Howdy folks,

woohoo, the trip to Seattle was a major musical success. I had a great time playing the Northwest Folklife Festival and a couple more shows.

Let me tell you about Folklife. My Saturday songwriter showcase was 35 minutes at the Rainier Room broadcast live on KBCS radio. I was a tad nervous at first going on with no sound check but things went well and people made me feel very welcome. It's a great feeling to see the audience react immediately to your lyrics, something that happens very rarely back home in Germany. A new song of mine, "Me & Bonnie Parker", went over very well. Rachel Harrington sang harmonies on a few songs and I think we sounded pretty good. Unfortunately, my guitar went out of tune pretty bad during the last song and there was very little I could do fix it while I was playing the song live on the air. But, like I said, all in all the show went very well.

The next day however was even better when I was part of a two-hour tribute to Bob Dylan. All the artists on the tribute show were really good, I have to say. I was scheduled to be the last act on that program. Man, what an honor. And since there was a little extra time left, I was the only act who got to play two songs. I had a heck of a time doing "Don't Think Twice" (with a bit of Johnny Cash's "Understand Your Man" thrown in). As sort of an encore I did "Things Have Changed", Dylan's Oscar winning song from 2000. Since most of the other songs were from the 60ies and 70ies, I really enjoyed playing a more recent song to close the show and point out that the man's not an oldies act but still an amazing songwriter. Man, it was a pleasure and an honor and a great success.

Here's a recommendation: The best show I saw at Folklife was Alice Stuart's set. Check out her website

I played two other shows. One at a very nice club in Tacoma, Wa. called Jazzbones with fellow Folklife performers Rachel Harrington, Anna Coogan, J.D. Hobson and Bobcat Bob Rice. And then there was a great benefit show for the ONE campaign to raise AIDS awareness and stop poverty at Seattle's Madison's Café with more fine acts like Ellis, Kristin Connell, Holly Figueroa, Jonathan Kingham and others. I enjoyed being a part of that show very much.

And now we're gearing up for the big Wuerzburg Umsonst & Draußen festival next weekend. We'll be headlining the Saturday night lineup (June 18, 10.30 pm) and have invited a few very special guests to join us. We'll be playing some hits and new stuff and I'm very much looking forward to rocking out with the band after a bunch of acoustic shows. But there's two solo shows coming up as well, check the live dates section, folks.

And more good news: My involvement in the independent film "Last Stand" is confirmed. Two songs, "Hobo Dream" and "Hope I'll Get To Heaven", will be used in what the producer's call "not your Daddy's horror movie".

Take care of yourselves and come out to see us play,
Markus