It’s hard to believe it’s been a month since I was on board the Norwegian Pearl for floating music festival, Outlaw Country Cruise 7. My brain is still reeling and my ears are still ringing from another fantastic Outlaw Country Cruise, which left from Miami, Feb. 21,  went to Great Stirrup Cay in the Bahamas, the island of Cozumel outside of Cancun, Mexico and back to Miami, Feb. 27. Lately it takes a lot longer to recover from the best vacation ever, not to mention writing about it. Yet they already put out a call to register  for OCC8 without announcing the line up a day after I got home on March 1. I signed up anyway even though it’s a year away as it’s always a good bet they will have a killer line up, which ended up being Blackberry Smoke, Dash Rip Rock and  drivin n cryin  and Ray Wylie Hubbard, to name just a few to start. But that’s not until next year.

 

The Outlaw Country Cruise is always a good time as I always discover my new favourite bands on the boat. I come back drained and alternately inspired depending on the day. This time my new favourites were easily a couple Texas bands The Vandoliers and Mike And the Moonpies.

 The Waco Brothers have been my new favourite since Outlaw Cruise 5, so I knew they were going to be great on this boat, especially with a new album out. There was a whole lot of Jon Langford, one of the frontmen of the Waco Brothers, who was also playing with the Mekons and  Jon Langford and Skull Orchard.

 

The other band I was looking forward to was the Old ’97s who  are celebrating  30 years together as a band. 

 Beaming frontman Rhett Miller was a blast. I caught all three Old ’97s and one guitar pull with Miller, but missed his solo show.

 They are full of energy and played three very different sets.

“Jesus Love You,” was a highlight of their pool deck show. And “Turn Off Your TV” was an apt highlight of at least one of them.

 

 I also caught all three Vandoliers sets.

 Their set in the atrium was a the best, with all six of them crammed onto the tiny stage. They sounded like Elliott Brood but louder and with a trumpet and keyboards and a bare chested fiddle player channeling the spirit of Charlie Daniels.

Most of them were shirtless by the end of their furious and hot set. They bill themselves as your favourite punk band’s favourite country band,” and not without reason.

 They were off the hook. They’re in the news now for protesting Tennessee’s draconian new anti- drag law by performing in dresses and auctioning those dresses off  for Tennessee LBGTQ organizations.

 

 Atrium shows were the best and most intimate, they felt more like a bar setting where most of the performers are more used to playing.

 

 The Waco Brothers’ best and most dangerous set was also on the atrium stage. They all sported their trademark Waco Brothers ’ sailor hats. Tiny fiddle player Jean Cook was ducking to save her life or to at least to avoid a concussion from bouncing bassist Alan Doughty who was leaping and kicking in his corner, while playing some of the fastest, most melodic bass lines I’ve ever heard while putting on a show.

 

 I only saw Cook only get knocked down once, but he helped her up immediately.

 

 The Supersuckers are always a highlight of the boat. This time, bassist Eddie Spaghetti was everywhere doing triple duty as Supersuckers frontman as well as playing bass for Supersuckers guitarist Metal Marty’s band and playing bass again with punk rock trucking collective the Franklin County Trucking Company, who were another new  favourite.

The only musician to play more shows was probably Bill Kirchen was everywhere, playing with pretty much everybody. I only caught one of his own shows, but luckily caught his set ending jam on “ Hot Rod Lincoln,” which  ends with a medley of riffs from a cornucopia of hits ranging from country to punk rock.

 Everyone loves Bill Kirchen, who  was part of  Commander Cody and his Lost Planet Airmen in the early ’70s. I heard he even went crowd surfing during Sara Borges’ set.

 

 Outlaw Country Cruisers are a tight knit  group of music lovers who are like a family away from the family but from all over the U.S, Canada and even a few overseas cruisers including music lovers and musicians alike hanging out blissfully on a boat.

 Bill Kirchen looked a little shocked after receiving a round of applause while getting on an elevator en route to one of his many appearances. The crowd parted for him on another elevator as he rushed from one gig downstairs to pool deck guest spot with Sarah Borges, who is always a cruise favourite.

Her fans set up a Facebook campaign to get her on the boat a few years ago, so she responded by writing a song with Bottle Rockets bassist Keith Voegele called “Got me on the Boat” which is on her most recent album. Borges and her partner Kurt Voegele were everywhere too.

 

 He even got to take centre stage on a late night cruise ending all-star jam of hits hosted by Warner Hodges band to belt out a version of Cheap Trick’s “Surrender.”

 I always come home with a lot of great memories and new musical discoveries. I forgot my good camera, so didn’t take as many pictures of things as trying to get a decent shot from a cell phone camera was more trouble than it’s worth so it was really weird to not be officially covering the shows.

