Well on second thought we decided to grab a couple of hours of sleep at the Pension Zimmer, but I must admit I was terrified that none of us would wake up after the show for the Austrian Company private party at the Gasthaus Lowen in Meiming. But eventually Stanley Nesvarba, our Czech-born, German and Australian raised telecaster-master, made sure we woke.

As to the concert at the Lowen (misspelled in the previous blog), the staff was dressed in leather cowboy vests, bandanas, hats, buckles and boots as were all of the patrons of the event (some of whom dressed as Native Americans), as was the Burning Boots Line-dancers—yes the same Burning Boots group we encounter in Kussnacht, Switzerland.

In our honor and true to the theme of the night, the kitchen prepared roasted turkey breast, sweet potato and a Cajun salad to boot and the wait staff supplemented this with Californian wine, Alpine spring water, and topped it off with espressos or cappuccinos for all the band.

Early in the show, our highlights included “Que No Puede Ver”& “Utopia” from the Purgatory Road CD and “The Band Who Hold the Bow” and “The Armadillo Song” from Lone Starry Night. We played our hearts out well past the contracted time of midnight ending with Rodeo Night/La Bamba Medley, Stanley Nesvarba’s take on Gary Moore’s “I Hope You Understand,” B.B.’s thumping version of “Boppin’ the Blues,” the Texas-country-shuffle interpretation of “Some Kind of Wonderful,” by Grand Funk Railroad that I performed on Nashville Star.

We signed discs, took photos, and said farewell to the guests then, at Stefano’s suggestion, we packed the van for the early morning journey to Munich, leaving only our personal items in our rooms. Stanley always took charge packing the van priding himself on his ability to make the puzzle fit best. We slept from 1:30 to 3:30—okay I slept ‘til 3:48, grabbed our quick showers and hit the treacherous and winding Austrian Alpine road at 4:09 through the light snowfall, eventually crossing the border into Germany with no fanfare or checkpoints to manage.

With the band dozing in and out of sleep Stefano Bertolotti, the human GPS as B.B. calls him, simply followed the clearly marked plane symbols toward the airport once we left the mountain roads for the German Autobahn. As we said arrivederci to Stefano and aufweidersehn to Stanley we made our way through the Delta ticketing line, the intensive screening (all passengers I saw endured wand screening and hand searches).

As I write you from my coach seat leaving Atlanta bound for Austin, the thoughts of nearing home and the arms of my wife weave mesh with the many memories of the tour, the new sites, the new friendships, and thoughts of the consistent quality of performance by Scott Martin on pedal steel and guitars, William B.B. Morse on bass and vocals, Stefano Bertolotti on drums and guitar, and Stanley Nesvarba on guitars and vocals. It’s what I do.

~ jam