Ken Stringfellow dot calm

1.28.2006

SCHORNDORF 1/15

I wish I had seen the place—not only is Schorndorf a place I had never been to before, but its name implies that it’s a beautiful village. The venue, you can probably get the vibe from the name—Manufaktur (funny how via rock clubs you can get the local word for factory—Fabrik, L’Usine, et al) –asbestos and non-central heating. Friendly tho'.

Here we were on our mission to convert Germany to the Posies brand of ecstatic rock and droll. By the time we rolled up, it was looking like we were going to be doing that to two people at a time. This night, we also had TMF, the Belgian music channel, recording our every move, and of course there was a lot of nothin’ going on most of the time. Club out in the middle of nowhere, freezing cold weather, most of us still jet lagged, and a dearth of good props. So TMF filmed me ironing, brushing my teeth, they filmed us staring at the walls, and trading quips with the interviewer, An Lemmens, who has been championing us there, perhaps our greatest media advocate in Europe. So of course I spent the whole two days she and her producer/cameraman were with us giving her insults, pranks, etc. She was really cool about it.

What they and 40-odd other folks got to see was a band rejuvenated by the holidays break, with confidence gained by the success of the Innsbruck show, and ready able and willing to do ‘Jungle’, read recipes in their underwear, and cover Depeche Mode. The audience there actually had a marvelous time, there were some very drunk, typical German skuzzy punk guys, with shaved sides and dreads and camo pants. They were sticking their heads in between the monitors and going into drunken, scuzzpunk bliss. They also got into a fight (almost) afterwards.

In the hotel’s entrance, there was a huge marble ball made to float on water…I still don’t know how!

REGENSBURG 1/16

This place had our buddy D who has been trying to get us or me or someone to play his club for some time, and here we actually did. Why did we wait? Other than German style pizza, everything about the venue was gold—they put the posters up, people came to the show, they gave us shots onstage, the sound was good, the place wasn’t an old factory (but it was part of an old brewery) for a change. We played for a long time, several encores, traded many, many insults with An from TMF, and did covers—I mean, we did ‘Route 66’ for gawd’s sake.

SAARBRUCKEN 1/17

This place, well…one of those many small towns in Germany that perhaps is like a small town in the US except it’s in Europe (small coffees, everyone drinks beer and is a vegan). Dominique lived here as part of a German language study program and claimed it was not the most exciting two months of her life. The Garage (one of two we’ll play at this tour) is a massive venue, they have boxing and disco and Lagwagon and whatever can fit in there. Of course, they also have a tiny room, the littlest place you ever did saw. For us, they could have chopped in ¼ and it would have still looked empty. About 25 paying customers. Actually I don’t think that many of them paid. There was a cool photographer there who was friends of people we knew. We gave it to them, hard as we knew how.

FRANKFURT 1/18

I happen to like the Nachtleben quite a bit. Low ceilings, lots of stairs, all the things that make a club hard to play in, get your gear in, etc. You know what? It was a great show, and that’s that. Afterwards, several of us, some local friends/fans, and the support band (the Amber Light) went to a great little bar called the Red Light. Really it’s just an unmarked door, and inside is a dark little bar, with a guy in a white coat mixing very reasonably priced drinks. Room for about 15 people and good music on the stereo. Highly recommended!

COLOGNE 1/19

Here was the legendary Prime Club, a place Matt always brags about having played at; evidently REM actually did play there in 1984 or 5 when it was called Luxor. It’s what we would call threadbare, I can’t remember what colors were inside but I seem to recall some kind of pastel blue and fluorescent orange. This was one of the better-attended German shows, but Cologne is one of the international crossroads kind of places, close to its western neighbors and thus benefiting from the polyglot milieu (see also, Berlin for polyglot milieu galore). Amazing what a little crowd noise can do for a band. We jumped on that sh*t and gave a real rock show, I spent lots of time on my knees, and perhaps even broke a sweat?

