February 17th

Hi everyone,
Here in Somerset the weather has been relentlessly wet and stormy since well before Christmas and shows no signs of improving any time soon. Thanks for all the e-mails and messages asking if we have been affected by the flooding. We are lucky here, because my house is at the top of a hill, so we have escaped the awful damage done to villages nearby. I’ve been home for one of the longest stretches for ages, but having been away most of last year, there was plenty waiting for me to do: lots of paperwork and catching up in my office, some repairs around the place and time for some songwriting too!

Last week my daughter Holly came down so we we could look at her music with a view to recording a CD later this year. I played a local charity gig on Valentine’s Day with her and Clancy as my guests (with a collection for flood relief). It’s always lovely to sing with my family and as usual they stole the show!

I’m now looking forward to getting back out on the road and leave England February 28th for 5 weeks. The shows are all in Germany (apologies to the UK fans who have complaining at my long absence from the concert scene – I’m working on it, I promise) but I have been really enjoying playing with Uli Kringler in our stripped-down ‘back to the 30s’ style and we will be playing 15 shows together. The rest are solo performances and the tour is still headlined ‘Life And Soul’ after my recent box set, which came out in September on Blue Rose. We are playing in most parts of the country and hope to see lots of German friends, old and new, at the shows.

Looking forward to the tour and a change in the weather,

Best wishes to all,

Julian, Somerset