Caution: Fall ahead

I would have written you yesterday to tell you about the busy and lovely weekend concerts, but Eddie was "summoned" to the warehouse in Mannheim where the Söhne Mannheims are rehearsing for their new tour. They needed him to sing 2 words, "Komm Heim" which means "come home". He had to sing them at the top of his lungs at the top of his range for them to record and sample for one of their songs. Needless to say, we dropped everything and drove over there. They are rehearsing in a big box of a warehouse and to say there is a lot of equipment involved is quite the understatement. They were obviously tired; they've been rehearsing for 5 days solid, but they seemed in good spirits. We've been invited to their "invitation-only" dress rehearsal tomorrow evening in the warehouse. I know, I truly know, some of you would give your right arm to get so close to these guys. But remember, 4 of them played in MY band, long before Xavier Naidoo came on the scene!!!!
The weekend concerts went well. On Friday in Achern, Eddie and I performed in the Christuskirche. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, even though the minutes leading up to the beginning of the concert were VERY tense, to say the least. Florian had been rehearsing with Söhne Mannheims all day and had very carefully timed his drive to join us for the gig. But, of course, the traffic did not cooperate and he got to the venue at 5 minutes before 8:00. He actually called along the way to inform us that he would not make it by 8:00. Now that kind of information will get your adrenaline going!
He did get there and even had time to eat a roll and change his clothes before jumping onto that grand piano and playing like there was no tomorrow. Such a pro!!!
New sound man: Matthias Reusch. He did a super job. We felt very comfortable and well-handled by him. He is a stickler for the details, so we left it in his capable hands.
He also did the sound for my concert in Lauben the next night. What? You don't know where Lauben is???? It is a darling little village of 800 souls in Bavaria. And I think most of the villagers came to the concert. The renovated barn was packed.
Florian couldn't play for me that night so Samuel Jersak played. And how! He did such a good job. And his version of "Seele, was ermüdst Du dich" was goose-bump awesome! I think he was particularly inspired by the fact that his beautiful wife, Juliane, was there. :) She is such a bright personality in a dark world. She is almost finished with her studies to be a pastor. I'd go to her church in a heart beat!
She helped Luke set up the "Lifelines" and CD table. Luke was a very busy guy on Saturday. he played cajon, guitar, sang some backings, AND was in charge of setting up, selling, and packing away merchandise! But ask him, he'll tell you that he loved that evening.
He played all his instruments really well and did such a sweet job singing. The sound man commented on how similar our voices sound. That they blend perfectly. It's true. And you can hear that on our new album, "Inner Sanctum".
We got home in the wee hours of Sunday morning to find Eddie still up waiting for us after his Premiere of "Fidelio" in Karlsruhe. So, we hauled equipment, etc. into the house and fell exhausted into a sleep coma.
And awoke Sunday morning to find that autumn has arrived. Just look at the color of the tricuspidata at our front door! A certain harbinger of fall. Time to find some pumpkins to carve and turn up the heat on the water bed.