By Andy

With limited internet access, limited time and a limited number of computers, exactly one, there has been a backlog of blogging to do. Next stop on the Rough Shop “When the Schinken Hits The Fan’ Tour was Voehringen, Germany, and the Illertal Cowboys concert series. Illertal translates as the Iller River Valley. The series is run by Big Herbert, as Paul called him. We got to the club early and a man hanging out in his RV unlocked the door for us. He is a friend of Herbert from Vienna, now retired and traveling around Europe, getting in a lot of music shows along the way. (You can see the RV in the very back of the photo.)

Big Herbert showed up a little later (a jovial old hippie is he – most of the promoters seem to be old hippies, sometimes the only hippie in a land of European chic) and showed us the club. It’s a small space, and he told us that they usually don’t use a sound system. We were ready for it after our impromptu performance at the Hotel Sternen. But we didn’t know what to do about our electric upright bass. Anne was thrilled when Big Herbert told us there was a bass fiddle on the premises. She’s been using the smaller electric upright (rented for the price of a CD from a friend of Paul - thank you, Urs). The small size was necessary for traveling but has been hard for Anne to get used to. And besides, if the guitars were going to be unplugged, Anne wanted the bass to be unplugged – a good philosophy I think.

We got a simple but very good meal made there at the club courtesy of Charlie, another dedicated music club volunteer. Herbert explained that making a big pot of food for the band was a way to keep their expenses manageable.

The club is a pretty down-to-earth place, with long tables and benches, a wood stove for heat. It seats about forty, but Herbert said he can have about sixty packed in if people don’t mind straddling the mic stands. He’s had country, folk, singer-songwriters and bluegrass at the club. (photos of bar decor below)

He also runs sound for events and hires himself out to performers as driver (with vehicle). He’ll be working soon with the Infamous Stringdusters as their driver and sound man.

We had a few old friends show up for the show, Reneta and Hans Peters. It was fantastic to spend time with both of them. Reneta was also at the Lampenhien show and joined us for dinner that night. After witnessing us grapple with the German menu, she was kind enough to bring us a translation of common menu items.

There was a good crowd for our show, about forty people, and they made a bit more noise than the average crowd. Most of the audiences are pretty subdued and politely applaud after the songs. Sometimes, someone will come up to us after a show and explain that even though the crowd hardly made a noise, they did love the show. But this group was livelier, interacting with us between songs and whooping it up a bit on faster songs. We and the audience had a good time.

Anne had to say goodbye to the bass, though.