Tag: Lyle Lovett

Cayamo Day 3: Richard Thompson, John Prine, Rodney Crowell

By Paul T. Mueller

Richard Thompson

Richard Thompson

Legendary British folkie and guitar monster Richard Thompson played the first of his three sets at 1:00 p.m. Monday, Jan. 19, in the Norwegian Pearl’s Stardust Theater. Backing him in his Electric Trio were bassist Taras Prodaniuk and drummer Michael Jerome, and the result was for the most part a thunderous affair – too loud for at least a few attendees, in fact. But the musicianship was excellent as expected and the sound was clean, as the trio ripped through such Thompson favorites as “Sally B” (with a little Pete Townshend jump at the end), “You Can’t Win” (featuring an extended solo), the jazzy “Al Bowlly’s in Heaven,” and “Wall of Death,” another long jam. There were also some new songs – “Josephine” and “Amsterdam,” both acoustic tunes, and “Guitar Heroes,” a tribute to Thompson’s role models. Called back for an encore, Thompson showed his country side on “Tear Stained Letter.”

Rodney Crowell, a second-timer on the cruise, followed with an excellent set featuring guitarist Steuart Smith. Crowell opened with a new song, “East Houston Blues,” before moving on to more familiar territory, including “Sex and Gasoline,” “Moving Work of Art” and “Leaving Louisiana in the Broad Daylight.” He described the inspiration for a couple of songs dealing with HIV, both from his fine 2001 album The Houston Kid, and then played both – “I Wish It Would Rain,” mostly as a solo effort, and “Wandering Boy,” accompanied brilliantly by Smith. The anthemic “Still Learning How to Fly” and the sing-along favorite “Pancho and Lefty” followed, and Crowell finished with the moving “Til I Can Gain Control Again.”

Lyle Lovett’s Q & A show Monday at 5:00 was a mix of music and dry comedy. The questions, from audience members, covered such diverse topics as Lovett’s recovery from injuries suffered during a run-in with a bull some years ago (he had high praise for his doctors); his experiences as a young artist playing in New York; what it’s like to have legendary drummer Russ Kunkel in his band, and even a question about how he stays so fit, from guest vocalist Shawn Colvin. The music included a fine rendition of “Friend of the Devil,” which Lovett recorded with Kunkel for a 1991 Grateful Dead tribute album; “Sleepwalking,” in response to a question about its enigmatic writer, Willis Alan Ramsey, and the inevitable “If I Had a Boat.”

Kacey Musgraves and John Prine

Kacey Musgraves and John Prine

Monday evening’s “Blind Faith” show was one of the week’s highlights. Admission was restricted to Cayamo 2014 passengers who put down deposits on this year’s cruise before the lineup was announced. Monday’s performers, whose identity was kept secret right up until showtime, turned out to be veteran singer-songwriter John Prine and rising country star Kacey Musgraves. It was an inspired pairing – each brought an impressive list of songs and the chemistry between them was (to borrow a word from the loquacious Jim Lauderdale) palpable. Prine’s selections included “Spanish Pipedream,” “Fish and Whistle,” “One Red Rose” and “That’s the Way the World Goes Round” (complete with a funny story about a fan who misheard a lyric as “happy enchilada”). Musgraves’ offerings included “The Trailer Song,” “Merry Go ‘Round” and “Follow Your Arrow” and a couple of new songs, “Biscuits” and “Pageant Material.” Most were funny and all carried a serious message along with the wordplay. Prine and Musgraves teamed up on the Prine classics “In Spite of Ourselves” and “Angel from Montgomery,” but the best moment might have come when Musgraves sang her own “John Prine,” in which she confesses a desire to “burn one with John Prine,” and Prine followed with his pot paean “Illegal Smile,” with help from the audience on the choruses. It was a classic Cayamo moment. Prine closed the show with a nice rendition of his environmental anthem “Paradise.”

A quick visit to the pool deck found Lucinda Williams and her band finishing up their show with a soulful reading of Gregg Allman’s “It’s Not My Cross to Bear,” followed by the rocking “Joy” and “Get Right with God.”

