Cayamo Cruise: Day 3
Mar. 8th, 2012 12:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
livingdebCayo Levantado
Day 3 of the cruise we got to visit Cayo Levantado, a small island that I think is part of the Dominican Republic.
No more pictures on the island; my camera wasn't working. Because the battery was still in the charger.
Usually on cruises you can set up "excursions" to do things on the days when you land somewhere, but we didn't see any excursions on this trip that looked worth the money. But I'd read that there were trails through the jungle with waterfalls, so I thought it would be fun to hike those.
Well, the ship pulled right up to the island and we stepped out onto a dock, which was awfully luxurious. Then we walked up to the land and there was an expensive-looking hotel at the top of a hill, but it was fenced off so that we couldn't look around.
So we took the trail down the coast and walked down the gauntlet of shops. We saw the place that sells a barbecue lunch (at lunch time). It looked like the native language was Spanish (some of the signs were in Spanish), but it sounded like they all spoke English, too.
After the gauntlet was a very nice beach. I seriously thought about going for a swim but then decided against it for some reason.
We just explored all the parts available to us, and jungle trails were not a part of that picture. So we enjoyed looking at the tropical plants and the nice beach and then headed back to the ship.
Buddy Miller and Friends
We caught the tail end of the concert called "Sailaway with Buddy Miller and Friends."
So, from left to right, that's Jim Lauderdale, Buddy Miller, Sara Watkins (behind the pole), and Richard Thompson. I got to hear one song from each of them. I have no notes but I do remember that Buddy Miller talked about liking these three pom-poms he found somewhere and put on his guitar (not really visible in this shot). Richard Thompson tried to imply that he knew what they were as if there were bad connotations. But then Buddy Miller said he didn't know, but he thought three balls might be something to be proud of.
I also remember that everyone was singing cheerful songs, and Richard Thompson wanted to end the performance in a depressing song, but he just couldn't make himself do it!
Oh, and speaking of friends of Buddy Miller, Jim Lauderale's tai chi class was such a hit that he did one every morning until he had to leave for the Grammy Awards.
John Prine
So John Prine had some priceless quotes on the wave motion, including today's wave motion quote of the day. Be he also explained, "You dance whether you want to or not."
Here he is jamming with one of his band members:
He told a story about how after working on an album, he had decided he was done, but he was told he needed to write one more song. So he tried to write a really bad song to show that another song really wasn't needed. But after singing it 300 times, he start liking "Whistling and Fishing in Heaven."
He described another song as being a good song to know for emergency singing requests at weddings. Yeah, some of the lyrics were appropriate, wishing the couple well, but then it turns out he's in love with the bride and just can't hold it in.
He also sang some songs that may have had these titles:
"Make Me an Angel"
"The Glory of True Love"
"Lake Marie" - a very long ballad
"Muelenberg City" - about a place that doesn't exist anymore because a coal train has hauled it away. I liked this one, except of course for the part about how it was horribly sad.
This shot shows him with his other band member:
Lyle Lovett and John Hiatt
The headliners had three concerts and everyone on the boat got reserved seats for one of them. But you could always go to the other ones and take your chances getting a seat, and so we saw these guys again. (We missed their second show, which was immediately following their first show.)
John played "Perfectly Good Guitar" (about how these rock stars shouldn't go around smashing perfectly good guitars).
Lyle asked John to join him in playing "Good Intentions"(?). "Of course it requires an extensive re-tuning of the instrument, but I'm game if you are."
John played "Drive South."
Lyle said "Now I have to do something with direction in it" and played "If You Love Me, Say 'I Love You'"(?).
John sang something or other.
Lyle sang "One-Eyed Fiona." The lyrics made John laugh and smile, as if he hadn't heard them before.
But then he joined in and totally belted out the last part of the song as if he'd heard it and practiced it a hundred times at least. Wow, that was so fun. Then John said, "That song is so damned visual." He sees her staring him down. "And I don't see a patch over one eye. I see one big eye."
Then he sang a visual one himself, "Don't You Talk About My Baby"(?).
Lyle - "Buddy Miller and Friends." I didn't know they were friends.
John - I don't know how you feel about "and Friends," but I feel hurt.
Lyle told us that "I get to jam with John Prine. Because he's right next door. I'm jamming with him, and he has no idea."
Next Lyle sang "Step Inside This House" by Guy Clark. He told us that Guy said he could record it, but then later told him that he wished he'd stop playing it all the time; there was a reason he'd never recorded it himself.
Interestingly, since getting back, I saw this interview with Guy Clark and Guy told a somewhat different story. He said it was the first song he wrote and he played it for a while but then decided it seemed like a first effort and stopped playing it. Recently, he and some other musicians were playing together somewhere, and they were each asked to play a song he wished he had written himself. Lyle played this song, which Guy didn't even recognize at first because it had been so long since he'd played it. And he says Lyle does it so much better than he ever did that there's still no reason for Guy ever to record it.
