On Easter Sunday Milica and I drove to Holland for a short tour. The journey was overshadowed by sad news - when we were well on our way my sister called me to let me know that my mother had died while in church for the Easter sermon. I had talked to my mother on the phone the night before and she was really looking forward to our visit. This wasn't meant to happen anymore. Fortunately she didn't suffer and never really was ill in her long life. She would've had her 90th birthday in July. We will miss her a lot. She got burried on april 25th. During the funeral sermon I played a hymn that she had marked in her book - my guitar wept with me.

I had decided to play all my concerts as arranged. It was not easy to control emotions at times; on the day of the funeral I played in my hometown Enschede where lots of old friends and people I knew supported us in the best possible way. The concert turned into a beautiful celebration. "Will the circle be unbroken" regained it's original depth - very emotional!

The same was the case at another favourite club: "de Amer" in Amen - an old pub out in the countryside that runs concerts in a converted stable. Ab & Ineke of "De Amer" just released an acoustic blues CD : "Live in De Amer" - I have 2 titles on the album. It seems that I'm quite popular at "De Amer" and the last couple of years we've had to do 2 shows to cater for the number of people in the audience. The concert was filmed by Linda van Dort for "Twee Vandaag" on TROS TV. The 12 Minute long portrait has already been broadcasted and we got loads of positive reactions. The new CD "Songs from the Southland" was received very well in Holland (see press reviews) and I did lots of guest appearances for radio and TV.

The next day I played in Leeuwarden. It was a nice surprise to find out that Arlo Guthrie's daughter Sarah Lee Guthrie and her husband Johnny Irion had been booked to open the show - they were touring in Holland with a nanny and their new baby. To finish off the night we sang some Woody Guthrie songs together - good fun and the audience liked it too.

April 30th is a big day in Holland: Queens' birthday. Big parties all over. We played at "Koniginnenach" in Den Haag - a big free festival where the whole town is hopping. For this event I was invited with the Hans Theessink Band. Unfortunately 2 musicians from my band couldn't make it: Fortunately I know some great musicians in Holland too and pianist/organplayer Roel Spanjer und Bassplayer Nico Heyligers did a fantastic job replacing my guys. Harry, Thomas and Insingizi loved Holland and didn't really want to leave the next day so I hope we can go back some time.

On my way back to Vienna I played an open air in Eferding for an audience from age 8 to 80 - the night was warm and the concert turned out great.

The next day I drove back to play the final concert at the New Orleans Festival in Wendelstein (near Nürnberg). For quite a few years promoter Gerd Huke has managed to put together a wonderful Festival where the music is Number 1.

All the best,