Greetings from the Republic of Kosovo!

The difference between here and Germany is much more than I can express using the "night and day" or "different planet" cliches, so I'll try to capture that in this blog with pictures and some kind of description.

We departed our military hotel in Kaiserslautern at 6am and loaded up our massive amounts of gear into the airport much to the chagrin of Lufthansa personnel:



But I have to say that Selena at the counter was an absolute angel in getting us through the tangles and we got on the flight to Vienna and then to Pristina, Kosovo which is about an hour's drive to the base. Amazingly enough, all our gear made it in tact and once through customs we (with the help of some soldiers) got it loaded into a base truck:



Our personal bags went into a van:



and we hopped on board the lastest state of the art tour bus:



Inside the bus we met our gracious hostess - Renee' - who gave us a welcome and rundown of things to come:



There was another band from L.A. there with us. We'll be playing the same venues but at different times. Good bunch of guys (and a female singer), of course.

Unfortunately it was dark as we were passing thru the towns and countryside so we didn't get a good look at it yet. Hope to soon.

After getting our badges to be on base, we then went to meet the commanding General for a short meet and greet. The General and most of the American contingent here are Missouri National Guard so we immediately had a lot of home to talk about. (For those of you that don't know, my hometown is Kansas City, MO and Thom comes from the St Louis area). I wasn't allowed to take pictures at the "ceremony" but suffice it to say the General was exceedingly gracious at welcoming us.

Here we are in front of the General's area:



It sounds like not many bands get down here as the all the glory goes to playing in Iraq and the Middle East (don't know what that glory is!), but they were all very thankful for our presence. The General gave us each plaques and special dog tags with The Soldiers Creed and Army Values on them. Thom and I each got Missouri National Guard pins as well. It was all very very touching.

Here's a later composite pic of our gifts:



Back at our "quarters" we found an ethernet connection coming through the heating device and with Renee's help we got connected. I even got to do a live video chat with my lovely wife and cool step son Gabe. ( For some reason that connection isn't working now so I'm currently at the base "coffee shop" which has wifi.)

Here's Thom and John enjoying your comments from the blog. Keep 'em comin'!!



Its about time for lunch. We are here until Jan 2 so I plan to give a more detailed report of this base, its mission on another blog.

I'd like to leave you with the engravings on our new dog tags:

ARMY VALUES
Loyalty: Bear true faith and allegiance to the U.S. Constitution, the Army, your unit, and other Soldiers

DUTY: Fulfill your obligations

RESPECT: Treat people as they should be treated

SELFLESS SERVICE: Put the welfare of the Nation, the Army and your subordinates before your own

HONOR: Live up to all the Army Values

INTEGRITY: Do what's right, legally and morally

PERSONAL COURAGE: Face fear, danger or adversity (physical or moral)



THE SOLDIERS'S CREED:

I am an American Soldier
I am a Warrior and a member of a team
I serve the people of the United States and live the Army Values
I will always place the mission first
I will never accept defeat
I will never quit
I will never leave a fallen comrade
I am disciplined, physically and mentally tough, trained and proficient in my warrior tasks and drills
I always maintain my arms, my equipment, and myself
I am an expert and I am a professional
I stand ready to deploy, engage and destroy the enemies of the United States of America in close combat
I am a guardian of freedom and the American way of life
I am an American Soldier



We love and miss you all,
Jerry

Getting Better All The Time

The band was on tonight! Everyone felt it, knew it and it showed. Amazing how great these guys can play with a little rest from jet lag.

We departed today for Ramstein Air Base, Germany and found the gig at “Club E” (Enlisted)



Thom had played this venue before so finding our way around was easy.

We were greeted by our hostesses (AKA “Point Of Contact” – heretofore referred as POC in military jargon) Maria and Lori:



They immediately made us feel at home and most welcome. After a little lunch we began the load out of gear and setting up:







Followed by a sound check and short rehearsal to work out what bugs might be still hanging around.

And then dinner with Lori and Maria and a gig from 8-10 at the club. Several fans from the gig at the base down the road came to hear us again



Caitlin Nicol-Thomas, a Nashville singer/songwriter who had recently toured Iraq and Kuwait was in the area visiting friends and came over. Thom had her open a little acoustic 3 song set before the band played:



The night was an especially good one band-wise and audience wise. While the audience wasn’t as large as it could have been (after all, it was a Monday nite and holiday) what they may have lacked in number they definitely made up for in enthusiasm. I don’t remember anyone ever two-stepping and singing along to “For A Little While” when I played it at the Bluebird, but here it was right in sync with the evening and a blast for me.

Meanwhile, let’s have a look at the band in action

Todd



Bob



John



Thom



Wade



And check out this short little video of Renae having a blast with the recruits on “Devil Went Down To Georgia”



She has amazing showmanship that everyone really loves.

