Just wanted to let you know that I will do an Interview at the german online radio station radio-starlet.de this coming saturday between 3pm-6pm british time, 4-7pm german time.

Tune in, I will be in the chat there as well!

Wow!

The recent tour through Bavaria was absolutely incredible!

It was exhilarating as well as exhausting, but I would do it again in a heratbeat.

On Friday morning I arrived at Heathrow Airport with enough time to check-in, only to be told that my suitcase was overweight and that I had to remove 6kg out of it. I then had to buy an additional bag and start re-packing. I still had to pay for excess baggage, though. Once I had put my guitar through Bulk luggage, I rushed to the gate, and 5 minutes after boarding we were on the runway...

Once I arrived in Munich, I had to find out that my guitar was still in London. Since it would have been impossible for the airline to deliver it to me in time for the first show in the evening, I had to wait at the airport for it to arrive on the next flight about 3-4 hours later. In the meantime I picked up my rental car. They gave me the option to choose between a Fiat Panda or the Peugeot 107. Once they told me that the 107 was bigger I opted for that one, since I knew I would heve to fit my overweight suitcases, guitar, a full PA system (2 speakers, Power Mixer, stands, etc.) and my son and his luggage into the car. Once I saw the brightly yellow coloured car I knew that I had a challenge waiting for me. I you haven't seen the peugeot 107 yet, it looks like a slightly larger version of the SMART, but the difference in size is hardly noticeable...

Once the guitar arrived I rushed eastbound onto the Autobahn, in order to meet up with my friends who organised the first show, since they knew where to go (Claudia & Stefan: Thank you sooo much, you were incredible!!!)

We arrived and I really wanted to take a shower before the show, but once I realised that the Hotel was another 10km away, and that I wouldn't find my way back to the venue I opted against that, and just set up for the show. I was lucky enough to be able to wait until after the opening match of the World Cup. The show went well, and I finally hit the sack at around 3am after having been up for 22 hours.

 

After a few hours sleep I went to pick up my son Kevin, stopped at his place for about 20 minutes, before having to rush on in order to meet up with Hondax, who played a gig during that time, and I borrowed the Pa system from him. After spending about 2 hours with him, Kevin and I drove on to Simbach/Inn, where we met with Stefan Lehner, who made this entire trip possible in the first place. He guided us to the venue for the evening, where Kevin helped me unload the equipment after we went to the Hotel and were able to dump the lugagge.

The evening was a delight for me, as old stories from 11+ years ago were told, and I went "back to the roots" towards the end of the evening, by sitting on a table with my guitar and the remaining crowd of about 30 people singing along with me. What a night!

On Sunday we went to visit Claudia, husband Stefan and son Valentin close to Bad Birnbach. Claudia had prepared a wonderful Bavarian style Pork Roast for us, and afterwards we tried to relax a bit, and then Hondax arrived in the meantime, and we then all returned to the Hotel where my next show was. As our room was right above the "Stage" in the Beer garden. I was surprised again to see how many of my old friends and fans came from far away to come out and see me, some of which I haven't seen in over 10 or 11 years! Although my voice was pretty much gone from the previous days, I managed to get through the evening.

Monday was my day off, and Kevin and I got up early (again) and drove the 120km to Munich, where we first met up with my old friend Eric Thöner at his company allez, where he presented me with the DVD he made from the Country-Rose Festival at the  end of April. After some lunch we then drove on to be with my family, and we laughed until the early morning hours.

Tuesday morning we had an early start again, as we had to leave at 7am in order to take kevin back home, and then I had to travel back to Simbach/Inn, for the final show of the tour. It was Stefan Lehner's 40th Birthday Party, where Hondax and I played together for the first time in 11 years. Without a set list we started the evning and soon realised that we still had "it", as if we just had spent the last few weeks rehearsing with each other. Stefan also presented me with a T-shirt that he managed to get done for me that read "Jeffrey Backus on Tour in Bavaria 2006" with a list of all the gigs i had performed.

All in all we all had a wonderful time, even with the loss of voice, and I'm looking to do it all over again in the near future.

 

That's it for now,

 

blogging off...

 

Jeffrey

Hello,

 

the time is near now for me to go back to my old home in Bavaria and perform. I am really looking forward to it. It has been about 10 years since I have done any shows there, but apparently there are still a lot of fans who are planning to come out and see/hear me at one of the shows.

I have to say a HUGE Thank you to my dear friends Claudia and Hondax, who have helped set this whole tour up.

 

The recent 22. International Country-Rose Festival in Germany:

the 22. international Country-Rose Festival was once again an event I won't be able to forget. I was very impressed again with the great organisation that went into arranging the 3-day festival.

Saturday evening was the main evening. I started the show off, and the audience was with me from the first song, and applauded and cheered after each one. There might be a Videoclip of part of my performance coming to you soon either via my website or this page...

The other performers were: John Smith Junior, Country Rose & Band and Dickey Lee. The evening was presented by Uwe Hübner, a well known german TV presenter.

After the grand finale, where all of us shared the stage for about 20 minutes, I was asked to play for another 30 minutes, just acoustically and improvising. After 1 1/2 hours I managed to get off stage, since the audience wouldn't let me stop!

On Sunday was the HR4 party (a well known radio station) presented by HR4's Heinz-Günter Heygen. The guest star was Ireen Sheer, a singer who has had successes in Germany for the past 20 years. After her set and a few more records for the dancers, Heinz-Günter Heygen was due to start announcing me to the stage, but the fans didn't make it easy for him, they were stomping their feet and chanting "Jeffrey, Jeffrey, Jeffrey..."

I was backstage and completely blown away by this reception! Once I came on stage, they cheered even more, and the 2 songs I was supposed to do turned into 3, as well as doing an interview on stage with Heinz-Günter. An amazing evening!

 

A note about my website www.jeffreybackus.com:

I am in the process of re-designing the site. On the first page you will get the option to choose which language you would like to have the page displayed in. My home on the web is going bi-lingual!

The reason for me to decide to do that was mainly due to me doing a lot of shows in Germany now, and planning to do more. I'll be trying to keep both parts of the site up to date with the relevant information.

There will be some graphic re-designs as well. It is a work in process, and I'm not sure when I will have it finished.

I am also planning on integrating this page into the site, along with some other features.

 

Watch this space...

 

Blogging off for now, got some work to do...

 

Jeffrey

I am getting really excited about this month's festival in Germany.

This will be the second year in a row that I have been asked to play there. This is a long-running event, that is now in it's 22nd year.

This year this 3-day event will see awards, German up and coming Country acts, a radio broadcast, and on Saturday night the main show with the host, Country Rose and Band, the legend Dickey Lee, me and some others.

I am also looking forward to seeing some old friends that I haven't seen in 19 years!!!

 

I hope to see some of you there as well!

 

Until then,

 

 

Jeffrey Backus

We had our first NSAI UK meeting over the weekend, and it was a success for all that participated. Check out www.nashvillesongwriters.co.uk for details.

 

More gigs have been added to the Tour in June in Germany.

 

Some old friends of mine from 20 years back will make the trip to visit me at the 22nd International Country Rose Festival at the end of April. Really looking forward to that.

 

More soon...

 

Jeffrey