West Coast Tour Start

I hadn't packed a thing until the last minute, so I had to work late night shifts to get ready. I was looking forward going down south and enjoy the drive, even if it is lonely at times so I stopped in Chehalis and had a coffee with my friend Eric Miller. What a wonderful guy, talking to him is always inspiring to me. We had to keep it short because of a 6pm show in Eugene and it was already after 12am. So I got back on the road. As soon as I was past Portland I put on Joni Mitchell's "Blue" - oh how I love that album, it gets me every time. "All I want" - "River" - "The last time I saw Richard"- I couldn't help getting a little blue myself and started shooting pictures of cloud formations.



Blue to Green and back to blue all over sudden I was in Eugene. Usually I'm pretty good finding places but the "Cozmic Pizza" was somewhere in a parallel universe. I passed it several times before I finally found it. Kind of an interesting venue, a huge open space that is shared by a Pizza restaurant, an alternative bookstore, a Coffee shop and an Internet Café. They have a big stage and a good sound system. It is easy to feel lost in there and I was not sure how that tour kick off will work out.



My friends Cathy & Bob came. I know them from the times I toured with Jamie and we played the now closed Café Paradiso - that was a cool venue. The show went well and I tried out a lot of new stuff during the songs. I'm looking forward playing them every day and really dig into the heart of it. As always I had no program and just played the mood. I did not make a break so I played about 90 minutes straight. After that I went to Cathy and Bob's place to spend the night. The great thing about touring is that you develop friendships all across the country.

Well, I got to get to bed now, I got up quite early today. I won't have such a long drive tomorrow, only 3.5 hours to Ashland, but I need to mail some promo and do the email thing.