Afterwards, many of our party went across the street to a recommended bar with WAY too loud music and had some prosecco and beers. There were enough of us to be considered a (Posie) posse so we took over what precious and rare seating was there to be had. I got Hammi (long time friend who used to live in Seattle) to talk Essen football with our journalist friend Carsten; I caught up with the mysterious Hada Quimica, who I had written some music for in the past (it was while working with her in Spain in 2002 that I encountered the Euro for the first time—and, under the circumstances, having every bill on hand crisp, fresh and easy to roll up tightly was very handy!) and is still doing music, now based in Köln and making a family there.

AMSTERDAM 1/21

We spent two nights in this, perhaps loveliest of the regular tour stops (is Amsterdam, with all its waterways, even more gorgeous than Paris?), much to our delight. And the only night off of the tour, much needed. To add to the collective delight, we had a killer hotel, Le Meridien Apollo, which itself is balanced on a particularly wide and tranquil bend of a canal, where is also situated the Amsterdam rowing club, so, while you enjoy your lunch, you can see people who obviously don’t sense cold, and feel better about your choice to tear into some seared foie gras, with all the benefits of central heating wafting around your shoulders. I did that, but later. On this night, as if things weren’t already at the top of the top, along came Dominique, for a rare weekend sans bebe. First order of business was to sit down, in the fine home of our friends Alan and Allie, who set out a lovely spread of cheese and charcuterie, which gave us the fortitude to have another collective go at editing the Posies live DVD shot in Helsinki last year. The director, Juta, was along, and our publicist, Jessica. Once that was done, we said, a la Alan Partridge, ‘let battle commence!’ We all decamped to the American Hotel, were met by even more friends, and honestly, we had a great time doing little more than guessing who the hell was photographed on the wall (other than ZZ Top of course).

Dom and I managed, with some difficulty, to get up for breakfast, and then went back to bed…and got up again for lunch. Excellent day! And yes, I had foie gras, and two glasses of a fantastic white wine (details forthcoming).

Eventually we headed down to the Melkweg, where we were to play the original zaal, site of great Posies shows in 1994 and 1998 (remember the She Moves dancers joining us?), plus a White Flag show in 2002 and a Lagwagon show in 1997. That’s not counting two amazing Posies shows in the grand hall in 1996 and 1997, and the acoustic show Jon & I did in a tiny room upstairs in 2000. And Big Star did one of their only ever rehearsals in the original zaal…well, ¾ of us did…

Tonight’s show was in every way a special occasion, it was the birthday of a very devoted fan, Evellyn, and she submitted an entire set list of requests, and we basically played it as was—and then some. I think the set was well over two hours, to a packed house. We played a ton of songs we don’t often do, and closed the evening out with full-length versions of both ‘Burn & Shine’ and ‘Flood of Sunshine’. That’s killing it dead! It was superb.

BERLIN 1/22

…And naturally, we had to be up at freaking 7 in the morning and get in the bloody van and drive across half of…well, western Europe, anyway, to Berlin. We had had a highly entertaining time after the show, tho’ Dom & I got back to the hotel around 3, still, that wake up came way too soon. Tho we could sleep in the van, and did, we never really could wake up. As soon as soundcheck was done, and Frank Weber’s distinctive Plexiglas guitars were auditioned, and highly mediocre Asian food was dutifully eaten, we all sprawled on the dressing room couches and slept until about 5 minutes before we were to go on. Of course, there was no water backstage, and due to the nasty oversalted aforementioned Thai-like cuisine, I was dying of thirst. I drank as much Fanta as I could stomach. And went to the ready room, and had an entire bottle of Evian, and it still wasn’t enough. I had the impression during the show of sweating backwards, of absorbing ambient moisture (that which wasn’t frozen, as outside it was approaching minus 20 C, thanks to a Siberian cold front) and then having that dry up like a wadi in me somewhere. I didn’t need to pee til like the next day…and that includes our activity after the show…a nearly wild goose chase to find the Seattle Seahawks championship game being broadcast somewhere. We, with help of the hotel’s front desk (the hotel Estrel which is in fact purported to be the largest hotel in Europe) located a bar that was open, at 1.30 in the morning, and cabbed as a group there. They dialed in the correct Premier Sport Channel, and tho’ the commentary was in German, we could hear the helmets clacking and the coaches foaming at the mouth and all that good stuff, and by 4.30, we had a Seattle team going to the Super Bowl. Now—this is important—if anyone knows of a Sports Bar in Rome that will be showing the Super Bowl, you will be my guest at the White Flag show on Feb. 5, and drinks are on me!! I am serious!

