My recent trip to Avesta, Sweden was so much fun!  I arrived in Stockholm the morning of December 16.  Red Jenkins, an artist from Sweden and "Bacon," a member of the Swedish band Ring of Fire, met me at the airport.  We went to pick up Billy Yates at his hotel and a couple of Bacon's friends and then headed to Avesta.  It was a fun drive getting to know everyone.  We arrived at the Star Hotel in Avesta a couple hours later and checked in.  I met Tommy Eriksson, the bandleader (steel player) in the hotel lobby.  He is the one who booked me on these shows with help from Hank Kristoffersen, who booked me in Sweden last July.  We all went to eat and then went back to the hotel to rest before rehearsal that afternoon.  We got to rehearsal and the minute I heard the band I knew the shows would be great!  The band was called Tennessee Five and they were fantastic.  I met one of the other Swedish performers named Carola Szücs.  She was very sweet and sang great.  Rehearsal went really smooth.  I was pleasantly surprised to find out that for my song, "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree," they had hired a guy named Anders to play saxaphone and he was going to dress up like Santa for the show, lots of fun!  We went back to the hotel after rehearsal and hung out, then it was off to bed to get some rest for the big weekend ahead.  We had a runthrough of the show in the afternoon on Dec 17 and everything went great.  I met all the other performers on the show, Mats Rådberg (who was also the MC,) John B. and the dance group, Moulin Rouge.  Red and I had worked up a duet on a song he wrote called "A Violin That Never Has Been Played."  It went very well and I was really looking forward to the show that night.  I also did a radio interview with Radio Dalarna (SVT) which went very well, and they were setting up to record a part of the show for broadcast.  It was all very professional and exciting.  You see this was the 25th anniversary of this Christmas show.  I was proud being a part of it.  The show that evening went great and the crowd was amazing.  The only hitch was when Santa came out to play sax for me at the end of the show and ended up knocking over the Christmas tree stage right.  It was so funny!   We had two shows on Dec 18.  The matinee show went great and we had another great audience.  I was happy to see after that show some fans who came to see me who had been to see me when I was in Sweden back in July.  The first was Stefan Vidén.   He is a linedance choreographer and had choreographed a couple dances to some of my music last July (see my July journal.)  He brought me a t-shirt with his dance club's name on it.  That was so sweet!  I also got to see Göran Lindstein and his wife, Annette, again.  They were at my show in Duved last July.  They brought me the most beautiful flowers.  Thanks!  The second show that night went just as well, only this time I had a little trouble with "Rockin'Around the Christmas Tree."  I could not remember the second line of the darn song and had to start over twice.  I finally had to ask what the line was.  Luckily people in the audience yelled out "mistletoe" and I finally got it.  Everyone was laughing so hard.  It was quite funny and some thought it had been planned.  Ha!  After the second show on Saturday night, and after we went out and met with the fans, they had a big dinner for all the performers and their family and friends.  It was wonderful and it was hard to say goodbye to everyone.   I didn't end up getting back to the hotel until 3:30 AM and had to be in the lobby to head to the airport at 6:00 AM.  Needless to say, I didn't sleep until I got on that plane.  I'd just like to thank everyone who made this trip and these shows such a success.  Thank you to the fans who came to the shows.  It was great meeting so many of you after the shows.  Thank you to anyone who bought my CDs.  I hope you are enjoying them.  Thank you Red for letting me sing with you.  It was a lot of fun.  Billy, it was a pleasure meeting you and getting to work with you.   I'm glad you're "too country and proud of it" because I am too.   Thank you Mats, Carola, John B. and Moulin Rouge.  Thank you Bacon, Lars and Uffe for all your help.  You guys were great!  Thank you Tennessee Five for playing so great - Tommy Eriksson (steel guitar,) Nils Nordström (piano,) Håkan Sahlin (rythm guitar,) Floda Lomaeus (bass,) Hessy Eriksson (drums,) Bo Nilsson (fiddle,) Andreas Olsson (lead guitar,) Liza Öhman and Lennart Sjöholm (back-up singers.)   Thank you Hank for helping set everything up and for getting me back to the airport so early in the morning on the 19th.  I'm really looking forward to my next trip to Sweden!         

If you have any photos from these shows, please email them to me at erinhay2002@yahoo.com.

Until next time...

Finale !
Photo by:  Erik Nyholm

 
The whole gang!

Here are a couple links to some Swedish articles.   If you find any others, please email me at erinhay2002@yahoo.com.

Swedish Article 1

Swedish Article 2

NOTE:  I would like to send my condolences to anyone in Sweden who lost loved ones in the recent Tsunami, while vacationing in the area.  You are in my prayers, as is everyone who lost loved ones in this terrible disaster.  If you would like to make a donation to help the victims, you can go to www.redcross.org.

God bless!

Erin Hay