Mini Corn Dogs and the Outfield: March 1, 2009

After a room service breakfast and a light workout (note to self: don't try to do step-ups with 35 pound dumbells in each hand during moderate waves), we went poolside to hear Brandi Carlile and the Indigo Girls. It was a great show. They have written a few songs together, and Brandi's voice fit in perfectly with the Indigo Girls' harmonies. It was so windy that a slice of cheese blew off of my chicken sandwich. That's windy, people.

We then saw Web Wilder, with a few members of the Flaming Groovies: fun party music with rocking guitars. We walked around, got a little sun, and vowed to go hang out in the Fore hot tub before the trip was done.

After some room service pizza and a shower, it was time for our first ticketed show, the Indigo Girls.

The show was really fun, with Brandi joining them for three or four songs. Mindy Smith came out to sing Come to Jesus (one of my favorite songs). She was quite nervous, but sang beautifully, accompanying herself on the guitar. A somewhat frantic woman named Danielle Howle sang a song with the Indigo girls also. She has written lots of songs for the performers on this ship. She has a really nice voice.


By the pool we listened to Zac Brown Band. Zac has an amazing voice, a great band, thoughtful lyrics, and a big fat bushy beard. His father was on the cruise with him, which was nice. We got to see half of Kathleen Edwards’ set again, because we knew we would not be able to see her last performance due to another ticketed show at the same time. She played some of the same songs. She also told a great story about how someone had told her that he saw her husband, Colin Cripps, sitting in the kids area of the ship’s buffet restaurant. He said, “The tables were a little small, but I thought that’s where people sit.” It was hilarious. He didn’t notice the tiny corndogs or the grilled cheese in the really short buffet there. She forgot a verse to one song and her husband pointed that out to her. Perhaps he wanted to get back at her for telling the story of the kids buffet. She closed the set with “Your Love” by the Outfield. Unbelievably funny. Her husband was playing the solo and she said, “Do your own. That cheesy eighties crap is the worst.” A really fun performer. Make sure you don’t miss her if she ever comes to your town.

It was off to the Atrium to catch more Vienna Teng. She really is unbelievable.Here she is doing The Last Snowfall from her upcoming album. Hopefully her voice transcends the crappy audio and video. She is looping her breath as the percussion track, and then builds her vocal harmonies with each pass. It's really slick.





On the last song of her set the keyboard started making terrible noises. People refused to leave and so she moved down to the lobby to play on the piano there, but it was locked. Who locks a piano? Like some drunken cruiser is going to get on there and start playing it? Maybe so on this trip, but it would be GOOD because chances are, the person could really play. At any rate, she just had Alex play acoustic guitar and everyone sang along. I really got the impression that she had as much fun as we did. It was a great moment. She even exclaimed at one moment, “This is so awesome!”

In the bathroom I met a guy from Chicago who told a story similar to mine: he’d heard Vienna Teng’s voice and it stopped him in his tracks. At this point I’ve had so many cool moments I am starting to worry I will forget them, or they will lose their intensity. Not all of these moments happened in the bathroom. I was really referring to the performances.

Polly headed down to the room and I went to see Mindy Smith. Her set was a mess. She was under the impression that she needed to fill the time between songs with lots of banter. She tried, but she was so nervous, it came off like a train wreck. The Indigo Girls were there heckling her to “Just play!” She forgot the lyrics to three songs and stopped in the middle. Some people left from the front sections. She said, "Are you leaving? Are you mad at me?" It was endearing, but still a little hard to watch. Went to bed around 12:30.

Of Bubbly, Hand Sanitizer, and the Pearly Gates: February 28, 2009

We walked out of our hotel to look for a taxi and immediately got whisked into a shuttle and taken to the Port of Miami. There we checked in and signed a paper that said we had not had diarrhea or thrown up in the past 24 hours. They took my word for it. They handed us our tickets for the ticketed shows, our cruise cards (for swiping when you want to buy something). Then, we were aboard the Norwegian Dawn.

When we got on board they gave us a hand sanitizer spray and a glass of champagne. Nothing like free sanitizer and bubbly to make you feel like you're really on vacation.

We got the lay of the land and walked around the ship. The extra-special restaurants (the ones that charge on top of your cruise ticket) had samplers out. I tried some Nigiri sake salmon. It was pretty good, but not worth an extra ten spot. We grabbed a bite at the buffet, where the spinach leaves were hard to reach, and even harder to grasp with the awkward tongs provided.

At 2:30 we got to check into our stateroom. We have some room, since it's just the two of us. John, the ship's cruise director is from Australia. We have been on the boat just two hours and he's already said "crackerjack" four times over the P.A.

At 3:30 it was time for a mandatory lifeboat drill. We carried our lifejackets to the Stardust theater and heard a talk about how to wear our lifejackets, and how there is more capacity on the lifeboats than passengers on board. Good to hear. John Hiatt was right next to me as we put on our lifejackets. I told him I was looking forward to his shows this week. He shook my hand and asked where I was from. He was awfully nice.

