Loes & The Celtic Link from Prague to Westport (and Back) #7: Home is Where the Heart Is

Dordrecht – My milk jug brings all the boys to the yard…

It's a home away from home for all rock 'n' roll and Americana lovers in Dordrecht: Mini-Theater de Melkbus ("the milk jug"), an atmospheric living room stage decorated in the style of American "diners" from the 1950s. Host Marc Burger II was a professional drummer with the band Liptease for 10 years, during which time he also provided a stage for a host of touring bands, many of which have since skyrocketed. Since Marc felt compelled to look for a steady job in corona times and, above all, wants to put his family first, he is now taking it a little easier with De Melkbus. This made us all the more honored to be among the lucky few who were booked this year!

The audience is also a select bunch, invited to concerts through a closed Facebook group. When my good friend and former bandmate Arthur Deighton (of Red Herring) mentioned that he was planning to attend, I asked if he wouldn't feel like playing some songs with us then, too. That ended up being an entire set, which we thoroughly enjoyed!

Kronenberg – Feelins'… 

Strictly speaking, you only come home at the end of your journey. But sometimes you have that feeling of coming home multiple times. When we went to visit my father in my native region on our way to Ireland, I booked a cottage with a skylight at Farm Campsite 't Rouweelse Veld in Kronenberg. "Sleeping under the stars", as they described it, seemed very romantic to me. It is indeed a romantic place, but the "stars" for us were the owners of the campground, Piet and Wietje Selen. Piet is a welfare worker, was part of the team of volunteers who set up the War Trails walking trail in Kronenberg, and is a member of the Friends of Christopher Foundation, which supports local rural initiatives in Ghana. Wietje is a glass artist: with her workshop Kun Vitro, she offers glass fusing workshops. They offer shelter to a pregnant migrant worker and her partner; Wietje affectionately calls them "Joseph and Mary". They have a playful dog and a cuddly long-haired cat; a person feels right at home.

When Piet and Wietje heard that we were musicians, they asked if we wouldn't like to stop by again on our way back and give a "folding chair concert" for camping guests and people from the area. We certainly liked that, so thus the 21st and final concert of our tour was spontaneously planned. On Monday, June 23, about 50 people brought their folding chairs to the campground to enjoy the lush summer evening and our music. When announcing my original songs, I often tell quite personal stories, but this evening it felt so at ease that I could almost tell my whole life story. A special moment was when I got to lend my guitar to a man who sang to his wife with a song he wrote to celebrate their 40 years of love. Well, we can't compete with that, but we enjoyed staying in the romantic mood with the song "Feelins'" by Loretta Lynn & Conway Twitty.

Erlangen – Dance the night away

After the last duo performance of this tour, we slowly made our way to Erlangen in eastern Germany, where Honza had a performance with BAL LAB at the Dañserlà festival on Thursday, June 26. In that balfolk trio, Honza plays violin (what a surprise!), Mikuláš Bryan sings and plays cittern (picture a big bouzouki) and Kieren Alexander plays accordion.

As the name suggests, balfolk is a social event ("ball") in which people dance in various formations (in pairs, as a large group, or in subgroups) to folk music ("folk"). The dances and music come from different European traditions but predominantly from France. That's pretty much where my knowledge of balfolk ends; for those who want to know more about it, I refer to Honza's bandmate Mikuláš Bryan, who travels throughout Europe giving workshops and playing with his bands BAL LAB, Yanyk, Mr. Folxlide and Ba.fnu.

Markeukirchen and Luby – But grandma, what a big… violin you have

For the next story, I must first take another step back in time... In my previous report, I mentioned in passing that we visited Birmingham. There in music store Moseley Violins we got talking to David Bruce Johnson, a violin maker originally from Canada who is known in the violin world for his semi-acoustic "Violectra". He also showed us some beautiful old violins from Markneukirchen and told us that it was a great experience to visit this historic violin-making town in East Germany. Markneukirchen is part of a literally border-transcending region called "the music corner" because of the high concentration of musicians and instrument makers who have lived and worked there since the 17th century. That includes Adorf, Klingenthal and Schöneck on the German side of the border and Luby and Kraslice in the Czech Republic. And then a proverbial light bulb went on for both of us. Honza figured it was time once again to take his violin, built by Jan Lorenz of Akord Kvint, to Luby for servicing. I remembered that a visit to Markneukirchen had been on my wish list ever since I read a dissertation on the history of circus music in Germany, in which this town plays a crucial role. When we saw that Markneukirchen and Luby are pretty much on the route from Erlangen to Prague, it was clear how we would spend the last days of our trip.

Markneukirchen has a large musical instrument museum, but really the whole town feels a bit like a museum. In fact, it was a tad eerily quiet for a Saturday. Has the town with its rich musical history fallen into oblivion due to competition from mega-corporations and e-shops? Or do people nowadays not find it fascinating enough to look at 4,000 or so instruments in display cases? Now I myself found it a pity to only be allowed to look at something you really want to hear more than anything else, but there were a few interesting specimens among them. The most bizarre was the giant violin built in 2010 to celebrate the town's 650th anniversary. Furthermore, you can take a look at the sawmill – especially fun for people slightly obsessed with wood, which many musicians are – and actively play around with sounds in the music garden. There is also a small instrument museum in Luby's town hall, but since it has "flexible opening hours" (you come across those quite often in the Czech Republic) we didn't end up visiting it.

And now that we are back home, we again have to get used to that Czech "flexibility" (which has its pros and cons), to curtains that are always just a little smaller than the window (what is up with that?), to inefficiently designed intersections, to cheap beer with a nice head of foam, and to the fact that everyone can understand us here when we speak our "secret language" together. One never gets used to the view of the castle and Charles Bridge at sunset, and that's a good thing. It was great to be on a trip AND great to come home. It's a cliché, but it's true: home is where the heart is!

When is the next tour?

From July through September, the duo Loes & Honza will perform only in the Czech Republic. Honza does have one performance abroad during that period: BAL LAB will play at the Boombal festival in Belgium on August 21.

Performances in the Czech Republic in the coming month:

12.7. Písničkářský Orfest, Odolená voda (CZ)

13.7. Minifestival Zpátky v trapu, Habří, Moravecké Pavlovice (CZ)

Trio Loes & The Celtic Link can often be found in The Irish Times bar in Prague, but apart from that, these concerts are confirmed for the line-up Loes-Honza-Caolán:

24.8. Sally O'Brien's Music Festival, Sally O'Brien's Pub, Prague

21.9. Střelák, Prague

Right now, we have four confirmed gigs abroad that we may build small tours around, so mark your calendars:

12 October 2025: Huiskamerfestival Bij Beijers Binnen in Oud-Beijerland (NL)

6 March 2026: Huisconcert Filius Pub De Kwakel (NL)

10-12 July 2026: Festival Onder de Vuurtoren, Ameland (NL)

18-19 July 2026: Square and Compass Pub, Swanage, Dorset (UK)

Keep an eye on my concert calendar for more information!

Sign up for my newsletter!

Want to receive a notification when the next tour report comes online or when we play a concert near you? Check out my LinkTree to sign up for my newsletter, concert alerts, and/or subscribe to my channels on your favorite platforms!