Wow, it went from a sleepy year to a frenzy of cool for me in about two weeks flat – while out with Mark Lanegan supporting Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds in Australia, I got the call to go from Sydney immediately to Austin to spend a couple of days rehearsing for the Afghan Whigs’ show Friday March 15 at The Fader Fort. If you can’t make it in person you can stream it on The Fade website – it’ll be worth it.

So, no sleep for me means your week in musical entertainment and possible enlightened thrills.  Plus, I get to go guitar gizmo shopping.

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Been doing a ton of this-and-that since the beginning of the year; gigs with friends, demoing songs with Greg, playing with my trio some in the French Quarter and working on the Daveaux album joint… but mainly been enjoying New Orleans and the anti-winter we generally have here.

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I’m going to be playing with Mark Lanegan (as a duo) again, this time we’re going to Australia for a couple of weeks with Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds. Probably a lot like opening for Elvis in Graceland.  That two-man dynamic is fun as hell and so satisfying in a way that’s completely different from melting faces off in a band situation. The quieter you play, the harder people listen, and the message seems more deeply transmitted.

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Hopefully Moreton Bay bugs are in season, I’ve yet to get a proper education on that stuff but DAMN they are one of my favorite seafoods. And as far as i know there’s only ONE place to get ‘em, and it’s a 19-hour flight from here.

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Oh hell yes.  Then, home to finish assembling tracks for my thing & hopefully some work with Terry.

You can get his new track here:

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After Germany & Switzerland we had a nice stop in Sètes in the south of France for a day off.  Me & some of the boys stumbled upon a local event in the marina, Boat Jousting (joute de la marine), and ended up staying for like two hours, rapt… I don’t for the life of me know why we haven’t adopted this awesome sport in New Orleans!  We have bayous & a lake on which to do this, not to mention a booze-fueled populace who I think would embrace it quickly.  It could be as big as roller derby (or even shopping cart derby).

I got some video -see Boat Jousting here!

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The tour had us in Glastonbury for “the sunny day”, and thank God, because it was still a mudfest.

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It takes a long time to travel around England, so we made a brief stop at Stonehenge, which has deep spiritual meaning to students of history, occultists and druids (not to mention fans of Spïnal Tap). Jokes ensued.

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From here we go to the Continent.  See dates here.

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Netherland shows were pretty fun but DAMN it was hotter than expected – 90˚ in the Netherlands?!  Ninja please!

In Poland at the Heineken Open’er Fest we had a freaking blast – Polish crowds always go crazy, and the scene was really beautiful. The weather was fantastic, as was it at the next show in Bonn at Rheinkulturfest.  Despite the sun making my pedalboard indicator lights invisible, and losing my glasses in “Never Seen No Devil” (blind as a bat), I had a real good time.

No, it’s not us onstage here, we never wear all white. Or any white, come to think of it.

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in no particular order…

wash/oregon sunset

Chinatown in Philly

Ben's in DC

Biggus Riggus in TN

Nashvegas

DC

Wiz & Scott help celebrate Greg's bday in Philly

annapolis - pretty.

rollin' secure on lower east side nyc

nyc (obviously)

Wrigleyville

North Dakota

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Today we begin our month-long tour of the USA. Beginning in the Southeast, we’ll go up the East Coast, head west through the Rust Belt & Midwest then come down the West Coast & cross the southern border states to end up back home in New Orleans for the final US show – details at The Twilight Singers site.

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Two nights of intense audience response… thank you.

You drove us to try and step up and actually have a rehearsal, and then chuck it all to fate and do some impromptu jamming and mashups mixed in with the five or six records’ worth of material. In one night we covered Adele, Kanye, The Action, Bob Seger, Prince, Kate Bush and God knows what else.  Two encores.  That was inSANE.

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Plus i got invited to a couple of Passover seders which, although i can’t attend, was flattering.

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the only thing I got to see - from the airport.

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Συναυλίες μας στην Ελλάδα ήταν καλύτερα από τις προσδοκίες μου - το κοινό ήτανφανταστικό, αλλά και ενθουσιώδης. Είμαι λυπημένος που έχω ποτέ δεν την ευκαιρίανα αφιερώσουν περισσότερο χρόνο στην Ελλάδα - ίσως του χρόνου.

ζήτω!

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Wenceslaus Square in Prague

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Prague is always fun.  I met some dear old friends and made a couple of new ones.  Seeing our NOLA friends made me a little homesick, but of course there was enough booze to temporarily wipe that…

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We arrived in Warsaw today after a grueling 12-hour drive… Today was the anniversary of the air tragedy that took the lives of President Lech Kaczynski, his wife and 93 other officials and security officers last year. We didn’t know WHAT to expect from the crowd given the emotionally intense week,  but to our surprise the packed show was a cathartic, joyous event.  We ended up doing and encore, and added a couple more songs than were originally on the setlist as well.  They deserved it, and were a fantastic group of folks.  Much love to Poland!

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© 2011 http://www.rafalnowakowski.com/

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Tomorrow we fly to Helsinki – back into the snow one last time before hitting the sun full on – Thessaloniki,  Athens and Tel Aviv. A vast array of weather perspectives.

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