Once again, Special C mandolinist Ashby Frank has been sharing his impressions of the band’s European tour with the readers of The Bluegrass Blog. They were on the continent through October 25, with shows in Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany and Czech Republic.

I’m back home again after almost 2 weeks of continuous travel in planes, boats, buses, trains, and a van.

The remaining two shows after my last post here were a lot of fun and were very well received… a great way to end the trip!

I had been to the venue we played in Germany before, and the crowd’s enthusiasm didn’t dissipate from our last visit there over 2 years ago. We were practically sold out of band CD’s after the show, and some of the band’s friends from around the area treated us to some awesome food and hospitality afterwards. Thank you!

The Czech Republic was a new place for me. It’s a beautiful country, with really nice and hospitable people. A few minutes after we crossed the border, a country music station came through on the radio. After 11 days of hearing nothing but American, British, and German pop on almost every radio station, it was pretty strange to hear Johnny Cash covers in Czech mixed with original country classics in English! Even though the English language was spoken far less there than most of the other places we went, you can sense an appreciation for traditional and acoustic music in the people there… and what an awesome bluegrass community of pickers and singers!

Sometimes I feel a good bit ignorant and lost when I travel to a new place, and they can speak a little bit of English and I can’t speak any word of the local language. It’s hard not to feel pretty stupid when you go in a store and start pointing at things and counting change very slowly! Every time I’ve been in that circumstance, the locals have been so nice and helpful. So I take that as a lesson… be nice and give directions to people that aren’t familiar with their surroundings when you can! You never know when you’ll wind up in the same boat(or train, bus, van, or plane)!

We had a little bit of delay in getting back, and I’m still lagged quite a bit from the 20 hours or so of airports and layovers yesterday so I’ll have to keep this story short and sweet.

Thanks to all of the bluegrass music fans in Europe for making this tour possible! Hope to see you again soon.

Next week it’s Mashville Brigade at the Station Inn on Tuesday, and then Special C’s off to Waldo, Florida!

Once again, Special C mandolinist Ashby Frank will be sharing his impressions of the band’s European tour with the readers of The Bluegrass Blog. They will be on the continent through October 25, with shows in Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany and Czech Republic. You can find the tour details on the band’s web site.

After our train ride to Copenhagen we rode the long road to the Netherlands, had two shows there and had a good time. Even though we were pretty tired from all the riding and moving around to get there, it was a really nice place to visit. Nice hospitable folks there… but beware! Our hosts introduced us to these waffle and caramel cookies called Stroopwafles, and now we’re all addicted to them! I’m going to have to go on a serious diet when I get home.

Anyway, we made the long van ride from Holland here to Switzerland yesterday and got here just in time to eat dinner and play a little show in Lausen (right outside of Basil) and then we got a good night’s sleep. In attendance at our gig last night was a professional classical guitarist that grew up just about 15 or 20 miles away from where I grew up in North Carolina, and has lived in Europe for 40 years since he graduated from the School of the Arts in Winston-Salem. I guess there’s Tarheels everywhere! Small world!

I don’t know if I mentioned this before, but for this trip we’re in a decent sized van that’s a little larger than the ones we have rented on previous trips. Still it’s pretty cramped for all of these 5-8 hour trips. Vehicles are much smaller on average here in Europe, so I guess we’re lucky that we’re in something that we can all fit in.

At least we’re not in this…

Now we’re spending the afternoon before our show at a friend of the band’s house. This is the first time we’ve had Wifi in a few days, so we’ve turned her dining room into a computer lab.

After our show in Feuerthalen, Switzerland tonight, we’ll be back in Germany for a show in Bochum, then our last show will be in the Czech Republic. Never been there before, so I’m looking forward to it!

I’m having a great time here, but after 8 days I’m starting to look forward to going home and being in my own bed, not having to travel hours and hours every other day, and not trying to figure out what kind of money I’ve got and how much I’m spending! We’ve been on four currencies so far, and one more to go!

Regardless, it’s nice to be here reporting to you from Switzerland! Maybe I’ll get one more update in before I go home.

Once again, Special C mandolinist Ashby Frank will be sharing his impressions of the band’s European tour with the readers of The Bluegrass Blog. They will be on the continent through October 25, with shows yet in Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany and Czech Republic. You can find the tour details on the band’s web site.

Today is day 6 of the trip, and I’m writing this on a train from Stockholm to Goteburg, Sweden.

