Aberdeen musician Craig John Davidson has released a mini film documenting a recent tour of Finland.
Craig has made the film, out now, available to view for free on Youtube.
The travelogue contains footage of a performance in Helsinki as well as Craig’s journey across the Scandinavian country for the six-date tour.
Having twice had the tour cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic the acclaimed singer-songwriter finally jetted out to Finland last month.
Starting off in capital Helsinki he worked his way north with shows in Turku, Tampere, Jyvaskyla and Oolu.
The tour, alongside Finnish musician Kadonnut Manner, concluded in temperatures of minus 15 in Rovaniemi, the capital of Lapland.
Craig said: “The tour started in Helsinki and we travelled north with conditions going from cold to absolutely freezing.
“I noticed the temperature drop more in each different place as it became colder and colder.
“By the time we got to Rovaniemi it was about minus 15.
“A lot of people turned up for every date we played on the tour.
“They were quite reserved to begin with but once I played and started talking to them I saw how much they are into music.
“I was on tour with Kadonnut who is a Finnish instrumental artist.
“He played in Aberdeen at Spin a couple of years ago.
“I supported him and we got on well. He talked about bringing me over to Finland.”
Thanks to everyone who came to last nights show in Oulu! Was a pleasure to play for you all. Tonight we head even further north to Rovaniemi (Lapland) to play what will be the last show of the Finnish tour at Monde. Cjd. x pic.twitter.com/GwKkLUbIXR
— Craig John Davidson (@craigjohndavsn) November 20, 2021
A welcome return to touring
It is more than 500 miles north from starting point Helsinki to Rovaniemi.
Due to coronavirus pandemic restrictions, it was the first time Craig had not just played overseas, but a tour, for more than two years.
He admits to initial nerves at returning but they soon disappeared.
He said: “It had been two years since I had toured.
“There is that whole mindset and that weird adrenaline, anxiety thing.
“I felt a bit more nervous than usual this time as I had been doing mostly studio stuff with the exception of a few gigs.
A Scotsman walks into a ˈso͞opərˌmärkət…. pic.twitter.com/x44FTYPDci
— Craig John Davidson (@craigjohndavsn) November 17, 2021
“However the tour was great and I really enjoyed it.
“Finland is probably not a place I would have thought of touring.
“I was just as a case really of making it to the airport as Kadonnut did a great job of organising everything.
“He does a lot of long tours where he goes across Europe for a few months himself so he is good at joining the dots that way.”
Tour of Belgium and Netherlands
Craig was finally able to embark on the tour of Finland more than a year after the plug was pulled for the first time due to coronavirus.
Sadly Covid has caused havoc on the live music scene yet again due to accelerating cases of the Omicron variant.
Craig confirmed he has a tour of Belgium and the Netherlands planned for next year as well as three Scottish dates.
He has also released instrumental recordings which accompany the film on his Bandcamp site.
He remains hopeful they will all go ahead.
Craig said: “I’m doing Scottish dates with Kadonnut in March at Spin in Aberdeen, Stirling and Glasgow.
“He is touring the UK and I will join him on the Scottish dates.
“Then in May I will play in Belgium and the Netherlands within the space of a week and a half.
“I’m acting like everything is going to go ahead although where we will be then, who knows?”
New album recently completed
Craig confirmed he has completed recording his ninth album which is scheduled for release early next year.
It is the follow up to acclaimed Queen Compulsion which was released in April 2020.
During the pandemic, as well as recording the new album, Craig released a number of superb singles and EPs.
His emotionally honest, poignant songs are reminiscent of Elliot Smith, Mark Eitzel, Kurt Wagner and Mark Linkous.
However, Craig remains a unique, singular voice that should be heard.
In the last 18 months he has released It’s Always Gonna Be Okay, The Beautiful Battle of Being Around, Good Luck Love, Down at Dawn and Best You Ever Had.
He explained: “The new album is done and now I just have to do the administration of getting cd’s, cassettes and a pre-order which will happen in January.
“It will come out in early April so I have plenty of time to get the rest of the stuff done.
“On and off the album took about a year to record.
“I did an EP after the last album and a couple of singles so I was busy.
“The new album is a bit different. I can’t pin it down as some things are country Americana and others are totally atmospheric and spacey.”