Started my trip with a stopover in New York. I stayed at 60 Thompson St., a killer new hotel just a few blocks from my apartment in SOHO. I love hotels. I'd be happy living in one, or at least one like this. Beautiful rooftop view of water towers and the lights of the Williamsburg bridge. Dinner at one of my favorite old haunts, Florent, the 24 hour "diner" in the now hip meatpacking district. My friend Leni Stern is playing at the 55 Bar. I stop by and play a handful of songs with Leni's bassist, Paul Sokolow, who I've known from Boston since my early days. The faces and places in New York that have such a hold on my soul. Once you've lived here you're spoiled for anyplace else.

World travel on the greyhound bus in the sky. Post 9/11, no more curbside luggage check-in for international travel. From the looks of the crowd I'm in, you half expect to see goats and chickens, and people hawking their wares up and down the aisles of the 767. How do you say "jet lag" and "crammed in like sardines" in Dutch!?

Traveling = 50% "Wow, isn't this cool!" and 50% "What the hell am I doing here!?" Taped a radio show for Radio Noord Holland with my friend and fellow musician Abel deLange. My set: 1. Little Satellite (on Dobro) 2. Buddy Holly 3. Dandelion Soul 4. Black Guitar 5. For My Wedding

1&1/2 hour drive from Amsterdam towards the German border. Beautiful modern concert hall with great sound and a wonderful crowd. Attentive listeners. We each do separate 1/2 hour sets in a smaller hall and then convene in the big hall for our in-the-round show. Slaid Cleaves from Texas, Ray Wylie Hubbard also from Texas, Lynn Miles from Canada and myself. My set: 1. Sidewalks of Summer 2. Nobody's Girl 3. Amateur (on Dobro) 4. My Brother Mike 5. I Love to Watch a Woman Dance 6. Love is a Ruthless Thing in-the-round: 1. Richie 2. Buddy Holly 3. For My Wedding

Another act on the bill is Mary Gauthier (pronounced Go-Shay). She is one of a kind. Sense of humor, intelligence, earthy, tough/tender, hard won wisdom, hardscrabble. She's originally from South Louisiana but I first heard of her from Boston where I believe she started a Cajun restaurant. Maybe her best known song is "Drag Queens & Limousines," though my favorite is "I Drink," which she plays for me backstage. It hits home for me, what with the Irish setting I grew up in.

I'll quote the lyrics from my song "Folksinger" here:

Step up to
the microphone
Check, 1-2, 1-2
There's a sea of faces, saying "We've never even heard of you"
Half traveling salesman, half whore
After 57 cities nothing matters anymore
Driving all night through rain and snow
Soundcheck, kill time, 40 minute show
Hard-on for the waitress, the locals wanna kill ya
All my trials, Lord, I'm a Folksinger

Up here alone with my beat up guitar
Staring down at my shoes, the anti-star
Just a working class nothin' from a shit hole town
Every circus needs a clown
Am I on the way up or on the way down
Can I go home now
Here's to the guy in the front row who gave me the finger
I should let it roll off me but it lingers
Whatever happened to Deborah Winger
I hope she didn't marry a Folksinger

I live for the nights when magic takes over the room
And there's no longer a wall between me and you
I'm no longer just a carnival barker, half Colonel Parker
Getting by on scratch, man, pass the hat
Does it have to cost me the shirt off my back
To be a Folksinger

Hootenanny tonight! Folksinger

Some of the best coffee in Holland is from the vending machines at the truck stops. Plunk in 80 eurocents and press Koffie Verdeerd. Takes the edge off the jet-lag. Fun show tonight. Good sound system, nice warm crowd of 100+ in a small rock n' roll club. The 4 of us are loosening up with each other. Some beautiful songs flying by from Ray, Slaid, and Lynn. Ray's a master, songs with wisdom and humor. Slaid has the purity of pre prepackaged country. Lynn is somewhere in that Shawn Colvin, Sarah McLaughlin thing. Her song "Black Flowers" is outstanding. She jumps in with some golden harmony singing on a couple of my songs.

My set:

1. Richie
2. Buddy Holly
3. Nobody's Girl
4. Love is a Ruthless Thing
5. Just My Imagination
6. Little Satellite (on Dobro)

Beautiful sky and reflections off the water along the canals. Tour logistics problems-issues with necessary paperwork for our show in London. Off to the airport at 4:30 am anyway. Not sure what to do with Sweden shows since the drive back from our 3rd show there is from 12-14 hours and we have a sold out show in Utrecht the next night. Not to mention the 12 hour drive To Sweden and a 6 hour one between Stockholm and the final show there. We should have bought plane tickets a month ago when they were affordable. Next time we'll need to have details confirmed in advance-not upon arrival in Europe. Misc: still heavy smoking> everywhere here. Tough on a singer's voice. Why, when I'm home do the weeks fly by, but out here on the road the "minutes seem like hours, the hours feel like days?" The dead days with no shows really drag on. We need a tour bus! They are $3-4000 a week to rent. Dark circles under my eyes.