Germany’s Covered Grass is in the United States this week, invited by the IBMA to showcase for the World of Bluegrass annual conference. Additionally, the band will travel to Los Angeles for a surprise performance at the Waltons (TV SHOW) 40th Anniversary Celebration. The band has graciously agreed to write about their adventures and allow us to post them here as guest blogger articles.
The group’s banjoist, Volker Fisher writes today….
"Trains, planes, automobiles" - my favorite Steve Martin movie was the first thing that comes in my mind while I was taking the a shower at the Guest House Inn Suites in Nashville. We left Engelskirchen (our hometown) at 06:30 am. - headin' to Cologne Central Station, pickin' up the train to Frankfurt International Airport. But first...., the train was delayed for 40min. - of course! No 
worries at last - the train speeds up to 200 miles per hour (!!!) and caught up the delay.
Arrived at the airport we had to take the bus to the terminal and also take a looooong walk to check in at American Airline flight 071 which was......, delayed for over an hour! Waiting again, then went thru the awkward safety procedure - putting out belt, shoes, pants...., no kidding. American Airlines don't charged any fee for our extra instrument cases, what equalized the delay - great!
Unfortunately Corina starts getting the flu and the following 11 hours in an air conditioned aircraft were not the best thing for a singers instrument. But she's very tough and brave and smiles on, because she's totally a pro!! Unthinkable if I get the flu..., the only way to get me thru this would be a mercy bullet. After many attempts to sleep and some interesting attempts of food: Stopover: Dallas / Fort Worth.
Ralph, our guitarist said: "Most of a musicians life should be waiting! Waiting for the bus, waiting for the plane, waiting for the sound guy, waiting for the next show....!" Yes..., he's right and we all love a musicians life! Meanwhile we take another train to the next departure terminal because Dallas Airport is one of the biggest in the United States - yes, it is!! The plane to Nashville was...., you can guess it: Delayed for over an hour. But at last everything came well.
Oh...., another thing: We rented a Chrysler "Town & Country" van from Germany - which we reached after a nice and long walk thru Nashville airport - and think it must have enough space for 6 persons and their luggage and instruments without double bass.....?! It fits very closely! And so after nearly 20 hours of travelling we reached our hotel in Nashville Music City.
We took a real good "breakfast" at "John A's" consisting of grilled burger and spare ribs at 05.08 am. (10:08 pm. Nashville time) and went to bed after it. Now the sun's comin' up but it feels like 03:00 pm....., what the heck...? 
Day one...., now we all need to realize where we are and have to pick up an eminence double bass at the Station Inn (!!!) which we had borrowed from Missy Raines. I really love a musicians life. Good to be here in the land of my dreams!
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