Casualties on this trip included: Missing a vital ferry, gas prices climbing daily, the glass nail file that I mistakenly placed in my back pocket and shattered into shards when I sat on it, the GPS that only knew Germany, having our KLM plane be hit by lightening ½ hour after take-off and a ½ hour before landing a cat landed in my lap, loss of Mani’s camera & its photos, getting stuck in an all glass elevator with Mani all of our gear, the prices of almost anything in Denmark, my sparkly and leather guitar strap and some earrings and toothbrushes and toothpaste of all of ours and a favorite silver bracelet all left behind at various places, the Blue Man group touring in some of the same cities, Stef’s acoustic guitar and pedal board working only intermittently, hearing about my little 2.5 yr old cousin’s last days of battle with Cancer (BE GOOD TO EACH OTHER-EVERY MOMENT IS PRECIOUS), being stopped by police for various innocent traffic violations, losing a bridge pin after breaking 4 strings in 3 weeks, barley hanging on to our sanity in traffic jams 40 kms long…and…wait…some of this stuff is also what makes it all FANTASTIC!
October 25
It’s the last concert coming up tonight and it seems impossible that we are here already. Eboltoft: There is a dutch old-school style windmill next to the venue (KulltureMinistriet) and a restored enormous Viking ship in the harbor. It’s Sunday and almost everything is closed. Another storm is looming. I am excited about new radio support from Guld DK FM, Terneuzen NL FM, Radio Girl NL, Musicvenster NL, & Skagenexpressen DK & the Euro American Chart. I am tired of ‘moving’ everyday but another part of me loves a part of that too! Stef is almost finished his third novel in 14 days!(this current one is the story of Janis Joplin). We have contemplated if there is fat Budda or if this is a fable that we North Americans then transformed into a figurine?... Stef is loaded with new English words that Mani feeds him, and I have eaten more pork & potatoes in these past 5 weeks than I have perhaps in the last 10 years ,and discovered that Skype is the cheapest & most clever way to communicate (other than a three minute roots pop song!ha!)
October 23 & 24
After wiggling in and out of one way streets and around pedestrian only areas in our packed full Mercedes Benz we eagerly parked and Stef eagerly got out to nurture his bad habit (smoking!). It’s happened three times in my life and it’s not so common…moments later the luggage, the performance instruments, and Mani and I were stuck in an all glass elevator. Sorry no photos for this one. Yes we were rescued before we had killed each other or ran out of air. Boy oh boy, this band is getting ‘tight’. The hotel in Horsens looks like an old building from the outside and like a trip to Ikea on the inside. The Blue Man group has swayed some of our audience to their show-I didn’t realize they toured! I bought a gorgeous new sparkly blue sequence top from the Den Hvide Hest, which is also where we do our concert. Yes, It may sound odd, but odd in a wondrous fashion .This building full of miracles has a dress shop, a giant sewing room, a bakery and a big arts room to make paintings, and of course a quaint yet almost fancy restaurant and a small stage. At our next concert at the Bruunske Pakhus in Frederecia we share a stage with another act… the lead singer Angu is from Greenland. His music is warm and mellow. I like the combination of ‘us’. They drive through the night after the concert to Copenhagen (in a few hours you can almost cross the country of Denmark-and so they do!) which makes us feel spoiled as we go to our hotel-home for the night a few ‘blocks’ (or as they say in Europe: a few hundred meters) away. I am smiling as I drift into sleep; I really liked jumping on a trampoline a few days back with Stef (his first time EVER!) and I really like how Mani and I have reconnected after a few years of not playing together. We first met 15 years ago at music College. Friends are like family to me. This is good, really good. I feel warm…though I did wear long-johns today.
October 18 to 22
The Skive Theatre is one of the most glorious authentic theaters I have ever performed in. I felt like I was in Moulin Rouge (see this movie!) Lots of Red and the stage is slanted so the back end is a little higher. The downside is the echo that is generated. We hung out with the stage crew afterward and it felt good to sit in the theatre and just hang out. On the way out of Skive we bumped into a place off the highway where a mini village (remake of 1791) had been constructed next to an antique store. Why is it that seeing small versions of things makes us giggle when we are adults? Giggling ensued. We had a glorious mid-day coffee (my favorite) and then found an adventure stop where people were gathering to get into limestone mines for a 'walk'. I went in and within 10 meters saw a sleeping bat! I took its picture and it made me scream as I though I may have woken the little guy up! Funny, the boys were like, no, we will wait for you. Well it was a little maze like down there and incredibly cold. It got smaller and tighter and eventually I was almost crawling, with just a candle in my hand! Now that's an adrenaline booster. Fascinating! Our Galten concert was in an actual movie theatre, Stef wondered where all the young girls were as our audience was an older average age here. haha! (guitar players notoriously notice these things! In true non-discreet Danish form a little who bought two Cds after the show said, " I was really surprised, you guys were really good." We stayed at a friends / fans farm on our day off. Dorte and Svende sing professional Irish music and their house is surrounded by sheep (for eating!) and kittens (to cuddle with but only stay outdoors!) and indoors they have all sorts of instruments. We are in heaven...AGAIN! Mani repaired his tambourine jingles with some of Svend's tools. Most peculiar and especially suited where the little orange rings they put on a young sheep's tail so that it falls off. I named them tail-killers. The jingle was no longer a round tambourine it was now more like a kebab stick with jingles and tail-killers! It proved to be awesome for our performance Struer.
