a trip to the American South and wanted our advice and some introductions. America and the south's great export item really is-the music. REAL MUSIC. It seems to me that around the world, folks are hungry for something real; art, music, food, and especially friendship. Our languages may be different but our hearts are the same all over. Everyone gets the blues sometime and everyone wants to live free. After I had a visit to the site of The Berlin Wall, The Old East and Check Point Charlie I was reminded again of the power that we all have over our lives if we will just use it. I could not help but laugh as I stood in the old section of East Berlin and bought some old Soviet trinkets from a vender who proudly showed me his Vodka flask full of...Coca-Cola. He said, "You American? Musician? Good! America, I love America. I love Coca-Cola!") I suppose that Life is really shaped by all of those little things that we take little notice of, especially at the time of the shaping.

Well it has been a long day of airports, heavy bags and uncomfortable seating conditions...So I think that I will pour myself a Coca-Cola....

All the best from here!

steb