In love with Ireland

So I’m back from my Drivin’ & Dreaming Ireland tour. We had a great little adventure and got to see a lot of Ireland and met some amazing people along the way.

Here are some of my experiences captured in pictures.

This was our tour van. A cute Hymer from Craic N Campers! We were shocked that everyone was driving on the wrong side of the road. Also there were signs everywhere saying “Drive on left”. We sensed a conspiracy, but we made it out alive.

In Slane we shared the stage at Boyle’s Pub with Americans Drew DeFour and his wife Colleen. Drew is like a modern day Jerry Lee Lewis. Their show was absolutely crazy!

I learned that the grass is always greener in Ireland. So green it almost made my eyes hurt. It’s stunning!

Then we went down to Ballincollig outside Cork, for a show at The White Horse. It was the only day it really rained.

Everywhere we went we got a great welcome! I was laughing the whole evening because of Seamie who was hilarious. He and the other fellows at The White Horse took really good care of us.

Ireland has some really good beer. In fact I like this better than the German ones 😉

There are plenty of castles in Ireland. We stopped by a few. This one is Cahir Castle.

A pic from your everyday tour life. After walking all around Dublin, our socks were stinking. So we had to wash them and dry them over the heater in the tour van.

We had one day off on the tour, but then we were offered to play a slot at the famous Ruby Sessions at Doyle’s in Dublin, and of course we couldn’t turn that down.

It seemed Dublin didn’t want us to leave, because when we tried we realized we had a flat tire. Fortunately that got sorted out at a local repair shop in no time. The guy who changed the tire (not Jonas) was also a musician.

On our way north, I was amazed by the diversity of the landscape. This is on the road in Northern Ireland. Beautiful mountains and quite different from the more central parts.

We were very happy that the RV was not as big as our U.S one. Many of the roads didn’t even have two lanes and we had to stop for sheep and chickens. This is just outside one of my favorite stops on the tour; The Turnip House.

All the artists in Ireland were very good, and I was lucky to get to share the stage twice with Ciaran Lavery, here at the Spirit Store in Dundalk.

So until we meet again, thank you to Craic N Campers for the van, all the great venues that invited us to play and took great care of us, all the artists who shared the stage and their stories and of course all of you who came out and supported live music! I will be back for sure!