THE DOC'S FIRST DISPATCH BACK TO HQ

"ENTERTAINMENT EMERGENCIES"

Early saturday morning Xander and I left
our hometown Zwolle in Holland for
the fourth annual invasion of France. We
had just left a crowd in one of the
oldest bars in town yelling for more.
So i guess we did alright.

That night we had to do our first gig in
France in Le Cornemuse in Arleuf,
950km of road to cover.
The thought of sharing the bill again with
The Trio Grande just made the
miles fly by pretty easy.
We arrived around 5 in the afternoon; found
our room in the corridor of the
former Hotel de la Post of the little
Morvan town of Arleuf, just 8 km out
of Chateau Chinon on the road towards Autun.

Super meals were being cooked again by our
host Gerard, one of the real
Bears of the Morvan, an expression the
French use in common to describe this
typical bearded type of male from the
Morvan. And indeed, one of the nicest
persons on this blue globe as well.
We kicked off with a few bottles of the
finest burgundy wine and a little
after 10 pm we were off to the races. Lots
of countrysongs, blueses and
ballads. After our set the crowd went
further wild on the sounds of The Trio
Grande, grande musicians, nice dudes too,
this Robert, Paulo and Claudius.
Their names are now on my guitar forever.
We didn't get to that two years
ago when we first met at the same
Cornemuse. By the way a Cornemuse in
French being an old type of Bagpipe.

The songs continued flowing and the crowds
danced to a little of our rock
and roll.
And then ofcourse the final together.
French love grande finales. So it was
Folsom Prison Biues in G this time,
Dada-Thing, Call me the Breeze and a
15minute jam of Billy Joe Shaver's 'Georgia
on a fast train' including
bassguitar solos of Paulo, drumsolos by
Claudius and even some flamenco
stuff ala The Rosenberg Trio by Paulos son
present that night. And ofcourse
above all RObert picking on the guitar and
swinging his old time accordeon,
which he started playing in concerts with
his father from the age of 11 on.
Him being greyhaired now, well, lots of
skills have come to him.
We agreed on a tour in Holland for the fall
of 2007.

On to the Tomahawk in a rainy Nevers area.
An odd thing for France this time
a year. We were a little afraid the
festival in Chateau Chinon , which is an
open air thing, would drown the coming
tuesday.
Fortunately it did not, it was to be an
isolated hot and sticky sunny day.
We are invited back for the 5th anniversary
of the festival next year. But.
Ofcourse. OUAI!!!! as the French say!

But back to the Tomahawk first. Serge and
Claudine were ofcourse very sad to
not see Panama this time, but i called him
later in the nigth after the show
to join in spirit. They both had a good
heartwarming chat through my
cellpone, both Serge and Claudine.
We played their monday night as well and
again had a big party going on
there by the side of the old
route-de-soleil, the route national number
seven, RN7, which will become A77
shortly with the highway going to be
straight through the Tomahawk plot of
ground. Heartbreaking thing!
Serges is on the lookout to buy a campsite
somewhere where he plans on doing
lots of livemusic as well. It was
heartbreaking to say goodbye there and
knowing that this most finest place in the
entire country of France is going
to be eaten by the progress of man. Screw
that progress!
Scew you all who are on the base of this
idea of planning a highway straight
through this part of a culture for which
there seems to be no more room in
these so-called modern times. Fuck that too!
-
So it was adios to all our tattooed
bikerbuddies there and on the road for
Chateau-Chinon's Fest de
l'annee, where we did super, selling lots
of CDs, and being the main act in
that Morvan town.
We did a powerful, well visited set on each
of the three stages there.

We spent another night in Arleuf with
Gerard and his wife Brigitte, who host
Le Cornemuse there and were by the next
morning on our way to
Milly-la-Foret, the new hometown of French
rock and roller and former
Mary-Lou bassplayer Jean Phillipe Thepault,
and above all he is my
soulbrother.

Today it is off to the wilds of Bretagne
for the second half of this years
tour.
Let's drink up and solve some more
entertainment emergencies over there.

I'll keep you^posted.

Love and peace to you all.

The Doc and Xander, on behalf of Panama
too, whom we truely miss on the
road