Soundcheck winner Amy Speace played the first of her three sets in the Spinnaker Lounge. She wisely brought along two of her East Nashville neighbors and friends, guitarist Tim Easton and fiddler Megan Palmer, and they did a fine job on such excellent tunes as “The Fortunate Ones,” “The Killer in Me” and “Hunter Moon.” Many of Speace’s lyrics deal with relationships, often troubled ones, and her sharp writing and world-class voice make for an emotionally moving performance. The seemingly omnipresent John Fullbright put in a guest appearance for the lovely “The Sea and the Shore.” Speace ended her set with “Hymn for the Crossing,” a funeral song, but one with a joyous message. “Don’t need a golden box for my bones/Don’t need your weeping and wailing,” Speace sang. “Don’t need my name carved into stone/Just sing me a hymn for the crossing.”

Atlanta-based singer-songwriter Michelle Malone has a reputation for being a fiery rocker, but she’s equally at home with quieter material. Toward the end of her Monday night Atrium show she performed a cool, jazzy take on the Beatles’ “Eleanor Rigby,” taken from the introspective Acoustic Winter album from last year. Things got livelier with the new song “When I Grow Up,” a fun and hopeful anthem; the Stratocaster-fueled “Teen Lament,” on which she got help from Black Lillies frontman Cruz Contreras and Alabama singer-songwriter Kristy Lee, and “Feather in a Hurricane.”

Cayamo sets sail with Lyle Lovett, John Fullbright

By Paul T. Mueller

Cayamo 2015, the eighth edition of the singer-songwriter-focused festival-at-sea, got off to a bit of a bumpy start on Jan. 17. The presence of some larger ships at Norwegian Cruise Lines’ terminal in Miami meant that the Norwegian Pearl, home to the past several Cayamos, had to use a temporary terminal – a large tent – for embarkation and debarkation. There’s really no way to get more than 2,000 people onto a cruise ship quickly, and this year the process seemed to drag out a little longer than usual. As a result, the week’s first set, by Nashville-based folk/soul/bluegrass band Humming House, was over by the time many passengers got aboard.

Lyle Lovett

Lyle Lovett

Most hands were on deck for the sailaway show by Birmingham, Ala. soul-rock outfit St. Paul and the Broken Bones, who debuted on Cayamo in 2014. Lead singer Paul Janeway brought his familiar blend of sartorial excellence, flashy showmanship and gospel-flavored soul vocals, with the other six members providing tight instrumental backing. The band’s loud, high-energy performance earned an enthusiastic response from the audience.

Things were a little quieter in the ship’s Spinnaker Lounge for a late-afternoon set by Drew Copeland and Ken Block, of Sister Hazel. In this format the Cayamo veterans are a classic two-guys-with-acoustic-guitars-and-great-harmonies act, with songs these days focusing on “mature” topics such as relationships, family and aging. These subjects were also fodder for their funny between-songs banter. These guys have a lot of dedicated fans and the feeling is clearly mutual.

That evening in the Stardust Theater, the Pearl’s largest indoor venue, Texas singer-songwriter Lyle Lovett and his Acoustic Group brought their usual impeccable musicianship to such familiar favorites as “The Truck Song,” “Give Back My Heart” and “This Old Porch.” There were also excellent renditions of the sad but powerful “She’s Already Made Up Her Mind” and the playful “Girls from Texas” (co-written with Pat Green). Most songs featured solos by band members, each of whom is a world-class musician in his own right. Lovett also yielded the spotlight to fiddler Luke Bulla and guitarist/mandolinist Keith Sewell to play a couple of their own tunes.

 

Chuck Cannon

Chuck Cannon

Sixthman tried to schedule some of the louder and/or rowdier acts for the ship’s Atrium stage, which is usually noisier than most other venues. The setting seemed well suited for a 10 p.m. set by East Nashville country bad girl Elizabeth Cook. Cook is a talented songwriter and an engaging performer, and she and her band brought an appealing blend of rock, hard-core country and hipster attitude to the stage, belting out songs like “Methadone Blues” and “Sometimes It Takes Balls to Be a Woman.” There were some nice covers as well, including Gram Parsons’ “Hot Burrito #1 (I’m Your Toy),” J.J. Cale’s “Magnolia” and the Blind Willie McTell classic “Statesboro Blues.”

Oklahoma singer-songwriter John Fullbright, a sensation in his first Cayamo appearance last year, took the Stardust stage at midnight for an “Unlikely Sit-In” show featuring Chuck Cannon, Holly Williams and Jim Lauderdale. The four took turns performing songs loosely based on a theme of “Lost and Found.” Fullbright is an excellent guitarist, but he stuck to the piano for this show, providing subtle accompaniment to the others but going full tilt when his turn came around. His prodigious playing earned him, as always, reactions ranging from admiration to near disbelief from his fellow musicians.