 

 With six days of non-stop music, there is always something happening and a lot of highlights so it is essential to pace oneself to catch a little bit of everything without burning out. It’s a lesson I should learn some time, but the first night was front loaded with great shows and pretty much everybody I wanted to see.

 

 I made sure to board the boat early for a great collaboration between Joe King Carrasco and Texas Tornado Augie Meyers, who played a wild  boarding show on the pool deck. The two of them were a couple of the many musicians who were special guests on a lot of other musicians’ shows, which is one of the best things abut the boat.

 

The Mavericks are always a good times so I caught their cast off show, but cut it short because Kathleen Edwards, one of the main reasons I signed up for this cruise,  was playing her first show in the main theatre, The Stardust,  at the same time and  didn’t want to miss her. Her set and stories brought me to tears a couple of times. Her set was pretty similar throughout. She opened appropriately with “Just Another Song the Radio Won’t Play,” played a lot of her new album, and couple old favourites including “In State” and Six O Clock  News.”  I didn’t hear  “I Make the Dough, You Get the Glory” for the first one but she played it at her Atrium show a couple days later. I was wondering how many people would get the Canadian references in the song including “ The Horseshoe” and the  CBC,” but a lot of them did.

 

 I rushed back upstairs to the pool deck for Steve Earle’s last show with this iteration of the Dukes. As expected, it was a hit heavy show with  “Guitar Town,” “ I Ain’t Never Satisfied,” “Galway Girl” and, of course “Copperhead Road,” on which Earle played his mandolin. He seemed to be elsewhere, performing his best known numbers, basically going through the motions. He perked up for some of his newer  songs like the acidic “ It’s About Blood.” The  Mastersons’ multi-instrumental prowess added a much needed burst of energy to that set as he promised to play all of his songs about girls for his solo set.

 I rushed downstairs again for Lucinda Williams’ first show in the Stardust Theatre. She sounded great especially as she is still recovering from a stroke.

 

 I cut that short to catch country band Mike and the Moonpies on the atrium stage , who immediately became one of my new favourites with some Texas fried country with a touch of rock.

 Texas band the Old ’97s  were the other reason I signed up for the boat so I rushed down the hall to the Stardust again to catch their first exciting show of the boat.

 

I’m out of practice with drinking so I started Wednesday moving slowly, and decided to kick it off by sitting on the first Sirius Sessions at Sea with Steve Earle interviewing Kathleen Edwards. They’re playing the interviews with some of the personalities and artists including Kathleen Edwards, the Mavericks and  Augie Meyers and a couple of the guitar pulls on Sirius XM Outlaw Country 60 now.

Listening to Steve Earle interview  people is frustrating because a lot of times he won’t let them get a word in edgewise, but he let Kathleen Edwards open up about depression, growing up in Canada the daughter of a Saskatchewan born bureaucrat, getting frustrated with the music business and quitting to open up a coffee shop called “Quitters.”

 She was  charming, hilarious adorable and articulate.  She talked about feeling out of place at the Grammy Awards and Steve Earle  coming up to her then to give her a hug, and said that made her night. She joked  “I wanted to take you home” with Earle quipping back “ I wish I’d known that.”

  Earle talked a lot about how he was  always more popular in Canada than in the U.S. because Canadians are more interested in songs.

  He talked about  spending an afternoon trading songs with Gordon Lightfoot. He wound up the interview, which is airing now on Outlaw Country, with a touching. shout out to Ian Tyson and by playing “ Summer Wages.”

 Robbie Fulks replaced Ray Wylie Hubbard , who backed out before sailing and who I signed to see, so I got my crows-nest perch in O’ Sheehans Irish pub to watch his atrium show. I couldn’t hear much, but he’s a phenomenal guitarist and  was cracking jokes throughout his set.

 

I signed up for  another Camp Copperhead songwriting workshop with Steve Earle which I was on  during the Outlaw Cruise West in November. It was a bigger group than the last one, which Earle confessed was “because of the money”.

 

 He talked about songs as literature, reiterated his love for Bob Dylan and sent us away to write haikus to get us thinking about syllables and verses, and took us through some of his songs.

 

 That ended in time to catch a bit of Joshua Ray Walker’s pool deck show. He’s a big man with a huge, soulful voice who was a highlight for me who reminded me of our own Richard Inman. I caught  bits and pieces of most of his shows including his Spinnaker Deck show up on Deck 13, which is one of the more intimate, sit down venues on the boat.

 

I caught Carlene Carter’s pool side set. I caught most of her shows.

 Her Stardust theatre set was the best. She shared stories about growing up surrounded by music in the Johnny Cash, June Carter household, and told some stories about that and Carters marriages . She played all the hits including “Every Little Thing,” and sounded fantastic.

 

 Theme nights are always a blast on the boat.

 This time they had a Mardi Gras night, and an inspirational theme – trucker jamboree night. They chose a number of thebands who specialized in  trucking songs for this night.