As Miami faded into the hazy horizon we headed out to sea. We got to hear Roddie Romero and the Hub City All-Stars, a zydeco band from Lafayette, LA. They played some originals and some zydeco standards, like Buckwheat Zydeco and Professor Longhair. Roddie referred to Eric Adcock, the band's piano player as "Professor Lawn Chair,” a first-time moniker, we learned later at a bar where we met them. Prof. Lawn Chair played a few songs on the piano in the bar. It was a blast.


All over the ship there are stations where you can get hand sanitizer. They also have a staffer at each restaurant entrance with a spray bottle, ready to spray your hands before you eat. It’s a preventative measure, so we don't all get sick. Well, the whole business upset the woman who sat down at the table next to us at dinner She went into full-scale freak out mode. "Have you ever been to a restaurant where they sprayed your hands with hand sanitizer? I am terrified. I'll go without eating. I am afraid of eating ANYTHING on this ship." Her dining companion was trying to calm her down, but ultimately didn't succeed. They left to go someplace else, probably to cower in their stateroom.

In the Spinnaker Lounge we saw Kathleen Edwards play an hour set, which is frankly way too short for my taste. She played a quiet set for the most part, accompanied by her husband. They both played guitar, acoustic and electric, depending on the arrangement. At one point Kathleen paused after trying out a few chords on her electric guitar and said, "I know you're on vacation, but I still have to tune." Then she tuned her guitar. It was a nice moment.

She also said, "I like Bushmills Ten Year if you happen to be going to the bar." After a few more songs no one had bought the poor woman a drink so she said, "Thanks for the whisky, by the way." We all laughed and by the time the next song was done she had three Bushmills, one of which Polly delivered to her husband. She thanked us after the show when we chatted her up.

We saw Marc Broussard play in the evening. He played acoustic, as did his father, who accompanied him. We love his show. He writes country-tinged tunes about family and stuff. It was a nice intimate set. We befriended two funny women from New Orleans, Lee and Rebecca.

As we walked across the atrium on our way to the Pearly Gates (our name for the Pearly Kings, a pub on board) we stopped to hear the band playing in the atrium. My jaw was completely agape as I listened to this woman's voice. Her name was Vienna Teng, and she was remarkable. She had an unbelievably perfect voice. She sounded like a cross between Allison Krauss and Sarah McLachlin. Her accompanist, Alex Wong, played the drums, piano, and the bells. The latter he played while playing the drums at the same time. During one song, "The Last Snowfall," I had tears in my eyes it was so beautiful. It was an incredible performance. I hope to catch her again at one of her other shows.

We could not stay up for Shawn Mullins. We'll catch him on another show, hopefully.

People like to perpetuate the myth that you can’t feel the waves on a big cruise ship. I am here to say you can feel the motion of the ocean. In the middle of the night we woke up to a very creaky room. The wind and the waves had gotten higher in the night. There's a channel on the TV where you can track the location of the ship, the temperature of the pools, and the size of the waves. They were moderate, around 4-7 feet high. Drifting off to sleep, we wondered how big that rogue wave was that capsized the S.S. Poseidon.

Cayamo 2009

Hey guys,

As you may or may not know, I am on a cruise. It's our last day of the best trip I've ever been on. Sorry Mom and Dad, I loved Mt. Rushmore and Deadwood in 1976, but this was amazing.

i will post some backdated travel notes as soon as I get home. Internet access on the boat is like dial-up, c. 1996.

Peace out, y'all.

The Night Before: February 27, 2009

We are in Miami, the night before we embark on Cayamo 2009. Cayamo is a cruise which will take us from the Port of Miami to Samana, St. Thomas, Tortola, and Great Stirrup Cay, an island owned by Norwegian Cruise Lines. We'll be aboard the Norwegian Dawn (one of my favorite Beatles songs). Heh.

I found out about the cruise through Pollstar, which operates a service to notify you when your favorite artists update their tour information. I got a message and five or six bands on my notify list said they were all going to be at Cayamo. I wondered what the hell that was. So I checked out the site and signed up within a few weeks.

Aboard the ship with us will be many singer songwriters like John Hiatt, Patty Griffin, Lyle Lovett, Shawn Colvin, Tift Merritt, and Kathleen Edwards. we've never been on a cruise. we don't know what to expect. Will the artists really be on board the ship or will they get off and on from the ports? Will we like the food? Will we break the bank with our drink budget?

Stay tuned. I will answer these questions and more right here.

Your Most Valuable Possession

From Ben Folds:

Your Most Valuable Possession :
(6:49 a.m, Friday, November 20th)
"Good morning, Mr. Ben.
It's about 6:30 —
Winston-Salem, North Carolina.


Um...just laying here in the bed,
half awake, half asleep,
thinking about you.

I was
wondering if you were looking after your
most valuable
possession:
your mind.

I was thinking about
John Glenn,
his space journey and all.

They said that
when you're in space you lose
muscle mass
and the body
mass
and I wondered if there was any
end to it.

Or whether,
if you didn't exercise in space,
how long it would be before you were just
a head, or a mind —
and have no body or arms.
You'd have them but you couldn't use them.

I was wondering if
if your body mass would drop to a certain level,
and then it would stop right there.
And keep whatever you needed to
use your mind
because it would still be working."


(30 seconds remaining)

"Anyway, I was just pondering that.
What do you think about...that?

I hope everything is going alright.
I may well wake up here in a little while
and forget what I was thinking about."