Standout performances included Cannon’s quietly powerful “Messes,” Williams’ tearjerker “Waiting on June,” and Lauderdale’s reverent “Like Him,” dedicated to Ralph Stanley and sung almost a capella. On the dramatic closer, Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah,” Fullbright did most of the singing, along with impressive work on the keys, but he got some able assistance with vocals from his fellow musicians.

Review: Robert Earl Keen and Lyle Lovett in concert

Robert Earl Keen and Lyle Lovett

Robert Earl Keen and Lyle Lovett

By Paul T. Mueller

A recent show at Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion in The Woodlands, just north of Houston, marked a kind of homecoming for a pair of celebrated Texas singer-songwriters. The Sept. 11 gig featured Robert Earl Keen opening for friend and former college classmate Lyle Lovett, who was winding down his usual summer tour with his Large Band. Both are from the area – Keen grew up in southwest Houston, while Lovett is from the town of Klein, just northwest of the city. Plenty of friends, family members and longtime fans were in attendance on what turned out to be a mild late-summer evening at the open-air venue.

Backed by his longtime band, Keen started off with “Corpus Christi Bay,” an anthem to brotherly love and good times. Next came his tribute to the late Levon Helm of The Band, “The Man Behind the Drums.” More favorites followed over the next hour and a half – a solemn rendition of Townes Van Zandt’s “Flying Shoes”; a lively take on “Ready for Confetti”; the jazzy “Dreadful Selfish Crime,” featuring nice keyboards by Marty Muse, better known as a pedal-steel player; “Gringo Honeymoon,” with nice acoustic guitar work by Rich Brotherton, and “Shades of Gray,” Keen’s tale of small-time crime and mistaken identity, fueled by an excellent guitar duel between Brotherton and Muse.

 Of course the set included two of the biggest hits of all: “Merry Christmas from the Family,” which Keen proclaimed as the official kickoff of the holiday season, and the closer, a hard-rocking treatment of the crime-love-and-betrayal ballad “The Road Goes on Forever.” Called back to the stage, Keen briefly quieted the crowd by saying he wanted to talk about “something a little bit serious” – but that turned out to be an announcement of the impending sale of “Robert Earl Keen beer” by a local grocery chain. The band finished with “I Gotta Go,” featuring Brotherton’s acoustic guitar and Muse’s resonator.

 After a short intermission, Lovett’s Large Band took the stage with its usual instrumental intro. Lovett, accompanied by the legendary Francine Reed, came out and launched into the classic “Stand By Your Man.” A few songs later, the 14-piece ensemble took a jazzy turn on “Penguins,” featuring some quasi-line dance footwork by Lovett and others near the front of the stage, including Reed, fiddler Luke Bulla and guitarists Keith Sewell and Ray Herndon.

Lovett called Keen back to the stage for a beautiful rendition of “This Old Porch,” which the two wrote together during their college days at Texas A&M. “Robert and I are real friends, not just show-business friends,” Lovett noted at one point. A rousing version of “My Baby Don’t Tolerate” was followed by an extended take on “What I Don’t Know” in which almost every band member got to take a short solo – all of which Lovett observed with obvious appreciation.

 After several more well-received numbers, including “That’s Right (You’re Not from Texas),” “God Will” and “L.A. County,” Lovett turned the stage over to Bulla and Sewell, each of whom performed one of his own songs. Then came the crowd-pleasing “If I Had a Boat,” featuring nice cello work by John Hagen, and Lovett’s always-entertaining duet with Reed, “What Do You Do?” Then Reed got her turn in the spotlight, with excellent, high-energy performances of her signature tunes “One Monkey Don’t Stop No Show” and “Wild Women Don’t Get the Blues.”

Keen returned to join the choir for “Church,” whose joyful mood was only barely nicked by a rare vocal glitch on Lovett’s part. After more effusive thanks to the audience, Lovett left the stage, returning a few minutes later to close with a rocking rendition of Van Zandt’s “White Freightliner Blues.”

