I’m up in Jämtland doing 6 shows. It’s an 8 hour drive north from where I live in what used to be the south of Lapland.
Back to snow and ice but accompanied by blazing sunshine.

Last night I was in Revsund doing a little gig put on by Gustav Hylen, the trumpet player from the excellent group Hoven Droven, who you could say are the Swedish equivalent of Oysterband. Gustav also produces Triakel, my favourite Swedish folk act. Both bands are label mates with me on Westpark Music.
I was on the radio yesterday in Östersund recording 3 songs in the sumptuous SR studio. They has a nice Bechstein grand piano there.
I woke up this morning to the realisation that I am the only guest in the hotel, a big log building that is probably used more in the summer. They treated me like a king. I didn’t mind a bit.

It is beautiful here, see the view from the hotel. The land opposite across the frozen lake is the island of Ammerön, over 50 km round.

And here (click here to hear it) is the recording of yesterday’s radio show for P4 Jämtland in Östersund. It’s all in Swedish but there are 2 songs I had recorded just a few minutes earlier. The first is the title track from the new album Palace Of Tears which tells about some of my memories of being in the former DDR, East Germany. The second is I Kiss The Night from my first album. This one has a special resonance up here. I wrote a song to a traditional melody from Jämtland only to find out much later that it was their national song!

Dodging reindeer and elk today. I just played in Funäsdalen, up in the mountains by the Norwegian border. When I saw the reindeer road sign I didn’t really expect to see any. How wrong was that?