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Autostadt, CVJM and Family -Week 3

Published on September 8, 2015 by Tammy

European Tour – Week 3

What an honor to perform at Volkswagen’s Autostadt to celebrate their 15th Birthday! There were amazing performers from all around the world – acrobats, musicians, beatboxers, ribbon artists twirling from the ceiling in beautiful form, incredible fireworks, and lots of wonderful people celebrating! There was an excitement in the air, an amazement that left people wonderstruck (including us)! We played our Folk/Americana/Country/Bluegrass tunes to the warm and smiling audience. Playing with fabulous friends and musicians, Alex, Bettina and Will elevated the night!

We also got to cook dinner the night before with some long time friends and family in Wolfsburg. We got to meet their brand-new infant son and hang out with all 3 three of their sweet kids. The kids did some amazing after-dinner entertainment on the keyboard, guitar, while singing, playing drums and dancing! We were blown away!

After a great night at Autostadt we drove to Wilsndorf, Germany to play for a CVJM conference with our friends Ecki and Alex! We played a few of our songs and a few worship songs for the event. We were so proud to have the absolute coolest merch-table helpers! Two young friends of ours asked if they could run the CD table for us. They were so charming and did a great job!

Autostadt – After the show with the band!

Dan Meyers and off to Dünenhof – Week 2

Published on September 5, 2015 by Tammy

Week 2-European Tour 2015

Our friend, Dan Meyers, is a talented singer/songwriter that lives in Nashville and tours around the world. I think that he’s done 20 or more European Tours and he loves to bring music to our troops! Well, we found out that he was going to be playing some shows in Europe this summer and his first stop would be Germany so we said “you HAVE to visit us”. So he came to Wetzlar and we all cooked together, went hiking and exploring around our little village and then got to go and hear him play at a nearby town.

Dan Meyers came to visit

Dan Made Some Delicious Food!

We walked up to the top of the hill and checked out an old Fort

Well, a few years ago, Joseph and I became friends with Ecki and Alex, two German musicians who are talented and also very lovely people. They put us in touch with a festival happening in the north of Germany, Dünenhof in Cuxhaven. We packed the car and drove up north to play two days with 3 performances. We met a lovely couple there (Valerie and Manuel) and a few cool musicians, one (Samuel Weber/drummer/percussionist/producer) who ended up playing with us for one of our shows! Manfred, who runs the event was one of those people that radiates love.

Valerie and Manu- we walked down to the sea and encountered a LOT of mud!

So, we played a song for the conference that was going on there in Dünenhof and it was an honor to play for the over 1,000 people there! We played the song “Liberty” and mentioned our evening show. What a great audience! The show that evening was packed and the audience was SOOO cool! They sang with us, asked for a few encores and stayed with us through every note. That is something we won’t forget. After the show we met a lot of great people, including a lovely couple, Manfred and Gaby, who ended up booking us to play a show at their house in the end of the summer. The second evening’s concert was great. We got to jam with Samuel Weber impromptu on the drums and then he joined us for almost every song that night! He added such beautiful vibe and flavor!

Dünenhof- Evening Concert

Dünenhof

Nashville to Mannheim, Germany – Week 1

Published on September 4, 2015 by Tammy

Week 1 – European Summer Tour 2015

Stephanie and Sebastian’s wedding.

Stephanie and Sebastian’s wedding. – European Summer Tour 2015

The night before we were flying out for the tour, just like usual, we were up all night packing, cleaning and getting ready. Our 4 bags (always at the absolute weight limit) were stuffed. One had the sound system, one had our CDs, one had our clothes and one had some instruments and art supplies for our children’s workshops.

We had an early morning pick-up on May 15th and then flew out of Nashville, Tennessee to Frankfurt, Germany via Atlanta. When we arrived we picked up our rental car and drove to Mannheim, Germany. Our friends, Dee and Eva and their sweet boys, were the first familiar faces that we saw! What a great welcoming committee. These boys were born after 23 weeks and 6 days in the womb and now they are 3 years old and running around with the biggest smiles on their faces. Miracles, I tell ya!

We played our first show of the tour the very next day, May 16th. Our friends, Sebastian and Stephanie, were getting married. The best man, our friend Jürgen, wanted to surprise the couple and have us play music for the reception. Well, Sebastian thought he was going to surprise the best man by inviting us to the wedding (he didn’t know that Jürgen had already organized for us to come play music). Funny the way that worked! Sebastian and I were at the World’s Fair/ Expo 2000 in Hannover, Germany at the Pavilion of Hope. For the next few years Sebastian brought Jürgen to my summer concerts in Germany and we all became friends.

We drove to Wetzlar, unloaded all of our gear and spent some time with our long time friends, Ilona and Berni and their boys. There is an awesome lady named Natascha who for the last two summers has let us stay in one of her beautiful houses in Wetzlar, Germany. It was so lovely to be greeted by this house & fruitful garden again…a peaceful and beautiful home-away-from-home. Let the summer begin!