HAMBURG 1/23

S…i….b…er….i….an Cold Front…k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k (sound of teeth rattling)…so cold my blood retreated from my limbs, like the animated, nearly sentient blood in ‘the Thing’. We were checked in to the best hotel of the tour (Le Meridien, thank you Kurt, and thank you Niko!) so we spent as much time lounging there as possible—I even skipped dinner and lived off a sandwich made at soundcheck time). We headed down to the club with great difficulty, all the oil in our joints and connectors was freezing solid….so, tired, cold, funky sounding club. So, it wasn’t our best show by any means. Of course, there was a friend/fan from back in the day, whom we hadn’t seen in ten years, and thus I didn’t recognize, who was in the front row, who was having a good time to be sure. But, when we attempted to play ‘Beautiful One’ I believe she was over the line—talking loudly (which was a distraction to me and an annoyance to anyone hoping to actually hear the song) through the whole intro and first verse. So I stopped the song, told her to shut it, and tried again. And she got out a lighter and did the Scorp’ s concert thing, which was so tacky I stopped the song and we switched tracks to ‘Fucking Liar’. Really, we just wanted to get out of there, at that point, we had played a set that was not what we thought was our best, and I doubt anyone who’d seen us before would disagree. So, by this, the second song of a two song encore, we sort of felt like it was time to cut our losses, and boot scoot to the hotel to rest our weary bones in the hopes we would arise refreshed and ready to deliver the real goods the next day. While selling merch I was lectured by the woman above. I had little sympathy at that point. You want to shut off my compassion valve, make an ass out of yourself in the front row of a show I’m playing, and see how much sympathy you get from me or the people behind you. And when you say the show belongs to the audience more than the performer, and that I should defer to their wishes, and you mean yours—take those wishes and cram ‘em where the onions won’t grow. You are being a selfish jerk and confusing your ego-trip wish to be special with the wishes of the audience to see the band/.artist just do what they do best. Get over yourself.

MUNSTER 1/24

Time heals all wounds? No, 12 hours of sleep does. Well, I got a good 9 , and in an INCREDIBLE bed at that, and got up for a healthy breakfast (the breakfast room at Le Meridien has a stunning view of the famous lakes in the city’s center—which were icy and piercingly beautiful that morning), went BACK to sleep for a 30 minute digestive catnap, and then for a swim, and a sauna, and a Jacuzzi…I was pretty damn prepped for anything coming our way. And, coming our way, was the venerable Gleiss 22, nearly named after a line in ‘Chattanooga Choo Choo’. Gleiss 22 is part of kind of activity center that houses, in addition to this incr3edibly well-run bar/venue, various studios for various activities---photography, metal working, woodworking, bike repair, music rehearsal, all for lo lo cost, like a couple of euros per hour. And the building isn’t that big, either. But it’s all in there. The venue is small, to be sure, 150 people in there and it’s packed. Low-ceiling’d stage, and the dressing room isn’t accessible while bands are onstage. Cozy. The booking is in much more international perspective than the average German venue—again, proximity to Holland and Belgium works in its favor—hence, Gleiss 22 hosted the only German date of the Posies acoustic tour, and had the good taste to have me open solo for White Flag in 2002. Our show was no disappointment. Packed house, a one-time rendition of ‘What Little Remains’, and a recently discovered stash of tour posters to sell. Via an email to this website, a fan requested we wish a happy birthday to her friend who was to be in attendance that night. And, gracious guy that I am, I did---I even dedicated a song to him! My reward—a ten minute lecture on how much the Big Star record sucks (in that very Germanic, ‘You didn’t ask for my opinion but I am going to spend way too much time giving it to you’ way) and how cool it would be if all the Posies catalogue was re-recorded with arrangements a la Pet Sounds. What the..?? You’re fucking welcome, prick! What kind of gracious good humor your momma give to somebody else when she was stuffing a bottle full of prick juice in your mouth?

