By Paul T. Mueller 

Lee Ann Womack, Buddy Miller and Patty Griffin

Any weeklong music festival tends to turn into a blur of overlapping shows, and this year’s Cayamo festival-at-sea was no exception. The annual charter cruise, held aboard Norwegian Cruise Line’s Pearl and produced by NCL subsidiary Sixthman, featured 40-plus performers and something like 100 shows over the course of six days and seven nights. The ambitious schedule made it pretty much impossible to see everything, so what follows is a highly subjective list of a dozen notable sets from the week.

Sunday: The evening sailaway show, as the Pearl departed New Orleans for the Gulf of Mexico and points south, was an all-star tribute to the great John Prine, who led off with “All the Best” and then turned the stage over to emcee Jim Lauderdale. Highlight performances included “Angel from Mongomery” by Richard Thompson and Brandi Carlile, “Illegal Smile” by Margo Price, and “Sam Stone” by Brian Wright and Joe Purdy. Prine was spotted high above, watching from outside his customary top-of-the-ship quarters, as Aaron Lee Tasjan and his band performed “Lake Marie.” The 18-song set ended with an all-hands-on-deck rendition of “Paradise.”

Windy, chilly conditions made for a relatively small crowd at Margo Price’s Sunday night pool deck show, but those who toughed it out were rewarded with an energetic set of Price’s traditional country with a rocking edge. Selections included several songs from her most recent album, All American Made, notably “Don’t Say It” and “Cocaine Cowboys.” She and her capable band also did right by a few covers (Guy Clark’s “New Cut Road,” Rodney Crowell’s “Leaving Louisiana in the Broad Daylight”) before closing with the geographically appropriate “Proud Mary.”

Monday: John Prine, backed by longtime bandmates Jason Wilber on guitar and Dave Jacques on bass, plus drummer Ken Blevins and multi-instrumentalist Fats Kaplin, played a set of songs requested in advance by fans. Of the 49 songs requested, Prine performed 16, including such favorites as “The Glory of True Love,” “Far From Me” and “Angel from Montgomery.” On his closer, “Paradise,” he got vocal assistance from his wife, Fiona Whelan, as well as Joe Purdy, Amber Rubarth and John Paul White.

Richard Thompson on Cayamo 18

Tuesday: Fans packed the Stardust Theater, the Pearl’s largest venue, for a solo show by the legendary Richard Thompson. Thompson poked fun at himself, noting that he’s capable of playing fast miserable songs as well as depressing fare at slow and medium tempos. But there was no denying the emotional power of a beautiful rendition of Sandy Denny’s “Who Knows Where the Time Goes?,” followed by his own “1952 Vincent Black Lightning” and “Persuasion.” He also performed, at the request of an audience member, the traditional English ballad “Matty Groves,” recorded by his former band Fairport Convention among others.

Wednesday: Chicago-based singer-songwriter Michael McDermott, in his second Cayamo appearance, held back nothing in a well-attended set on the Bar City stage. Accompanied by his wife and musical partner, Heather Horton, on vocals and violin, McDermott delivered an intense performance of songs drawn largely from his troubled past and his years of sobriety since. Songs such as “Eleven Nights of Whiskey,” “Butterfly” and “20 Miles South of Nowhere” recounted the dark days; more upbeat fare included a fine cover of Tom Petty’s “The Waiting.” McDermott’s moving tribute to his late father, “Shadow in the Window,” left many audience members in tears. He closed with a rousing rendition of “A Wall I Must Climb,” a perennial favorite from his 1991 debut album.

Thursday: One of the week’s biggest crowds turned out for a Tom Petty tribute show on the pool deck, as the Pearl departed Harvest Caye off the coast of Belize. Band of Heathens filled in capably for Petty’s Heartbreakers, backing an excellent cast of singers on well-loved Petty songs. The Austin-based rockers led off with “You Wreck Me,” followed by, among others, B.J. Barham doing “Listen to Her Heart,” Steve Poltz with “Wildflowers” and Buddy Miller with “It’ll All Work Out.” A sudden thunderstorm put an end to the show, but Aaron Lee Tasjan and Patty Griffin finished their a capella duet on “Insider” as the crew hastily covered equipment in the rain. The show was completed on Friday; highlights included a powerful reading of “Southern Accents” by John Paul White and an all-star closing rendition of the anthemic “I Won’t Back Down.”

