10/14/01

Fredericia, Denmark

After this last month of traveling in Europe, it's hard to believe I'll actually be home in a couple of days. It's been a wonderful tour. I've made some great new friends, deepened some older friendships, played a whole lot of music, and really enjoyed the time. On this run I've played in several towns in Germany, Northern Ireland, England and Denmark. I also burned a few days in Paris and in Karlstad, Sweden, where a sort-of adopted niece of mine is studying for a year. I've been very pleased with the reception I've had this year. It looks like things are really building here, especially in Germany, where my friend Kenny Legendre has been acting as my agent. He's done an amazing job of putting these tours together, and we're already talking about how we can do it again next year.


l'Arc de Triomphe down the Champs-Elysées

If you want to check out pictures and hear more about the tour, I've got a little travelogue set up, which I'll be adding to in the next couple of weeks.

I'll be home for ten days before heading out again in the U.S, but it looks like I'll be hitting the ground running. We're finishing up work on the new album in the next couple of weeks, and are still hoping to have it out by Thanksgiving. The big news there is that it looks like it's going to be a double album! There was just too much stuff that I didn't want to cut out, so it's going to be a long one. About twenty-one songs, and some stage banter and general silliness. I don't want to give it all away quite yet, but it will include several songs that some of you have been asking me to record for a long time. The working title is "Good Tar." Yeah, I know that's kind of strange, but when you hear it, you'll understand. It will be two CDs in a normal-width CD case, so that it will fit in the new 6-CD box set, which we'll also be debuting at Thanksgiving. I guess that really makes it a 7-CD box set, huh? We'll start accepting pre-orders in a couple of weeks, so keep an eye on the web-site.

I'll also be going to a couple of weddings while I'm home, one of which is my sister Kathy's. That will be great fun. It's hard to lose her from Black Mountain, and from the office after three years of working together, but Eric's a great guy, and they seem very happy. Rachel's doing a super job in the office, too. It's been great to be here and know that things are moving along fine at home.

After the weddings and the CD production work I'll be on the road again in the U.S., heading to Missouri, Arkansas, Michigan, Wisconsin, Colorado, New Mexico and Texas before Thanksgiving. Always good to come home and rest up some. :) Strange to think of all that coming up, and still be here in Europe.


got to sit in on a pub jam near Belfast after a gig one night

All this in the context of the war, of course. I was scheduled to leave for this tour three days after the bombing, and actually left three days after that. The war has been so tragic in so many ways already, and I fear that so much more tragedy is in store. I continue to pray that we can have the wisdom to look beyond our own personal needs to feel like we're taking action, and instead take the time to figure out which actions will be constructive. So often the most real and enduring progress is slow and non-dramatic, but I continue to believe that peacemaking is far from naive. Peacemaking, efforts toward communication and understanding across the lines of hatred, is the only thing that is truly practical in the long run. Gathering international perspective as I've traveled has been a rare treasure, and I feel like my understanding of this and other international conflicts is deepening.

Funny how things come back around. In college I majored in psychology and concentrated on conflict resolution, creating some independent study and interning at a mediation center near my university. I can think of nothing more important to study, and remain amazed that those skills are not taught at any point in our educational system. Now I've spent the month in Europe talking with so many people about this conflict and all of our roles in it as, of all things, a musician.

Of course, central to my belief in regard to peacemaking is that none of us has all of the truth. Intelligent and integrious people may be taught very different things by their lives, and I'm learning from friends and strangers who feel very differently about what is best for our country to do now. What I'm clear on, though, is that all of us need to be learning more, and talking about how we see this. That's the only way that democracy works.

I hope you're all well and growing through this time. I'll look forward to the next time our paths cross. Keep in touch.

Peace,

David