Eric Straumanis and Kelly Pardekooper
So we have survived the first run on the German autobahn and the fastest traffic I have seen. It's fun going 100 mph in our Volvo wagon, but hard to not feel that you're breaking the law.
The Hamburg area was great to us and our host Wolfgang runs a nice music club called Music Star. There were very friendly people and lots of big beers and German food. The smoke is kinda tough; Madison has helped me lose my tolerance for smoke and it's everywhere here. I think my voice is dropping an octave a day.
What else? Last night in Assen, I returned to the Witte Bal, a great Dutch venue where I played a festival with Cracker a few years ago. Again, it was a great show with great people. This town is so clean and quaint looking, and then you turn the corner and run into a hash/coffee bar. Overall, things are going pretty well. There's constant sensory overload and communication issues, but people are very nice.
Tonight we're back in Amsterdam for a show at the oldest blues club in town. We go on at 11 p.m. and play until 2 a.m. This town wakes up very late. The owner of the club, Jur, used to play with Doug Sahm, so we'll get him up to play accordion on a few tunes.
Gotta run, it seems we are always late. We're off to Germany again in the morning...
