September 28, 2003
Bad Kreuznach, Germany

It's 1:20 AM and I'm still not quite wound down from the first concert on my 2003 German tour. It was a sold-out crowd (though a smallish room) and they gave me two encores in spite of my pitiful attempts at speaking German between songs. I warned the folks early on that my German is pretty rough, but encouraged them not to fear, as I have in my posession a Jiffy German phrase book that assures me on the back cover that it contains "All the German phrases you'll need." I regaled the poor unsuspecting volks with flawless renditions of such charming phrases as "Do you have anything for seasickness?" and "Could you cut my hair a little shorter?" They particularly appreciated the latter.

I have nine shows in nine German towns in the next couple of weeks, and I'm traveling in style on the way. The tour is sponsored by Opel Manufacturing, a European car maker, and they've provided me with a wonderful van that I've dubbed "Hans der Schwarze Transporter" (schwarze meaning black). It's a good ride, and as you see below, they've tricked it out with good decorations.

The best thing about the van, though, I must say, is the navigation system. On last year's tour here I spent a good forty minutes circling Frankfurt looking for my gig, all the time within a mile or two of the venue. This year I have a pleasant and patient little voice saying "Turn left 100 yards ahead." I type in the address of the venue and off I go, guided step by step. Much as I love Dan the Tan Van, I have to say his European cousin has him trumped here. The best part was that Johnny, my twelve-year-old friend, figured out how to make it speak English. Life is good.

I hadn't been in Germany for twenty-four hours when I received the master of my new CD by FedEx from Colorado. I'm really excited about it, and can hardly wait for the release parties in November. The art is all but finalized, and the enhanced content is about done, too, so we should be able to send it off to be manufactured this week or early next week. I confess that as excited as I am about the music, at the moment I'm about as enamored with the enhanced content as with anything. Here's the scoop: if you pop the CD in your CD player it will play like any other, but if you put it in your computer you'll be able to access a music video, guitar chord charts for three of the songs on the record and MP3 audio for thirteen extra tracks. Twelve of those are the original "living room demos" of the songs that ended up on the record, just me and my guitar. I love the more produced songs, but if you'd like to hear them as they started, they're there on the CD for you to burn or listen to as you choose. There's also an alternate version of the song "Chances," with just piano and vocal. We decided to go with the guitar-based version for the actual record, but I wanted to share this version with you, too. Chris Rosser and I put it down live at 2AM one night while we were finishing up mixing the record.

And I guess I should mention that it's now available for pre-order at a discount ($12 instead of $15) for October. And if you pre-order you not only get it cheaper, but you get to have it as soon as we do, even if we get it before the release parties.

We've updated a few things through the site - some new chords for songs, a new music video (for Miss You from the new record), etc. Check out "What's New" for all the details.

Deanna's coming over on the eleventh and we're going to noodle around France for a week before I come home and jump back into the pre-release flurry of activity. The release shows should be LOTS of fun, by the way (Asheville, Charlotte, Raleigh, Atlanta and DC). Munchies and discounts and a laptop set up to check out the enhanced content, and even some guest musicians playing with me in places. Stay tuned...

Well the night is finally catching up with me, so I'll sign off. Thanks for checking in. I'll look forward to our paths crossing again, on whichever continent and in whatever van.

Peace,

David