BRUSSELS 1/25

With great excitement, we bobbled over the cobblestones of Brussels to the beloved Botanique (Posies 1998, Ks solo in the ‘Rotonde’ 2001 & 2004) and soon after that Dominique and Aden arrived! My girl was taller yet than when I had left just 12 days before. A joyful reunion indeed. Over an EXCELLENT dinner (I’m afraid I just eat the best in Francophone environments) of barely singed steak, which I happily shared with Aden (who also pilfered at least half of my frites), there we laughs, squeaks, and a great dinner theater show of Aden flirting with all the nearby tables. The show was truly packed, several hundred folks. They didn’t move around a ton, but they loved us nonetheless and we gave a world class rock & roll evening—afterwards, we sold a record amount of stuff for the tour (well for this leg anyway) and retired in good health to our hotel, where Aden showed me her talent for drawing (on paper, on the phone, on the table) and we even managed to get a little sleep in.

LONDON 1/26

Up at 7 for a quick breakfast with the family, and then in the van for the haul over the channel to London. This was to be a VERY quick visit. We checked in to the hotel, where I checked my email for an hour and then cabbed down to the Garage. History: excellent Posies shows in 1993 (last show of the Teenage Fanclub tour, we headlined a sellout crowd with the Gigolo Aunts in support), 1994 (two nights, with support from the Steamkings, Eugenius and Drugstore! Put that in your history tome and smoke it); acoustic show in 2000 (with Russian Caravan, featuring my friends Kite and Fly as support). And numerous Jon and/or Ken shows in 2001 upstairs. We had a very curry up the road; spoke to Bucketful of Brains zine, got some new shoes (thanks Neil!) and rocked the shite out of the assembled Britons. We had a very nice party in the adjacent bar afterwards, I saw many old and new friends, and despite the fact that somebody, presumably a fan stole the display T-shirts of the wall during our set, had a great night of sales at the merch table.

ZWOLLE 1/27

I was so tired when I got up at 5.30 that it didn’t even register how tired I was. I didn’t drink too much at the party, so I actually felt OK. I knew a long van ride was ahead for beauty rest catching up. By 6.40 we were on the road. Got on a ferry about 9.30. you can’t stay in your vehicle so I went up and had an English breakfast and watched the rolling, spraying waves. On the previous day’s crossing, I went to the upper deck and observed the sea and its deep green glass colors firsthand.

We stopped in Venlo to get some gear, I then went back to sleep and by the time we pulled up to the Hedon, a cultural center in the tiny town of Zwolle (whose center is an ancient fortress in the classic medieval European shape), I had gotten a good 7-9 hours sleep all told. I felt great! Now, I had never even heard of Zwolle before we had a show booked there, but I was pleased to see presales were strong and what the hey, when do you have a bad show in Holland? With state-funded cultural centers, no corners are cut, but with that European thrifty mindset, nothing is wasted either. I didn’t care for the chili they made for us, so I went across the street and had awesome BBQ ribs (no complaint, just needed some pure meat protein). Anyway, this was the best show of the tour thus far. No doubt, the best audience of the tour. People jumping, shoutin’, plus we were called back for 2-3 encore bits, and just got hyped…we were throwing ourselves and whale-like screechy guitar sounds every which direction. The Posies’ web designer, Taylor, was getting her Minnesota beer-high on, and spilled lager on our t shirt display (we donated the two shirts to the in-house charity auction…) but we moved some units nonetheless, and as a fantastic reward, I slept in today, waking without an alarm clock, at 12.25. Only 150km to go today to Eindhoven, so we didn’t even have to leave the hotel til 2pm. Home stretch, baby!

Love
KS
On the highway to Eindhoven, NETHERLANDS

1.15.2006

IIIIIIIT’S….BAAAAACK

The Posies, that they are.

INNSBRUCK, 1/14

We all assembled from our different holiday retreats—Paris; Seattle; Peebles, Scotland: some island off Holland; and assembled in Innsbruck on Friday the 13th. For my part, I flew out of Orly (again, anything to avoid the Mon Oncle bordel of Charles de Gaulle) on the Slovak-based Sky Europe airlines (thumbs up) direct to Innsbruck (free wifi!). Jon, our trusted tech Joe (you can say roadie, he don’t mind…) and Darius flew to Zurich via Amsterdam from Seattle. Our tour manager Jan drove the Highway Tiger van from Holland, picked up the gear in Germany, and picked the others up in Zurich and drove all to Innsbruck. Matt flew from Edinburgh to Geneva, and our friend Elvira gave him a lift to Innsbruck and stuck around for the show. Oddly, we all arrived within just a couple of hours of each other.

