Imagine an early morning in July in Pocahontas County, WV.. A warm,drizzling rain is taking all sound out of the smoky mountains. Take a swim in the lake, eye to eye with the Canada geese that flocked on the meadow during the night.
Reluctant to leave this serene place and at the same time eager to get on the road you drift through the farm's wet, high grass towards the main house to let Linda know you're leaving. You come across this tractor and wonder if the man that last drove it knew where the next day's road would lead him.
Imagine a few days later in Marshall, NC. It's a long drive back to the DC area, but you just can't seem to tear yourself away. Somewhere in these hills was Joe, and you found him, because you went looking.

"Find Joe" is another trip. Geographically it's not that far from Big Pink, you could drive it in a day. Spiritually, it's deeper into my own heartland.

Browsing the net for a place to stay in the lower Appalachian range on what I already called my „Cherokee getaway“, I came upon a yurt for rent in Marshall. A few days before I actually left, I checked up on the area - how to get there and what to do. On the Wikipedia page of Marshall, I noticed from the corner of my eyes a small-print list at the end. „Unincorporated communities in Madison county“. The names „Joe“, „Trust“ and „Luck“ caught my eye. Straight out of nothing the trip and I had a purpose... a mission. I would go and find „Trust, Luck and Joe“. I didn‘t know then how big it would be, but I did find those three in a rainbow rush of miles and gentle people at the side of the road. And almost magically, the getaway became an arrival as well. Inside and out.

Special thanks and credits to Paul Gaspar for drums, and thanks to Dimitrios, Johann, Daniel and Jörg for the background vocals.

The arena of Bill and Olivia's valley.... seen from the place where the sun first hits the meadow. If you ever wonder, why there's so many songs about North Carolina, this is the place to find out.

Could've been one of the song's that a guy named Eddy played outside of "Hope" on Newbury street. I don't know where I acutally got it from, but Tom's and Benjamin's eyes light up when they hear it, and that's reason enough to play it.

Putting what I felt into words brought the picture along in no time. The location is Newport, RI, and the boat is leaving the shelter of Goat Island to sail through Narragansett Bay to the ocean.

The picture itself was taken in the port of L'Herbaudière, Noirmoutier, France. The cover was initally designed in a place called "Cadillac bar" in L'Epine.

"Black where I come from" was written and (most of it) recorded in 2014. It's dark in a way only, because where there's darkness, there must be light somewhere. As long as you're in control your course, it should turn out to be the right one in the long run. Which is less likely, if you're just tagging along.

Old man Murphy is as real as the Newport bridge. I met him in the 70ies, and again every time I happened to be on the east coast. The scene in the song is pure fiction, but the picture is so real that I can feel Murphy's shadow on my back as he hollers down at me from the pier.

This song could have been on Texaco Roadmap, but 2016 was all whitewater, rapids and rocks... not the time to sit down with headphones.

I had that picture before I had the song.

Speaking of B-sides... is it presumptuous to cover a song like that? Or any song? Maybe not. Better musicians have failed to come close to the original... and Leonard, whereever you are, there's "The book of longing" on my shelf. Thanks for this song, Mr. Cohen.

Google found the original picture for me. An actual "Tagesthemen" frame. It was perfect. All I did was at the title and a little noise.

The TV is the actual tube I had then, photoshopped with the above. For the inside cover I actually took it apart and took a picture of what I found inside.

This is a happy song. A nonsense song, if you wish. Written orginally for the unbelievable Ritterbecks who never adopted it. The first lyrics I ever wrote in my mother language, Funny enough. Before releasing this, I asked her for permission. As a matter of politeness & respect for the only real anchorman. It's completely out of frame... the language, the punkesque arrangement... but it was a genuine feeling and so what...

no extra cover

Jersey Girl... goddam, there's a Tom Waits' version of this song that is frightning. And I still dig B-sides.

The cover does show the original Volkswagen Hippie Bus and the original Mr. Jones.

Credits to Holgi for the picture.

I wrote this song while walking down from Mürren, Switzerland, to the Alpenhof in Stechelberg, 2011. When it comes to feeling welcome, friendly and a little Hippie, the Alpenhof is the closest to Alice's restaurant that you can get to this side of the Atlantic Ocean.

It's about how it is and how important it seems to confer to my little boys that there will be more important things in life than getting an education, finding a good job and accumulating security until you eventually die. This is a happy song.

The girl on the front cover is Ali MacGraw, who shares her birthday with me. People magazine put her on list of the 50 most beautiful people in the world in 1991. I knew that when I was a boy in the late seventies. But I was a kid.... and she was with Steve McQueen.

When I thought about the cover, she came to my mind in no time. Not her beauty in the first place. It was the the depth in her eyes.

Picture credits? No idea, I found it on the net. Apologies to whoever took it, and to Mrs. MacGraw of course.

I met the original good girl stepping out of a train in Cologne - I never actually talked to her. Her picture has long faded away, but I remember that she looked incredibly pretty in the way she stood up against the big city’s tidal waves of concupiscence, slightly bruised by the past but self-consciously facing the future and knowing as much as hoping that better days would come.
It took me 5 years and at least 3 more good girls to finally come up with the first verse of this song, but all the time I knew I would write it. It was recorded 2004/2005.