By Paul T. Mueller
The 13th edition of the Cayamo festival-at-sea was another (mostly) happy week of sun, fun and, above all, music – scores of shows performed by world-class musicians, all on a seven-night cruise to two sunny Caribbean islands.
Marquee names in this year’s lineup included Beach Boys founder Brian Wilson, soul icon Mavis Staples and Americana stalwart Jeff Tweedy, each making a first appearance on Cayamo. Just as important to the 2,000-plus music lovers aboard were dozens of performers maybe not as familiar to the world at large, such as Nashville-based Americana stars Buddy Miller and Jim Lauderdale, Mavericks frontman Raul Malo, folk standout Dar Williams, Texas favorites Rodney Crowell and Hayes Carll, brilliant guitarists Molly Tuttle and Joe Robinson, to name a few. It was a fine year for vocal groups, with excellent performances by The Wailin’ Jennys, The Quebe Sisters, Della Mae and Lake Street Dive, all newcomers to “the boat.”
A week’s worth of festival sets is too much to cover even in a long review, so here’s a highly subjective look at some high points:
Monday, Feb. 3: As the Norwegian Pearl left Miami, Mavis Staples filled the coveted sailaway show with her high-energy mix of soul, gospel and rock. She seemed to be fighting a cold, but powered through with help from Jeff Tweedy and Lake Street Dive. Staples’ music is full of spiritualism and optimism, but there’s also a healthy dose of realism about current conditions and the need to change them. As she sang on Ben Harper’s rocking, anthemic “Change,” from last year’s We Get By: “Say it loud, say it clear/We gotta change around here.”
Shortly afterward, the Brian Wilson Band, featuring fellow original Beach Boy Al Jardine and later member Blondie Chaplin, put on a stellar performance in the ship’s largest theater, the Stardust. The ensemble of nearly a dozen players and vocalists led off with “California Girls” and proceeded through a string of Beach Boys hits, including “I Get Around,” “Little Deuce Coupe,” “Little Surfer Girl,” “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” and so on – many of which turned into joyous singalongs. Wilson, who’s dealt with mental health issues for decades, is nearly 80 and his voice isn’t what it once was, so others, including Jardine’s son Matthew, handled many of the vocal duties. Wilson took the lead on a moving rendition of the lovely “God Only Knows,” and the show closed with his “Love and Mercy.”
Tuesday, Feb. 4: Shortly before noon, Georgia singer-songwriter Shawn Mullins, the only performer to have sailed on every Cayamo, came onstage in a bathrobe and led off his “Variety Brunch” with Steve Martin’s “Grandmother’s Song,” starting out sweetly (“Be courteous, kind and forgiving”) but quickly spiraling into absurdity. A string of guest artists (most also in bathrobes or pajamas) followed, with support from the “house band” of guitarist Trey Hensley and dobro player Rob Ickes. Contributors included wild and crazy folkie Steve Poltz, bluegrass star Dan Tyminski, powerhouse vocalist Amythyst Kiah, Alabama-based singer-songwriter Grayson Capps, and The Quebe Sisters, a Texas trio of fiddlers specializing in Bob Wills-style Texas swing. Crowell joined Mullins and Poltz to tell a funny story about a meeting with his future father-in-law, Johnny Cash. The show ended with an all-hands performance of “I Shall Be Released.”
Texas singer-songwriter Hayes Carll focused on his earlier material in a windblown Tuesday night set on the pool deck, opening with “Hey Baby Where You Been” from his 2004 sophomore album Little Rock. Other well-aged material included “Girl Downtown,” “She Left Me for Jesus,” “Bible on the Dash” (written with Corb Lund) and “Crimson Dragon Tattoo,” by Ray Wylie Hubbard. There were also a couple of sweet duets with Allison Moorer (the two are married) – “None’ya,” from last year’s What It Is, and “Love Don’t Let Me Down,” from 2016’s Lovers and Leavers. Carll closed with a lovely rendition of Townes Van Zandt’s “Don’t You Take It Too Bad.”
