FRANCE/SCANDINAVIA SPRING TOUR 2011
by Jim Stewart

Gathering at the hotel in Paris on March 22, the group headed the next day for lovely Strasbourg in an exquisite motor coach capably driven by Pascal. I was excited about returning to Strasbourg, which is located on the confluence of several rivers, has been inhabited since the Bronze Age, and features as its crown jewel a dazzling cathedral, commonly referred to as "Le Grand Ange Rose de Strasbourg (The Great Pink Angel of Strasbourg)". On a tour stop several years ago, Jason and I were lured into this magnificent structure by the rumble of a massive pipe organ that echoed through the city's narrow streets. Sadly, my dream of revisiting this enchanting location would not be realized on this tour because a massive amount of merchandise had been delivered to the venue and was awaiting my arrival, demanding to be tucked away on the tour bus. Skillfully, Dirk and Emma managed to coerce our French promoter representative, Remi, to arrange transportation into the heart of the city, so at least they could enjoy it for the rest of us.

The next night's show in Lille featured a packed house of 1770 attendees at the Nouveau Siecle. We had no hotel here, so we showered at the venue, did the show, and headed directly back to Paris.

Paris' Grand Rex Theatre's 2650 seats had long been sold out, and a second show was added the following evening, which also sold out quickly and prompted the French promoter to add two more concerts at this venue during Joan's Fall 2011 tour. Joan's friend, French singer Maxime LeForestier, attended the first Paris show. Before soundcheck, Joan gave an interview to French television. Our hotel in Paris was very close to the Paris Opera House, where I managed to sneak away and enjoy a grand ballet. Having been to Paris many times over the years, there wasn't a lot I actually HAD to see, except for the Catacombs de Paris, which my friend Gisele MacKenzie had excitedly told me about when she visited the city some years earlier. So, I walked the many miles to this gaudy underground trail or horrors, where piles of bones and human skulls had been relocated many years before Paris cemetaries were cleared to allow expansion of the city from 1786-1814. The catacombs were also utilized as hideouts during times of political conflicts and revolutions.

Next on the tour schedule was Rennes, where Joan and Dirk performed at Le Liberte. I managed to get Dirk to sheepishly pose with the sign Blair put on his dressing room door that read "Joan Baez Band," which in fact was Dirk's job title on this tour - he was Joan's lone backup musician playing fiddle, banjo, mandolin, keyboards, bass, guitar, and doing harmony vocals. Using French language introductions for most of her songs, Joan opened all shows with Steve Earle's "God Is God," from her Grammy-nominated and most recent album, Day After Tomorrow, followed by Leonard Cohen's well-received epic, "The Partisan." Next was another Baez European favorite, Bob Dylan's "Farewell, Angelina," followed by the Carter Family classic, "Silver Dagger." Joan's next two songs were performed in French: "Tri Matolod" and "Temps de Cerises."

The marvelous seaside city of Biarritz, where the group made the best of two days of sunshine, rest and relaxation before the next show at this city's Le Gare du Midi. Emma, Jason, Ian and Blair rented mopeds and zoomed up and down the sea coast, while Joan and I wandered throughout the city on foot, soaking our feet in the sea, stopping at gelato shops, dining at seaside establishments, and stopping just long enough to pose for waterfront pictures. For her Biarritz audience Joan dusted off the song "Txoria Txori" from her 1989 album Diamonds and Rust in the Bullring.

In the early morning hours of April 4, the tour bus rolled into Toulouse. There Joan's hotel room overlooked the Basilique, and the timely call of church bells welcomingly peeled. Joan became enchanted by a spider skillfully weaving a web under a street lamp outside her window, and she declared this simple room as her favorite of the tour. The Toulouse audience, like most others, was overjoyed when Dirk played keyboards on Joan's performance of his lovely composition, "Just The Way You Are," before crossing the stage behind Joan to pick up his bass and accompany her on a dramatic interpretation of "House of the Rising Sun." As I was setting up the merchandise display for the Toulouse show, a venue usher brought me a note addressed to Joan from singer Marianne Aya Omac, who had opened Joan's landmark October 27, 2009, concert in Montpellier, France, before an audience of almost 17,000 people. I left the note with Blair, who later returned to tell me that Joan was quite delighted that she would get to visit with this young singer/songwriter. I slipped away from my merchandise duties before the show to find Marianne and instructed her on how to locate Blair after the show. Joan and Marianne's reunion led to a later visit at Joan's California home and to the recording of a duet that appears on Marianne's new CD, Solo.