 Contributing throughout was the excellent Large Band horn section, consisting of Harvey Thompson on tenor sax, Brad Leali on alto sax, Charles Rose on trombone and Chad Willis on trumpet. Also in fine form were the rhythm section – pianist Matt Rollings, drummer Russ Kunkel, conga player James Gilmer and bassist Viktor Krauss – and pedal-steel man Buck Reid.

 

Follow Sun209 on Twitter at @Sun209com.

 

 

2014 Cayamo cruise in review: The highs, lows

By Paul T. Mueller

Cayamo 2014, the annual Americana music festival-at-sea that focuses on singer-songwriters, returned to Miami on Valentine’s Day after a week’s voyage to and from Tortola in the British Virgin Islands. Days later, more than 2,000 passengers are still struggling to process the incredible quantity and quality of music they witnessed during the weeklong cruise. With dozens of artists aboard and scores of performances scattered over the cruise’s six and a half days and seven nights, the special moments were too numerous to fit into anything short of a novella. Here’s a sampling of highs and lows:

St. Paul and the Broken Bones

St. Paul and the Broken Bones

Lows: The legendary John Prine, a two-time Cayamo veteran, and the almost legendary Todd Snider, who would have been a rookie, both failed to make the boat (the Norwegian Pearl, owned by Norwegian Cruise Lines, which also owns Atlanta-based Sixthman, producer of Cayamo and several other music cruises). Prine withdrew some weeks ago, saying he needed more recovery time following cancer surgery last year. Snider notified Sixthman two days before sailing that he would not be on the cruise, citing (in Sixthman’s words) “a medical issue that requires immediate attention.”

Notwithstanding the considerable number of passengers who decided to book Cayamo primarily for the chance to see either Prine or Snider or both, the production staff was able to fill the gaps in the schedule, in no small part through the presence of Cayamo veteran Lyle Lovett, who agreed at the last minute to join the cruise with his Acoustic Band. The result was the seventh installment in what has become a very successful annual event.

Highs: Too many to count. So here are summaries of some particularly memorable moments, one for each day.

Day 1 (Friday, February 7):

Kris Kristofferson. The one and only. Yes, he’s getting older and reportedly having memory problems, and he’s never been as good a singer as he is a songwriter (how could he be?). But there was something about seeing this legendary artist commanding the stage, performing iconic songs like “Me and Bobby McGee,” “Sunday Morning Coming Down,” “For the Good Times” and “Help Me Make It Through the Night” that left many in the audience in tears.

Day 2 (Saturday, February 8):

Buddy Miller. “Commodore” Miller, a six-time Cayamoan, greeted the audience at his “Buddy Miller and Friends” show with an emphatic, “It’s good to be home!” He wasn’t alone in feeling that way. Cayamo has been a community since its first sailing in 2008, and many participants, veterans and newbies alike, will tell you that the cruise is real life and the other 51 weeks of the year are just filler. Miller, accompanied by bassist Dave Jacques (a longtime Prine sideman), drummer Marco Giovino, guitarist/fiddler Larry Campbell (formerly of Bob Dylan’s band) and accordionist Joel Guzman, knocked out a powerful set, including Tom T. Hall’s “That’s How I Got to Memphis,” Mark Heard’s “Worry Too Much” and “Does My Ring Burn Your Finger?,” written by Miller and his wife, Julie. Among the friends helping him out along the way were singer and guitarist Teresa Williams , country star Lee Ann Womack and longtime Miller compadre Jim Lauderdale.

Day 3 (Sunday, February 9):

Bruce Hornsby and Ricky Skaggs, with Skaggs’ Kentucky Thunder band. Who knew piano could be such a great bluegrass instrument? Or that Hornsby’s classic “The Way It Is” sounds just great in a bluegrass arrangement? The show included a tribute to jazz bassist (and former child country singer) Charlie Haden, which featuring some brilliant and beautiful work on the upright bass by the youthful but very talented Scott Mulvahill. As an encore, the band put a high-energy Appalachian twist on Rick James’ “Superfreak.”

Day 4: (Monday, February 10):

John Fullbright

John Fullbright

John Fullbright. The immensely talented, Oklahoma-born Fullbright opened this set with a solo, a capella rendition of the traditional “Am I Born to Die?” that was nothing short of thrilling. He followed that with “I Didn’t Know I Was in Love With You,” accompanying himself on acoustic guitar, and proceeded to full-band versions (with guitarist Terry Ware, bassist David Leach and drummer Giovanni Carnuccio III) of songs including “Satan and St. Paul” and “Gawd Above.” Fullbright demonstrated his unearthly piano skills on several songs, including “Fat Man” and “The Very First Time,” before closing with a long, jammy “Ain’t Nobody’s Business If I Do.” If Cayamo awarded a Rookie of the Year trophy, Fullbright would be a strong candidate for this year’s prize.

