Cayamo 2019: An All-Star music cruise

By Paul T. Mueller

Early spring in Florida (and Arizona) means baseball – spring training, to be specific. It’s also the appointed time for another tradition – the Cayamo music cruise, which just wrapped up its 12^th sailing, returning to Tampa on the Norwegian Pearl on Feb. 17 after a week in warm Caribbean waters. Dozens of artists, mostly singer-songwriters, took part in 130-plus shows, many playing multiple sets and sitting in with other performers. Let’s take a closer look through the lens of America’s national pastime.

Veterans

Even when you’ve been around for a while and proved your bona fides, you still have to show up and bring your “A” game. This year’s cruise featured excellent performances by many veterans of previous Cayamo rosters:

• Buddy Miller – a fixture on all but one Cayamo, Americana superstar Miller and his fine band ripped through familiar tunes including “Does My Ring Burn Your Finger?,” “Wide River to Cross” and “Somewhere Trouble Don’t Go.” Fellow Americana icon Emmylou Harris joined him for duets on “Burning the Midnight Oil” and “Love Hurts.” There was also a fine rendition of “Ellis County,” which Miller’s wife Julie wrote for and about her grandparents in Texas.
• Second-timer Mary Gauthier, accompanied by vocalist Jaimee Harris and violinist/keyboardist Michele Gazich, thrilled a morning audience with several songs from her recent Rifles and Rosary Beads album, consisting of songs co-written with combat veterans and their families, as well as older favorites such as “Another Train” and the classic “Mercy Now.”
• Jason Isbell returned with his band, the 400 Unit, for some powerful sets drawn from his last few albums. He also hosted an excellent “Jason Isbell and Friends” songwriter round featuring his wife, Amanda Shires, Dawes frontman Taylor Goldsmith, singer-songwriter Josh Ritter and ace guitarist and singer Molly Tuttle.
• Los Angeles-based rockers Dawes brought the Big Rock Show Experience to the ship’s largest venues, the Stardust Theater and the pool deck. Their Stardust set was highlighted by several singalong anthems including “When My Time Comes” and “All Your Favorite Bands.” The latter show featured a surprise appearance by Lenny Goldsmith, father of Dawes frontman Taylor Goldsmith and his brother, drummer Griffin Goldsmith, singing R&B that recalled his days as the lead singer of ‘70s band Tower of Power.

Other veterans of note: Harris and Shires played well-received sets with their own bands, as did iconic folk-rock duo Indigo Girls, multi-instrumentalist and multi-genre songwriter Randall Bramblett, and soul powerhouse Bonnie Bishop. Roots guitarist and singer-songwriter Keb’ Mo’ and the wild and crazy Steve Poltz played mostly solo.

Rookies

Festivals on cruise ships aren’t exactly the norm for most musicians, so some first-timers bring with them a bit of uncertainty about the experience. Most quickly adapt, heartened by enthusiastic audiences and the support of fellow performers. Standout newcomers this year included;

• Raul Malo, who thrilled a full house in the Stardust Theater with powerful, emotional renditions of a wide variety of songs from various genres, including a couple recorded by his band, the Mavericks. Extra points for closing with what he called his favorite song ever, “Stardust.”
• Virginia-based singer-songwriter Dori Freeman, accompanied by husband Nicholas Falk on drums and banjo, who charmed fans with bluegrass-tinged originals and classic country and gospel songs.
• Nashville-based singer-songwriter and keyboardist Phil Madeira, who’s also a member of Emmylou Harris’ band, the Red Dirt Boys. Backed by fellow members of that outfit – Will Kimbrough on guitar, Bryan Owings on drums and Chris Donohue on bass – Madeira played a terrific set in the Atrium that drew heavily on his recent album Providence, a musical memoir of his Rhode Island upbringing. A lot of music, especially pop, is aimed at the young, but this was grown-up music for grown-up people.
• Australian guitar wizard Tommy Emmanuel wowed the crowds with his mastery of the acoustic guitar, playing with speed, precision and soul in a variety of styles, and also using the instrument as a platform for percussion. In addition to playing several sets of his own, Emmanuel seemed to be everywhere on the boat, popping up as a guest at any number of other artists’ shows and mixing freely with fans.
• Maggie Rose, a Nashville-based singer with a powerful, soulful voice well suited to her own material and well-chosen covers. She said she usually plays with an eight-member band, but on the Pearl she was backed by her husband and manager, Austin Marshall, and guitarist Tom Maxwell, also a singer-songwriter.

Other rookies with strong showings: Georgia singer-songwriter Eliot Bronson; English singer-songwriter and activist Billy Bragg; female vocal trio Red Molly, augmented by a bassist and a drummer; all-male vocal quartet Darlingside, and Australian singer-songwriter Kasey Chambers, accompanied by her father Bill Chambers and her three children.

