European Tour Journal

Spandau, Berlin-The Zitadelle Castle

Performed in a middle ages castle, surrounded by a wall and a moat! Shooters were served out of little prepackaged bottled that are "plopped" open, the songwriters told their stories in German but still sang most of their songs in English and the audience cheerfully clapped along. Tom Cunningham's songwriters-in-the-round on tour is a show that tours Germany and should not be missed by anyone who loves stories, songs, a variety of music, laughing, and the acoustic guitar. How I got here? The incredibly fast eurorail only took 4/12 hours from Holland and customs step right on board! I gobbled down strawberry milk in a bottle and some Dutch-Deventer koek (a sweet & dense cake like bread). I want my music to be sweet and dense too. Rudiger (the giant gnome from the last tour) sent flowers as a welcome to Germany. I feel welcome. Thank you. More about the show and the other musicians click here :

Tom Cunningham's songwriters-in-the-round

Dresden- Alte Feuerwache

A pet rat sniffed me and said hello and tried to climb into the collar of my shirt! Yikes. She watched the concert from inside her owner's jacket. The night was smooth and intimate with a few laughs and a few people yelling out some necessary translations. Bohemian fans, very tall and heavy beer glasses, painted ceilings, heavy rain, and so much beautiful brick rebuilt from the damage in the war.

 

Deventer, NL- Dutch Wedding

Dinner was served with different courses, unlike the typical Canadian buffet. Dutch folk songs were hollered out for hours. A man who bought a CD told me that he plays his music in the cow milking area. Some songs encourage more milking than others (the cow is in charge of this). So he smiled and said " I hope the milking cows like this CD!" Me too. Congrats to Martijn & Agnus Sweitser!

Gottingen- Irish Pub

RJ & Stef now on board, my blue guitar strap-always attached to my guitar-went missing after the night in Berlin. It has been replaced with a boring one for now. First night in this place there is a soccer game on TV so our show starts late. A Just Because T-shirt is stolen-odd!?. From now on an eagle-eye will be on the hot merchandise table. People laugh at the underwear, which are short hotties for girls with the men's "style" on the front. I will have to get brave and show them off one night. Something we didn't expect was two people singing along to the songs from "just because" in the front row. Great to see Angie. Our 2nd night here is the favorite of the two. Rehearsed all day, had a nap, got focused and warmed up. What a difference! Gottingen is surrounded by water, very old buildings, and beautiful coffee shops and terraces-which are tucked in between trees and old brick structures. The pub's outdoor beer garden is almost as large as the place itself. It has been hot and the evenings are perfect.

Café Castaneda- Harbshausen

Picture a house high on a hill that has been converted to the most enchanting bed and breakfast situated high above a river, owned by 17 friends, with every detail complete and refined, with every plant and flower happy, with an eclectic staff and a 15 page menu (including Melanie Dekker!). Jorg looks like McGyver from the Canadian TV series. It was intimate and intriguing evening. A lot of the girls t-shirts now gone. We may have got a BMG connection from an excited fan named Claudia, who braves English and promises to get the word out. RJ took video of the show, the place and anything else that could be captured on video. The rest was magic. I even got to go for a run through the winding roads and green hills…aah,

Stadfest- Bad Driburg

We were escorted into town and through the pedestrian streets in our big tour car. We had wonderful help with gear, fresh glasses of beer, checking into the nearby hotel, sound and set up. And who surprised us in the audience…MOM! Together with Dick & Jannie from Holland. What a treat. They had been sitting on the nearby terrace that creates ice cream delicacies; which included things like wafers, cherries, chocolate….Every town in Germany seems to have these huge places that sell ice cream so involved a menu is presented! Our music was bouncing off the town walls, kids were climbing onto the stage and also sneaking through the back curtain, and at the end of the night I was signing arms! Yes, bare arms.