Things can get a bit somber on a cruise populated by Serious Singer-Songwriters, so the Thursday night Spinnaker Lounge set by Traveller – a somewhat ad hoc trio consisting of Cayamo veteran Robert Ellis and newcomers Jonny Fritz and Cory Chisel – provided some welcome comic relief. The three, obviously having a great time, performed funny songs with titles like “15 Passenger Van,” “Christmas Eve at Kroger” and “Get Me Out of the South.” And then there was “Stadium Inn,” an ode to a dubious hotel in Nashville that had the audience howling. Fritz’s dancing and Ellis’ raucous laughter completed the picture. Maybe it’s more than coincidence that Fritz, who seemed to be the ringleader of this outfit, bears a passing resemblance to the late, great Steve Goodman. Along the way there was more serious fare, notably Ellis’ “Elephant” and Chisel’s “Southern Arms”; the closer was Ellis’ powerful “Sing Along.”

Friday: Max Gomez, a singer-songwriter from New Mexico making his second Cayamo appearance, put on a low-key but charming morning show in the Spinnaker, drawing from his first album, Rule the World, and his recent EP, Me and Joe. He was joined for much of the set by what he called Max’s Morning Band – percussionist Michael Jerome and bassist Taras Prodaniuk, of Richard Thompson’s trio, plus accordion ace Radoslav Lorković, who also backed many other performers during the week. Highlights included “Make It Me” and a new song about a young couple who open an antiques store, only to find that it’s not the ideal venture they expected, and several covers, notably John Hartford’s “In Tall Buildings.”

Tanya Trotter and John Paul White on Cayamo 2018.

First-timers The War and Treaty – married couple Michael Trotter Jr. and Tanya Trotter – brought a powerful blend of folk, soul and rock to the Spinnaker stage. Backed by Buddy Miller’s band, the duo tore through songs including “Mother’s Child,” “Are You Ready to Love Me, Baby?” and “Maryland,” which included a verse of “Proud Mary.” In the middle of a between-songs thank-you to John Paul White – whom the couple had credited with much of their success – White himself showed up, taking a seat on the stage with a big grin. Michael Trotter and much of the audience ended up in tears after “Dear Martha,” a tribute to his late commanding officer in Iraq, where he served two tours in the Army and eventually was assigned to write songs about fallen soldiers and perform them at memorials. The War and Treaty’s potent blend of emotional material and sweet harmonies made them a big hit with fans all week.

Scott Miller returned to Cayamo after a seven-year absence, playing a brilliant set in an unusually quiet Atrium. High points included the funny and moving “Lo Siento, Spanishburg, West Virginia” and the very funny “Mother-in-Law,” both from Miller’s recent Ladies Auxiliary album, as well as older songs such as “People Who Rule” (featuring the week’s outstanding performance on kazoo) and the rocking “Freedom’s A Stranger.” The show was especially impressive considering that Miller had been involved in a serious wreck on the way to New Orleans, rolling his van after skidding on ice not far from his Virginia home.

The McCrarys on Cayamo 2018

Saturday: The end-of-the-cruise gospel show has become a Cayamo mainstay in the past few years. This year’s edition, hosted on the pool deck stage by Drew and Ellie Holcomb, was more explicitly gospel than some in past years.  Performers included the Holcombs (“Everywhere I Go I See You”), Devon Gilfillian (“Down by the Riverside”), Paul Thorn (“Will the Circle Be Unbroken?”), the McCrary Sisters (“I’ll Fly Away,” “I Saw the Light,” “Amazing Grace” and “Let It Go”) and Joe Purdy (“He Walks With Me”). At the end, most of the artists joined in on “I Shall Be Released” and a lovely a capella rendition of Bill Withers’ “Lean on Me.”

The Stardust Theater was the setting for a fine set by Buddy Miller, Lee Ann Womack and Patty Griffin. Numerous highlights included performances of Richard Thompson’s “Time to Ring Some Changes,” Neil Young’s “Out on the Weekend” (with Womack taking the lead vocal), and the Grateful Dead’s “Brokedown Palace.” Womack and Miller teamed for an excellent duet on “After the Fire is Gone,” while Miller and Griffin shared the vocals on “I’ll Be With You Always.” The emotional high point came with Womack’s slow, dramatic take on the classic “Long Black Veil,” a great showcase for her tremendous vocal abilities.

Lagniappe: Cayamo 2018 featured too many excellent performances to recount here, but not least among them were Saturday night’s rocking “Tas-Jam” in the Atrium, featuring Aaron Lee Tasjan and his fine band backing a cast of guests, and the week’s final event, a honky-tonk dance party in the intimate Bliss Lounge, hosted by Robert Ellis.

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