October 15 to 17
Samso is the cutest most glorious island ever! With only 4100 inhabitants! Due to its central location is was used for a meeting place in the Viking age! Due to extensive use of wind power and other renewable energy it is the largest carbon-neutral settlement on the planet. We stayed at the 'Rock' Hotel and indeed this place has quite a history of its own! We tried a spicy shot called Aquavit. WOW! I hope it has healing powers, haha.Getting off the island was almost not possible! The few ferries require reservations!!! Who knew?! Now down to the south of Denmark-Svendborg. This is my 2nd visit to this beautiful harbor town. I read about a burger joint that was not to be missed called Jette's. The burgers were the size of a dinner plate! The venue had its share of surprises too. It was a concert hall attached to a
music rehearsal building with pianos and bands playing every where. These guys have it in their blood to make a place for music to come aliv
e! And so we were! They recorded a live DVD that night from the sound booth. I carry it around...much see it soon. Then a drive through the country side where the Baelum concert hall was situated right in the the thick of the woods and people came from all over! I felt like Alice in wonderland. We were treated to a hotel surrounded by deer! If you travel everyday it's hard not just to keep your wits about you, but to not loose things along the way. Mani has lost his camera! Please contact us if you remember seeing it (we are sad to have lost so many photos), also we both have left toothbrushes and toothpastes in various places and I am down one pair of earrings. Mani's special hi-hat pedal that hosts a small tambourine at the end of it has 4 jingles left- they start with about 20. Need more jingle...hope to find something in the next neck of the woods!
October 12 to 14
Now in Denmark! Randers, Bronshoj, Roskilde, Kaulenborg
Randers is super cool and so is Tante Olga (the venue that is!). Lots of wood and warmth! Royalty comes to stay in the same hotel we were in. The people smoke here during our performance, and that's not my favorite thing. However, we have a bunch of people that have bought Melanie Dekker CDs and are at their first concert. This is very special for me. I talked about the rain on the mic as well as other previous travel experienced from our current and last tour. It appears I have seen more than my share of rain! It was a reminiscing type theme for the evening. So far, other than the GPS being completely incapacitated-things have been fairly smooth...then there was Bronshoj, OH my poor fans had to wait over an hour for our concert to start. We left late, we hit traffic, we got lost...we sweat more than we do on stage. The sound tech had us up and running in minutes! Amazing, in fact ALL sound techs on my tours through Denmark are incredible, really! Often I think that I would prefer to have one on the road, but not for this country! Our days off had adventures such as buying a new road map, having a kebab salad with dressing pizza for the first time ( I ordered it by accident), seeing one of the oldest buildings in Denmark (?800) with its classic step like roofs, popping our heads into a few gorgeous churches, going to a port with a museum of sorts where real viking ships are made and stored, touring around an enormous psychiatric hospital (also by accident), rehearsing harmonies & some loose bits in some songs in the dining room of a bed and breakfast (where guests and the owner later thanked us for the 'noise'!) and then after two wonderful relaxing and touristic type days...missing the essential ferry to our next concert (yes, also by accident)...
Oct 9 & 10
Berlin - Hamburg
Berlin guitars is run by a music crazed vibrant man named Leonard. We are already featured on his myspace-Berlin Guitars page from the concert Jason Nett and I did there last April. He has a great slide show of his guitars and concerts. It was popkomm time, so in Berlin there were bands everywhere, not to mention the usual cool shops and high energy street performances.Thomas, a great fan and photographer and a man who has seen more music concerts in one year than I have in my entire life (reminding me that i MUST do that more!) was there for some company after the show. We ordered decaf coffee latte's. Decaf coffee is mostly frowned upon or laughed at in Europe, so we lucked out. We took a ride on the underground train system and ended up going the wrong way... Walksfelde was next and it was an amazing little town first named in 1129! A man that could be Santa Clause pointed out our venue with his shovel that he was using to repair the 'main road'. Stefan Rapp, our German social and inquisitive guitarist had already made himself at home by gazing at the 32 guitars on the walls and getting to know Sancho. A Doctor, a guitar collector, a man who has beat Cancer and a man who has made one part of his home a concert hall and is an amazing sound tech too! My musician friend Matt Vrba had played here a month ago and had left his CD and note for me-that was awesome, it can make the world seem to small and the impossible seem possible. We had joked one tight back in San Francisco that if you can't grab an audience with your own music then use Kenny Roger's "The Gambler" it is fail safe and a great song. He told Sancho. We laughed alot together. There was a gorgeous and distracting Pink Floyd poster on the wall (see pic) It was packed, though we didn't see Santa Claus.
October 7 and 8
Apeldoorn, NL
Mani Nassefat came in on KLM (my favorite airline so far!) with all his drums and a big tired smile! I am so happy to have him hear with me making music!
