Back in Sweden now and trying to adjust back to recording mode. I came back from England armed with some new recording software that I am excited to try. Not that I am intending to make a complicated album, far from it, I just want to get a good sound. The improvement was instant, but yet another learning curve to grapple with.

Last week end I was in Germany for a folk festival in Venne near Osnabruck, and a lovely little show in Wedemark near Hannover.

Flying out of Stockholm Arlanda with 3 instruments, the logistics were complicated; the guitar went in a soft bag in the overhead lockers, the cello had it’s own ticket, Mr Cello Cello, (should have been Mrs really) and the mandolin went inside a big suitcase. I then hired a car in Dusseldorf and set off. It had been -7C early that mornng in Arlanda, now it was a beautiful warm spring day.

The festival was lovely, I met a lot of good people there and also had a meeting with my record company where we planned out a rough release schedule for the album. Performers and public sat around a big open log fire into the small hours, talking, drinking and staring into the hot embers.

The show in Wedemark organized by Imago was in an old barn, an earth floor, no chairs, no heating, in fact the barn doors were wide open on both sides. The audience had all been primed to bring folding chairs, and sure enough, just half an hour before I started playing, they came drifting in from all directions. We were blest with a very warm evening, the barn was full and the audience with their deck chairs spilled out onto the grass.

Photos by Andreas Mikonaut.