rehearsing in Dirhami, Estonia, after travelling all day yesterday from Ukraine. overwhelmed with emotion. can’t write eloquently, just typing frantically as i tremble with too many unprocessed feelings, but needed to say something now. will share more soon about the past days, but before tonight’s show here wanted to say thank you to Odesa, and to More Music Club for having me, and to the intensely wonderful and generous people i met there and sang to. for your hospitality and open-heartedness, and for the surprise late-night tour of your city (amazing; the Odesa Opera Theatre pictured below). and so much more.
and: i miss and love you, Ukraine. and you’re here with me, in Estonia. yesterday there were endless fields of sunflowers in Moldova that accompanied me on an early morning bus ride to the airport in Chișinău, and then a mechanical massage chair in the airport in Latvia that i paid (three times) to hold me in its (frankly somewhat unsettling, but still comforting) embrace. and then the feeling of meeting Andres and Eve finally in Tallinn, my new dear Estonian friends, and being surrounded immediately by their care and warmth. i travelled for 16 hours. and it’s all so much. but it’s not too much. this feeling in my chest is everything that is beautiful about life and people and supporting each other and vulnerability and love and trust and heart, and i want it all.
tonight is devoted to Ukraine, thanks to the team here – all proceeds will be donated to direct aid, via Päästelit. and this has made the transition of leaving Ukraine easier, and i’m grateful, even as i worry terribly about the friends i’ve left there. but…i’m talking too much. it’s almost time to sing instead. see you tonight at the gorgeous Dirhami Kalakohvik, at 20:00, with a special guest for one song (more on this later).
lots of love,
eric.