 Three of them took over the atrium stage, Thursday, Feb. 23.

  I caught the end of Chris Sprague and the 18 Wheelers’s more traditional twangy,  trucker songs and punk rock infused trucking songs from the Franklin County Trucking company featuring Eddie Spaghetti on bass and background vocals.

 Bill Kirchen closed off that stage. I only caught the last bit of that, because I didn’t want to miss Texas favourite Jesse Dayton in the Stardust Theatre. Dayton, who is on tour with blues goddess Samantha Fish in support of their upcoming new album, is always a highlight. And a favourite on the boat. He played  a high octane, more rock and roll infused, set featuring a. lot of new music.

 

Country star John Anderson only had one official show on the boat, so I made sure to catch a pretty much front row seat for his Wednesday night show.

 A lot of people were expecting a full band, but instead John Anderson played all his ’80s and ’90s hits acoustically with an amazing acoustic guitarist and dobro player Glenn Rieuf.

 Later on there was a massive tribute to Anderson featuring a most of the musicians on board playing Anderson favourites.

 

 This boat was a piano player and piano lover’s paradise.

 Rock and Roll icon Jerry Lee Lewis passed away last year, so the good folks a Sixthmen who organize the cruise, set up an amazing tribute to Jerry Lee Lewis including some  amazing pianists including Jerry Lee’s sister Linda Gail Lewis, Jason D Williams and Pete “Wet Dawg Gordon” who is no slouch and who plays with Mojo Nixon’s band.

 Linda Gail Lewis held court centre stage as al three and their backing bands played Jerry Lee Lewis favourites. Each of them showed their best Jerry Lee Lewis moves, especially  Jason D Williams, who was playing alternately with his fingers, butt and while laying on top of his piano.

 There are always special guests who aren’t announced at all until you are on the boat.

 This time, one half of Tenacious D Kyle Gass  joined the fun. It turned into a drunken Tenacious D karaoke with audience members joining the duo including Gass and lead guitarist John Konesky on stage.

 I don't like the Magnum stage because of poor sightlines, but it is where Mojo Nixon and the Toad Liquors hold court on the boat, so I caught a side view of a few of Mojo favourites like “Debbie Gibson is Pregnant with My Two  Headed Love Child,” “ Don Henley must Die” and “ Elvis is Everywhere” which had everybody singing along.

 

 All good things must come to an end. Things got pretty drunk out over six days and I was pretty worn out, but they had a packed Sunday to bring the show to a close, with an opportunity to catch everybody’s favourites again, and some of those we missed the first time. It was my only chance to catch the Mastersons, other than with Steve Earle. Eleanor Whitmore and her sister Bonnie Whitmore played together so their show was a mix of Whitmore sisters and Mastersons favourites.

 

 Bill Kirchen and Redd Volkaert, who has played with Merle Haggard, shared a few of their Telecaster secrets wth a packed Spinnaker Lounge.

 The both agreed they barely use effects and just plug directly into their amps and let their fingers do the work.

finally took in Joshua Ray Walker properly, but couldn’t see much from my seat in the Spinnaker.

 

 Down in the Stardust Theatre, The Mavericks welcomed most of the musicians on stage to play their songs and classics.

 Once Kathleen Edwards and the Mavericks settled on the right key, Kathleen Edwards sang a stunning version of “ When Will I Be Loved.”

 And John Anderson returned to the stage for his big hit “Swinging,” which swung with the Mavericks keeping step and adding  some braying horns. 

 

Sunday was my only chance to catch a proper Sarah Borges show on the pool deck. It was full of special guests including Bill Kirchen and Bottle Rockets producer and Del Lords member  Eric Ambel , who I caught earlier in the week, but was glad to see again. 

 The Waco Brothers closed off the pool deck stage in the afternoon with their usual intense rocking show, which gave the members all  the room they needed to sing, jump and high kick to their favourite tunes.

 I called it a night after Warner Hodges’ All Star Jam, which featured most of the musicians stepping in to play their favourite influences. Most of that was covers, but  it was great to hear a live version of Jason and the Scorchers’ “ If Money Talks.

I was sorry to miss Bill Kirchen’s closing set  in Magnums, which is my least favourite venue on the boat because of terrible sight lines. I’d had enough of crowds by that time and was not looking forward to disembarking early in the morning. They are always fun, but always packed and with Covid still a problem, didn't want to be close quarters in the middle of a crowd for too long.

 

So now it is 311 days and counting until Outlaw Country Cruise 8 leaves from Miami for Puerto Plata and San Juan with an already stellar line up of  Blackberry Smoke, Dash Rip Rock, drivin N cryin, Ray Wylie Hubbard , 49 Winchester, crowd favourites Shinyribs  cruise regulars Lucinda Williams and Steve Earle and a lot more plus more to be announced.

— By Richard Amery, L.A Beat Editor