Lyle - Can you imagine that's the first song somebody ever wrote?
John - No.
Then Lyle played "Closing Time" which he says is about those sad places that are more worried about closing up than getting to hear the musician a little longer.
John tried an audience-requested song for a while, then switched to "Lipstick Sunset," saying "Let me switch to one I sort of know."
Shawn and Sara Watkins from WPA joined them and played "As We Lie In Your Sweet Mother's Arms"(?). Then all four played "I'm Going Out on the Highway, Listen To the Big Trucks Whine"(?).
The Civil Wars
The Civil Wars, Joy Williams and John Paul White, seems to be a recently married couple, still giddy that they get to be around each other so much, especially Joy.
The pictures do not capture that John Paul was so seasick that their first concert was canceled and at this concert, he is all loaded up with drugs. They sort of capture that Joy is always in motion.
They do not capture that this group sounds like no one else. The word "harmonizing" does not come close to explaining what you hear. They really weave the melody around and the harmonies make you feel like you are in a different place.
They played a song that may have been called "I Have This Friend."
They played "You are My Sunshine" so that we would know how sad it really is. If you know only the chorus, there's just a hint at the end that it might not be happy. But I have heard the whole song many, many times, and I was still unprepared for this rendition. They made it sound creepy and threatening.
They also covered "Billie Jean is Not My Lover"(?), which followed the original more closely, but was quite beautiful.
And of course they did a bunch of their own songs including "You Don't Seem Happy"(?).
I left the theater hoping that nothing bad happened to this marriage. People talk about the dangers of buying stock in your own company, but that's nothing in the eggs-in-one-basket category compared to this duo. It hard to imagine either of them doing the same kind of singing with anybody else.
They also had to leave the ship early to attend the Grammy Awards. (Note to event planners: Although it is probably okay to schedule a music cruise during the Superbowl, it is not so okay if that is also when the Grammys are.)
Googling just now, I see they "earned the Best Country Duo/Group Performance and Best Folk Album awards for 'Barton Hollow' and the album of the same name." ("Country." And "Folk." Okay, I wouldn't have had a clue what to label this music.) The internet also says they will be doing part of the soundtrack for the upcoming movie "The Hunger Games," which is probably going to turn out to be a good movie.
Wave motion quote of the day - "I almost fell over a couple of times on that [song]. They should give a trophy for best recovery." - John Prine
Day 3 of the cruise we got to visit Cayo Levantado, a small island that I think is part of the Dominican Republic.
No more pictures on the island; my camera wasn't working. Because the battery was still in the charger.
Usually on cruises you can set up "excursions" to do things on the days when you land somewhere, but we didn't see any excursions on this trip that looked worth the money. But I'd read that there were trails through the jungle with waterfalls, so I thought it would be fun to hike those.
Well, the ship pulled right up to the island and we stepped out onto a dock, which was awfully luxurious. Then we walked up to the land and there was an expensive-looking hotel at the top of a hill, but it was fenced off so that we couldn't look around.
So we took the trail down the coast and walked down the gauntlet of shops. We saw the place that sells a barbecue lunch (at lunch time). It looked like the native language was Spanish (some of the signs were in Spanish), but it sounded like they all spoke English, too.
After the gauntlet was a very nice beach. I seriously thought about going for a swim but then decided against it for some reason.
We just explored all the parts available to us, and jungle trails were not a part of that picture. So we enjoyed looking at the tropical plants and the nice beach and then headed back to the ship.
Buddy Miller and Friends
We caught the tail end of the concert called "Sailaway with Buddy Miller and Friends."
So, from left to right, that's Jim Lauderdale, Buddy Miller, Sara Watkins (behind the pole), and Richard Thompson. I got to hear one song from each of them. I have no notes but I do remember that Buddy Miller talked about liking these three pom-poms he found somewhere and put on his guitar (not really visible in this shot). Richard Thompson tried to imply that he knew what they were as if there were bad connotations. But then Buddy Miller said he didn't know, but he thought three balls might be something to be proud of.
I also remember that everyone was singing cheerful songs, and Richard Thompson wanted to end the performance in a depressing song, but he just couldn't make himself do it!
Oh, and speaking of friends of Buddy Miller, Jim Lauderale's tai chi class was such a hit that he did one every morning until he had to leave for the Grammy Awards.
John Prine
So John Prine had some priceless quotes on the wave motion, including today's wave motion quote of the day. Be he also explained, "You dance whether you want to or not."
Here he is jamming with one of his band members:
He told a story about how after working on an album, he had decided he was done, but he was told he needed to write one more song. So he tried to write a really bad song to show that another song really wasn't needed. But after singing it 300 times, he start liking "Whistling and Fishing in Heaven."
