what a week!
Or week and a half I should say. Left NY Tuesday night. Arrived Paris Wednesday. Gerry Leonard I had practiced a little before we left. On Thursday I did a full day of TV and interviews. Then rehearsals.
The first show was a festival with three guests. Paul Personne, a French blues guitar joined me on Calypso. Kent, who I had worked with before, (on his album that Mitchell Froom produced in 1996), joined me for two songs and did beautiful vocal arrangements of Anniversary and Ludlow Street. Then Lenny Kaye!! my good friend and the well known Patti Smith guitarist, joined me for Maggie May and Knight Moves. All of this required much rehearsal, rehearsing late into the night.
The outdoor show was on Friday, and it went so well! I was hugely relieved, and so was Alain the promoter. All the guests were his idea, and I think it worked beautifully. So nice to play with Lenny who I have known for so long and never played with before.
Saturday we had to perform at a poetry festival in Modena, which required us to get up at 6:30 am. So we got a couple of hours of sleep Friday night. We met up with Valerio Piccollo who does the translations, and really is often part of the show when I perform in Italy. The show was hugely attended with thousands of people spilling out of the tent and into the streets. Very festive! A really good mood prevailed. Afterwards we were mobbed until we made our way to the merch table. I was all wound up afterwards and it was hard to sleep. I got one and a half hours of sleep and got up at 4:30 to go to Cannes, where Ruby was joining us!!
Got to Cannes with a raging sore throat. The doctor said my throat and ears were inflamed. Somehow made it through the show in Cannes. This turned into a head cold which moved around from nose to chest. I am sure I don’t need to go into details. Cannes audience very nice! The subways were late, so a few people missed Marlene at the top of the set and hollered for it. I said no, as we had done it already.
Ruby came to the stage in Monaco, singing backup on four songs. She is in good form. This show is getting easy for her, as now she is a vocal major at the LaGuardia School for Performing Arts, the same school I went to as a dancer. It was great being in Monaco for a couple of days, even if I was nursing a cold. Lovely warm weather. Ruby and I walked around and had lunch and went shopping a little bit and went into the steam baths. She has been working on her school work. A friendly woman named Ana invited us to an art show opening for an art director named Alex Turco, so we went. See pix! Tonight we play Istres. Then Ruby goes home to NY and we continue on to Spain. Picture above: me and Alain, the promoter, and his sister, who was in charge of the Elles festival in Meaux.
Friday, October 3, 2008