The show was supposed to end at 10 and, like last time, we went to about 11 instead.

Autographs and cds,



Packing and saying goodbye to Lori and Maria (a tough job, but someone has to do it.)



and we headed back for our last night in Germany.

We board the bus tomorrow morning at 6am for a flight to Kosovo. We’re all looking forward to that adventure.

Thanks for checking in and please keep the comments coming. We are all really enjoying them.

Soon,
Jerry

“To the Castle, Armin!”

Today is an off day. As I mentioned before, we agreed to sleep in and meet at the bus at noon for a trip to the base food court for a late breakfast. No problem except that I woke up at 12:17 thanks to John knocking on my door. A quick “bird bath” and lots of deodorant and we did brunch and a little nosing around the base PX.

Armin then gave us the choice to go to an old Rheinland castle or back to the rooms. It was a no brainer and off we went to the castle at Burg Lichtenberg. Much of it has been destroyed over the years (give it a little slack as construction on it began in 1200) but it was still pretty cool to walk around those ruins and see not only a little of old German history but some pretty views of the German countryside as well.

Here’s one of many shots that were taken there:



And the band together an another area of the castle



Bob was his usual thankful self:



And Thom found what looks like a wishing well:



Hoping for a Rodney Carrington cut maybe?

I found a cool gate at one area:



That’s it for now. Tomorrow we head to Ramstein for another show. More later.

Thanks for being here with us!

Jerry

What a day - and night!

Sorry it has taken me so long to get up this first post, but it has been forever since I’ve had an opportunity to find internet service and spend a little time putting it together. Right now (10:20 pm Sunday nite), the hostess of our military "hotel" has been very gracious to open up the business center and let me in. Otherwise there are no internet services near us.

******************

After hanging around the Atlanta airport 8+ hrs in our layover, we finally got to board our Delta flight to Frankfurt. That flight itself was a little over 8 hrs and no one really got much of any sleep in those airplane seats. But,with a safe flight behind us, we arrived in Frankfurt on time and found our driver waiting for us and ready to answer all our questions about what lay before us:



We were most pleased to see an awesome tour bus awaiting us and loaded our gear up in it:



Inside the bus is equipped with two four-top tables, 8 bunks and a rear lounge area:



Our driver, Armin Hein, gave us his “introduction”. He had been a driver for Thom, Wade, Todd and Bob on previous tours and is a fun, easy going guy with a good sense of humor to keep us entertained:



We still had to wait to pick up Ben Adamson, the sound guy, who was flying in from L.A., then go to the bus company’s garage to pick up sound and drum gear (provided by Ben’s company), then head to our base accommodations, clean up and off to the venue for the first night’s performance.

The venue was an on base “Country & Western” bar complete with dance floor, pool tables and even a mechanical bull (no one in the band rode the bull). If it wasn’t on the base, you would have thought we were playing in a honky tonk in Texas. Sound check was 6-8pm, then a dinner break then the band began playing at 10.

Here’ Ben and me (Yes, that would be Ben & Jerry) finishing up sound check:




I’m impressed that no one let the jet lag take over. The sets went great, everyone got the first night bugs worked out. We were only scheduled to play 2 hrs unitl midnight, but time flew by and next thing you know the band was wrapping up its 2nd set at 12:45.

Here’s the stage at the gig:


And the base personnel on the Texas style dance floor:



In addition to copies of the band pic featured in an earlier blog, Thom brought over a ton of his cds to give away while signing the pictures:



We actually weren't able to load up the gear and get to our rooms until 2:30am. We agreed to meet back at the bus at noon and go grab a bite and see the sites for the next day which is scheduled to be an off day. I didn't wake up until 12:17 with John knocking on my door to find out where the heck I was.

More all about that in the next post. Go Titans!

One Last Practice

Today the band got together to go over every song at least twice in both sets. We started at 10am and finished up about 6pm. A long day, yes, but everything came together great. Here's a pic of the full band (sorry John, I think Renae upstaged you on this one) practicing at Todd's:



You might remember from the Mid East trip 2 years ago that Thom sang the bulk of the songs while Bob sang a few and I got 2 or 3 in each show. This time there's a tad more variety. While Thom will still be the anchor and doing the bulk of the singing and showmanship, this time in addition to Bob and myself contributing some vocals, Todd will be doing some of his hits (and blowing a pretty mean blues harp):



along with Wade:



and by popular demand, Renae will be singing "Walkin' After Midnight" and also doing a very cool female version of "The Devil Went Down to Georgia":



in which she will also be burning up a pretty mean fiddle as well.

It was really fun hearing all the songs come together. Everyone is a pro and it all sounds great. I'm, of course, particularly pleased with the band's work-up of my tunes.

It promises to be a great show. We already have more songs than we need which is great, because that means we can make changes to the sets as the show progresses.