Day 5 (Tuesday, February 11):

Tim Hanseroth, Brandi Carlile and Phil Hanseroth

Tim Hanseroth, Brandi Carlile and Phil Hanseroth

Brandi Carlile. A veteran of several Cayamos, Seattle-based Carlile has won a lot of new fans with her abundant talent and high-energy performances. For this show she was backed by her longtime collaborators, twins Tim (bass) and Phil (guitar) Hanseroth and cellist Josh Neumann. The set included a rendition of the Hank Williams hit “Lovesick Blues,” dedicated to Kristofferson; Carlile’s anthem “The Story,” and her country weeper, “Same Old You,” covered by Miranda Lambert. Carlile was joined by The Lone Bellow and Kristofferson for a lovely rendition of Prine’s “Angel from Montgomery” and closed with “Amazing Grace,” performed a capella and in darkness with the Secret Sisters.

Day 6 (Wednesday, February 12):

David Bromberg. The legendary (there’s that word again) singer-songwriter-multi-instrumentalist was in great form in the relatively intimate confines of the Pearl’s Spinnaker Lounge. As has been true throughout his long career, he was all over the musical map, covering, among other genres, the blues (“As the Years Go Passing By”), pop (“The Holdup,” co-written with George Harrison, ) a vocal version of Floyd Cramer’s “Last Date”) and what might be called faux traditional (“The Strongest Man Alive,” which Bromberg described as “an old English drinking song that I wrote”). There was also a touching ballad about the pain of parenthood called “Watch Baby Fall.”

Day 7 (Thursday, February 13):

A grab bag of high-quality performances on the last day and night at sea:

Miller and Lauderdale produced a segment of their “Buddy and Jim Radio Hour” show for Sirius XM satellite radio. The guest list included Campbell and Williams, two sets of sisters (Laura and Lydia Rogers, the pop-soul-country duo Secret Sisters, performing “Devoted to You,” and Lennon and Maisy Stella, who also play sisters on ABC’s Nashville, doing a touching rendition of “Hard Times Come Again No More”), and a trio of young female singer-songwriters (Kate York, Erin McCarley and Lucie Silvas.) There was also a powerful, soulful performance of “Against My Will” by Sarah Fox (Joel Guzman’s wife), accompanied by Guzman and son Joel Gabriel Guzman on guitar.

Birmingham, Ala.-based R&B outfit St. Paul and the Broken Bones brought their horn-driven, high-octane sound to the Pearl’s pool deck stage, to the delight of listeners and dancers alike.

In a surprisingly intimate late-night showcase in the ship’s large Stardust auditorium, a group of fine singer-songwriters (Liz Longley, Stephen Kellogg, Bromberg and his wife, Nancy Josephson, and Campbell and Williams) took turns singing some of their most personal songs, capping the set with a collaborative rendition of “Nobody’s Fault but Mine.”

Cayamo 2014 drew to its official close only a few hours before the Pearl docked back in Miami, as fiddler Luke Bulla (who played in Lovett’s band and also with his own bluegrass outfit) led a raucous “Last Man Standing” jam on the Atrium stage in the wee hours of Valentine’s Day. Guests included vocalists Womack and Kat Edmonson and guitarist-mandolinist Keith Sewell (of Lovett’s band), among many others.

Other performers turning in fine performances on Cayamo 2014 included St. Paul and the Broken Bones, The Lone Bellow, Seth Glier, Joe Purdy, Shawn Mullins, Mallary Hope, Bronze Radio Return, Chuck Cannon, John Hiatt, Joshua Radin, Humming House, Elephant Revival, Max Gomez, Hey Marseilles and Holly Williams.

Follow Sun209:Americana Music News on Twitter at @Sun209com.

 

New to chart: Trampled By Turtles, Dr. John, Mastersons

Lyle Lovett remains steady at the top of the Americana Music Association  Airplay Chart with Release Me, holding off Justin Townes Earle’s Nothing’s Gonna Change the Way You Feel About Me. It looks like a long run ahead.

