Time for an update! Last time I ended somewhere in midwestern USA, I believe after the Hank Williams show in Alabama and subsequent things in Missouri, Iowa, and the great Wahoo festival in Nebraska.

After that event I drove east to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and following a visit with my friends the Ammeters and more work on setting up things in the midwest for a later tour, I flew out of Cedar Rapids to Chicago, and from Chicago to London, England.

I arrived at the huge and maze-like Heathrow airport in England on July 2 after a smooth flight across the Atlantic Ocean. The long flight was so late arriving and it took so much time for me to collect my baggage and get through customs that my English friend, Gerald Brown, who was good enough to fight London traffic to meet the plane, almost decided I had somehow missed the flight. In the end, however, we connected.

As planned, we travelled that very evening to a venue an hour or so away from Gerald's home southern England, where I got together with some musicians, quickly put a show together, and presented it. Later there was a great jam, with some other musicians. Big fun, as always. I never get tired of meeting and making music with good musicians.

Gerald and his wife Ann are wonderful hosts--lovely warmhearted people. They took me on a fine tour of historical sites and other points of interest in the south of England. We climbed towers and looked at Roman ruins and explored ancient churches and visited a very old swannery (yes, they raise swans there), and ate (not the swans) and drank and did all sorts of fun things. I tried the famous English fish and chips (very good), toured the waterfront in the area where Gerald was born, and had an altogether excellent time. Gerald Brown happens to be owner of a world-class collection of country music videos, DVDs, and CDs. We stayed up until the wee smalls one night viewing some of them on Gerald's giant-screen television projection system. The Browns also like good jazz, and gifted me with a set of all of Nat Cole's pre-famous-singer era jazz trio recordings!

Another evening in England featured a solid jam session with more musicians, and I was able to make needed connections to put together a band to work my next trip to the United Kingdom. I made some good jazz connections too and am looking forward to exploring the trad and swing-based jazz scene next time I get to the U.K. Apparently there are many good jazz rooms in England. Sounds like some gigs to me!

Ann Brown was kind enough to cook me great meals, including the famous English roast beef and the excellent English breakfast. She has a keen interest in music, and is in fact a singer in musical productions. Gerald and Ann Brown know how to be true friends, and I really appreciate them. Those who know me understand that I view friendship as one of life's greatest blessings.

Much too soon came the final performance in England, with a band at a place called the Bluebird Club.

A few hours after flying east from Heathrow my plane landed at now familiar Rychnov airport in Prague, Czech Republic. My friend and outstanding fiddler Jiri "Fiddle George" Kralik was there to meet the plane. It felt good to be in the Czech Republic once again. Off we went to the Kralik home on Pulkruhova Street.

That weekend I played the Banjo Jamboree festival at Caslov (pronounced "Chazloff"), with George Kralik and his Rowdy Rascals band--Radek Hnilica ("huh-neel-eetzah"), banjo and guitar wizard, and bass fiddler and terrific singer Vilma Orlitova. Most of the bands at that festival did very straight, serious bluegrass. The Czechs are very serious about bluegrass. I was the first American ever to play this festival. Always the renegade, I decided to play a lot of swing, and I think it was the first time many listeners had heard Bob Wills' "Little Red Wagon", and the famous Cindy Walker's "Sugar Moon". These were tunes the band had played with me many times during an earlier European trip, and if I do say so myself I think we walked the dog pretty smartly in Caslov. I played some Mississippi John Hurt and Merle Travis fingerpicking tunes also. We played some bluegrass too, of course. The Rowdy Rascals are masters of that style. We finished to quite a roar of approval and were asked to do encores, so I feel what we did hit the mark.

On Saturday George's dad, my very good friend Petr Kralik, showed up at our tent in the campground, grinning and full of amazing vitality as always, and it was a pleasure for me to introduce this fine gentleman to Leslie. The weather in Caslov was very cold on the festival days and nights, unusually so for July in central Europe. We slept in tents and were very glad to have good sleeping bags. Mine had been made extra-nice and extra warm by my kind friend Carla Ammeter of Cedar Rapids. She's very good with the needle and remodelled an old bag for me so that it became a super-sleeping bag!

