I’m not lost really, I know where I am, I am on a cruise ship. We are at port in Bermuda, the tip of the Bermuda Triangle. This ship is so massive that I often don’t know if I am on the front or the back or the port or starboard side of the boat. If I do figure out that I am on the port or starboard side, I then have to try and remember which is right and which is left. I remind myself that Port is a type of red wine and “red” starts with “r” and so does “right”. Then I remember that I am wrong because Port is the left side of the boat. “Port” has 4 letters and so does “left”. I can also remember by a self aggrandizing mnemonic device where as I am on board, I am a star, which means there is a star aboard and that is because I could not be “left” behind. The show could only go on if I was on board so, “starboard” must be “right”. Simple.
It is so easy to become disoriented in the Bermuda Triangle when you are on a ship that holds 5000 people. You lose track of time and the day of the week. In that way it is like any other rock and roll tour I guess. They embed a sign in the floor of each elevator that tells you what day of the week it is. The schedule on the ship runs on ship time to help keep everyone on track. Did you know that Bermuda is actually 1 hour ahead of the eastern time zone in the United States?
I am on this cruise with
. We are here as hosts for Fan Club Cruises with the Adam Ezra Group. They are a band from Boston that have been around for almost as long as my band The Nadas. We have been criss crossing across this country playing similar circuits and building similar communities of fans for 3 decades. My band has done a bakers dozen of these fan cruises over the years. We have gone everywhere from the Caribbean, Cuba, Alaska and most recently the Italian Riviera. This type of “Fan Club Cruise” is typically 5-7 days with a group of 50-150 people on a cruise ship that holds 2-6 thousand people. Our group has a series of pre arranged events, shows and activities in addition to what the rest of the cruise is offering. It is an amazing way to build community between an artist and fans. It’s like summer camp on the ocean.
We joined the Adam Ezra Group last year on their maiden “fan club cruise” voyage from Tampa to Cozumel and back. We had a great time and really hit it off with the band and their fans so they requested that we be their hosts on this trip this year from New Jersey to Bermuda and back (hopefully). We just wrapped up our second day in Bermuda and are heading back to New Jersey. Currently, we are sitting in the theater for a soundcheck for the morning acoustic performance.
As a fan you get a lot of band for your buck on a cruise like this. We usually do 3-4 shows as well as a meet and greet and a question and answer session which is a fan led storytelling event. Adam Ezra adds a few extra shows including pop up shows, fan jam sessions and a show in port. We have dinner as a group together every night. The fans have a group text and plan their own gatherings on and off the boat. They also have theme days with costumes. Yesterday was “dress like a pirate” day.
Some of the other artists offering Fan Club Cruises at the moment include:
, Dan Navarro, Ellis Paul, Shawn Mullins, Jackopierce and . We will be doing more with The Nadas and I am considering hosting one as a solo artist as well. Are any of my readers interested in joining me on a cruise? Send me a message or let me know in the comments.A little more about the Adam Ezra Group. Adam is a songwriter’s songwriter. He has more songs than I have hairs in my beard. He hasn’t played the same song twice on this cruise and so far there has been at least 8 hours of music. He still has another 2 hour (finale) show tonight and still will not repeat a show. He starts his day with a run on the track around the ship and invites his fans to join him. Some do. He ends his day with a pop up jam on deck outside on the top of the ship, and he invites fans to play songs too and some do. The Adam Ezra group consists of Adam on guitar and vocals, Corinna Smith (Fiddle), Poche Ponce (Bass), and Alex Martin (Percussion). The Adam Ezra Group has a hard earned dedicated fan base all over the country. From their website…
“One person at a time, over many years and thousands of shows, decided to turn their heads to listen. One person at a time decided to share our music with folks they care about. That’s always been our story. It’s no fairytale, but it sure makes me proud and humbled when I look out from the stage to watch theaters full of people singing along to our music.”
These days you’ll find Adam and his bandmates, Corinna Smith (Fiddle), Poche Ponce (Bass), and Alex Martin (Percussion), constantly out on the road. If you look at their tour schedule now, you can buy tickets to see them at festivals, rock venues, and theaters around the country, but you will also see their tour continuously peppered with activism and grassroots events; a testament to an artist who will never forget where he came from, and whose mission is about much more than music.”
A cruise is not my normal preferred form of travel. I am more of an immersive, backroads, off the beaten path type of traveler. A cruise IS the beaten path. I love international travel. I dig deep, I take the road less traveled. I like to talk to the locals. I like to eat where they eat, shop where they shop and learn what they appreciate about the place the choose to live their lives. A cruise really doesn’t allow for that. It is floating hotel that you get to leave for a few hours of scratching the surface of where ever you stop IF you can get far enough away from the port to see past the curated image the cruise ship companies and the local chamber of commerce want you to see.
If I let go of those expectations, and allow myself to be a tourist for a little while I can find magic in the experience. If I immerse myself in the music and the community of the band I can find that same kind of spirit of discovery and joy that comes from other types of travel. I don’t know that I would go on a cruise if it wasn’t a music cruise but I will certainly continue to go on fan club cruises as an artist or host or fan. I am grateful to be here, grateful to have these experiences, grateful to travel with my wife and best friend, grateful to make new friends and grateful to be a part of this musical community.
We have one more show tonight that will be the finale of this cruise. We will continue to cruise through the night and arrive in New Jersey in the wee hours of the morning. The seas are rough today, but I am pretty sure we will make it home and we will not become a statistic in the mysteries of the Bermuda Triangle. We aren’t lost. Our cell phones work and we have wi-fi. Can you ever be truly lost when you have Starlink Satellite internet? Sadly, I don’t think so.
To find more stories and insights across the state of Iowa, please consider following and supporting the many talented journalists and storytellers of the Iowa Writer’s Collaborative of which I’m a proud member.
Also, here is the Zoom link for this month’s Office Lounge for paid subscribers to the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative. It’s a lively conversation held on the last Friday of the month at noon and hosted by Robert Leonard.
I simply can't imagine being on a boat with 5,000 people.
I’ll do a cruise with you! Down the Des Moines River in a kayak 😻