Homeland-Tour 2019. October.

25/10/19
Live Stage, Weiden, Germany

Day one. Good start. Not the biggest audience ever but very attentive. Surprise of the evening was the young couple who came all the way down from Prague to see the show. Said they saw me with the band at MisMas Festival in Bojkovice/CZ this summer and will probably come down for my second Weiden show in December again. It's little things like this that you will remember later on. People taking the effort to travel quite a bit because the songs are strong enough to make them do it. Little moments of bliss making the whole idea of travelling about / touring worthwhile.

27/10/19
Die Neue Fledermaus, Karlsruhe, Germany

Day three. Lack of sleep already. Made it straight from Weiden to Fürth, just in time to hook up with the Folk's Worst Nightmare collective for an afternoon rehearsal. Quick run through most of the songs, picking up some gear and off to Kofferfabrik for soundcheck. No time for packing all my shit for the upcoming tour weeks yet. After a late show in front of a packed auditorium taxi back to my flat. Half the night sorting all travel documents, packing gear. Up early doing the same thing trying to keep the amount of stuff reasonably light enough to travel. Still too heavy in the end. Suppose I have to sell as much merch as possible to reduce weight...
The train ride to Karlsruhe takes me through picturesque landscape, especially around Crailsheim. Sunny autumn weather, could have been a relaxing trip if the train hadn't been cancelled. The substitute train made my reservation obsolete and I had a three hours ride on an emergency seat in the bicycle compartment. Good place for musicians as it turned out. Had enough space for both guitars, the trolley and still room for the girl travelling with her concert harp. Quite a thing to drag around. Will stop complaining about what I'm carrying with me...

28/10/19
Capri Bar, Basel, Switzerland

Day four. Enjoyable, intimate show it was at the "Neue Fledermaus" yesterday. A former pub in the bar district of Karlsruhe converted into an arts space with regular acoustic shows, readings and exhibitions. Just few minutes prior to the show my old pal and ex-band mate Jay turned up whom I haven't seen in ears. Lovely little surprise. Amazing hosts, fantastic (much needed) food and a hotel room with musician friendly check-out times around the corner. Felt fantastic to wake up refreshed after a good night's sleep, having a hot shower and a decent breakfast. Looking forward to playing Basel tonight, meeting old friends from way back then and of course returning to the Capri Bar one of the most memorable shows I had the luck to play last year.

* * * * *

I might have mentioned this before somewhere. This is my first ever large-scale European tour I'm doing solely by train/public transport. Means there are a lot of new things I'm just in the process of figuring out or understanding. Among those new insights I'm just starting to achieve in - particularly - German public transport ways are the seat reservations. They're EUR 4.50 and in theory this entitles the passenger to have a guaranteed seat in a train that might be very crowded. Unless... Well, unless it's a substitute train without numbered seats that's servicing your connection, what actually happened yesterday. Or unless a wobbly, elderly person has taken your seat instead of the one she initially has booked. Which in consequence, as in my case, means, the seat I booked thinking about the space behind it for my guitars, was taken by a cat transport box and aforementioned lady not being very compromising to shift all her luggage and pets to a different place... If you're a very patient person and got a lot of time to kill you might in fact join the line at the service counter at the next train station, show your ticket and reclaim the reservation fee. They do that. It's just all up to you if you want to queue in for 45 minutes to get those EUR 4.50 back.

