My day started with more Bros Landreth and then a few minutes of Slaid Cleaves. Slaid is played frequently on wmnf but doesn’t get to FL much. I saw him once years ago on a tuesday night at skippers. very thin crowd but he is entertaining and a fabulous storyteller. Nice voice and also easy on the eyes. I had to leave Slaid’s show because I had my second bonus ticketed show. I can explain the bonus shows later because I have to tell you about John Fullbright…. this was my fourth big moment on the boat. (First, Sean. Second, Foy. Third, Langhorne)

I’ve been listening to John Fullbright for two years. I have both CDs. Grant Peeples told me about him two years ago and I bought the first one. Then I read about his second release so I bought it since I enjoyed the first so much. The CDs are primarily him, his piano, his voice, his lyrics. The show included a FULL BAND with everything. John is amazingly talented. If he comes to your city, go see him. He is the real deal. During the show Steve Earle came out and they did Woody Guthrie’s song Deportee. Very moving. I went to this show alone and as I was leaving I saw Ralph (bass player for paul thorn). He had been in the theatre and felt the same thing as me. John gave me goosebumps, made me laugh, and made me cry. It was what I call a shelley church moment.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deportee_(Plane_Wreck_at_Los_Gatos)

From there I didn’t care if I saw another band all day. JUST KIDDING! I’m sure Ralph and I probably went to the buffet and then a few of us went to the second Angeleena show previously mentioned. After a couple of songs a few in my group left.

Then I had some conflicts. Jim Lauderdale, Chris Stapleton, and Langhorne Slim all slightly overlapped in showtimes. I started at Jim and then went to LS. There were so few people at LS. I stayed for the entire show and then quickly went to the CS show and caught his very.last.song. Seriously I saw him do one song! But it was fabulous. Chris (and his wife) are both very popular songwriters in Nashville. (do i sound like a broken record yet? remember this is a singer/songwriter cruise…) Chris was also the frontman in the Steeldrivers band. He broke from that band and released his record last year which went to the top of the country charts. Cayamo was lucky to book him last year as a songwriter (along with his wife) and to have him on the boat with everyone loving him. He won a grammy this year as did the Steeldrivers. Check them out if you don’t know that band. They are excellent.

After that one song I went straight to the pool deck to see Lucinda Williams’ band Buick 6. They open for her and then back her when she plays. This was another show I was really looking forward to all day and I was not disappointed. Good rock and roll. Lucinda took the stage and captured the crowd. Many people may not like her voice, or the fact that she can’t remember her own lyrics, or whatever…. but, if you listen to her words, read her stories…. I need to stop.

Then…it was the Grateful Dead Tribute which was OK. I was never a huge GD fan but do like their music. It was fun seeing the artists on the boat switch out and play their favorite GD tunes. Some sort of Bowie tribute would have been nice but I digress. I guess there wasn’t enough time to pull it off.

I’m sure after this i (we) walked the boat, visited with friends – old and new – in the casino, cafe, buffet, pool deck. I was the oldest one in the room and was also the last one in the cabin 🙂 Those young girls just couldn’t hang most nights. They were tired.