Sweden 2010, Day 9

I woke up at 4.30 to a cat yowling, scratching at my door. At first I thought it was a dream, but no… the little black cat where I am staying wanted to come in and hang out with me. The gray tabby was chilling in the living room. Weird, these cats are almost twins of my cats at home. Having a hard time understanding them though; after all, they meow in Swedish.

I read, blogged, and went back to bed, getting up for real at 9 and joining my hosts for breakfast and coffee. I felt the need to exercise and get some fresh air, so I pulled on my Sketchers and about 4 layers of clothing and headed off down the road.

Central Sweden is all about forest. Evergreens dominate but other trees lean away from the wind and sway to its tune, dropping leaves on the ground now. Very quickly into my walk, the road became a gravel track and then a dirt path, where obviously only the occasional car would brave the mud. Even the though weather is starting to turn, bright flowers dotted the edges of the path where the sun would peek through the trees. The quiet was almost eerie... only the sound of wind, the occasional small animal scurrying into the wood, and my own heartbeat. Heaven, at the same latitude as Fairbanks Alaska. I only turned back when the path began to disappear into tall grass and the trees to crowd in closer. I could have gone on if I had had the right shoes. Sweden is blessed to have no dangerous predators or poisonous animals. Even the bears and wolves are, like the Swedes themselves, reserved and shy, avoiding contact when possible.

I had a very easy day, resting, preparing for the kickoff show of the tour. My hosts, Timo’s grandparents, are two of the most adorable people I have ever met. In November they will celebrate 50 years of marriage, and they are still a very feisty and loving pair. I envy that kind of love, and hope I will someday grow into something like that myself. Just a matter of letting go, and letting love happen. Maybe I am wound up too tightly for it, but damn it, I want it too!

Ugh. See what happens when I have too much time to reflect? Lol.

In any case, their English is rudimentary, and my Swedish is appalling, but we nonetheless manage to communicate quite effectively. Two years of high school German helps a bit, as much of the vocabulary is Germanic, but the vowels are elongated and exaggerated. I am understanding more with each passing day, and believe that if I were to sit in front of a television here for a month, listening to Swedish news with English subtitles, I would be fluent in no time.

In the afternoon, they drove me to the venue where we are holding our first show and CD release party. I helped set up, had a sound check, and then Henrik the bass player took me out to dinner. We ran into one of his older work colleagues who of course invited us to join him, then promised to come to the show later. I think he kind of liked me.

Surveying my reflection after getting dressed for the show, I have to say, I can’t decide if I looked ridiculous or hot, lol! But the boys in the band seemed to like it. I had to borrow a belt from Cici to attach the wireless pack for my in-ear monitors, and she said I could keep it for the whole tour in case I needed it again. Awesome! Cici’s band, Ace of Dice, opened the show for us. They are a classic rock coverband and this was their first show. She was very nervous, but I thought they did a great job.

Then it was our turn to play. I wish I could say I was nervous, but I was simply excited and happy to play to a big crowd. It started out a bit rough; the mix on stage was pretty horrendous and my in-ear monitors kept cutting in and out, but after a few songs we fell into a great groove and rocked the house!! We had demands for an encore at the end of our set, so we obliged. When we were finished, we sold a lot of CDs and enjoyed many compliments. The CD is actually a limited edition of rough demo mixes, since our engineer did not have time to complete the final mixes. The people who paid full price for the demo mixes, 150 kronor, will get the real CD for free when it is ready sometime in October or November. My American fans will not be able to buy this demo version; it was only a short-run burn for the tour, but may purchase the full version at several different online retailers, or from me directly at one of my shows, once it is released.

Being that it was a weeknight, we were done and out of the venue by 22.00. A couple of people in the band had to work Friday, so we did not hang out and celebrate afterwards. We all opted for a good night of sleep to prepare for a long day tomorrow.

So Friday we will actually hit the road, once Henrik gets off work around 5. We have to drive to a gig in Ljungby for Saturday night, about 14 hours. We plan to drive for a few hours Friday, overnight somewhere, and pick it up Saturday early in the day, so we only have to drive maybe 8 hours on the day of the show. Wish us luck… the tour van is in pretty sad shape and may break down. Again. Catch you as I can!