Scandinavian Blues

Both of my most recent tours abroad were in Scandinavia: four shows in Norway, and eight in Sweden. Of course all four of the performances in Norway were in Notodden, at the Blues Festival. The shows in Sweden took place over a couple of weeks and were a tour of western Sweden.

Though I had played all over Norway many times, and this was my third time performing at the Notodden Blues Fest, it had actually been quite a few years since I had visited this beautiful, rugged country that loves the blues. Much has been written about the Notodden Blues Fest so I won’t repeat the story here, but needless to say it is one of the world’s top blues festivals, and the entire town is dedicated to the blues. This year I was a special guest of the Janiva Magness band. This festival loves to package up their performances, thus giving the audience more bang for their buck. As it is a club fest, where the audience needs to choose what act they want to see at which venue throughout the weekend, the packaging makes even more sense. For instance, this year they had the big Texas Blues package featuring Delbert McClinton, Jimmie Vaughan, Omar Dykes and Luanne Barton, with a back-up band equally as luminescent. Another package this year was the Blues Caravan featuring three blues guitar women: Sue Foley, Roxanne Potvin, and Deborah Coleman. And then there were the Mannish Boys, which as a band is packed with blues stars. Randy Chortkoff is the Ring Leader and heads up Delta Groove Records. He opens the show with his oh-so-tasty and totally cool harp riffs, and then gives the stage to Finis Tasby, Johnny Dyer, and Kid Ramos, each stepping forward for their opportunity to share some soul with ya. It’s a classic and classy blues act.

The bands are housed in a mountaintop resort overlooking both the town and a beautiful lake. I was fortunate to get a lakeside room and my view was something beyond spectacular! There is a great outdoor deck off of the lobby where folks can sit and order food and drink and breath in the beauty of the surroundings. When we arrived the sun was out and sitting out on the deck absorbing this beauty and chatting with all of the artists as they arrived was the perfect antidote for jet lag!

The only downside for the artists is that it can be tough to catch all of the other performers do their thing as the trip into town is close to a 30 minute ride and a shuttle has to be arranged. Often too, a band you want to see is performing at the same time you are in a different venue across town. But the festival really helped us all out, assigning each band both a driver and a road manager! Our driver, Ova, was a fireman in real life, a great guy and very easy on the eyes! Our road manager, Katrina, was a college student of maturity and grace well beyond her years, so we were well taken care of.

It took some tricky maneuvering, but Janiva and I were determined to catch some of the Blues Guitar Women doing their show and happily, we got to check them out more than once! They sounded great and I really dig their CD. One of the afternoons Art Tipaldi arranged a special workshop for all of us blues women, where folks could come and ask us questions about our careers and our music, our influences and our struggles. It was a rare opportunity for me to be with all of these women and hang out, share, and laugh. Sue Foley said that for her, the workshop was the highlight of the weekend.

My shows with Janiva and her band were awesome. We had a quick rehearsal our first day there. Of course I had sent them copies of my tunes ahead of time, and Janiva has a hot band so the boys were all a quick study. My old buddy Benny Yee is doing the keyboard duties with Janiva now so it was a special treat to make music with Benny again. He is also a fine photographer so I will mention at this point in time that the photo credit for the Norway pix goes to Benny.

My tour of western Sweden was with my own band and we had Angello Olivieri on bass, an old pal of mine and even older buddy of Don’s. Angello is often accused of looking like Keith Richards, Ron Woods or on a different day, Robert De Niro! But whatever day it is, he’s always got his groove on and knows how to lay it down! Our promoter, Marie Bavholm, was so cool and a blues woman in her own right. On our day off in Gothenburg, Marie hung out with us, and treated the band to lunch. As the boys began to fade out a bit from sight-seeing, Marie and Harley, my guitar tech, and I, hit the streets hard for some serious window shopping like only girls can do! Gothenburg is a beautiful city filled with lots of hip-looking, fashionable, friendly people, and surrounded by striking architecture. And right through the heart of the city runs a river. In fact, we were all really impressed with Sweden…but then again, any country with universal health care impresses me these days! Did you know that in Sweden, anyone can get a college education totally for free up until the age of 45…pretty amazing, yes?

Our shows were 50% theater performances and 50% club dates. All of the venues were packed for each show. These folks do not take their blues for granted. It’s such a treat, and almost a shock, for an American artist to be so appreciated at every performance. Our road manager, Anders, drove our van and our soundman, Johan, traveled in a second van with all of our gear. They were both great guys, totally pro, and during down time in the band rooms we had a lot of fun discussing a little bit of comparative politics and answering all of their questions about American slang. They tried to help me learn some Swedish, but the Germanic languages are not my forte. I was making a tiny bit of headway, but of course I will forget it by the time we go back!

All in all, I think we would each give the tour a big “10.” After a successful time overseas I always come home fantasizing about relocating. The only problem I have with my Scandinavian relocation fantasies is the fact that these countries are located so high up on the globe! Brrrrr.