Apeldoorn Blues Cafe is the first to have us together and we have a blast! We laugh a lot and we enjoy each others company on stage and make what I think is great music.
We had a sound tech that went crazy over Mani's little kit (drum kitjie) and mic-ed every little piece. Nuno came on stage and joined us for his favorite three songs of mine and his guitar playing added color and joy to the pieces somehow. I love my family from Deventer for coming. The following day my beautiful aunt took us on a tour through the country side via a couple of dutch bicycles. We passed windmills, many colors of diary cows, multi colored sheep, lama's and geese. The houses along the dike were two levels at the back and one level at the front, kind of like a funny Tetris game piece, so that they get the view of the water at the front and the protection by putting most of the house at the back:)!!
Another precious moment on this leg of the tour was performing for a gym full of elementary school students in Olst. Later we talked about the BIG things that exist and the BIG things going on in the US and Canada to a class of 11 year old students. Their English is already pretty good and my dutch got a little better on that day too!
Oct 2 to Oct 4
From Germany, back to Belgium is about a 7 hour journey for me today, though a first class ticket on a train offers me internet and plenty of room which I need with the CDs, guitar and personal effects. Tielt is a small town though and though that may be cute and historic, there is no escalator or elevator offered at such a stop. My arms get stronger and I grunt a lot in these scenarios’, I am picked up by two of Marjan’s stage crew. Ahh. Good to see them again. Our back stage area is like an old school theatre with the kind of light that makes you want to put on make-up. I could hear an opera rehearsing in an adjacent hall. SWEET! On this night, ‘Bosnia’ ,as I call her, had us out giggling all night long with a group of us girls. The following night in Antwerpen of course my voice is now a little tired (sleep in essential to keep it good!) and it’s ridiculously smoky again in the venue (Belgian’s are the last western European country to stop this nonsense). This city is buzzing with well dressed partiers and I hear a singer on the stereo who I like immediately, I learn from Marjan that it is Cassandra Wilson. I put on my running shows and ran today in Leuven (my home base for the Belgian part of the tour) and ran into a castle and a it’s graveyard beside it! Now that doesn’t happen very often! I also learned that to ‘French’ something is a verb used when one cuts the potato to turn it into a French fry! In Ternat our concert room is set up in red and orange, with mostly pillows for people to sit on. I love it’s warm and uniqueness (much like the Belgians) I hear a singer named Heather Frahn, she is from Australia and I love the part of the set I caught. She plays all of these hybrid guitars and it is just brilliant! Belgium you have added much color, vibrancy and language to my soul. Not to mention your perfect chocolateer skills, your fluffy waffle and delicious fries from the street-venders and your 300 beers...Brussels, I MUST see you again. Thank you.
September 28 & 30
Some fans came to both concerts! Incredible! Einstein’s has a menu to die for & is not to be missed and oddly I forgot to eat. The stage light’s were so close to my head I felt like I was under a heater, but I hear it was a nice red glow. People were picture crazy and a guy named Stefan enthusiastically asked if I would play “While my guitar gently weeps”…something about his timing made me feel like trying it. Thanks for that! Loved doing the radio show the next day at Radio Donnau3FM with Walter Notz. I talked about the frightening experience of singing the national anthems at National Basketball games and more. Next day: Sesslach is such a classic historic town with a wall surrounds it and towers from the 16th century. Over dinner, I learned to play a great Dice game “Maexle” with Thomas from fortune records over. I played in the castle on the top of the hill overlooking the town. Hans brought me news articles from this last spring and tonight’s concert and the stage was lined with sunflowers. Really special for me. I shared things on stage that were out of the usual and it was a very warm receptive and fun audience. The drive home was windy. Autobaun 170km per hour and very very strong winds-eeek. We listened to the soothing sounds and funny banter of Jann Arden’s live with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra CD. There are so many fantastic artists from Canada: (who?) Nellie Fertado, Gordon Lightfoot, Joni Mitchell, Diana Krall, Bare-Naked ladies, Sarah Mcglaughlin, Celine Dion, Nickleback, Alanis Morissette, Bryan Adams, Shania Twain…
September 25, 26, 27
I fly into Amsterdam and Brian Van Zwietering picks me up and takes me to a radio interview at a dutch station where Evelyn and Martin have their way with me at www.terneuzenfm.nl. Next: My first Belgium experience is filled with fancy chocolate and a choice of 300 beers! Most people speak two languages very well (French and Flemish) and then some English as well. The general spirit here is free-thinking and almost bohemian in nature. I am double billed with Marjan Dubaene, a Belgian folk rock recording artist who is really clever and kind. We both rock! All of the venues leave me coated in cigarette smoke though which I no longer have much tolerance for or practice in. I stay in Leuven which is flooded with students who party and study during the week and take the train back home to their parents on Friday afternoon for the weekend. I really enjoyed a Belgian beer called a Trappisten which is dark, caramel like and Malty, and Triple in strength; while watching over 100 students roll their bags down the cobblestone streets towards the station.