Editor's Beat
Once again, I headed south to escape the snow , but not the rain, to join my Outlaw Cruise family of the Outlaw Country Cruise 8 for good music , good times and , this time , shocking tragedies. Feb 4-9. Yes, this was the one beloved musician, all round character, iconoclast and Sirius XM Outlaw Country personality Mojo Nixon passed away on.
There was two distinct parts of the cruise— before Mojo’s last show and after.
Other than Miami being under a rare tornado warning when we boarded the steadfast Norwegian Pearl under a relentless downpour on Feb. 4, it was business as usual.
I signed up for an early boarding time to catch the country strains of Sarah Gayle Meech, who was a highlight of Outlaw Cruise 3, my first Outlaw Cruise.
She has a new album out as well.
The weather cleared in time for headliners Blackberry Smoke who killed it on the pool deck. “Get Well Soon Brit” was emblazoned on the bass drum for Blackberry Smoke drummer/ band’s CD and merch artist Brit Turner who was away recovering from health issues and passed on this week. As usual they played a solid set of songs from their 20 some years playing music incuding a lot for their latest album “Be Here Now.” I was hoping to get an early copy of it so was in line for merch and missed Steve Earle joining them on stage to play “Copperhead Road.” They didn’t have the new album on board anyway.
Ever since the Outlaw Country Cruise expanded to six days it has become a marathon, not a sprint, both with alcohol consumption and making sure you catch everybody you signed up to see as well as discovering some great new talent.
With 37 bands playing five stages, thankfully most performers played multiiple times, so there was a good chance to catch them, weather and tragedy permitting. Yet I stlll missed a few shows including Steve Earle solo shows, Chuck Mead, whose pool deck show was cancelled because of rain and a Nick Lowe jam with Los Straitjackets. I also missed Mary Gauthier’s sets but caught her interview with Steve Earle about songwriting, which featured some crowd favourites.
I caught the last part of Shinyrib’s first night set on the atrium stage. I didn’t get to Hear “I Don’t Give A Shit, but caught their hilarious cover of Rihanna’s “ Bitch Better Have My Money.”
A lot of people signed up to see Virginia country band 49 Winchester, who are just beginning a tour with Corb Lund, and who played a solid show on the pool deck. I cut that show short to catch my first new discovery— Oklahoma musician Kaitlin Butts in the Spinnaker Lounge and missed Steve Earle solo show in Stardust. Elizabeth Cook missed the boat due to family reasons, so her fiirst show was cancelled . I caught her pool deck show later, which would turn out to be her only show on the boat, but I also caught her great interview with Blackberry Smoke.
The Vandoliers played their usual energetic a tight set of punk infused original music with horns, keyboards and bare chests in the atrium. With so much else to see, that was the only show of theirs I caught.
Raylene Nelson, the eldest granddaughter of Willie Nelson by his son Billy Nelson Jr, was a highlight I caught a few times. They were playing for a packed room in the Magnum Lounge, playing their own mix of ukulele powered folk, country and alternative rock.
They wound up their set with a punkish Pretenders deep cut I think was “ Precious.”
I caught Lucinda Williams’s wonderful set, which focused on her latest album “Stories From A Rock n Roll Heart.”
The first day at sea was the day to ease into the rest of the cruise by sitting in on Sirius Sessions at Sea interviews.
Steve Earle wanted to talk about Texas songwriters and Steve Earle instead of his interview subject Ray Wylie Hubbard.
He missed an excellent opportunity to ask what it was like to work with a Beatle ( Ringo Starr,) an Eagle (Joe Walsh) and a Black Crowe (Chris Robinson), not to mention Don Was all on the same song “ Bad Trick,” a highlight from Hubbard’s Co starring CD, until the self deprecating and ever humble Hubbard brought it up. He delivered that story later on the pool deck. Earle did get him to tell the story of “Redneck Mother” and played it with him.
Hubbard observed he also played a song with Steve Earle on his latest album Co-Starring Too, but couldn’t remember what it was (Hellbent For Leather), but noted it wouldn’t have been on the CD without Earle . He did play “Stone Blind Horses,” which is a duet with Willie Nelson on Co Starring Too.
I caught what turned out to be Mojo Nixon’s last interview, with up and up and comers .49 Winchester. Mojo Nixon interviews have always been a little surreal, but he played it straight with this one, sticking with the five Ws as he bonded with the rural Virginia band. Things got more typically Mojo as he asked them the best way to test the quality of moonshine.
The evening was the time to catch the bands I signed up for.
Los Straitjackets beamed through their lucheador masks a on the pool deck as they worked their way through a solid set of surf rock and instrumentals, but I cut that short for Ray Wylie Hubbard’s Stardust set.
Hubbard played Stone Blind Horses,“Redneck Mother and “Bad Trick” again. I was hoping for “Stolen Horses,” “ Screw you We‘re From Texas,” and maybe even “ Conversation With The Devil,” but it was not to be.
Of course he played his autobiographical epic “ Mother Blues,” ending by deadpanning the ultimate inspirational line “ The days I keep my gratitude higher than my expectations, I have really good days.” He used that song as an excuse to introduce his new band including his son Lucas, who was playing lead guitar .
He was going to expand on that set on his Thursday pool deck show and was starting to include special guests for his pool deck show on Thursday, but that set, which was to include “Redneck Mother” ended up being cut short.
Nikki Lane is one of the reasons I signed up for the boat, so caught all of her shows. The now blonde, formerly brunette “Highway Queen” stole a lot of the shows including the Lucinda Willaims tribute a few days later with a hot version of “Passionate Kisses.”