Melzhiemer Strausswirtschaft -Traben-Trarbach

A true breakfast show. We played on a stage so tiny we had to face each other as not to bang guitars together. Fans bought tickets with their brunch and many stayed the full 3 hours...or was it four? Hours.  The young couple that ran this place, Matthius & Hilde, also served wine from the grapes in their backyard. This landscape here is breathtaking. Steep hills and valleys covered in vineyards and old buildings (some dated as old as 1250!) In the afternoon Stef got caught up with old friends and RJ and I went with a cab and a wild educated drinker (an Epicurean and wine connoisseur) named Rauschi to a nearby town to do some tasting! Wine and meat and cheese and pretzels…we indulged. First we were meandering, then stumbling. No thank you in any and all languages-including hand gestures was ignored. The pouring continued, as did the stories of record high water levels-marked on the old wooden houses (each equipped with a wine cellar!) with plaques. Then there was a blur and our day off. A funny twisting of words with a good gesture intended. Matthius said “thank you”, as I gifted him with a special CD and said, “No no, it is my pleasure”. Then he walked away to give me a beautiful little glass blown bowl and said, “then you will have my pleasure too.” I giggled.

Clausthal - Anna Tobak

Clausthal is known for removing alcohol from beer and it is attached to another town called Zellerfield. In fact there is a hyphen between the two on the map. There used to be rivalry between the two to the extent that one could not get married to someone from the other town or drink beer the others beer! Which seems so silly when there is no wall or even road to separate them. Our hotel was in Zellerfield and our show in Clausthal (5 minute drive). Robert, a journalist who promoted the show put the ü in über and spoke 5 different languages. We conversed in Dutch, German, French and English over a fabulous Italian dinner. Robert, who is the German equivalent to Paul Bunion, takes his dog Yeti wherever he goes and wears a scarf and an Indiana Jones hat. He told us stories about the army (which is mandatory for all German and Dutch men for a minimum of one year), about trips to Afghanistan, favorite films, and about his upcoming adventures. Of which there were many. We liked him. He would make a good manager I thought. Anna Tobak was packed when we got there after having to eat dinner way to fast  (everything takes longer on the road). There was mixed crowd with lots of university (geology) students. The green room was part of the venue with an arch and open window concept, so RJ filmed from there and the sound was run from there as well. A very frustrating beginning. Stef & I couldn’t hear ourselves but the audience was so fantastic that we pushed through to the point of just being crazy and silly. It is insinuated that all Canadians speak French and I paused to clarify this misconception before singing OH EE OH, which has the word parlez-vous in it. Somehow I referenced East and West Germany in the same sentence to … and ooo did I hit a dark minor chord that stirred up the people they laughed and gave me a hard time. I tried to dig myself out…couldn’t do it…started laughing, they started laughing…. the fans needed me to finish…I felt hot…. stuck…I poured cold water over my head. Actions are sometimes better than words. Stef’s playing was manic and frantic and so appealing…the encores wouldn’t stop. I thought we might have to crawl out of a back window, especially after I revealed the “Just Because” undies that I was wearing! A man from an Apothek (pharmacy) gifted me with a “when you need to feel happy potion”…It is stowed in the suitcase-for now. 

Giessen Irish Pub

Kebab and Donair places have been the staple for many lunches and dinners, so again we indulged. Breakfasts have been the coziest parts of the day and are included in most contracts and/or hotel stays. We usually sit with a fan, friend, promoter or ourselves-together. Giessen used to be one of my favorite places. The cool thing was that some friends showed up from other cities to be at this show. The not so cool thing was that there was no time to shop (one of my favorite places to do so) and that the accommodation was 5 old cots crammed into a cellar situated right under the WC’s from the bar! We drove through the night to our friend Kissel’s house and got a much better bed.