We all arrived the night before—I would have flown in the day of the show but there are only flights every other day. Our promoter, Justin, who put on my show at his Weekender Night at the same venue (Nu.Topia) just a week and a half before, and his lovely family hosted all of us, including our manager Marc who hopped a ride with the others from Zurich, plus a dinner was had with Justin’s partner in watts, DJ Andi Superstar, and FM4’s own DJ Eva who came out to see the Posies first Austrian rock gig (and played lots of KS and Posies on the radio, thank you!). About 10 minutes into this lovely dinner, I didn’t feel well, and had to excuse myself. I went upstairs and laid down on a couch…and woke up at 10.30 the next morning! I don’t know what it was, homesickness, perhaps. But it knocked me out and not on a Technicality. Felt fine in the morning tho.

Back to the old routines—hotel check in; merch count in; bang on stuff. Sounded good…the PA at Nu.topia is small, and Matt’s bass amp blew up in the first 2 minutes of soundcheck (you should have seen what we put together for him—it worked well, tho).

To our pleasant surprise—we played like wet lightning (huh?) from the gate, and put quite a few folks in the room in a good mood…no surprises in the set, but we did kinda move the order around, and that was enough to make it freshen up a bit in our minds. Good!

Love
KS
Schorndorf GERMANY

1.11.2006

2005 KS SHOW STATS...TRAINSPOTTERS ONLY!!!!

I played 207 shows in 2005 (not counting little acoustic sets in record stores and radio stations---generally I am talking about full length concerts – for some reason, I am counting the Posies full band instore at Easy Street records in Seattle but not the acoustic set Jon & I did at Plato records in Utrecht. I am counting Briskeby’s appearances in November where I joined them onstage as a show even tho my part in it was only one song (of course, there were two of these in one night, and I count them as one…) but most of these shows are straightforward. When I say Posies shows, I mean concerts with all four Posies; I count the acoustic show Jon & I did in Madrid as an ‘other’.

OK—totals for 2005: I played 82 REM shows, 10 solo shows, 112 Posies shows, and 3 ‘other’ shows (the night Jon & I performed with the house band and DJ’d for the Sonic Magazine party in Stockholm in November; the Briskeby night in Oslo in November; and the acoustic show Jon & I did in Madrid last month).

These shows took place in 30 countries on 5 continents…

Country by country breakdown:

Australia: 7 REM, 6 KS (13 total)
Austria: 2 REM
Belgium: 2 REM, 4 Posies (6 total)
Canada: 2 Posies
Croatia: 1 REM
Czech Republic: 1 REM
Denmark: 2 REM, 1 Posies (3 total)
Estonia: 1 REM
Finland: 1 REM, 4 Posies (5 total)
France: 2 REM, 4 Posies (6 total)
Germany: 10 REM, 7 Posies (17 total)
Hong Kong (China): 1 REM
Hungary: 1 REM
Ireland: 3 REM, 4 Posies (7 total)
Italy: 4 REM, 6 Posies (10 total)
Japan: 3 REM
Latvia: 1 REM
Liechtenstein: 1 KS
Netherlands: 2 REM, 3 Posies (5 total)
New Zealand: 2 REM, 2 KS (4 total)
Norway: 3 REM, 5 Posies, 1 other (9 total)
Portugal: 1 REM
Serbia: 1 REM
Slovenia: 1 REM
South Africa: 5 REM, 1 KS (6 total)
Spain: 6 REM, 10 Posies, 1 other (17 total)
Sweden: 2 REM, 3 Posies, 1 other (6 total)
Switzerland: 3 REM, 3 Posies (6 total)
United Kingdom: 14 REM, 13 Posies (27 total)
United States: 43 Posies
Vatican City: none, but I went there!

