I am getting ready for the long spring tour in Germany. Fifteen dates and the first ten run without a break. Again I am playing a wide variety of venues; a castle, a couple of monasteries, a blues club, a village hall (‘Dorfgemeinschaftshaus’ in German, one of the few German words I know), an art gallery, a ‘culture house’, a field, a church and a whole bunch of house concerts. Life is never dull. Around five of the shows will be outdoors and I am pleased to see that the weather forecast is looking good, so far.
This tour also coincides with the asparagus season in Germany. At this time of year you can’t drive anywhere without coming across asparagus stalls, posters and even giant statues of asparagus. The restaurants even have a special asparagus menu. Germans like their asparagus, just as well I do too.
I am looking forward to going out on the road again. I did not use the piano on my last tour in Denmark but I will be taking it on this tour and also playing quite a few real acoustic pianos along the way. There are some songs that only really work well with a piano. I will also be taking the cello and mandolin of course and for the first time, I will have the 12 string guitar with me. This is a beautiful instrument and adds a lot of power to some of the songs.

After this, England in July.

May – June Germany tour 1
Fri 20 Flensburg house concert
Sat 21 Flensburg house concert
Sun 22 Schleswig St Johanneskloster
Mon 23 Schleswig house concert
Tue 24 Izehoe house concert
Wed 25 Flensburg St Johanneskirche
Thu 26 Stolpe Gemeindchaftshaus
Fri 27 Bad Doberan Kornhaus
Sat 28 Winsen/Luhe Hofkunst
Sun 29 Bad Bentheim Home Gallery Daniel
Wed 1 June Hannover Blues Club Zum Sterne
Thu, 2 Wegendorf (Berlin) house concert
Fri 3 Halberstadt house concert
Sat 4 Schloss Goseck
Sun 5 Ruederdorf (Berlin) Kulturhaus
For more info https://www.raycooper.org/shows/
Photo Kerstin Maier