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SUNDAY, JULY 29, 2007:
Hard to believe July is almost gone and I was only in Nashville for 3 days of
it!
Pretty miserable ride to the Oslo airport. The roads were so narrow and winding
that it was impossible to sleep in the van. Then, our driver did not know where
the airport was. He is the one who picked us up at the airport, so you would
think he would know how to get back there. Also, he works for a transportation
company that regularly picks up clients at the airport. It should have taken us
3 ½ hours but was over 4 hours by the time he turned around 3 times and asked
everyone he could find walking along the roadside where the airport was
located. I was not happy! Carlene actually arrived 30 minutes after we did
although she should have arrived more than an hour after us.
Got checked in with no problem and everyone went to bed for a few hours sleep.
Then, back to the airport for the 55 minute flight to Stockholm. The flight was
delayed and there was no explanation why. We arrived Stockholm, all of our
luggage and equipment made it and our promoters were waiting for us. We had a
50 passenger bus and a car for Carlene. It is much cooler here and raining.
The drive took the entire 3 ½ hours. This is a different hotel than where we
stayed last year. It’s supposed to be the best in the area and located on a
beautiful lake. If you remember my road reports from last year, this is the
venue where Dwight Yoakam played. It is the most beautiful venue I’ve ever
seen. It is an old limestone quarry that has been carved out of the hillside.
The stage has a lake around it.
But I digress. Back to the hotel. Carlene is in the main part of the hotel but
the rest of us are “out back” in a “house” with separate rooms. Everything has
been “modernized” but the bathroom is still one of those where your bathroom
floor is also your shower floor. Only difference is, there’s no “squeegee” in
this one to get rid of the “flood” after you shower. But, each room has
wireless internet that works, so I’m happy. And, they have a laundry service!
I’ve already spent about $500 on laundry and still have 2 weeks left over here.
Think it would have been cheaper to buy new clothes.
There is a “wellness” center and the hotel offers a great massage service. I
tired to book a massage for tomorrow but was informed that the massage staff is
“on vacation”. Now this is the busiest time of the year for this little hotel
and town because there is a huge classic car and horse racing event here. Hard
to believe that they would pick this week to go on vacation. Of course, if
they are like most Swedes, they are on vacation for a month!
Dinner was fabulous. I had the risotto but some of the others had steak, lamb,
venison (reindeer), salmon (not me….I’m laying OFF the salmon for a while!),
perch. Really good food.
Going to bed soon since I feel like I didn’t sleep at all last night. No gym so
if the weather is good, I’ll go for a run along the lake tomorrow before heading
over for sound check!
Jude
MONDAY, JULY 30TH, 2007
It was raining when I got up to jog so had to do the “rubber bands” exercises in
my room. Had breakfast with a couple of the guys, gave the front desk my
laundry and we headed over to the venue.
As I mentioned, this is the most beautiful venue I’ve ever seen. It is an old
limestone rock quarry and a famous opera singer convinced the city to make it
into a performance venue. It has a permanent stage with beautiful dressing
rooms, green room, offices and for the first time this year – wireless
internet. Sound check went smoothly and Carlene did all her interviews – 5
total. She is filming a DVD with a Swedish company, so that is taking quite a
bit of her time. I met the Swedish group – Calaisa – who will be opening for
her. It is 4 girls – 2 groups of sisters – and they have a very unique story.
They went to Nashville and were just playing around at the clubs downtown for
“tips”. James Stroud saw them and signed them to his record label! So they are
actually signed to a Nashville Record label now. They have beautiful harmonies
and are very pretty girls.
We had lunch at a restaurant at the “top” of the venue. I didn’t get to go up
there last year because it poured rain all day and night when I was here with
Dwight Yoakam. Went back to the hotel and I worked on email and checked on my
laundry which still wasn’t ready. We had two groups going to the airport – one
at 3:30 am and the other tomorrow at 11 am. Since I am staying in Stockholm, I
was going to ride in with the group at 11 am. But, there were some last minute
flight changes that I was not aware of when booking the transportation and I
wasn’t sure there would be room for me. So, I was concerned that I would get my
laundry back before 3:30 am. Turns out there is going to be room for me in the
11 am vehicle (whew!).
The venue was a little more than half full and I had hoped for better ticket
sales. I’m sure the rain is keeping a lot of the crowd away. There is a
Classic Car Convention and a Boat Show in town. The traffic is really bad
trying to get to the venue but the cars that are here are unbelievable. There
is even an orange GTO “Judge” like I had when I was a teenager – back in my wild
days of “drag racing”!
J
Again this year, no one is allowed to use an umbrella so they wear really
colorful slickers. When you look out at the audience, it looks like a bag of
skittles. The production and venue staff are wonderful to work with…very
accommodating and want to make sure we have everything we need. The Director
who books all the talent for the “series” is an especially nice man. It’s so
much more fun when you work with such good people.
Carlene has a very high energy show and the crowd loved her. The rain eased off
during her performance which was really nice. At one point, she went out onto a
floating barge in the lake surrounding the venue and performed one song. She
and her husband, Joe, also do a duet together and they went out into the crowd
to sing. Audience loved that. The promoter was very pleased with her
performance. She signed autographs for about an hour afterwards and we got
back to the hotel at around 1 am. My laundry was NOT in my room so I’m really
glad that I don’t leave at 3:30 am because there is no one at the reception
desk!
Jude
TUESDAY, JULY 31ST, 2007:
Driving for 4 hours with Carlene to the Stockholm airport. They fly to London
and I stay at the Radisson Airport Hotel (my second home!) for a couple of
days. Lindsey from my office and John my new artist fly in early tomorrow
morning. We’re going to do some sightseeing in Stockholm tomorrow.
I had told our driver over and over yesterday that we needed a trailer hooked to
the van because we had a lot of large pieces of luggage. I saw him again at
breakfast this morning and he was STILL asking whether we needed a trailer. I
told him not to wait until it was time for us to go to try and find the
trailer. When we went outside to depart, he did have the trailer hooked to the
van and we definitely needed it. The 4 hour drive passed quickly with Carlene,
Joe and Bob because they are so much fun to talk too. It was a good tour – just
much too short. I did learn that Carlene fell down – really hard – as she was
going on-stage last night. Someone from the DVD crew made her go outside the
venue – where it had been raining and the floor was very slick – and enter the
stage that way. She took 2 steps and fell. Thankfully nothing was broken.
Got to the airport right on time and I “hiked” over to the Radisson between
Terminal 4 and 5. No new restaurants and the food sucks here. Oh well, it’s
only lunch, dinner, and breakfast here. Talked to Lindsey and John and their
flights are on time, so I’ll be meeting them at 7:30 am tomorrow morning. Not
sure they will be ready to go sightseeing as soon as they arrive or if they are
going to need to take a “nap” first!
Nothing else exciting going on other than hundreds of emails to answer. My
office did notify me that I received a box of books with a note from a soldier
that I met in Afghanistan in 2002. It was my first tour to that area and I was
with Darryl Worley. Karri Turner, Kathy Griffin, Bradshaw, the Army Band and
some cheerleaders were also on the tour. The soldier is back in the U.S. and
has written a book and mentions in the book how much our visit boosted their
morale. I can’t believe that after 5 years he would take the time to find me
and send such a wonderful note and gift. Every tour overseas for our troops is
life-changing for me and the artists. When the tour ends, I never want to come
back to the U.S. and I always leave the area wondering if I did enough to show
them how much we appreciate them. Sure inspires me to know that we did touch
Major Diggs Brown’s life. The title of his book is, “Your Neighbor Went to
War”. Can’t wait to get home and read it.
Jude 
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