By continent:

Africa: 6 (5 REM, 1 KS)
Asia: 4 REM
Australasia: 17 (9 REM, 8 KS)
Europe: 135 (64 REM, 67 Posies, 1 KS, 3 other)
North America: 45 Posies

By month:

January: 16 REM
February: 17 REM
March: 14 REM, 1 KS (15 total)
April: 4 REM, 8 KS (12 total)
May: 4 REM, 2 Posies (6 total)
June: 19 REM
July: 8 REM, 10 Posies (18 total)
August: 12 Posies
September: 23 Posies
October: 25 Posies
November: 24 Posies, 2 other (26 total)
December: 1 KS, 16 Posies, 1 other (18 total)

Interesting, eh? You can see that the USA saw by a long shot more shows than any other country, but paled in comparison with how many shows I played in Europe as a whole. It's also surprising considering that Sweden and Finland are among the countries where the music I make is most popular, that I spent more time in Italy than either of the aforementioned. Also interesting that the months where both REM and the Posies had activity were not the busiest months for me.

Love
KS
Paris

1.10.2006

VIENNA 1/4

The painlessness of these solo shows, I tell ya. Costs are incredibly lo (I think my out of pocket expense for these shows was limited to my shuttle fare to CDG, €24. I pay for the Ken Stringfellow CDs I sell at the shows, but I price them enough to make a profit), I get my own hotel room, I often travel alone and on a mode of trans. much more civilized than a van full of dudes. No physical trauma, no earplugs, and no lifting equipment—I walked home from the Gare de Lyon, 15 minutes from my home, with all my luggage and gear for this trip—a tiny black bag with toiletries and other personal effects; and a guitar. On the flight to Vienna I had two guitars (I left one in Innsbruck as I am returning there this week for a Posies show), the aforementioned bag and a box of 75 CDs (all gone!). Easy! No one gets pissed off because their club is full of the rubble of a furious punk show, no backline gets broken. At the end of the tour I come home with a wallet so fat with cash I have to have a seamstress on hand to get it out of my pocket. On this occasion I was proud to hand Dominque a stack of €100 notes for butter n’ egg money. No crew, no merch table competition…ahhh. All the credit, all the glory, all the champagne.

I arrived to VIE on Air Berlin, which, as budget airline go, was quite good—I am really starting to enjoy CDG T3—the rest of France’s flagship airport is a bit tired and certainly large, confusing and often unhelpful. Plus the collapsing roof thing. You won’t find that in T3—T3 is cute. Off the beaten path. The bistro, say, to the rest of CDG’s noisy brasserie.

Enough of that. I was greeted by my Austrian connections: Justin, Andi and Robert; the first two being the ones responsible for promoting my Innsbruck show; Robert is who I have to thank for the invitation to Vienna. Let it not be said that Robert is a fellow without ambitions—he acts, plays music, puts on shows, and has a label. And he has good hair and fluffy coat! The three aforementioned people are doing lots of good things for their towns no debate there.

My solo debut in Austria was eventful to say the least; I went directly from the airport to PulsTV for a hilarious interview with a woman who perhaps had the straightest posture I have ever seen. She asked me some really weird q’s and I performed one minute’s worth of ‘Any Love’ and we were done! I had makeup applied beforehand, tho…which was kept for that night’s performance! After the TV, I went to FM4, the young person’s national radio, which has nothing to do with Benjamin Britten by any means. I did a few songs, and chatted about various musical subjects, and all went very smoothly. And I soon discovered Austria, esp. Vienna, has the best coffee in Europe—OK, start sending the hate mail now!

I checked into my incredibly large hotel room—I could have sublet the bathtub—and then we made the soundcheck at the B72; went for your very Viennese boiled beef for dinner; then I came back and found the B72 (one of those half-barrel shaped storage dens under an elevated railway) packed to the rafters/gills/what have you. I guess the media hat trick (there was also a massive piece in Der Standard, the big big daily—by the way, thanks to Klaus Hoffmann for help on the ground!) paid off. And lo and behold, we had a Ken Stringfellow show on our hands. Musical guests pulled out of the audience; a very long improvisation about an undersexed vegan (eventually done as a round in two parts!); some Sinatra reworkings; trying to climb up to the balcony a la Eddie Vedder; multiple rounds of ‘happy birthday’; sounds terrible, but, honestly, people loved it! I sold a record 31 CDs at this one show (let the bar be raised—this trumps any Posies show—see what I meant up in paragraph one?)

