From the road | Jan - May 2006
The HT Band was invited to Glasgow again for this year’s Celtic Connections Festival. We played at the newly renovated “Old Fruitmarket” – a great venue with a lot of atmosphere. We also played at the prestigious Royal Concert Hall and we did a gig at the festival club where we got them all dancing! I did one duo gig with US old-time specialist Bruce Molsky. I like old-time Appalachian music and Bruce is a mean bluespicker too, so we met midways and had a great time. Hope we can do it again some time. --> see pictures
February: Danish tour with Theessink, Nalle & MøllerThe trio is pretty popular in Denmark and we did 14 concerts in 18 days to sold out places all over the country. The few free days were used to record a new album that hopefully will be ready by the end of the year. --> see pictures
February 23: Oslo
I went to Oslo, Norway for a solo gig at Muddy Waters. I used to tour a lot in Norway but I haven’t been there much recently so it was nice to see some old friends again. The concert was organised by Østkantens Blues Klubb and it started with an onstage interview were I tried to give some info on my musical ideas, background and inspirations. Merete Eide of Norwegian BLUESNEWS did a review/interview in Nr.44 . April 2006. It’s all in Norwegian but we will post it for those that can read “Scandinavian”. (click here)
February 24: Vienna, FlüchtlingsballFebruary is ball-season in Vienna and I got back just in time for the soundcheck at the Vienna townhall where we were invited to play for the “refugee ball”. It was a big event with many other artists performing. The money made at the event goes to support refugees that often have to live under very difficult conditions. --> see pictures
March: Vienna, Poldi’s Music Line
About once a year I play for Poldi’s Music Line. Unfortunately she closed down her “Galerie Café” but fortunately she decided to keep on organising gigs at the “Vogelkeller” in Vienna. We went for the grand opening and I played the first gig at the new premises. John Sheahan was visiting from Dublin and sat in on a few songs. Also I had a little session with Viennese bluesman Eric Trauner. --> see pictures
March 9-10-11: Vienna, 25 Years MetropolThe Metropol is one of my favourite clubs to play. The place holds about 5-600 people and it’s always a great atmosphere. It’s an old theatre/ballroom with lots of history. 25 Years ago the doors were opened to a new style club/theatre and I played at the opening night and was invited to play at the anniversary too. That’s 25 years gone – time flies – had many good hours in this club. --> see pictures
March 17-April 17: Tour Australia & New Zealand
Milica and I took the plane to Sydney a few days later. It’s about a 20 hour flight – fortunately we got exit seats with lots of legroom. Our OZ-tour was organised by John Ward of Only Blues Music. 'Only Blues Music' also distributes our albums in Australia. Our first gig was at the Galipoli club in Newcastle. We arrived one day early to meet up with Johnny Irion & Sarah Lee Guthrie and had a little jam too.
Next was the Blue Mountain Festival in Katoomba. I like Katoomba – about an hours drive west of Sydney in the mountains. We met up with some muso friends and I had some wonderful gigs. My old neighbours “the Eggers”, who emigrated from Enschede, Holland, to Australia in 1960 showed up too and lots of old memories and new news was exchanged.
I played a gig for the Merry Muse in Canberra again. Organiser Bill Arnet and me usually sit around afterwards to solve the problems of the world.This was our first time in Melbourne and Adelaide. Both impressive places. Melbourne blueswoman Fiona Boyes opened several shows and we usually finished off with a session. Fiona is a great artist and you can find out more about her on: www.fionaboyes.com --> see pictures
On April 1st we arrived in NZ and met up with Gill & Pete Winter of Flying Piglets our agency in NZ. We had a wonderful time and great gigs on the North- and South Island. We finished our NZ tour at the Tauranga Jazz Festival – a worthy farewell gig. We hope to be back downunder beginning of 2007. On our way back home we had a couple of days layover in Kuala Lumpur to rest up for things to come. Luckily we had hardly any jetlag when we got back home to Vienna. Didn’t have time for it neither because the next gigs were only hours away. --> see picturesApril 24: Vienna, Vienna Blues Spring
My first gig after downunder was part of the Vienna Blues Spring – a month of blues-concerts on different locations in Vienna. I played at “Haus der Musik” (a cool music “museum”). On the same evening, before the concert Dietmar Hoscher launched his book Bluestalk 61 (I’m in it too). Dietmar is a real blues enthusiast who supports and promotes the music in a big way. He’s also one of the organisers of the Vienna blues Spring. Our friend, UK-songwriter Alan Taylor came along to the gig and I invited Alan for a song; we did his song Banjoman that we had recorded for the Tribute to Derroll Adams cd “Banjoman”. Also several other Viennese blues colleagues showed up and I had them all on stage for a bit of a jam. It was a good night. --> see picturesApril 27 – May 6: Tour of Belgium, Holland, Germany
From Vienna I took the car-train (you put your car on a train and park yourself in a sleeping car – a great way to travel) to Düsseldorf on my way to the first gig of this short tour in “De Meulenberg” in Mol, Belgium. It’s a great bluesbar with a very Americana stage backdrop. Obviously the place is used to heavier bands and the organisers told me afterwards that the’d never seen such a quiet attentive crowd in the bar before.Next night was a “homecoming”; I played in Enschede, Netherlands – my hometown. Always a fantastic gig and always lots of familiar faces too. Gives me the opportunity too to visit with my brother Henk who still lives in Enschede. All the NL shows were sold out and people seem to travel a long way to come to a gig which is hard to believe but also makes you a little proud sometimes.
One of my favourite gigs in Holland is “De Amer” in Amen. I did de Amer on April 30th: Queen’s Day. I also did a gig on the island of Terschelling - nearly 2 hours on the ferry to get there; on the boat I had plenty of time to shoot some photos too – all the gig photos were made by other people. Thanks for your contributions!
I drove in one day from Terschelling to Nürnberg/Wendelstein to meet Milica and the rest of the HT Band for a gig at the New Orleans Music Festival.Willi Resetarits + Xtra Combo were booked on the same night so we did a few tunes together. The HT Band (minus drums and bass) played at the Blues Festival in Ingolstadt. We shared the bill with Eric Bibb – we keep meeting at festivals all over the world and it was a real pleasure to play some music together. Big thanks to Gerd Huke in Wendelstein and Walter Haber in Ingolstadt who do a fantastic job promoting blues and roots music.
--> see pictures (B,NL) --> see pictures (D)