Gotha - The Londoner

Don Rice was in fact a Londoner himself. A blues man, The Londoner was complete with the strong accent, the word “bloody” everywhere for emphasis, the Earl Grey tea, the New Castle beer, the non typical German light wood design, the stage with the rounded roof, the German quips, and the outsider insights with an ex-pat sarcastic attitude. RJ ran the entrance fee and so picked up a few more mandatory German words like 7-Sieben and Please-Bitte. The venue was the middle floor of three and the whole place used to be a print shop and huge dining arena. Downstairs now, an enormous studio (which Don built in 2 years and is complete with a 2 inch recording tape machine (yummy). And upstairs a theatre hall with old windows in cool shapes and long thick stage curtains. By March, the renovations for that area will be done and our show will be in there.  

Marburg – Waggonhalle 

The Internet café here is an oasis. All our needs and the laptop we have on the road can connect here. So the tour diary and photos and business in Canada get caught up for a moment.  We get news that “ I Said I” has been added to radio all across Canada and now Vancouver too! Two sweet girls open for us. One soft and quirky singer from England named Sara Spade and an aggressive fiery singer from Germany named Maeke Koester.  Waggonhalle and the surrounding buildings were old warehouses turned into cultural centers and an arts community. The cappuccinos in the a-joining restaurant were delicious. Actually, all German coffee seems to have this wonderful flavour. Many thankx to Stef Kissel who made this a great intimate evening. We predict that his Acoustic Meeting shows will have line-ups shortly so get to them while you can.  We love you Matthius (driver from last tour)!  

Pumpee.v - Rostock 

We just drove from one end of Germany to the other. Now we are right at the Baltic Sea.  Sound check and finding the venue took hours longer than planned. Then we hauled the rest of our gear to the huge ship we were going to sleep on. The club had made beautiful flyers and the green room was sweet and complete with munchies. Don Ross and Michael Freedman (friends from Canada) posters and many others were carefully displayed on the entrance walls. Now out of CD’s, orders were taken for those who wanted one. Stef did a great opening set. The people were so attentive that it was like a thick unmovable silence.  I could hear someone light a cigarette while singing “Speechless”! Our fan and friend, Ulli, took us on a tour on our following day off to Warnemünde. Here we saw ships heading to Denmark and Sweden and a few people braved the sea for a swim. The sand was white and the wind was howling over the sun chairs, rented in the summer. Later we listened to local musicians CDs and the photographer’s in all of us came out and much was documented. Cheap sheep cheese forever.

Oh yeah. A crazy thing to mention but so worthwhile we took a photo of it. Ulli's toilet room is covered in his favorite photos (including a drunk Dino and Melanie from the last tour!)  Even a stranger can find this can fun to sit in!

http://www.pumpeev.de/konzerte/2003_09_27_melanie_dekker.htm

Erfurt-Museumskeller

We got to see familiar faces, including a girl named Steffi, who helped our tour last time around. This place has a great back room complete with breads and cheeses of all sorts and a classic toilet, which is up the small corridor and stairs and outside to a classic brick out house. There was some people looking for Dino at the concert. Sorry! Look out for his new album at www.supertonic.com . The next morning we looked for a breakfast outside of the hotel-we craved something else and Steffi helped us find it. A place with a menu in both English and German. A menu item that must be remarked on: The Hangover Breakfast: it consisted of an aspirin and a fizzy water at 1.50 euro. Later a man made fun of our poor German when i tried to order chicken from his vending booth. Apparently I had asked for something else all together!

Lauterbach-Maar - Jagerhof

This town is one street and then a few alleys. The venue though is huge and like a great hall for a king and queen complete with huge arches, purely candle-lit and medieval-like. There were large furs on the wall and plants like ivory along the wall and large wooden pic-nic tables. Fans had come from other cities to sit here. A sweet, simple and earthy evening. We have discovered by now more of the things we all have in common. One of them being the age we all had sex for the first time. 18 was the magical year...feel free to comment. We also have similar favorites when it comes to music and those dudes include Eric Clapton, John Mayer, Dave Matthews, the Fantastic 4, Ben Harper, and Janis Joplin. Stef smokes alot. This suits him.