It went late, and in fact, they wouldn’t let me stop! Good stuff.

INNSBRUCK 1/5

It is a tour rule that the nicer the hotel, the earlier you will have to leave. So, despite wanting to sleep in and enjoy my posh digs at Le Meridien Wien, we hit the road at 9 in the ‘Weekender Club’ van for the very long drive to Innsbruck. We rolled into town in the mid afternoon, and Justin put me up at his lovely Tyrolean hideaway, leaving me to his device (that is, a wifi-enabled laptop) and then came and grabbed me for soundcheck in the evening. Tonight’s show was a bit of a car chase, with me avoiding some of the louder folks whilst pursuing the magical artist-audience synergy that separates the good shows from the great ones. After playing from various parts of the floor, stage, etc., we finally got down to business. Landscape Izuma, the talented young man who opened both Austrian dates, joined me for a dreamy ‘Moon River’. I played standing up; I dragged the audience around the room, looking like a parade dragon at one point. Worked for me!

CRANS-MONTANA 1/6

Up at 7, on the train at 8: I guess Justin’s place is pretty nice in light of how short my stay was…

But the train journey to Sierre, Switzerland, was gorgeous, for the most part. And though I had to take 4 different trains, I still slept a bit, did some sightseeing (really, you’d have to do a lot of sight-ignoring to avoid being awestruck by the geography of the Alps). In the afternoon, I was dropped off in Sierre, which I soon discovered was in the Rhone valley. That vine-laden river begins somewhere in the vicinity of where I was to play tonight. There is a fantastic amount of viticulture in the area; the slopes are covered with 60 degree slanted vineyards. Covered in snow at present, which looks odd. Also, the Rhone here is fed by some hot springs, so it steams, and covers the trees along its banks with a lovely sugaring of frost.

So, my friend Raphael picked me up for the zip up to the winter sports playground of Crans-Montana (yes, there is a Buda and Pest here, the two villages are cojoined at the roundabout). Intense views of the valley and the Alps leading to Italy and France from up here. And some chalets that are, to say the least, probably pretty expensive to heat.

So, I was shown the two towns, checked in to the hotel, shown the venue, took an apero of local wine, checked my email, went for a great dinner: fondue and viande seche and local sweet wine (and a little digestif afterwards). A big vat of cheese, into which you dip bread, or you ladle some out onto a pile of potatoes—it sounds like it would be filling to the point of rupture—but, there is a strange effect in that you have to accommodate others in the same plate, so you have to go at a slower pace than you might devour something on your own, so…you acknowledge being full perhaps sooner than otherwise. You have to have a pause in the action to take those kinds of measurements.

By this time is was after 10pm and I hadn’t even soundchecked…so we went back to venue and I set up my stuff, and went up to my tiny dressing room. Lo and behold my favorite brand of bubbly bev, Drappier, is a sponsor of the festival that my promoters tonight also organize, and thus I had a guaranteed pipeline of the golden stuff (I didn’t have any til the break between sets, but after the show, the hospitality of the locals really kicked in and we went thru gallons of the stuff—but in a social setting, mind you!

Admission for this show, at the Sporting Club, which is a 1940s gentleman-ly lodge, with occasional touches of 1970s updates (somehow it makes sense Roger Moore is a neighbor, there’s a kind of generation ‘les annees 1960s-1970s’ vibe to the area, which, the sons and daughters of said gen. are trying to update with cultural events—hence my appearance!), was free. So, that usually means attendees reserve the right to get drunk and talk as loudly as possible during your show. No exceptions here! I gathered around a knot of interested parties, and above the din of general Friday night chatter I played, with some effort, and some success, about 10 songs. I took a little break and said I would play more later. I went up to my room, had a glass of champers, and returned determined to rise above and make a connection. Somehow, the second set was effortlessly better. Those interested in getting hammered moved on to other bars, and those who were hammered and stayed were at least interesting about it! And my knot of interested folks stabilized at 40 or 50, and we had a ball. Covers, original songs, a guest guitarist (we did ‘Keep on Rockin’ in the Free World’!) I had set up the last Soft Commands for the trip at the bar, but none had sold by the break. So, I brought a handful up to the stage, 5 to be exact—and during one emotional song someone had bought the lot and left CHF125 by my foot!! I ended up selling all my copies, but that’s not the important part—the important part is that we--audience, staff and me—we bonded, connected and made that magic thing happen. I drank Drappier and listened to terrible jokes til 4…slept for a matter of minutes at the hotel, and took a TGV direct to Paris Gare de Lyon at 7.40am!! Back in time for lunch!