He described another song as being a good song to know for emergency singing requests at weddings. Yeah, some of the lyrics were appropriate, wishing the couple well, but then it turns out he's in love with the bride and just can't hold it in.
He also sang some songs that may have had these titles:
"Make Me an Angel"
"The Glory of True Love"
"Lake Marie" - a very long ballad
"Muelenberg City" - about a place that doesn't exist anymore because a coal train has hauled it away. I liked this one, except of course for the part about how it was horribly sad.
This shot shows him with his other band member:
Lyle Lovett and John Hiatt
The headliners had three concerts and everyone on the boat got reserved seats for one of them. But you could always go to the other ones and take your chances getting a seat, and so we saw these guys again. (We missed their second show, which was immediately following their first show.)
John played "Perfectly Good Guitar" (about how these rock stars shouldn't go around smashing perfectly good guitars).
Lyle asked John to join him in playing "Good Intentions"(?). "Of course it requires an extensive re-tuning of the instrument, but I'm game if you are."
John played "Drive South."
Lyle said "Now I have to do something with direction in it" and played "If You Love Me, Say 'I Love You'"(?).
John sang something or other.
Lyle sang "One-Eyed Fiona." The lyrics made John laugh and smile, as if he hadn't heard them before.
But then he joined in and totally belted out the last part of the song as if he'd heard it and practiced it a hundred times at least. Wow, that was so fun. Then John said, "That song is so damned visual." He sees her staring him down. "And I don't see a patch over one eye. I see one big eye."
Then he sang a visual one himself, "Don't You Talk About My Baby"(?).
Lyle - "Buddy Miller and Friends." I didn't know they were friends.
John - I don't know how you feel about "and Friends," but I feel hurt.
Lyle told us that "I get to jam with John Prine. Because he's right next door. I'm jamming with him, and he has no idea."
Next Lyle sang "Step Inside This House" by Guy Clark. He told us that Guy said he could record it, but then later told him that he wished he'd stop playing it all the time; there was a reason he'd never recorded it himself.
Interestingly, since getting back, I saw this interview with Guy Clark and Guy told a somewhat different story. He said it was the first song he wrote and he played it for a while but then decided it seemed like a first effort and stopped playing it. Recently, he and some other musicians were playing together somewhere, and they were each asked to play a song he wished he had written himself. Lyle played this song, which Guy didn't even recognize at first because it had been so long since he'd played it. And he says Lyle does it so much better than he ever did that there's still no reason for Guy ever to record it.
Lyle - Can you imagine that's the first song somebody ever wrote?
John - No.
Then Lyle played "Closing Time" which he says is about those sad places that are more worried about closing up than getting to hear the musician a little longer.
John tried an audience-requested song for a while, then switched to "Lipstick Sunset," saying "Let me switch to one I sort of know."
Shawn and Sara Watkins from WPA joined them and played "As We Lie In Your Sweet Mother's Arms"(?). Then all four played "I'm Going Out on the Highway, Listen To the Big Trucks Whine"(?).
The Civil Wars
The Civil Wars, Joy Williams and John Paul White, seems to be a recently married couple, still giddy that they get to be around each other so much, especially Joy.
The pictures do not capture that John Paul was so seasick that their first concert was canceled and at this concert, he is all loaded up with drugs. They sort of capture that Joy is always in motion.
They do not capture that this group sounds like no one else. The word "harmonizing" does not come close to explaining what you hear. They really weave the melody around and the harmonies make you feel like you are in a different place.
They played a song that may have been called "I Have This Friend."
They played "You are My Sunshine" so that we would know how sad it really is. If you know only the chorus, there's just a hint at the end that it might not be happy. But I have heard the whole song many, many times, and I was still unprepared for this rendition. They made it sound creepy and threatening.
They also covered "Billie Jean is Not My Lover"(?), which followed the original more closely, but was quite beautiful.
And of course they did a bunch of their own songs including "You Don't Seem Happy"(?).
I left the theater hoping that nothing bad happened to this marriage. People talk about the dangers of buying stock in your own company, but that's nothing in the eggs-in-one-basket category compared to this duo. It hard to imagine either of them doing the same kind of singing with anybody else.
They also had to leave the ship early to attend the Grammy Awards. (Note to event planners: Although it is probably okay to schedule a music cruise during the Superbowl, it is not so okay if that is also when the Grammys are.)
Googling just now, I see they "earned the Best Country Duo/Group Performance and Best Folk Album awards for 'Barton Hollow' and the album of the same name." ("Country." And "Folk." Okay, I wouldn't have had a clue what to label this music.) The internet also says they will be doing part of the soundtrack for the upcoming movie "The Hunger Games," which is probably going to turn out to be a good movie.
Wave motion quote of the day - "I almost fell over a couple of times on that [song]. They should give a trophy for best recovery." - John Prine