Tooling around the Caribbean listening to music
So, I’ve been home for a week now, mostly trying to catch up on sleep and dealing with the realization that it’s 350 or so days before I’ll be able to do it again. It, of course, is the Legendary Rhythm & Blues Cruise.
For those that didn’t catch last year’s description of the cruise, here’s a two-sentence synopsis: A bunch of really great Blues musicians and about 2,500 of their biggest fans get on a really big boat and sail around the Caribbean for a week. The boat makes three stops, but many of us don’t bother to get off, we’re trying to get some sleep after watching amazing music until WAY past our usual bedtimes.
It's not any more complicated than that. The LRBC company charters a really nice cruise ship from Holland America, and a large group of Baby Boomers eat and drink too much while listening to some of the best music being made right now. The musicians are passengers as well so you see them in the buffet line or checking out somebody else's set.
It's a little like a blues musician convention. They get to play visit and with their friends like they don't get a chance to on the road.
There are two cruises per year — one in October and the other in February. The one that just returned was LRBC #32. The odd-numbered October cruises have been leaving from San Diego lately, so there’s a West Coast option. Next February’s cruise (it’s actually in late January next year) is going to Honduras and Guatemala, so we may have to actually do more than go to the duty-free store and check on the price of a bottle of Patron.
Anyway, back on the boat, the music starts sometime after lunch and goes until Tab Benoit smells bacon from behind the drums in the Crow’s Nest bar at the front of the ship. Passengers get together with friends — old and new — and compare notes. My wife, Stacy, and I were making the trip for the second time. We've already paid our deposit for the third.
“Have you seen Vanessa Collier’s set yet? She’s amazing,” somebody will say.
“We saw her at the jam last night, and she played the saxophone,” we respond. “She was really good.”
“She can sing and play the guitar, too. You need to see her.”
We pull out our schedules and find we have two more chances to see Collier. We report a similar review of the Keeshea Pratt Band and head off to see Christone “Kingfish” Ingram. The schedule is packed with 20 choices or more per day and the only thing you can do wrong is miss the Pro Jam at the aft pool deck that starts every night at 11:30.
The top of the bill has all the artists we’ve come to see. Taj Majal, Kenny Wayne Shepard, Tab Benoit, Irma Thomas, Tommy Castro and Victor Wainright were all great. But it's the bottom go the bill that always provides the great new discoveries. The three mentioned above (Collier, Pratt and Ingram) will all find their way onto many playlists.
Here are some other highlights:
Best set
It's virtually impossible to pick just one. But if you twisted my arm until I picked one, I'd probably choose the Legendary Revue set from Wednesday night on the world stage. Tommy Castro & The Painkillers were joined by Ronnie Baker Brooks, Deanna Bogart and Magic Dick. You could tell that everyone on stage was having a blast. The enthusiasm was infectious. Honorable mention: I didn't really see a bad (or even mediocre) set all week, but Eric Johanson, Tab Benoit, Kenny Wayne Shepherd and Indigenous also stood out. You may be able to tell from that list, I'm a big Blues guitar fan.
Performer of the week
As good as that list of guitar players in the last category is, the star of the week was Monster Mike Welch. Under difficult circumstances, Welch was part of every jam, sat in on two or three sets a day and blew the rood off every stage on the ship (even the ones on the pool decks).
A couple of weeks before the cruise, Welch's band mate and friend, singer Mike Ledbetter died unexpectedly. Together Welch and Ledbetter fronted The Welch Ledbetter Connection. The band was scheduled to be one of the acts on the boat.
Welch reached out and the Blues community came through. Curtis Salgado, who played on the October cruise, agreed to sit in with Welch and the rest of the band in their scheduled sets. But with little rehearsal time, filling four sets would have been difficult.
The rest of the artists were there for him. Danielle Nichol, Victor Wainwright and Ronnie Baker Brooks, among others, stepped in to play covers and extend jams.
Welch played almost constantly for the entire week. He was right in the middle of every late night jam. He played with Wainwright's band and a couple of songs in Nichol's set, at least the one that I saw. There were times when I thought there must have been two or three Welches on board.
Near the end of the cruise, Welch told the crowd that continuing to play was allowing him to cope with the death of his friend. He was moved to tears multiple times. Ledbetter, 33, left a partner and two young children. Cruisers raised money for the family. Everyone felt his impact.
Best jam
Thursday night's jam hosted by Tab Benoit featured a rare jam appearance by Kenny Wayne Shepherd. The two traded licks on the back pool deck, and I thought Stacy was going to lose it. She already has a thing for Benoit ("He's pretty," she likes to say).
You know that list of celebrities that couples like to talk about where husband and wife each have five famous people they're allowed to cheat with without consequence. Stacy's includes Tab Benoit (right) and now Kenny Wayne Shepard (left). I'm pretty sure by the end of the cruise Ronnie Baker Brooks was on there too. It's only a matter of time before it's just four guitar players and Denzel Washington.
I thinking I can handle this all pretty well, but it doesn't seem fair that she gets to float around the Caribbean with most of her list once a year. The chances of me being on a boat with Selma Hayek, Hallie Berry and Julie Bowen are very slim.
Blast from the past
One of the missions of this website is to get people in 45-65 age range to stop dwelling on the past when it comes to their taste in music. You don't have to already know the words by heart in order to like a song. That being said I really enjoyed the set by The Lowrider Band.
This is also the band formerly known as War (minus Eric Burden). At some point there was obviously a lawsuit that these guys lost. But the band retained the right to all the songs that did not feature Burden including "Lowrider," "Cisco Kid" and "Me and Baby Brother."
Counting covers
With a late fourth performance Friday night "I Got My Mojo Working" was the song I heard covered the most times over the week. I obviously couldn't have seen every show on the ship that week, but in the sets I saw, "Mojo" just beat out three each from "Dust My Broom," "How Blue Can You Get," "Breaking Up Somebody Else's Home" and "Pride and Joy." Last year seemed to be a "Crosscut Saw" year. I didn't hear that one once this time.
More photos
Here's a some galleries of the week's events. Mostly musicians, but there's food, sites and towels folded into animals.
Gallery No. 1
Gallery No. 2
Gallery No. 3
Gallery No. 4