Posies kickstart again this week…bon courage a moi.

Love
KS
Paris

1.03.2006

A WHOLE LOTTA SLATE DUST IS CHOKING OUR RIVERS AND STREAMS

That's alright. My only resolution this year is to be less sardonic, insulting, etc. That's it.

You should check out:

'Precious Lines' by A.M. O'Grady. Ms. O'Grady supported the Posies Irish tour dates last summer; I play keyboards, guitar, and sing many harmonies on this album. So? So, the songs are beautiful...the production is incredibly inviting, and it's a wonderful record. Go to www.amogrady.com and get one.

'The Marconi Sessions 2005'. A compilation of 5 tracks performed live on Studio Brussel, a great national radio in Belgium. The Posies perform 'That Don't Fly', part of the live concert we performed at the station last November that was subsequently broadcast. A variety of European artists also contribute tracks. Only available in Belgium, tho, so you'll have to hunt it down!

VADUZ, 12/31/05

I will fully admit that you had to be there, and you weren't. I know who was, and you weren't them. Except for you, you, you, you, and you. I had, honestly, the most enjoyable New Year's Eve out that I can remember having in a long, long time. I spent the last one in, and that was wonderful, with my family. I spent 2002-3 mostly in, in by 11.30. That was a weird one. 2003-2004 I was out in Paris and it was fun until I painted Dom's friends, an elevator and a significant part of the 20th Arrondissement a delightful shade of barf. Anyway...this was a great night with friends, strangers, music, champagne and wine (but not too much), food, and an ominous castle up above my head.

Liechtenstein, you can read about the history on the country's website which I believe is liechtenstein.li, google it, anyway you'll find it. There was a noble (meaning they owned land, and I believe, at one point, quite a bit of it) family, and eventually thru favors and falling out of favors, wars, and the extinction of branches of the tree, they end up as a very wealthy family that owns, among other things, a country, and a castle to boot. The country of Liechtenstein is basically a pretty big mountain, very steep, in the shape of a skinny shark's tooth, an arrowhead pointing north. People live along the sides, and somewhere way up over the edge of the mountain I saw, from the west, there is a plateau with a river and there's some tiny mountain villages and ski resorts and what not. Then, Austria. Switzerland, of course, on the other side. Vaduz is on the Swiss (Western) side. In fact, what forms the border that I crossed is no less than the Rhine itself...The country has maybe 30,000 or so people. I don't think Vaduz could have more than 5 or 10 thousand. I'd have to almanac that to be sure tho. I played at a smart little bar and restaurant called B'eat. Tiny stage...many friends and fans coming from Germany, Spain, France, Mexico...and there were some locals too. Of course, Our Manager Who Art in Grabs, Marc Bernegger, and his family are from nearby (his dad, in fact, now resides in Liechtenstein) and Marc put this show together.

Was it my most intense, professional show? Hell, no! It was New Year's Eve! I played lots of covers, and people talked at full volume and shot confetti in my hair. It was great! I didn't drink too much, I woke up the next feeling pretty good, and that helps when you have and hour and half worth of trains and an hour flight (and a 20 minute cabride) home the next day.

Ok...I am already looking for another tiny nation to host me for Dec. 31, 2006...Malta? Mauritius? Monaco? I'll be there!

Love
KS
Paris

The latest release by Ken Stringfellow is a split EP with Spain's Muy Fellini, featuring never-heard-before music incl. Ken's take on Bob Dylan, released by
King of Patio records
in Spain on Oct 8, 2009.

Order it directly from Muy Fellini here www.myspace.com/muyfellini
10" VINYL ONLY!!!