On Sunday I experienced an event that touched me deeply and made me feel very honored. Last time I was in Europe we (the band and I) did a concert in a theater operated by a famous and highly respected troupe of puppeteers at Louny, Czech Republic. We had a great turnout, took pleasure in excellent sound and lights in the theater, and had a jam session lasting until the very small hours after the concert. (Nothing new about that for me, hmm?) The sponsoring organization enjoyed what we did on the earlier European trip enough that on this trip they threw a special huge Sunday afternoon party honoring me. The party was held in an ancient restaurant with a big courtyard and lush vegetation all around. Lots of happy folks gathered in. It was all very cool. A pig was roasted on a spit, and the meat served with all manner of other wonderful delicacies. Live entertainment was provided by two fine young area musicians. I was presented with a bust of myself carved by one of the artisans. We were taken for light airplane rides over the gorgeous Czech countryside. It was a warm, sun-drenched day in this area quite far away from the Caslov festival site. I loved sailing through the sky in that little aircraft.

George and I, of course, jammed long with the musicians who were entertaining. I think they were a bit surprised that we jumped right in and had a good old time. I love to jam.

Katerina Hurkova, who was our photographer on the winter tour, works in the summertime as supervisor of guides through an ancient castle not far from Prague. She took me through the castle in the winter, when it was officially closed and the grounds covered with deep snow. We had to battle our way up steep hills to the castle then, though deep drifts. This summer the castle grounds were beautiful and green instead of beautiful and white. Katerina (she likes "Kate") arranged a special tour of the castle. It was great. The place is loaded with antique furniture, elaborate interior decorations, suits of armour, and ancient weapons testifying to the fact that we were no better at living in peace with each other in the distant past than we are now. Also in evidence were altogether too many mounted heads of animals, and on and on and on. The last occupant of the castle was Franz Ferdinand, whose assassination sparked World War I. Amazing.

Most of the pictures you may see of my central European shows and shows in Scandinavia were taken by Katerina Hurkova.

I also toured Prague's wonderful old quarter as I did in the winter, and it was most interesting to see the ancient streets and buildings, huge ornate palaces, and very cool little bistros in summer. Different! Prague is of course a legendary world capitol, so there were crowds of people on the streets from everywhere on the planet. The people watching was great!

At midweek the band loaded selves, baggage, musical equipment, food, passports, bottles of water, paperback books, tents, and you-name-it into George's trusty Mitsubishi car, and off we drove, headed north on adventure highway to Scandinavia. Wheeeeoooooooo---yow, boy was that fun!!! Prague--Dresden, Germany--Berlin, Germany--Hamburg, Germany--on to Frederikshavn, Denmark, on the North Sea. There we took a ship, the Saga, on an eleven-hour voyage across the North Sea and up a spectacular fijord to Oslo, Norway. Our car was transported in the hold along with many other vehicles, so the ship was actually an enormous ferry. The voyage was fabulous: Sparkling clean blue water, bright warm sunshine, wonderful food, many conversations with folks from everywhere, bound for the north. So many people spoke such excellent English on that ship that I could almost forget I was on the North Sea bound for a land I had never before imagined I would visit. The Scandinavian people are open, friendly, fun-loving, physically beautiful. Little blonde cherubs toddled, ran, jumped and played everywhere. They were well behaved kids, too.

Damn, I love being a road musician!! I get to travel everywhere, experience all everywhere has to offer, make my music everywhere I go, offer joy, receive joy and satisfaction, party and jam all night, make friends from countries all around the world...and get paid for it. What's not to like?

(Actually, I do miss my good old screened porch and my yard full of native plants in Florida, and I do miss my many dear friends at home--but life is a series of choices, and I've chosen the music road!)

In Norway we wound up, up, up, and **up** into the mountains in countryside that actually resembles parts of Colorado. Finally we arrived at Resor, there to play one of the best run and most fun festivals I have ever played in my life. Dagfinn Pederson, the organizer, is one cool person. Presiding over that extravaganza of great music and food and a thousand other forms of fun, he was completely relaxed. I know from extensive personal experience how much work is involved in putting together a music festival. Dag acted like he hadn't a care in the world. His eyes twinkled as he emceed in a variety of languages, took pictures, and had every bit as good a time as any of us. Every one of us who organizes and presents events could learn something from Dag Pedersen.

"Charley," he told me, "I make sure the music is great, the sound is good, the lights are good, people are comfortable, and that there is plenty to eat and drink, places to camp...and then--what can go wrong?"

Dag even has a pub on the site with big-screen projection of the stage showing at all times, for those who want to relax and have a drink while soaking up the music.