* * * * *

Got picked up at Badischer Bahnhof by Michu and Kati. Tramride to Capri Bar, one of the nicest shows I had on my last year's tour. Been looking forward to this for quite some time. Apart from that I love Basel. Any time I played here since the early 2000s something special, out of the ordinary is connected with those shows. Including one song on my first solo album. This might sound funny for you but for me this town has got an air of strangely fertile creativity whilst at the same time being a bit sloppy and laid back. Especially for a Swiss town. What adds to it is its a river town. In my experience a different quality of energy in such places.
Had a smoke prior to the gig. I always do this if possible. Felt empty. Just totally blank. Physically and mentally. Kickin off with Tuesday Lilies flicked that imaginary switch that sometimes gives you a bit of an extra ignition spark. Or boosts that machine that is just too beat-up to work properly. Or feels like that. In retrospect, it was a 200% performance. Again I'm wondering how to keep up this energy level for the coming forty shows. This tour has just begun. It's a bit scary. When clearing the stage after the show we just found out the carpet they borrowed me for the concert was a handwoven one from Finland. Model "Pelimanni". Weird little coincidence.

You feel it must have been a good one if your money

comes with a flower decoration. Karlsruhe

Karlsruhe.

Decent flyer. Basel.

Stage carpet. Basel.

Goodbye Andy

The first European tour of the Anglo German Low Stars in 2001 (https://9pm-records.de/cosmos_1.htm) is, to quite some extent, responsible for what I'm doing now for many years. Formative. Touring, writing songs, collaborating with wonderful artists I come across. It was then when I met Andy Keeble first. Fiddler with Grae J Wall. My first longer tour performing solo and alongside like-minded songwriters/musicians in a loose and slightly chaotic collective. Most of them people I hardly knew or just heard of prior to meeting for our first show in Berlin. Among them Andy. Without him I suppose that whole four week stint wouldn't have been what it turned out in the end - an inspiring moment in life and the birth of numerous ideas, projects and - most of all - long-lasting friendships.
Andy made us smile when there was no reason to smile, crackin a joke when things got too tense and most importantly - encouraged me to keep on going my way as a performer/songwriter just by doing his thing and being an example. For four consequent years we were touring in that lose line-up varying from four to eight artists. As touring is what it is there were both magic and exhausting moments, good times and difficult times. What made me keep going was this cheerful chap from St Albans. What a friend.

After the last Low Stars tour we regularly met when I was playing the UK, either sharing stage with The Trailer Trash Orchestra, Los Chicos Muertos, popping into Bill's Blue Angel Acoustic Sunday or just hangin out and chatting about over a couple of drinks. So many memories... Playing pinball the whole night after a Kulmbach show, Andy showing me around gardens in Hertforshire he took care of, having my first ever full English with him in Portsmouth. The night we spent talking, talking, talking till dawn in that trailer he used to live in then somewhere near Luton.
I never gave up hope Andy would make it over to the mainland for a tour together. Revisiting the places we played before, exploring new ones, going crazy and making friends with new people. Spending time on the road with one of the best mates you can be on tour with. It's not going to happen. A bleedin shame.

I'm glad he found the time to contribute some fiddle to my last album early 2018, and we had the opportunity to perform together in London this year February. Means a lot to me. Hope they're well-stocked up where we'll probably meet next. There'll be time for a decent bottle to share, brother. I know you'd like that. Bye Andy.

Fürth, 12 July 2019

Miracle healing. Southern France 2016.

During the last show I played with Grae J. Wall in Catalonia the problem occurred the first time. Middle of the gig the guitar pickup had these annoying drop outs. No sound - sound - no sound... Bloody mess. Left for Toulouse to play the Les Pavillons Sauvages, worried the whole thing would turn out a disaster just due to some technical issues. Fortunately it didn't. In fact maybe one of the best shows I had the pleasure to play 2016. For some reason the guitar worked all through the show, there was a fantastic crowd, I shared the evening with two most amazing acts (Koonda Holaa and Hilton) and the sound was just perfect. Surprisingly I didn't even fuck up my playing. The Les Pavillons Sauvages family took care of me in a way you don't really get to experience very often on tour. I owe you. A lot.

