Essays & Road Stories  |  Postcards from the Past

November 2002
Hawaii To Belgium & Back

Hey kids:

After that, I was back home just long enough to get over the jet lag before heading to Europe. The trip began the same day I arrived with a set at the wonderful Beersel Blues Festival right outside of Brussels, Belgium.  The stage was right at the foot of an 800-year-old castle. Now there’s something you don’t see every day!  After the festival, I hopped a train for Germany, where I played four club dates and attempted, without much success, to resurrect my atrophied high school German “skills.” My home base while in Deutschland was at the home of the intrepid Walter Muller; out in the country in the lovely village of Kofferen, just a few miles from the equally lovely village of Titz. I am not making that up. Walter put the German part of the tour together and I played the final date at his club on a wonderful 100-year-old English music hall piano. On my day off, I visited the Beethoven House in Bonn. Ol’ Ludwig was born in that house, and the place was filled with an interesting collection of artifacts from the course of his life. Very cool. I returned to Brussels the day before the flight home, where a couple of the local music writers and radio guys showed me the town in style. We visited the Brussels Musical Instrument Museum, and dug some Hapsburg era architecture. Then I partook of a few Belgian endives, ate some escargot from a street-cart vendor, saw the famed “Mannekin Pis,” purchased Belgian chocolate for Karen, and sat in on the funky old upright piano at the Bizon Blues Bar. I also got to witness the amazing spectacle of my hosts effortlessly switching from Flemish to French to English, depending on whom they were talking to. Personally, I have enough trouble speaking just one language!

Then it was another trip home and another jet-lag recovery, after which I headed directly north for a gig at the Rio Theatre in Santa Cruz, CA where I opened for the amazing Paul Thorn.  This was followed by a quick trip to Davis, where Karen and I helped out our good friend Dave Nachmanoff at his CD Release concert at the Davis Arts Center.  It was his new children’s album – so I tried my best not to scare the kids.  I sat benignly at the piano and said as little as possible.  It worked.  Mostly.  We also got to meet Dave and Jen’s brand new baby, Sophia.  Karen headed back down to L.A. to continue her lawyering duties, and I pressed on further north to the Aladdin Theatre in Portland, OR, where I opened for rock and roll legend and former lead singer of The Animals and War, Eric Burdon.  That crowd was on fire!  There’s nothing like a Portland audience when they’re motivated.

Back home, I did a show at the intimate and wonderful Canyon Theatre, which is actually in someone’s backyard in the hills of Tujunga.  Man, if I had one of those in my backyard, I’d never leave the house!

Now, as I write this current missive, I am sitting in the Ramada Hotel in Edmond, OK. This weekend I opened for Arlo Guthrie at the Blue Door in OK City.  As you can imagine, it was packed beyond belief.  The audience was quite wonderful, Arlo did a great set, and I even got to meet Woody Guthrie’s sister!  Big night for the Bobster.  Last night I headlined at the UCO Jazz Lab here in Edmond, which is a beautiful new venue run by the University Of Central Oklahoma Jazz department.

After this, I head for Lincoln and Omaha, NE, then home.  Dec 1 I’ll be at the Freight & Salvage in Berkeley, CA with The Bobs, Dec 2 I do my annual Birthday Bash house concert in Malibu, and then I’m shutting it down for the year.  We’ll be spending the downtime preparing for Chrismakuh and editing the tapes for my new live solo CD – Malone Alone – which will be out in January.  January, February and March 2003 I’ll be all over the East Coast, making the usual rounds from Boston to New York to Florida – and lots of places in between.

Hope you’re all doing well out there and I’ll be seeing you in your town sooner or later…

Love, Bob