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We are home! We traveled with mondine to the Milano airport and parted there with loads of hugs. This morning I got an emotional email from Steve Heath, the Concert of Colors festival coordinator:

I cari amici,
Wow. What a weekend it was for us in Detroit! I want to send our heartfelt thanks to all for your great contributions to our festival and for making the 2007 Concert of Colors one of the most memorable in our 15 year history.
It’s unlikely that the city of Detroit will ever be quite the same after your memorable visit and the mark you left everywhere, from the concert hall to the People Mover, to the hotel lobby you charmed everyone in your path. We want you to know how much it has meant for us to have you here for this very historic production. I must tell you that this was probably a record crowd for us in terms of the participation of the Italian community at our festival, who don’t normally attend in big numbers. It was also one of our biggest crowds for an act performing this early in the day. (Usually on the final act and penultimate act perhaps get crowds this large.)
The ovations that the audience gave you, even before you began to perform, were richly deserved, not just for your performance, but for the inspiration you have given to so many others. Inspiration to resist injustice whereever we may find it, inspiration to not let barriers or boundaries inhibit us from pursuing our dreams; whether they be barriers of geography, economics, age, sex, or opportunity.
You probably already saw the article in the Detroit paper from Saturday, but here’s a link for you just in case: http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007707210375 . Also, be sure to go to our website at www.concertofcolors.com and click on the photographs to see the fancy footwork of the dancing Mondine.
We won’t soon forget this experience (because we’ll be eating your Parmesan cheese for weeks to come!) As I told Alberto upon your departure, regardless of what we may do in the future, we know that at least once, on this very special moment in time, we witnessed something truly magical.
Baci, abraci a tutti!
Ciao (for now).
STEVE

Photo: Rebecca Cook

I am so tired – it’s very late – but I want to to put down on file my feelings about the From Mother To Daughter performance anyway. It’s gone down brilliantly – standing ovation, people dancing, people in tears, for God’s sake, loads of compliments, we have been – again – the best selling artist of the festival. The mondine were a force of nature: they sang well, they danced, everybody fell in love with them. I always thought them to be a group of international standing, and at this festival they stood up and sang in the same lineup as the Neville Brothers, Hugh Masekela, Black 47, and proved they are no less great artists than these stars of world music. I am so proud o f them, and more than a little proud of us too. In the next few days I’ll post a complete report: for now I am content with the pride, the fulfilment, the weariness. I’d do it all over again, right now.

One down, one to go. And well i went, too. The Concert of Colors is held in the beautiful max Fischer Music Centre, essentially a theater with two rooms. Today we played for a pretty enthusiastic audience - a lot younger than our usual here, too - among which stood out.. the mondine, who had a go at dancing with these Detroit teenagers. The feeling between the ladies and the festival is obvious. And tomorrow is the great day!

What with American Airlines delays, we ended up going to bed at five in the morning, and we got up late. We went out the black towers of the Marriott, right on the Detroit river, and THE MONDINE WERE THERE, lining up for a boat ride on the river! A little jet lagged, but smiling. With them there was Andrea Zambelli, the director of the film about them (and a little about us, too) we are making together with Italian top-notch filmmaker Davide Ferrario.
The mondine in Detroit. After three years of tries, we managed to bring them to America. I am so proud of them, of Davide and Andrea who added extra momentum to the project by producing a film, of Steve Heath at SRO Artists… and of ourselves too. Whatever happens to FF in the future, the mondine are in Detroit. And it was us who brought them here. This is a result, one that no one can take away from us. Folk’s not dead, you see…

Another day of air travel, in which our main problem is fighting boredom. A four hours flight from Reno to Chicago, then a three hour connection plus a two hours delay, then a two hour flight from Chicago to Detroit. One thing that always happens to us in these cases is we lose track of what time it is, also because of crossing several timelines: Chicago is two hours ahead of Reno, one behind Detroit and seven behind Europe, or maybe the other way around. Anyway we sit down a lot, we go through a lot of metal detectors, we eat airport food and we drink plenty of water to fight air conditioned-induced dehydration. In Chicago airport they even put down a couple hundred camp beds for weary travelers! That tells you a lot about air traveling these days. Not much in terms of a romantic journey-making. I suppose it’s just another necessary evil in tour life.

We are in Reno, Nevada. Yesterday’s show was excellent (it ended with people actually sitting on the stage - which is enormous - listening to Bella ciao), we obviously made new friends here. The place is somewhat odd for an Italian: there are casinos everywhere, eve our hotel is a casino and there are perhaps 50 slot machines in the lobby!
As I write, the Mondine choir should have landed in Detroit already. I cant wait to see them again!

Only after playing Blissfest in Harbour Springs did I really get the feeling we are on tour. It always takes a while to catch the tour wave! We’ve been six hours in a festival that lasted the whole weekend, but we were given a very warm welcome: we played two show, the second of which – on main stage – we really got everybody dancing: all of the audience, all of the crew, people in the administration office, everyone. As we got off stage we signed CDs for half an hour solid and ended up – surprise surprise – being the best selling artist at the festival’s CD tent. And this morning we go recognized in the café and a gentleman insisted for paying for our breakfast!

We are now back in Detroit. Next it’s Reno, Nevada, a city and a state we’ve never played before.

Just a quick note from a hotel room in Flint, MI (it is the General Motors city, portrayed in Michael Moore’s “Roger and me”). After the long rest that followed Londo we are now driving a lot: yesterday we went from Niagra Falls to Akron and back immediately after the show, so we could cross the border (again) by night and get to Toronto this morning. We performed in Toronto at 2 p.m. and drove right off to get to Harbour Springs, MI, by lunchtime tomorrow. It’s hard! But we have fun, the shows have been good and we met a lot of nice people. I was very impressed by the Italian Festival of Summit in akron (technically it is Cuyahoga Falls), an event organized by the Italian American community that has been going for 60 years! The boss is a first-generation immigrant, Giovanni Donatelli from Roccaraso. They are professionals and superfriendly, I hope we will see them again. In Toronto Harbourfront is… Harbourfront. Great stage, top notch crew, excellent show. Thanks!

Meanwhile, behind the Sunfest curtains…