Insertion/Polaroid
Had a stroll along the Canal du Midi in the afternoon. I was walking towards two plain-clothes police officers walking a young woman away from one of the locks. There were another two uniformed officers obviously examining the scene, a medic followed the two policemen with the lady. She had a Mia Farrow kind of look to her, a tattoo on her arm, maybe the left one, looking terrified, staring at some spot somewhere behind me. I thought she should have been trembling but I think she wasn't. She looked like someone who had just seen or discovered something really terrible, something unspeakably scary, something not meant to be seen by anyone. It was a dim, mid-November afternoon, not particularly cold or warm. I remember there was some Italian chanson or schlager from some open window from across the canal adding a surreal soundtrack to the whole scenery.

As the following day was off I went to see two guitar shops for fixing my guitar. Paprika's Workshop had a look at it but couldn't help as they were up to their neck in work, the other one, Fred's Guitar Parts, was equally helpful but had no spare part for the out-of-phase switch being apparently the trouble maker that cut off the signal as soon as I touched it. Advise: well, can't do anything about it now on such short notice but...erm... maybe just don't touch it. There you are!
Checking the route to my next show in Tarbes I realized this little town in the south of France is just about a 30 minutes ride away from Lourdes. It may sound silly but that's the kind of thinking you inadvertently get into being on tour. "What's good for the blind and the crippled can't be bad for Mäkkelä's guitar." is what I thought... You might figure what I was hoping for.

I drove there. I parked the car. I felt a bit stupid about the whole idea so I didn't take the guitar out of the car. Instead I walked down towards the St Bernadette church or grotto or whatever it is behind it's massive iron gate. I've been told about endless rows of water tabs where one can fill own bottles for some take-away holy water for home healing business. Unfortunately I didn't have a spare bottle on my walk down the hill in the old town of Lourdes. Down the deserted main drag of Bernadette merchandise wonderland, past closed memorabilia shops, through the drizzle, across the river... This was like a film set of some weird road movie. I took a photo of the gate with the Bernadette fountain behind it, at least I assume that's what it's called, turned around and walked back. That's when I spotted what's very likely one of the biggest merchandise supermarkets I've seen all my life. All kind of useful things you would like to take home from your pilgrimage. Candles all sizes, snow globes all sizes, Bernadette shaped bottles (didn't find the dildo shaped ones I've been told about), both filled with water and empty in a broad variety of qualities and makes, a huge selection of things I don't know what they're for, a dashboard-pope and to my big surprise also a dashboard-Mr Bean, the latter in the bargain section. If you ever get there have a look at the Palais du Rosaire. Highly recommended. And still, please believe me, I'm not taking the piss here. It's just yours truly stumbled into a slightly surreal scenery totally new to him. And yes, there was still that thought something around here might help me with my guitar. I did spend about 18 Euros in holy merch for which I got a surprising lot of things including a very small vial with sacred water. Picked up my car and headed for Tarbes. On the drive, mulling over the afternoon, I had to admit my belief has apparently got it's limits. No, I wasn't going to pour the water on my guitar. If that healing power was strong enough just the effort of going there, willing to believe in it, should be enough. Even though I turned out too much of a sceptic at the end of the day.

 

Tarbes. I like Tarbes. I liked it from the moment I bought my first parking ticket there. A bargain. I liked it when I saw the Celtic Pub Is Not A Pub where I was about to perform in with all its posters of a surprising lot of bands I either know or played with before. I liked it when I walked through town and saw the shop window with the penguins and seagulls. I seriously started to love it when the sound was brilliant, JL the bar owner turned out to be a wonderful bloke, the audience was well into what I did on this Friday night and it was packed. You wouldn't expect this in a small town in the south of France. As little as on that very evening the young guy from Hamilton, Ontario probably expected a Finnish-German songwriter playing "End of me", a song written by Wax Mannequin, an artist from his home town and chatting about just recently strolling down James Street N. and having played a gig at the This Ain't Hollywood. Ended the evening with a stiff Picon Bière.

You should also know I'm still brooding about the fact my guitar worked perfectly ok for that night and all the rest of the tour. So...