Fulda-Alte Piesel

A wonderful stage and encores. This city like the Uh-huh album. Fun for me. Thankx to Hi-Fi guys, Rudiger and Dominik for a great Fulda experience. This was a day off in the whole country to celebrate east and west germany union. There were lots of tour buses around and we took part in eating amazing cakes and pies and huge milche coffees (lattees) on cobblestone streets and gazed at churches built so long ago it seems unimaginable. RJ played Michael (alte piesel promoter) a hard game of clay court tennis. It seems close to impossible to get exercise on the road so this was a true treat. I have found it hard to keep up something other than singing to make me sweat ... must do more for my body and mind.

 

Frankenberg - Klimperkasten

The press came, we ate meatloaf burgers, people drove from Bad Driburg to be at this show, we played under a gigantic plastic tree, our backroom was outside (it is getting a little fresh out now for that!), it felt like the right night to sing American Pie and RJ was sitting so close to the band that it felt like he was in it. They have their own new website.  Ah yes! We had a good laugh when RJ got asked if was really George Clooney and then if Mel would please play a song by Shikira!  In Germany 15 yr olds are welcomed into the bars. In Canada you have to be 19. And in the USA, 21 is the min. age and everyone is ID'd at the door of every venue. I have never seen anyone check for ID in Germany which gives power to the person and leaves the responsibility with the individual. Nice.
 

Groningen-Buckshot

The dutch were very chatty but a fun audience non-the-less. They like to crowd in and stand close. I loved having Martijn and Agnus there and Maarten the guy in charge was sweet and cool. We got a professional live recording of this night. The results ... to be mailed to Canada.

Ulm-Regenbogen

That was one long drive. I squeezed close to the luggage. I seem to sleep better this way. It snowed on the way here! The sleep must of charged me. I could have sung all night because it just felt so easy, and the solo that Stef did in 32 Flavours I could see crawling up people's spines! We got to play tourist on our following day off in Ulm and Neu-Ulm. Old rivers and churches (one much like Lord of the rings), cool bars, some heavy rain...every seemed just right. Even an internet cafe amongst all this rich and warm Bavarian culture.

In Ulm we spent many minutes at a great restaurant called Einstein's. Einstein was born in Ulm. It was a big deal to many German's that you can actually get real American burgers here. Stef and I couldn't resist to pose with him. Fortune Records, which is the new label for Melanie Dekker in Germany, is also based in Ulm. This could be good! www.fortune-records.de 

Fellheim-The Sticks

The "sticks" indeed. The barowner, soundguy and dude of all trades played percussion with us. Ever heard of a Cajon drum!? it is sooo cool it made me think of taking up the instrument.  We played tourists the following morning and headed to the Neuschwanstein Castle. (home of the crazy King Ludwig II-1869-1886). His castle was only half finished before he and his psychiatrist mysteriously drown. The mountainous surroundings, the pounding waterfall, the eloquent and detailed original interior was breathtaking. (and so was the walk up and down to it!)

Habach - the Village  www.village-habach.de

We drove down a dirt road where posters nailed to trees led us to the venue called the Village  People came from all over to see the concert. The sound was great and the people were sweet and the show was fun, comfortable and playful. I wish all nights could feel like this.   Oh! A fan (the kind that is used to cool a person down by spinning) was placed on stage. I can't believe I have been playing all these years without one. What a treat! It may become a new touring necessity. I may go through less towels and beers as a result! Maybe.  A critical critic came in and he wrote about the show as it if were beautiful poetry! (see article)