One fun thing happened just as the practice started. Thom had just received an email from a soldier who was at our shows in Djibouti. It turns out he is now stationed in one of the camps in Germany that we are playing at and will be at the show. How cool is that?

We all agreed to meet at the airport this Friday at 4am (yawn) and depart on our next adventure.

Next stop Atlanta. Stay tuned.

One Week and Counting!

I have to admit, I'm getting excited and really looking forward to this trip. I've been out doing a little shopping for it (travel alarm clock, small shampoo & toothpaste and such). Its fun shopping for myself at Christmas time.

This time next week we will be well on our way to Germany. We recently received our travel itinerary and the military (ya just gotta love 'em) has put us on a flight leaving Nashville for Atlanta at 5:40 am December 26. We arrive in Atlanta at 7:45 am and hustle down to our connection to Germany departing at 4:30pm. Yep, that's only an 8 1/2 hr + layover. I hope we make it to the connecting plane in time.

Maybe the Army wants us to get used to the "hurry up and wait" format. Maybe they want us to acclimate to jet lag a day early. Whatever, I hear the Atlanta airport is nice this time of year.

It doesn't reallly matter. It'll be great regardless of scheduling.

Meanwhile at our last rehearsal we scrambled around at Todd's looking for an appropriate place for a band photo. This photo is going to be mass printed and given to any soldier that wants one. There will be opportunity after each show for pics and autograph signing. Thom took the shots and did his magic with Photoshop and came up with the now official pic:




I think its pretty darn good.  Front l-r Renae, Thom, John; Back l-r Todd, Jerry, Wade and Bob.

One more full day rehearsal on Monday, 12/22 and we're ready to go.

A side note: Thom just got word today that the song written by the Mid East band for the soldiers stationed at Camp Lemonier in Djibouti, Africa - appropriately titled "In Djibouti" is officially on hold by Capitol records for comedian Rodney Carrington! I find it completely entertaining that a silly little song thrown together by our guys for the sole purpose of entertaining some soldiers in a remote outpost at the Horn of Africa might actually become a major label cut! Ya gotta love the music business almost as much as the military.

More from Atlanta. I think I might have a little time to write then.

Getting Our Chops Back Up

Welcome to the first post of my new Blog "Kosovo Or Bust!" As many of you may know, our fearless leader, Thom Shepherd has once again teamed up with Armed Forces Entertainment to put together another tour to go play for the troops. (2 yrs ago we played in the Middle East. For that blog -"Djibouti Or Bust!"- with great pics I might add - go to http://www.jerryvandiver.blogspot.com).

This year we leave on December 26 and head for Germany. We'll be doing shows in Ramstein, Germany, Ansbach, Germany, Warsaw, Poland, Rotterdam Netherlands and a New Year's Eve show at Camp Bondsteel, Kosovo, Bosnia.

My duties are similar to what I did before - monitor the sound (altho we have a sound guy traveling with us this time), keep a good archive of the trip via photos and videos, a lot of grunt work and finally sing a couple/three songs with the band.

Speaking of the band, there have been some changes in personnel since the Djibouti trip. So without further adieu, let's meet them:

First and foremost, of course is our leaning post, mainstay and leader of the band, Thom Shepherd:




Bob Regan was on the Mid East AFE tour and has done an AFE Europe tour with Thom in the past. This year Bob is on bass:



By the way, Bob has just been recently nominated for a Grammy for his Randy Travis cut "Dig Two Graves"!

On keyboard, mandolin and guitar (not all at the same time) is hit (and also award winning) songwriter Todd Cerney. Todd had played a couple of AFE tours with Thom in the past:



On electric and lead guitar is award winning songwriter Wade Kirby. Wade has also toured AFE with Thom and is ALSO nominated for a Grammy for his George Strait hit "I Saw God Today":



Back on drums is John Root (soon to be award winning songwriter if "Djibouti" gets cut!). John, of course was the drummer on the Mid East tour and we're all very happy that he's back on this one:



And finally, a new and very welcome addition (and one we are certain the soldiers will particularly enjoy) is an awesome fiddle player, Renae Truex (pronounce "true-ay"). We have a feeling her smile will be a blessing on some long travel days:



All are extremely talented and great musicians. Everyone is fun and inspiring to be around and I am honored to be traveling and making a little music with them as well.

The above pics were taken at our most recent rehearsal at Todd's place last Sunday, December 7. An appropriate date to rehearse for an Armed Forces tour.

Thom has put together a great 2 sets of songs complete with originals from the band (many recognizable from hit radio airplay) and some crowd/soldier pleasing numbers that I am certain will round out a great show.

It looks to be yet another trip of a lifetime and one we'll always remember.

Thanks for letting me take you along. We not only welcome your comments after each post but look forward to hearing from you. It definitely has a positive effect on all of us while we're travelling, so please post below and stay in touch.

More later.

Jerry