Edingburgh, Scotland

Edinburgh is a cracking city we all look forward to, the people are good and there's always a real buzz about the town. Seems everybody was out on this beauty of a Sunday, sun shining and warm. Mark and Glenn walked up to the castle, Matt went for one of his runs of biblical proportions. I simply tumbled out onto Princes Street and wandered my way up, returning down Rose Street with it's many shoppes, cafes and pubs. John McCusker who lives here in Edinburgh stayed home, had tea & toast and opened all the mail that has been stacking up since he's been away on tour!

There are always a couple of very special venues that we anticipate playing, usually smaller theatres or auditoriums -- The Ryman in Nashville, City Hall in Newcastle, Albert Hall of course and ... the Playhouse in Edinburgh, the scene of tonight's show. Built for theatrical productions, it seats just under 3000 with a steep, third floor balcony, is warm, intimate and sounds wonderful, though a logistical nightmare for the crew to load in. The backstage is four floors of narrow stairwells and small hallways and one never really gets a sense of the layout or where you are, but we adore the place.

A very large meet and greet tonight, some friends of Mark's and of course John had many friends and family there as well. As for the show, we all agreed it was one the best we'd done so far, in large part due to how well we could hear each other with the great acoustics of the theatre. Of course it was a seated audience, sold out to the rafters and they were tremendously good to us. Musicians live for nights like this, everything coming together perfectly, audience and performers totally connected.

Back at the hotel we took over a couple of tables in the bar, drifting back and forth to visit with John's parents and friends who were delightful, then ended up in Guy's room for a final night-cap and cuppa tea. I came back to my room and listened to some music before calling it a night, the day already dawning.

So long,

Richard