The event featured a wide variety of acoustic music, much of it American in origin, all of it on a very high level. This is the top festival in this part of the world, and it shows in the quality of entertainment presented. Our performance (with me, George, the band, and a great bass fiddle player recruited from another band for the show) was tumultuously received and we were brought back for an encore. Again, we did a mix of swing, bluegrass, and some very old-timey fiddle and frailing banjo duets created by George and Radek. I think again that we hit the mark with something good that was a litte unexpected.

I am very proud of George and Radek, who are both very young men but who both play at highest levels of skill. They are good!! I feel very much the uncle around them, and it fills my heart with happiness to see them setting off well down the music road I have travelled for so long. It is a good old road.

I was pleased to be interviewed at the festival and to have some of my music recorded for broadcast on Dutch radio by Loek Lamers, a prominent European radio host with Radio Holland. Loek invited me to come to Holland, and I will do it next summer. He and his wife Hannie are two more great people. We fell right in together and in the few days of the festival became fast friends.

I will be back to Resor! Yes!! That's what a festival is supposed to be like!! Thanks, Dagfinn!!

Those of us who stayed up all night to jam (in some huge teepees on the grounds) didn't have to do it in the dark for long. During July dusk does not come until after midnight, and the night is over by 3 AM.

In the small world department: I was standing on a ramp leading up to the main hall at the Resor festival one day, chatting with a lovely young Norwegian lady who turned out to be a photojournalist, when I discovered she was a good friend of my old Tampa acquaintance the late, great bluesman Rock Bottom! I remember Rock telling me he did a lot of music in Norway, and indeed when chatting with him very shortly before he died we talked of his playing in Europe. He was highly honored there. The big club Muddy Waters, in Oslo, has named a room for him.

I was the only American ever to perform at the festival at Caslov, CZ, and one of only two American acts at the festival in Norway. The other American act was the Mad Cow String Band, headquartered, conveniently for me, in Davis, California, very near the Sacramento area where I have been playing in the winter. We made plans to get together in December in California to look into making music and developing musical opportunities there.

Truly, it is a small world.

Saturday night the planet did not seem quite so small as we left the festival and Norway at the end of the evening's festivities. All night we drove once again, to Copenhagen, Denmark, to rendezvous with my good friends Kaj ("Kigh") and Irene Flindt-Masden. (All this driving, by the way, included me only as a passenger. The young-and-full-of-youthful-vitality Fiddle George did most of the driving, spelled by Radek.)

Hey, I did that kind driving when I was in my twenties! Now after eight hours or so I have to stop and have a good long rest.

We arrived in Copenhagen early in the morning. I immediately went out for some breakfast and some big cups of the wonderful Danish coffee. Those Danes really know how to make a cup of coffee. I sat at an outdoor table in a huge stone square on Sunday morning, people watching, eating scrambled eggs and good bread, and drinking coffee equalled only at Irene's Cafe, a favorite haunt of mine in Fresno, California USA. I felt pretty darned good just then. I felt even better after we connected with Kaj and Irene, who are radio broadcasters in Denmark, and went with them to their home near Copenhagen, where they plied us with more good coffee and food and invited us to take showers--real showers, with real soap and all the hot water we could stand. It was terrific to get cleaned up after three days of camping in rough circumstances in Norway with only outhouses and ice-cold running water. Kaj celebrated our visit by wearing his complete cowboy outfit, with big hat, boots, the works, which looked a little strange on the streets of Copenhagen.

We played in an outdoor setting on the waterfront in Copenhagen, and then met with Mick Foley at his Irish pub in the city. Mick has lots of connections in Denmark and Ireland, and we are discussing some plans for concert promotions to come. He's given me an introduction to one of the leading entertainment bookers in Ireland. Acceptance by that booker virtually ensures good bookings and success in Ireland. I appreciate his help with that very much.

After an evening meal of typical Danish food (pizza and other Italian dishes) in downtown Copenhagen, we hurtled through the night across Europe again--back to Hamburg, Berlin, Dresden, and in this morning's early light, back to Prague and home (my European home, anyway). I've spent a lot of time now here in Prague and it does have a "home" feeling. I even have a little apartment now behind a friend's home.

Well, enough for this time. It has taken a long time to write all this, and now I'm hungry--so I'll make an end to it here and go in search of food.

I really enjoy writing these updates. I hope you'll get a kick out of reading this one!

I'd like to hear from you, so please, dear friends, send me a few lines of e-mail to let me know how's by you.

Choose to be happy!

Charley Groth rainbowpr@juno.com