Reiheim - Weinhof

We performed under hot 500 -1000 watt lights. Our saving grace! An outdoor concert was constructed because the venue was expecting more people than it could hold inside. The fans got really cold and Stef's fingers and mood were stiff and uncomfortable. I am sorry for that. Next time I'll say ''please no" to concerts outside in the middle of October. Unbelievably, the people stayed on and cheered on. Some used blankets and some just kept yelling 'encore'!. Admittedly tequila was helping me feel warm. Kudos! The Germans are strong like their coffee, their beer and their voices. And as sweet as their language and poetry. It felt like a farwell party. Sweet, slightly turbulent, sorrow. Goodbye to the German fans until next March 2004. Goodbye to big waurst (where the weiner is always at least 2 X the size of the bun), Rittersport chocolate (simply available everywhere), abundant rolled cigarettes (and the millions who smoke them), bubbly water (the plain kind is more expensive!), baked sandwich windows, Stadmittes (the church and the center of town), and Stef (his playing and CD a treasure). I am writing a song called "Germany". The word is fun and tangy in my mouth.  In one press article there was a nasty typo of Dekker (see ads). How could we not laugh!? "Fokker"

  

Piste Magazin, December 2002

Niewegein -Big Daddy's

Woah, the dutch have more tax on their gas! 1.15 Euro a liter for the basic low grade.. There is hardly a border but be sure to know where it is and fill up on the German side. Big Daddy's looks and feels like its name. It is a club and a restaurant in control and in charge of what is going on in it and what is going on on the outside. They seem to have the best of almost everything. My favorite decoration on a stage awaited me there. The long, heavy curtains IN FRONT of the stage! They were pulled aside after i was introduced and from there on the night was a bit of a fairytale.  Cool and relaxed conversations, sparkly and fat sound, amazing stage and lights and view, great songs playing before and after my performance on the stereo reminding me of some more great times (from artists such as Robert Cray and Bonnie Raitt), a LEKKER (yummy) salad was served (harder to come by on the road than one would think!), a dutch cousin-Rob Sweitser - came to listen, and it took us less than an hour to find and less than an hour to get out of town (unusual on this trip so far). Playing solo really feels similar to the strength one finds in solidarity.

Nijmegen, NL - Merleyn

A local musician was the "voor programma" and he showed a film he had made about his struggles and successes so far with his music. I liked the show i did and the room was warm and full. The band room could use a little warm and a little work-though i was still able to catch a quick nap before my performance. I noticed a poster that included Vancouver's "Creators", fun. My posters, sent months ago, were put up just before i went on...not good. Drove back to Deventer to sleep. Nijmegen looked cool and big and fun and creative and full of things to do and... next time i will have to spend more real time here.

Utrecht -Het Oude Pothuys

This place has seen thousands of hit bands and great musicians. "The old pothouse" is in the cellar part of a canal and it felt cozy and funky. My performance was short. I was treated and welcomed.

Deventer - Persee

Insanity. There were so many people that no one could move. Tables were pushed out of the way and the dutch seemed to be happy all standing and squished together. They talked incessantly and vivacoulsy. The first half of the show I treated the people with songs from "Just Because", then i took a break and decided that it was better to sing sing-alongs than fight over the extreme volume of conversation. The PA couldn't rise above it. So we all sang together. I am pleased to say that next time I need a bigger venue. My dutch cousins said they were so proud. :) Another red undies swiped from the table. They will have to hang out of reach next tour.

Oldenzaal - De Kroeg

The last show was without a driver and without any management or accompaniment. Everyone had already gone home. A true solo effort. I had heaps of wonderful help though when i got there. Oldenzaal is sweet with eclectic and chatty people. A stranger drew a beautiful drawing in the guest book and captured the night. It seemed as if there was more smoke that usual. I could feel it stinging my eyes and tickling my throat. Time to get home & refresh!  Goodbye to the dutch for now: Goodbye to kissing three times when greeting (in Canada we prefer to hug), goodbye to scooters who carry up to three people at once, goodbye to doubling on bikes (I cant remember the last time i saw that in Canada), goodbye to all things made small (the dutch add "tje" to the end of every other noun making everything cute and small by its meaning), goodbye to beer served in small thin refreshing glasses, goodbye to chocolate on sandwiches, goodbye to train stations, goodbye to endless bike paths, goodbye to very narrow streets and very steep staircases, goodbye to "coffee shops" that don't serve coffee. See you in March. PS I went through a drug scanning xray and dog sniffing at the vancouver airport!