New to the chart this week: Trampled by Turtles’ Stars and Satellites at #25,  Dr. John’s Locked Down at #27 and the Mastersons’ Birds Fly South at #28.

Most added this week: Nanci Griffith’s Intersection.

New to chart: Yarn, Bonnie Raitt, JD McPherson

Lyle Lovett is on top of the Americana Music Radio airplay charts again this week, and is actually picking up momentum, with a total of 486 spins of tracks from Release Me.

New on the chart this week: Yarn’s Almost Home at #34, JD McPherson’s Signs and Signifiers at #38, Bonnie Raitt’s Slipstream at #39 and Sirens by Sons of Bill at #40.

Most added albums: Trampled By Turtles’ Stars and Satellites, JD McPherson’s album and the Steep Canyon Rangers’ Nobody Knows You, reviewed here.

Lyle Lovett at #1, chart debuts by Andrew Bird, Cuff the Duke, Joe Pug

Lyle Lovett’s Release Me remains in the top spot on the Americana Music Airplay Chart, with Justin Townes Earles’ Nothing’s Gonna Change the Way You Feel About Me surging into the second position.

New to the top 10: Bruce Springsteen’s The Wrecking Ball at #8 and  Ray Wylie Hubbard’s The Grifter’s Hymnal at #9.

New to the charts this week: Andrew Bird’s Break It Yourself (#38), Cuff the Duke’s Morning Comes (#39) and Joe Pug’s The Great Despiser (#40.)

Lovett, Scott top chart; Janiva Magness debuts

It’s been a relatively stable week on the Americana Music radio airplay chart, with Lyle Lovett again holding on to the top position with Release Me, followed by Darrell Scott’s  Long Ride Home.

There’s only one new album on the chart this week, with Janiva Magness’ Stronger For It entering at #36.

Tommy Womack’s fine Now What!  is back on the chart after dropping off for a week.  It stands at #38.

Albums with the most adds:

– Justin Townes Earle’s Nothing’s Gonna Change the Way You Feel About Me, with 18 new stations.

– Andrew Bird’s Break It Yourself (13)

– Todd Snider’s Agnostic Hymns and Stoner Fables (12)

– Peter Mulvey’s The Good Stuff (11)

Charting: Justin Townes Earle, Bruce Springsteen, Todd Snider

Lyle Lovett’s Release Me shot to the top of the Americana Music Association radio airplay chart, edging out Darrell Scott’s Long Ride Home by just seven spins.

New to the chart: Justin Townes Earles’ Nothing’s Going to Change the Way You Feel About Me Now at #11, Ray Wylie Hubbard’s Grifter’s Hymnal at #22, Todd Snider’s Agnostic Hymns and Stoner Fables at #25, Bruce Springsteen’s  Wrecking Ball at #31, Steel Wheels’ Lay Down Lay Low at #34 and Lucero’s Woman & Work at #38.

New on chart: Carolina Chocolate Drops, Joan Osborne,Sugar + the High-Lows

The top three positions on the Americana music airplay chart remain steady this week, with Darrell Scott’s Long Ride Home, the Guy Clark tribute This One’s For Him and the Little Willies’ For the Good Times remaining first through third.

Lyle Lovett’s Release Me jumps into #4 in just its second week. It’s also one of the three most-added albums, with 15 stations picking it up this week.

New to the chart this week: The Carolina Chocolate Drops Leaving Eden at #27 (also the most added), Sugar + the High-Lows’s self-titled album at #31, Joan Osborne’s Shake Your Hips at #35, Otis Gibbs’ Harder Than Hammered Hell at #37 and Tommy Womack’s Now What! at #40.

Darrell Scott’s “Long Ride Home” hits #1, Lyle Lovett has top debut

Darrell Scott’s Long Ride Home moves into the top spot on the Americana music airplay chart this week, after a virtual three-way tie at the number one spot last week. The album is being played on 54 stations.
Chart debuts this week include Lyle Lovett’s Release Me at #16, the Chieftains’ Voice of Ages at #24 and New Multitudes, an album of new music and Woody Guthrie lyrics by Jay Farrar, Wil Johnson, Anders Parker and “Yim Yames, “ at #34.
Most added this week: Lovett’s album with 29 stations and Otis Gibbs’ Harder Than Hammered Hell with 13 stations.