Wednesday, Feb. 5: Australian guitar prodigy Joe Robinson, a member of Crowell’s band, was a late addition to the schedule – too late, in fact, to have his name displayed on the huge video board behind the stage. By the end of his set, no such identification was necessary. Robinson, not yet 30 but already an accomplished veteran, dazzled the crowd with a performance that included recording riffs and then layering melodies over the playback; playing bass lines, rhythm riffs and melody simultaneously, and playing an acoustic guitar and an electric guitar at the same time. It wasn’t all flash, as he showed off legitimate jazz chops on a lovely rendition of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” and a take on Duke Ellington’s “Caravan” that segued into Scott Joplin’s ragtime classic “The Entertainer.” Robinson finished with a hip-hop story-song about growing up in the Australian outback.
Wednesday night found the Pearl’s Spinnaker Lounge packed for “Well Rounded Women,” a singer-songwriter round featuring Dar Williams, Ashley Monroe, Allison Moorer and Eleanor Whitmore (half of The Mastersons), who accompanied the other artists on violin in addition to performing her own songs. A couple of highlights: Moorer’s rendition of “I’m the One to Blame,” with lyrics by her father and music by her sister, Shelby Lynne, and Williams’ rendition of “February,” a tale of aging and loss that Moorer asked Williams to sing and then wept through, along with many in the audience.
Thursday, Feb. 6: The music started in late afternoon, after passengers had returned from shore time on St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Rodney Crowell filled the Stardust Theater for his acoustic trio show, which featured London-born fiddler Eamon McLoughlin, a former member of The Greencards, in addition to guitarist Robinson. The band performed fine versions of several of Crowell’s songs and a couple of Guy Clark covers, “Stuff That Works” (which Crowell co-wrote) and “She’s Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere,” before Crowell turned the stage over to Robinson. Another brilliant performance of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” earned Robinson a standing ovation. “I can only follow that with this,” Crowell said before launching into his (and Vince Gill’s) very funny “It’s Hard to Kiss the Lips at Night that Chew Your Ass Out All Day Long.” He closed with a couple of serious songs from his 2001 album The Houston Kid, “I Wish It Would Rain” and “Wandering Boy.”
A few hours later, the Stardust was the setting for “Buddy Miller’s Musical Chairs,” which found the singer-songwriter-guitarist-producer playing host to a large cast of guests, some on instruments other than those they’re best known for (including Miller on drums and drummer Brady Blade on guitar). The show, while fun, had a less organized feel than many Cayamo sets. “You won’t believe how much work went into this,” Miller quipped. “In fact, you won’t believe ANY work went into it.” Notable performances included ex-Nickel Creekers Sean Watkins and Sara Watkins doing Ralph Stanley’s “Daniel Prayed,” Hayes Carll and Allison Moorer singing “That’s the Way Love Goes,” guitarist Rick Holmstrom (Mavis Staples’ bandleader) on a Bo Diddley-esque “Will the Circle Be Unbroken,” and Jerry Steele, a high school friend of Miller’s, performing “Honky Tonk Blues.”
Friday, Feb. 7: Friday evening, after the Pearl left Cayamo’s second port stop, the former British colony of Antigua, singer-songwriter Amythyst Kiah dazzled a Spinnaker audience with her phenomenal voice and skillful playing on guitar and banjo. Kiah, a Tennessee native, was one of the four women who recorded the highly regarded Songs of Our Native Daughters album last year. Her set list included several covers, such as the traditional “Darlin Corey,” Precious Bryant’s “Broke and Ain’t Got a Dime,” and Dolly Parton’s “Jolene.” Originals included “Polly Ann’s Hammer,” about the wife of the legendary steel-drivin’ man John Henry (written with Allison Russell of Birds of Chicago), “Wild Turkey,” about the difficulty of dealing with loss, and the powerful, defiant “Black Myself.”
Later on the same stage, Nashville Americana couple Drew and Ellie Holcomb, backed by Drew’s band The Neighbors, played an energetic set of folk-rock that was focused on positivity, but not at the expense of meaning. Clues to the content could be found in the titles: “Family,” a rousing tribute to family life; “But I’ll Never Forget the Way You Make Me Feel”; “What Would I Do Without You,” played without the band, and “Love Anyway.” A highlight was a sweet rendition of Sting’s “Fields of Gold,” played to pin-drop silence.