The French portion of this spring tour was flying by all too quickly. Suddenly we found ourselves completing shows in Marseille and Grenoble, where Blair, Ian, Emma, Remi and Jason decided to put my merchandising priorities to the ultimate test. They showed up during my peak after-show selling period with at least a dozen ice cream treats in pointy cones that couldn't be set down. Despite my passion for ice cream, I surprised everyone by offering the ice cream cones to customers with open wallets who were ready to buy Joan Baez CDs! A day off in this 1968 Winter Olympics city provided beautiful walking space, and it found me hiking up a mountain track past amazing thickets of spring flowers to Fort de la Bastille, high above the city. As I looked down from this grand edifice with Wagner majestically blasting on my mp3 player in my ears by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, I could see a gondola taking less energetic sightseers from the center of town to this fortress. When I got back to the hotel, Joan showed me her new classy olive green boots that had just arrived from home.

Our swan song in France was at Clermond-Ferrand, where Joan shook up the set list by singing "I Never Will Marry," "Barbara Allen," and Merle Haggard's "Sing Me Back Home," along with regular set list treasures like "Love Is Just a Four-Letter Word," "Jesse," "Seven Curses," "There But For Fortune," "Diamonds and Rust," "Suzanne," "Long Black Veil," "Gracias a la Vida," "Blowin' In The Wind," "Dona Dona," and "Where Have All The Flowers Gone." After soundcheck, a venue employee arrived on a stunning black and silver Harley Davidson motorcycle and tempted Joan to hop on and disappear into Clermont-Ferrand traffic. Not long before showtime, Emma had challenged Ian to a pushup contest, which prompted Blair to demonstrate to Joan, Emma and Ian a physical exercise he claimed only males can do...it was pretty interesting as we put Blair's theory to the test!

With the French portion of this fairy tale tour over, we all hopped on the bus for a long drive to Eindhoven in The Netherlands to start part two of the tour in and around the Scandinavian area. The weather turned cold and rainy by the time we rolled into Eindhoven, but that didn't deter most of us from walking to an interesting restaurant where the chef selected our meals. What a fun way to try different types of food!

While I was setting up the merchandise display in Eindhoven's beautifully restored McFrits Phillips Hall, I stumbled upon a candelabra and mounted it onstage near Dirk's piano to give the stage a Liberace glow during soundcheck. The next concert in Randers, Denmark, had sold out within a matter of minutes, so a second show was scheduled back in this venue at the end of the tour. While walking around Randers I picked up some interesting information about Joan Baez' entertainment competition on Friday, April 15, 2011: an exact replica of Elvis Presley's Graceland was opening that day! It seemed strange that there would now be another Graceland in this city so far away from Memphis.

Before the Stockholm show at the wonderful Cirkus venue, a lovely little girl, along withe her brother and parents, stopped by the merchandise table and asked how they could get a little purse the young girl had made from recycled materials to Joan Baez. I advised them to wait until a break between songs and then go down to the front of the stage and hand the impressive creation to Joan, which they did. After the show, Blair come to the merchandise table and asked me to point out the family, as Joan wanted to say a personal thank you for the intelligent, heartfelt gift of love. The special purse was a part of Joan's attire every day for the rest of the tour!

Easter was now approaching, and Joan wanted to get some Swedish goodies to send to her mother, so Emma, Joan and I found a fine chocolate shop near our hotel, where we bought treats for ourselves, and Joan picked out some special things to send to her mother. Outside the shop was a large standup picture of the Statue of Liberty with the face cut out so tourists could inset their own heads. All three of us took turns becoming Lady Liberty.

