SWISS RELIEF

one more week of work before the year ends.

switzerland. and also the last of the 100,000 flight miles needed to make executive platinum again.

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its set up to be giant sand “unplugged” for whatever that means to anyone who thinks they know. . .

for us its gonna be a way to change things up. anders, nikolaj and myself will be the entire band, and if we don’t get amps, then we’ll be more unplugged then ever. if we do, maybe we can throw in a small drum kit too, and a baritone guitar to lend some low end.

gabe, our sound man from italia, offers to meet us in basel for the first show and bring all the gear we’d need and drive us in his station wagon.

i head out of tucson on december 14, my wife’s birthday. but i can handle that too cause the danish people celebrate their birthday by being woken up with chocolate, flowers, gifts and a platter of food decorated by a bevy of small danish flags. the kids are in on it and we manage a good wake up birthday yippity. then make the kids lunch. drive em to school. top off my packing. run to the airport. the upgrades came through, and now i chill back in flight. 15 hours later am in frankfurt and train to basel. then in basel i tram it to the hotel.

this way of touring is not like anything else. i am as free as a drifter, but removed from the ranks of tourist. i have blue collar purpose for being here, but travel planes and trains in upper class.

i am as alone as i wanna be or use the option of accompaniment available at every turn. all other details are prepared and provided for by the promoters, but you just have to tell them in advance what it is you want. what kind of food do you want waiting for you back stage or how many stars should the hotel be (i tend to add a star for every decade out i have toured, starting with 1 star of course and now up to 4) sometimes 5 star hotels happen. the next night can be a funky suicide room reeking of soiled human dashing. it al lends itself to material and mood.

the hotel provides a breakfast … the rider backstage is always a lunch .. and then the dinner comes before or after the show.

i suppose this kind of preparation is also unique in travel. it allows a different show each consecutive night in a different city. an exhausting itinerary that never feels like it. or at least didn’t until the decades pile up.

here in the swiss german landscape, the journeys between cities is ridiculously short and pleasant, all tapered with a landscape of alps shadowing your day.

when i find the hotel this time, its in a quaint area outside of basel and populated mostly by small boutique chocolate shops.

i head to bed to sleep off as much travel as possible. there’s snow.

the rest of the posse arrive a few hours later. we head to the gig and i slam myself out of jet lag with too many strong coffees. i won’t drink red bull, but my grandfather was austrian.

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so the 1^st show goes well. we are feeling out the possibilities and at the same time providing some semblance of whatever it is we do and have always done. its always about the attitude and not the rehearsed world.

after the show i amble off walking through the icy countryside and take the tram in the midnight hour. at the hotel we celebrate nikolaj’s birthday with some homemade bread and sect and other stuff i bought at the local market earlier. he gets fresh new socks too. we drink it up till 4. outside the snow drifts and the wind waits.

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i train it to zurich and the boys all take the wagon.

el lokal tonight. the legendary el lokal.

it’s a sweet yip to be able to play a place like this whenever we want. viktor and jeana there are always in fine form and welcoming with a thick passion for the sonic kingdom.

we play very well tonight. nik plays drums and guitar at the same time. it makes a lot of sense. they have gotten me a wonderful upright piano too and that makes a huge difference always. afterwards viktor thinks it’s the best show i’ve/we’ve done there ever. i’m not sure, but am happy he thinks so.

its also a night of playing where i stop frequently to see if the crowd understands the lyrics? when they don’t, i fill em in.

the hotel comes after it all and it’s a very nice one. the bathroom floor is heated. in the morning the snow is falling hard. the train won’t care. i am off today for a solo show in bern i set up myself.

the boys will have the day off and hope to find a mountain to explore.

i send a few western shirts to my spanish agent first and then train it to bern. the posse end up going in the wrong direction from zurich and then breaking down. they will have an adventure trying to get to the town we need to play in the next night. they end up carrying 3 amps, a drum kits, several guitars and bags and merch all on the train. that’s crazy talk.

meanwhile i check in to my bern hotel. it’s a bizarre room in a classy hotel and casino. the room is decorated like a cartoon, but they don’t know it. the casino is avoided because the fever has left me long ago for poker and such.

the show is sweet this night. the little box of café kairo. a very rapt crowd and have a good time with me explaining a lot of lyrics.

after the show i get back to the hotel and enjoy the room.

next morning i am up and accidentally find the old town (the castle)  which is stunning in the sunning morning and filled with a christmas market. its good to pick up a few things instead of the mall back home.

then i make the train at the last second and travel to st. gallen.

tonight we will play for a long long time. the crowd will not let it end. but the sound check is the amazing part. i play guitar like i’m 28 again. its stammeringly good. every song bursts of stunner licks. the band is really fun to play against. am also rearranging new chords in things like “shiver” to rejuvenate it and play em with texas guitar wizardry. i don’t know what’s gotten in to me. i hope i can keep this happening for some time to come. right now, i can’t stop. the martin is screaming. you wouldn’t believe it. could be a little muse slipped in under the radar just enough to spark the fuse. i wonder.

after the show we amble up to the funkled non hotel.

i stay up late writing. get about 4 hours sleep. the boys plod off to denmark early in the morn. then me to luzern to finish one more solo spurt. and good bye to good man gabe who is now stuck here waiting on his car to get fixed before he can shuffle off home with all that gear.

i get to luzern on time for a radio thing. the kids there are sweet. the hotel tonight is surreal good with a giant picture filling up the entire ceiling. i recognize it. it’s a scene from brunnel’s “the obscure object of desire”.

the bed is very good. everything in here is so modern that the guests need to be informed of all the gadgetry and what the buttons do. i siesta to the film they leave in the room. every room has a different film on the ceiling and a copy of it in the dvd player.

the show this night will also be delightful .. a jazz club with a great grand piano .. but i am tired of the week and the run. the afternoon was spent doing some christmas shopping for the family. mostly chocolate and boots. then went looking for a kid that was lost. a woman there was frantic about one the 8 children she was in charge of got away. his name is gian luca. about 7. we scoured a couple long bridges and hoped for the best.

the people here who have brought me in for this show did so at my request for a last minute gig set up. i love them. love this town. i had played here for years without ever discovering it was so beautiful. incredible lake scene with insane walking bridgery adorning them.

in the morning i slip out of town in time to make the plane only 60 minutes away in zurich by train.

was surprised the plane packed out. the seating scan showed most of it empty the day before. turns out that many of europes airports are shut down because of weather, and all the american airline hubs except for Zurich are closed down.  i got very lucky.

am still on a plane now trying to get home. first new york, then chicago, which was slow going cause of the snow chunkering down there. but somewhere outside this plane is a lunar eclipse.

here i am pecking to you instead.

soooooo   have a happy christmas already.

the end.