Saturday, Feb. 8: Allison Moorer and Rodney Crowell took the almost bare stage of the Stardust Theater for a session called “The Art of Memoir,” an unmoderated and fascinating conversation about Moorer’s 2019 book Blood and Crowell’s Chinaberry Sidewalks from 2011. The two took turns praising each other’s work and quizzing each other about their motivations and their writing processes. They took note of the different ways their memoirs are organized – Moorer’s starting at the beginning of her story, Crowell’s at the end – and agreed that their writing was a way of coming to terms with their respective pasts, each of which was marred by domestic violence. Late in the session, each performed two songs, sharing the guitar that stood between their chairs. Crowell sang “The Rock of My Soul,” a somewhat fictionalized account of his relationship with his abusive father, and “I Know Love Is All I Need,” while Moorer performed “Night Light,” a tribute to her older sister, Shelby Lynne, who helped her deal with their parents’ troubled marriage and violent deaths, and “Heal,” the closing track of the Blood album, which she wrote with Mary Gauthier. When the session ended, the two embraced as the audience rose in a well-deserved standing ovation.
Another marquee event, “Sunset at Laurel Canyon,” took place Saturday evening on the pool deck stage, as a wide cross section of artists performed some of the enduring songs of the singer-songwriter era. Jim Lauderdale, accompanied by rising country singer Logan Ledger, did a nice version of “California Dreaming” by the Mamas and the Papas, followed by Amythyst Kiah with a fine rendition of Neil Young’s “Heart of Gold.” Madison Cunningham took a solo turn on Joni Mitchell’s “California,” while Della Mae performed Carly Simon’s “You’re So Vain” and Steve Poltz gave a heartfelt and faithful rendition of James Taylor’s “Fire and Rain.” Emily Scott Robinson and Soren Staff of Them Coulee Boys gave a beautiful rendition of Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now,” and the Brian Wilson Band, minus its namesake, reprised “God Only Knows,” with Probyn Gregory on lead vocal. Lake Street Dive, led by the lovely voice of Rachael Price and joined by many other artists, closed the show with the Eagles’ “Take It to the Limit.”
Sunday, Feb. 9: Sunday morning’s gospel show, on the pool deck under a hot sun, featured a surprise performance by Mavis Staples, who was believed by some to have left the cruise earlier in the week. Staples, in a Tom Petty/Bob Dylan T-shirt, was joined by vocalist Saundra Williams, a member of her band, on “Woke Up This Morning (With My Mind on Jesus).” Other highlights included hosts Drew and Ellie Holcomb with “The Old Rugged Cross” and “Amazing Grace,” Dan Tyminski with his original “Money Can’t Buy,” and Emily Scott Robinson, backed by Hulda Quebe of The Quebe Sisters and members of the Quebes’ band, with “Wayfaring Stranger.” The all-hands finale was Hank Williams’ “I Saw the Light.”
The Spinnaker Lounge was the setting for the 2020 edition of the Cayamo Community Showcase, featuring seven all-passenger bands performing songs by Cayamo artists. Most of the bands consisted of three or four members, with professionals providing rhythm section assistance. All gave fine performances for an appreciative audience, which at times included the artists they were covering. Selections included “Drunken Poet’s Dream,” by Hayes Carll and Ray Wylie Hubbard, Buddy Miller’s “Does My Ring Burn Your Finger,” Shawn Mullins’ “Shimmer,” and Rodney Crowell’s “ ‘Til I Gain Control Again.”
Sunday night saw a Cayamo first – the wedding of an artist during the festival. Steve Poltz and his fiancée, Sharon Daddi, were married by Dave Scruggs, an employee of Cayamo producer Sixthman, near the top of the Atrium staircase (the event was originally scheduled for the spacious pool deck but was moved to the smaller Atrium because of weather concerns). Several Cayamo artists performed before and after the vows, the large crowd (which included Poltz’s father and his sister) shared cake and sparkling beverages, and Poltz later returned to the stage to perform briefly.
The festival’s final show (not counting late-night passenger jams) was the Tas-Jam, an all-star event that was to have been hosted by singer-songwriter and Cayamo favorite Aaron Lee Tasjan. Tasjan unfortunately had fallen victim to illness, but the event went on, capably hosted by The Mastersons (the other half is Eleanor Whitmore’s husband, Chris Masterson). The high-energy Atrium set included a vigorous take on Cheap Trick’s “Surrender” and a fine rendition of Tom Petty’s “The Waiting” to close the evening.
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