All-Star Games
The week featured several large collaborative shows:

• The Shawn Mullins Variety Show, hosted by the Georgia singer-songwriter who’s been part of every Cayamo, featured pirate costumes and appearances by Nashville singer-songwriter Chuck Cannon, the funny and endearing Paul Thorn, Bonnie Bishop, Amy Ray of Indigo Girls, the spiritual soul of Liz Vice, and the sweet but powerful harmonies of Red Molly.
• A pool-deck tribute to Woodstock that kicked off with a Hendrixian take on the National Anthem by steel guitar ace Jerry Douglas and continued with a lovely take on “Helplessly Hoping” by Red Molly, a microphone-swinging performance of “Pinball Wizard” by Billy Bragg, and a nice take on “The Weight” by Maine-based The Ghost of Paul Revere, among many other highlights. The show closed with an all-hands singalong on “With a Little Help From My Friends.”
• A “Cayamo After Hours” late-night show hosted by Amanda Shires and drummer Jerry Pentecost, featuring novel interpretations of classic songs written or performed by women. Among the entries: Maggie Rose with Dolly Parton’s “9 to 5,” Tommy Emmanuel with Carly Simon’s “It’s Too Late,” Paul Thorn with Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive,” Shires with Sheryl Crow’s “If It Makes You Happy,” and Bishop’s mesmerizing take on Roberta Flack’s “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face.”
• A second after-hours show, dubbed “Sadler’s Garage” by its host, 400 Unit guitarist Sadler Vaden, who led off with a couple of rocking originals before covering The Band’s “Ophelia” and Joe Walsh’s “Life of Illusion.” Jason Isbell joined in on Thin Lizzy’s “Jailbreak,” which led into a full-length cover of the Allman Brothers’ “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed,” featuring keyboardist Peter Levin. The show closed with joyous singalongs on Tom Petty’s “Even the Losers” and “American Girl.”
• The final-day gospel show, enthusiastically led by Michael and Tanya Trotter, making a return appearance as The War and Treaty. Contributing artists included Tommy Emmanuel (“Amazing Grace”), Dori Freeman (“Heavenly Sunlight”), Phil Madeira (“Give God the Blues”), Carlene Carter (“Will the Circle Be Unbroken”) and Buddy Miller (“Shelter Me”), among others.

Utility Players

Cayamo is well-known for collaborations between artists who might not otherwise share stages. Several players seemed to pop up with great regularity for guest appearances at others’ shows: guitarists Tommy Emmanuel and Will Kimbrough, keyboardists Phil Madeira and Niji Adeleye, and fiddlers Eamon McLoughlin and Amanda Shires, to name a few.

The Sandlot

Cayamo 2019 featured, for the first time, a showcase for bands made up of amateurs – passengers who sent in audition tapes, were grouped into bands at the beginning of the week, and played a show in the Atrium on the last day. Each band performed one song by a Cayamo artist – selections included Buddy Miller’s “Gasoline and Matches” by Miller Time; Shawn Mullins’ “Beautiful Wreck” by Pipe Dreams (guest vocals by Mullins); the classic “Love Hurts” by The Emmys; Josh Ritter’s “Monster Ballads” by Monsters of Cayamo; Keb’ Mo’ ’s “Old Me Better” by Mo Betta (featuring a guest appearance by Keb’ Mo’ on kazoo), Claire and the 4 Units performing Jason Isbell’s “Something to Love,” and the unofficial winner of the band name contest, Flawes’ version of Dawes’ “All Your Favorite Bands.” You could have found more polished performances elsewhere on the boat; you could not have found more fun and enthusiasm anywhere.

Management

Kudos as always to Sixthman, the Atlanta-based company that produces Cayamo and several other music cruises (and, beginning this year, the land-based All the Best, scheduled for November in the Dominican Republic). Sound at the Pearl’s several venues was almost without exception excellent, and the company did a good job of programming to balance the crowds among the various shows on offer at any given time. Interactions with Norwegian Cruise Lines, which operates the Pearl, were smooth.

Errors

Few and far between. One of the big ones, this year and for the past few Cayamos, was the fact that a fair number of seats in the large Stardust Theater were broken and uncomfortable. No one has provided a satisfactory explanation as to why that issue hasn’t been addressed. The occasional sound glitch was usually fixed in a hurry. A beach excursion in Jamaica didn’t go as smoothly as planned – but Sixthman was quick to offer full refunds of the excursion charge to anyone left disappointed. There were the usual gripes about things like food quality and the balance between “seated” acts and “dancing” acts. Some differences of opinion are a given whenever 2,000-plus music fans gather, but the consensus among fans and artists alike is this is a very well-run festival that’s worth its substantial ticket price.