News from Europe
Well.. It's been four weeks since we left Lafayette to begin our summer travels. Before we even left for Europe, we toured 10 days in the upper midwest, passing through Sioux City for a Mardi Gras Ball in the end of June (which is twin cities with Lake Charles of all places), St. Paul, Minnesota (where we played at the fabulous Fitzgerald Theater - home of the Prairie Home Companion - a great honor for us) and finally at Sawdust Days, a cool festival in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.
We arrived in France to play at a small Cajun festival in a town called Challes-Les-Eaux, which was their first year as a festival. The festival was a huge success and many, many people attended. We left for England immediately after the weekend, and spent the next 15 days touring England. We drove over 2500 miles in 15 days throughout England and Wales, which is a hellacious amount of miles, especially in a small country like England. Of course, as luck would have it, and as you may have read in the news, England had the worst weather in history with Katrina-like floods drowning many cities throughout England. It rained the whole time and turned every festival site into a mud pit (or quagmire as I would call it).
We were greeted with applause like what you might hear in concerts from the Beatles (only slightly smaller audiences). The people loved the music, although you would never guess from the way they acted. During the first set, they would sit quietly and barely smile. But at the last song, they would explode with applause and rock the house until we played another song. All of our shows went really well in England, but the road is tiresome, especially when you play 18 times in 15 days. So we were more than happy to have a break and escape back to France where we are now.
 In France, near Lamastre, chez Alex Frattini Picture by Providence Sovereign |
 In England, a "sit-down" concert |
From Cognac, France |
At the Rhythms of the World concert in England |