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Cayamo Week in Tweets

  • Celebrating Leo Kottkes’ debut album http://t.co/fvzY2lia #
  • Opening night on @Cayamo: Brady and Manning vs. Lovett and Hiatt. #
  • There are big names on @Cayamo – John Prine, Lucinda – but we’re also looking forward to some newcomers, particularly @thebellebrigade #
  • Monday on @Cayamo: @thecivilwars, @sarawatkins,@thebellebrigade, Loudon Wainwright and Richard Thompson Trio. #
  • We’ve spent a lot of time at Jammin’ Java; Luke Brindley is now with Native Run and on @Cayamo. #
  • On @Cayamo last night, Lyle Lovett said he has the room next to John Prine and has been jamming with him all week. “He doesn’t know it.” #
  • Belle Brigade dance party on @cayamo http://t.co/Z5XWKVq9 #
  • Jim Lauderdale was everywhere on @Cayamo today. He led Tai Chi, then played in Buddy Miller’s and Lucinda Williams’ bands. #
  • John Hiatt and Lyle Lovett did 3 different shows @Cayamo, all outstanding. Great music and very funny conversations. http://t.co/Q1ICrTZT #
  • The @civilwars rebound from illness on @cayamo. http://t.co/rvnRZNqD #
  • Buddy Miller dedicated his opening and closing songs last night to Ed, a passenger and Buddy fan who died just as @cayamo was leaving port. #
  • Loudon Wainwright in a rare performance of Dead Skunk tonight, says @Cayamo agreed to pay him more. #

John Hiatt, Lyle Lovett on Cayamo

 

Lyle Lovett and John Hiatt on Cayamo 2012

Lyle Lovett and John Hiatt left their bands behind on this Cayamo trip and instead teamed up as an acoustic duo. They’re touring together this year and are obviously comfortable with each other. Lovett is the prodder, throwing out seemingly spontaneous comments and questions, and Hiatt is his wry equal.

It’s a measure of their chemistry that you leave their show thinking as much about the conversation as the music. Highlights of the first show included covers of Chuck Berry’s “Brown-Eyed Handsome Man” and Jesse Winchester’s “Brand New Tennessee Waltz.”

From there, each of their shows mixed it up, with fresh content and stories. Hiatt brought an iPad out for one show so that he could remember his songs, but instead fielded requests most of the evening, including “Angel Eyes,” which he abandoned mid-song in favor of “one I do know.”

Both talked about artists on the cruise that impress them. Hiatt said Richard Thompson makes him want to give up the guitar, and Lovett joked that his room is next to John Prine’s, and he been jamming with him all week. “He has no idea,” Lovett said.

The final show featured Sara and Sean Watkins and a stirring Lovett rendition of “Closing Time.”

Cayamo 2012: A floating music festival

By Ken Paulson

Cayamo, a  Sixthman music festival on a cruise ship, is about to launch from the Port of Miami, with a boat full of musicians and Americana music zealots.

This is a distinctly different cruise, one on which the passengers give far less thought to destinations than their seat locations at dozens of different performances.

The line-up boasts big Americana names like John Prine, Lucinda Williams, Buddy Miller, John Hiatt, Lyle Lovett and Jim Lauderdale, plus emerging talents like the Belle Brigade, Levi Lowrey and the Civil Wars.

We’ll be reporting from Cayamo this week, with reviews and photos.  Those on dry land should take note; the ship sells out in a matter of weeks each year and the cruise is full of people who have taken the trip several times before. You’ll find details at www.cayamo.com.

New acts added to 2012 Cayamo line-up

The bookers for Cayamo have been busy. Newly-added acts for the floating Americana music festival set for February 2012 include Joe Purdy, Bobby Long and Deep River.

They join an impressive line-up that includes Lucinda Williams, Lyle Lovett, John Prine, Keb’ Mo’, John Hiatt, Buddy Miller, Richard Thompson, Loudon Wainwright III, Greg Brown, the Civil Wars, Sara Watkins, James McMurtry, Iris Dement, Shawn Mullins, Edwin McCain, Maia Sharp, The Belle Brigade,  Works Progress Administration, Angie Aparo, Chuck Cannon, Enter the Haggis, Winterbloom, Holly Williams, Shannon McNally,Ryan Montbleau Band, Sarah Lee & Johnny Irion, Beth Wood, Aslyn, Sarah Jaffe and Levi Lowrey.