Aynsley Lister - The Official Website

Blog Entry September 7th 2006

Posted by Aynsley on Thursday 7th September, 2006.

OK, last month? Well, it only got more crazy. Following tens of emails informing us of an error in the listings of the gig schedule and lots of shocked faces when we actually managed to pull off what most claimed was nigh on impossible…..

Friday 11th August – Minneapolis, USA and Saturday 12th – Zurich, Switzerland. Well, Ruf Records were confident it was do-able and so it was all set in place. So off we flew to the US and met up with the musicians that had been hired on the evening before the big day – Thursday. The Bayfront Blues Festival is allegedly one of better known fests and so we were all quite relieved when the session players turned out to be amazing.
Following a couple of hours running through some tunes, we all decided it was time to call it a day and find a bar… err.. I mean restaurant.

Friday Morning: 8am – Find some coffee before heading off in search of breakfast. 9am – Following long inspection of menu in restaurant, decide I should fuel up properly for big day so order large amount of food. 9.30am – Barely able to move, manage to make short trip to vehicle. 10am – Arrive at festival site and check out stage timings before locating dressing room trailer…find huge RV with ‘Blues Caravan’ scrawled on side. 11am – Stage setup. 12am – On stage to a very sizeable and receptive crowd to play a 1 hour 20 minute version of the Blues Caravan show. Finish to a standing ovation and head over to merchandise tent where we are met by a queue of around 200 people wanting stuff signing – alrighty then! 1pm – Go in search of food tent for some more food before heading off to radio interview. 3.42pm – Almost fall off chair laughing as Ian takes it upon himself to sing Walkin’ Blues in a West Midlands English accent. 4.30pm – Head for airport. 6.30pm – arrive with minutes to spare before check in closes. Manage to board plane….

Saturday Afternoon: 4.40pm – Arrive Zurich International Airport to be met by driver who informs us it is a two hour drive to festival site. 7pm – Arrive at a festival to be greeted by around 10,000 people standing in thick gloopy mud in the pouring rain. Check stage timings. Panic. Locate dressing room and find something edible before getting changed and running back to stage to plug in and check everything works…it doesn’t but nevermind. 8pm – On stage to play to a massive crowd and be filmed for prime time Swiss TV. 10pm – Have meal and then get back to hotel for much needed sleep… for tomorrow morning I am getting up at 6am to fly back to Denver, CO!!!!

So there you go, with an 8 hour time difference between where i was in the US and Switzerland it only took about 4 days to actually feel like me again. Just in time for me to play a couple of shows before the weekends festival in Pinedale, Wyoming. What a cool place that is and so many nice people too. Headlined by Delbert McClinton, I thought I’d try my chances and was glad I did. That nice man got me up on stage for the last part of his set!! Now that is something I will not forget!!

So just a few days until ‘Everything I Need’ is released Stateside!!! Now don’t forget, all go and grab one at the same time!!

OK, off now to write another song