Germany Tour September 2017: Day 4 - Hamburg

I arrived home from Nashville just over 5 weeks ago now and as of yet, I've not posted what I'm doing next so I thought I should do a little update. The whole recording process went so much better than I ever thought it would. We got 10 songs done for the album and they all sound so big and full and the glitter we sprinkled on may have been expensive, but it was worth every penny. This by a long stretch will be the greatest thing I've ever released, and I think that's like to be sometime in

So I made it... It was just over a year ago that I came up with a plan to record my next album in Nashville in order to celebrate my tenth anniversary of being a full time professional musician. I spent a few months planning how that might work and then announced in April that I would come here in January assuming I could raise £20000 to help fund it. I made sure when I announced the plan to come here that I plenty of new merch including my new blend of tea, and it clearly has gone well as I

Germany Tour Day 10 – Munich (well Ottobrunn which is just outside of Munich) Waking up in Germany is one of the greatest experiences, especially when you're staying with people. Max once again proved to us that Germans know how to breakfast and how to treat their guests. He got up before us, went to the bakery and set up an array of bread and even got me a donut (I'd been doing my JFK "Ich bin ein Berliner" joke since I arrived). We had to leave pretty early as we had a good 7 hour drive

Germany Tour Day 9 – Berlin We woke up fresh from a good nights sleep in Chemnitz and Martin (the owner of the bar we'd played in the night before who was putting us up for the night) had a strong hearty breakfast prepared for us. The Germans love breakfast, and they love providing breakfast for their guests. It's really something to behold. We ate at around 10 and when we finished we headed down to the van and got the road. I was keen to get to Berlin as soon as possible. I'd never been there

Germany Tour Day 8 – Chemnitz Now I know in the last of these posts I said “Same time tomorrow?” – but things happened. In fact, the last few days of the tour were so busy that I’m now writing these retrospectively from back in the UK, but it’s all still very fresh, so I’ll continue with the story. The night out after the Leipzig gig ended up very late. So I didn’t get to sleep until about 4, so waking up on day 8 at about 11 still seemed very early, but I had much to do. We didn’t’ have to

Germany Tour Day 6 and 7: Liepzig Day 6 We woke up at about 10.30 and today (I’m not sure if it’s because it was a Sunday) Joe didn’t go for a run. However, Mark and Steffi produced another stunning breakfast. The hospitality of Germany people is not something I’d ever heard people talk about before I came on this tour, but I’m going to be telling everyone who ever asks me about Germany. Day 6 is a day with no gigs, so the plan was to wake up, and get to Leipzig (where our gig on day 7 is) in

Germany Tour Day 5 – Fahrradcafe, Hannover So we woke up this morning, still unsure about what exactly happened at our gig last night, but positive about today. We woke up at about 10.30 and once again, Brendan provides us with an incredible breakfast and Joe goes for a run. We spend a bit of time this morning catching up on admin work that we both need to do. Whilst doing this, Brendan is teaching me about folk music and giving me plenty of musical examples to check out, and playing me some

Germany Tour Day 3 – Prinz Willy, Kiel I didn’t set an alarm today, but I woke up around 9.45 as Joe was getting ready to go for a run. I had to dash out to put some money in the parking meter but then I came back to bed and caught up on a few things on my phone. I got myself ready and went to a little bakery next door where I had a marzipan croissant. I’d been told that Lubeck was known for making marzipan so I figured it would be rude not to try it. It was good. I spent a bit of time in the

Germany Tour Day 2 – Tonfink, Lubeck. My alarm went off this morning at 9.30. I was in a room next to the office for last nights venue, so I was expecting people to start coming in and making some noise soon after that, but I felt refreshed so I didn’t mind getting up. I checked some things on my phone and did some jobs that needed doing. The shower was great which was a welcome bonus. Joe went for a run, and when he got back I went for a short walk around the town. At first I felt like i was