After our two dates in Denmark, we left early Saturday morning on another extended hour excursion from Copenhagen to Stockholm for our first show here in Sweden last night. Due to construction on the train tracks in Copenhagen, our first train was delayed forcing us to miss our connection that was supposed to get us into Stockholm early enough to settle into our room and do a sound check. After talking to quite a few people at the ticket counters that said there’s no way we could make the show (PANIC!), Greg found a supervisor that got us on another train that took us out of our way a little bit, adding a couple of hours to the already 6 hour train ride… but it got us to the show!

Taking the train is pretty nice here. There’s room to move around, a “bistro” car that has snack food for purchase, there’s nice scenery with the Swedish countryside just outside the window. It’s nice to be able to spread out here using my PC listening to my Ipod without being scrunched up in a rental van. I was so inspired that I just wrote a new bluegrass train song!

I was just thinking that it was kinda funny that the only other times that I’ve been on a train outside of Europe was once or twice to get downtown Chicago, as a shuttle between airport terminals, and when I was a cap gun shooting kid in a cowboy hat at Tweetsy Railroad in Boone, NC. It’s way more common for people to travel from place to place by train here, and it’s nice… except when they’re late.

The places and people have been great so far. With the little bit of free time that we had in Denmark, a few of us went downtown Copenhagen late Friday night after our show and it was awesome! Despite it being the coldest October they’ve had in recent history and some rain, it was great to see the city lit up with people biking and walking around. I want to come back, but maybe when the dollar’s stronger! Eating and getting around here in Europe is very expensive for this North Carolina boy. Still an awesome experience… Copenhagen was great.

We saw less of Stockholm just because we barely had time to get there, play the show, and go to bed so we could get up early for our train today, but it’s a beautiful old city. The city is build around a lot of different islands and little ancient streets. I will for sure spend some time looking around there one day. We drove by the palace this morning and I really wanted to go in and say hey to the King, but we didn’t have time. Everyone was so friendly there in Stockholm, and I’m sure he is too.

Some of our friends from the Swedish bluegrass band G2 came by last night, and we got to pick a few tunes after the show. They’ll be touring the US again next year, so check them out if they’re ever in your area!

Tomorrow it’s another early morning and another train, and then we drive to Holland. These days of 8-10 hours of moving, lots of coffee and tea, and two hours of picking surprisingly haven’t worn me or my voice out yet so I’m keeping my fingers crossed! 3 shows down, 7 to go! Signing off from Vagn (Wagon) 13 of the Stockholm Center City to Goteborg City Center Bluegrass Express!

Once again, Special C mandolinist Ashby Frank will be sharing his impressions of the band’s European tour with the readers of The Bluegrass Blog. He left from Nashville this past Wednesday, and sent his first travelogue installment from just outside Copenhagen in Denmark.

Tuesday night was another blast at Mashville, even though I’m still fighting off the remnants of the IBMA bug. The lineup was Josh Williams, Jenee Fleenor, Randy Barnes, Thomas Wywrot and myself. We went a little bit late with the show because our resident “country star” and good friend Dierks Bentley made an appearance and brought a crew from CBS Sunday Morning with him to film his activities for the night. They set up all kinds of lights and did some interviewing, so our break was a little longer than normal, but it didn’t really bother anybody. I’m not sure when it will air, but look for Dierks Bentley with the Mashville Brigade on CBS Sunday Morning some time in the near future! hehe

Got home around 1:30, and Wednesday I slept until 9:30 or 10 and got up to finish packing then it was off the the airport. Our flight to Chicago left around 4pm CST and landed safely an hour and a half later, and then we had a little layover at O’Hare before the 8 hour flight to Frankfurt, Germany. I tried to get a little sleep towards the end of the flight, but woke up around 2AM my time, or 9AM Frankfurt time for the breakfast that the crew was serving. We landed around 11AM Frankfurt time, and then our fearless leader Greg gathered the rental van, and we were off to Denmark!

None of us had much sleep, but we had a 9 hour drive ahead of us. We went from Frankfurt through Hannover, then had a quick schnitzel at some road side place, and then it was on to the ferry station towards Denmark.

By the time we got on the ferry we had all been up and traveling for well over 24 hours, minus a few uncomfortable naps here and there. We still had a few hours to go before we arrived here, outside of Copenhagen. There was a little bluegrass welcome committee to greet us, and give us the keys to this hostel-like place where we’re staying.

This is my first time in Denmark, and just like most everywhere I’ve been over here in Europe they speak enough English to help me get around and everyone is very helpful. Had a great breakfast already today, and now it’s time for a little rest before the show tonight.

Battery’s about to die, and I’m power adapter-less at the moment, so that’s all for now.

Hopefully I can update again soon! Goodbye from Denmark!