From the wild swirling festival night to a small town afternoon show. Our
driver is late picking us up, so it's out of the van and directly on to
the stage. A very subdued sit down at the tables--Sunday afternoon crowd. One
almost expects someone to shout "Bingo!" at any time. Nonetheless,
a
pleasure to relax a bit and to not have to worry about keeping the adrenaline
pumping so hard. The Dutch countryside is strikingly clean and neat--brick homes
and barns--orderly yards--straight line rows of trees--flat lime green fields
in
the drizzle.
I'm the opening act for Jimmy Dale Gilmore, with his two backup musicians,
Rob Gjersoe and Brad Fordham--great guys--fun riding in the van, trading
jokes and stories. The opening act gig is a mixed blessing. Hopefully you are
teamed up with an act similar to what you do, so that maybe the crowd
might be led to discover something new--but, they don't know the songs and they
are there to see someone else--so you walk out onto the stage and pray that
you
might win them over.
set list 1. Richie 2. Folksinger 3. Nobody's Girl 4. I Love To Wake
Up In New Orleans 5. Long Drag Off A Cigarette 6. Chain Link Fence 7. I
Love To Watch A Woman Dance 8. For My Wedding 9. Love Is Everything 10. Just
My Imagination
Free day in Amsterdam. Slept for 10 hours--laid in bed until noon.
Beautiful early Spring day in the low 50's--blue sky--tulip buds just poking
through
the ground everywhere. Wandered the city--all my favorite haunts--The Villa
Zeezicht cafe--Backbeat Records--spent a few hundred guilders on old school
soul reissues that are hard to find in the states--i.e. "Superfly"
from
Curtis Mayfield with 13 out-takes from Charly Records. Charly puts out the
coolest stuff but they never pay royalties. My song "Struttin On Sunday"
recorded
by Aaron Neville, has been on at least half a dozen Charly compilations for
which I haven't received a penny. Of course, I buy them coz the music is
always great--Oh well...
I notice that Luka Bloom is playing so I go to see him at a small theater
here. Moody and enchanting, his show. Afterwards I wind my way home
through the small streets alongside the canals. I have a late dinner at the
pizza/pasta place across from my hotel and it's off to bed. Showtime again
tomorrow night, in Heeze.
P.S. Back in my hotel room listening to my new stash of CDs. Cool new song
by Bobby Womack on the new Rae & Christian CD (two white hip-hop producers
from England). Bobby plays acoustic guitar against a very funky beat and growls
in the old-school style. I see Bobby Womack as a singer/songwriter--just a
very funky one!
Texas style roadhouse bar in small town Holland. Well, if you reach just
one person it's worth it. Tonight there was one good listener, at least--a
fellow I spoke to named Martin, who had seen me play in Tilburg on my last tour
here. Martin says that "Nobody's Girl" and "For My Wedding"
are classics.
Sounds good to me. I should have bought him a beer. The best part of the
night was riding home to Amsterdam listening to Bob Dylan bootleg tapes
and talking with my road manger Lammert. Driving through the Big Night, far
away from home.
set list 1. Richie 2. Folksinger 3. Nobody's Girl 4. I Love To Wake up
In New Orleans 5. Long Drag off A Cigarette 6. Chain Link Fence 7. Moving
Day 8. Faces You Loved 9. Feels Good 10. Ain't No Sunshine 11. Love Is a
Ruthless thing 12. Love is Everything 13. Just My Imagination
