Spring Tour

My last few weeks off at home in Nashville have been wonderful. I managed to get my garden dug up, built up, fertilised and planted, and  I set up an auto watering device so that the garden self waters every other day at 6 am. I closed in the extra garage to create a studio/office, and I got to hang out my with friends, getting re-connected to people I’ve missed all winter because of my travels. But the nesting is over now, and I am looking at a very full schedule till through the fall.

Our two month spring tour started in Texas and winds through Italy, England, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Germany and Switzerland. There’s plenty to look forward to, and while the amount of travel is daunting, the adventure of it all still thrills me.

In Texas, my guitar started acting up, so I brought it to Mark Erlewine to fix her up for me, and lo and behold….Trigger, Willie Nelson’s guitar was in there for some work.  I got a couple of shots of her.

Trigger at the doctor's office

Ain't she beautiful?

Tania Elizabeth and I will perform songs from  The Foundling at the American Adoption Congress Conference in Orlando, then fly to Milan for day off before the Italian tour and head to the public baths for an affordable day of sauna and jet lag healing. We’ve already booked a massage, and I am very much looking forward to being pampered Italian style after the long flights.

We’ll perform The Foundling again at The Foundling Museum in London, then we will play a couple festivals in Ireland. After that, we are all over England for two weeks. then Scotland for a show in Glasgow.

We return to Berlin May 16th to play at the lovely Quasimodo, one of my favorite places to play in Europe.  And after ten years of touring Europe, I finally get to play some shows in Switzerland, May 19th in Lucerne, and may 22nd in Zurich.

PLENTY to look forward to, all of it interesting and challenging. Life is good!

Check out this video from Australia, loved talking with Brian from RockWiz before the show:

Recently, I  have been honored to be included in a couple of books by amazing women writers.  The massively talented Marshall Chapman has written a book called They Came To Nashville, where she talks to artists about their move to music city. She interviews everyone from Willie Nelson to yours truly , and I am thrilled to be given my own chapter in this wonderfully entertaining contribution to the history and lore of Guitar Town.

Jewy Height, a brilliant and gifted music writer has also written a book,  Right by Her Roots, Americana Women and Their Songs and it’s fantastic. She looks deeply at 8 Americana women songwriters, from Lucinda Williams to  Julie Miller, and once again I am thrilled to be included  with my own chapter in the mix.

Coming up this fall after the summer touring will be my return to the musical train trip, this one called the Roots on the Rails  Narrow Gauge Train Trip, with Over The Rhine and Richard Shindell. We even have a Facebook Page for the event. We will be riding from Albuquerque, NM – Durango, CO., and it’s going to be an AMAZING journey. This will be a spectacular journey filled with unforgettable scenery, great train rides and fantastic music as we travel into the magical San Juan Mountains of Colorado and New Mexico. Last time I did the Roots On The Rails train trip we went across Canada with Tom Russell, Nanci Griffith and Gretchen Peters, and it was a trip I will never forget. Seeing the country by train is a great way to really see it, and the connections formed on these trips can last a lifetime, the groups really do enjoy each others company, sharing meals, drinks songs and stories, the journey is one of joyful play, and everyone shoots out the other end fulfilled. I am really looking forward to this one, I hope you will consider joining us.

More soon from the road as we wind through Spring in Europe.

Just In: A rather large write up just posted on yours truly, on the web site of Proper Music.