Now there was one more show in Linkoping before the tour group was parked in Oslo, Norway, for almost a full week while Joan and Emma headed for Canisy, Joan's favorite castle in the Normandy region of France, where they would celebrate Easter with friends. Meanwhile, Dirk headed for a wonderful adventure in Greece.

Without question, Oslo was a perfect place to spend a week. There were plenty of marvelous boat rides to take and wonderful places to explore, like the Vigeland Statuary Park. There were impressive museums such as the Thor Heyerdahl/Kon-Tiki and Viking museums, and the wharf complex that featured ice cream cones rolled in pure cocoa powder, along with lots of shopping, good dining, and, thank goodness, a coin-operated laundry facility. The buildings in and around the central city area displayed tasteful and elaborate architecture. In the city's central area there was an odd, but appropriate piece of Easter artwork on display. The city's opera house was a most unique structure that featured sloped, ramp-like sides, making it possible to walk all over the unique marble structure. After Joan and Emma returned from Canisy, they joined Blair and me for a performance of the ballet "Wildflowers" at the opera house. We were all amused with ourselves when we thought the performance was over and left the venue, only to learn it was merely the second intermission! We remedied that mistake by heading to an East Indian restaurant to drown our embarrassment with food!

After a show in Bergen, Norway, the group returned to Oslo for a performance at Sentrum Scene, where we saw posters announcing that the gifted Emmylou Harris would be performing the very next night after Joan's show. Emmylou is one of my very favorite artists. I jokingly made a comment to Blair that I'd probably wet my pants if I could see Emmylou's show, although I knew that dream was hopelessly impossible, since we were leaving Oslo immediately after Joan's show for the encore concert in Randers, Denmark. To further rub salt into my wounds, I learned that while I was busy selling merchandise out front, Emmylou had attended Joan's show and stopped by to visit in the dressing room. Later, on the bus Joan appeared with a large diaper, spread it on a chair and told me to sit on it. She then handed me a birthday card (since my birthday was just two days from then), and inside the card was a note stating the diaper was so I wouldn't soil the bus couch because we were, indeed, staying another night in Oslo and going to see Emmylou's show the next night! I was stunned! During her concert, Emmylou praised Joan as a true inspiration for her own career and an example of how to combine a career in music with social action. After the show a representative from the venue magically appeared at our row in the balcony and escorted us to Emmylou's dressing room, where she plopped a big chocolate cake down on a table and requested that someone "get rid of the damn fruit, because we have homemade chocolate fudge birthday cake!" What a hoot! And what a lot of work for Blair to reschedule ferry rides, hotels, etc., just to give me this special birthday present and to see if I'd actually wet my pants - and to everyone's disappointment, I didn't!

At the Randers show, Joan must have been thinking about the upcoming three co-billed shows on the Fall U.S. Tour with Kris Kristofferson because she unexpectedly sang "Help Me Make It Through The Night." It was Sunday in Randers, and nearly every store was closed, but I had a challenge to get rid of all my Danish Kroner before I departed this part of the world. Finally I encountered an odds-and-ends store that was open, where I found a very ugly heavy stone bird and a big rock, which I sneakily placed into Ian's suitcase while he was doing laundry at the venue. After hearing Ian complain about how much heavier his suitcase was than when he started the tour, I backed off my diabolical plan and confessed that he needed to check everything inside his suitcase before he got to the airport, and I was stuck paying excess weight charges for him! He found the bird and the rock, and good-naturedly went along with the joke by posing for a picture with the treasures before we stashed the pieces of "fine art" in the bus' refrigerator for Pascal to find after we had long departed. Then it was off to the airport and flights that would wing us to our homes and/or other gigs.

Until our next adventures in France, Canada, and the United States, here's wishing you very happy musical trails. Hope we see you somewhere along the way!

All photos © Jim Stewart, 2011, except the first one of Joan © Catherine Turek, 2011

Be sure to take a look at the many other photos from this tour. Enjoy!

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