Cruise Stories - The Entertainers
Jim Asbell was the "new" guy. He's out of Atlanta and really, really funny. Of all of the guys, he was the quickest with a joke and appeared to be having a ball. He ended up sitting in on almost every gig and dug every minute of it.
I didn't catch KD Moore until late in the week. He's got a laid back style with some really clever lyrics. He also tells some good stories and appeared to be having a blast.
Jim Morris and the Big Bamboo Band were the big act. They've gotten bunches of CDs out, play all over the East coast and are probably the biggest Trop-Rock act out there. I first caught them in Key West and have several of their CDs and can sing along (badly) to most of their songs. Jim has some of the best song lyrics out there. One of them is sort of my theme song. It's called So Bad Last Night and the chorus goes "I was so damn bad last night, I'll be good for the rest of my life..."
Finally, there was John Frinzi. (insert girlish sigh) John does all the music booking for Meeting of the Minds in Key West and I've seen him play lots of times. The first time was at Migration in Long Beach a few years ago. Pab and I had the hotel room directly across the courtyard from his. We spent most of our time trying to send psychic messages to get him to undress in front of his patio door. He never did, by the way. He's just so damn cute. And married so he's just fantasy fodder but oh, what fodder! John had bronchitis so he couldn't sing as much as he wanted to but the other guys were more than happy to play with him so he could try to preserve his voice.
Here are the guys (Jim Asbell, John, Jim Morris and KD) at the Songwriter's Showcase. That was really fun. They took turns for three hours telling stories about how and why they wrote a song then performing it. These are the events that I like the best since they give you a feeling that you actually know the performer and make their music so much more meaningful. The guys also spent a good chunk of time ribbing each other which was fun.
Our last night on board, the piano bar guy happily gave up his seat and let the guys take over. They had so much fun playing all of the piano bar standards and jamming. It was a blast!
I do the same thing on every cruise which is to make the last night my...let's say 'least sober' and that night was no exception. I must have taken 15 pictures and, somehow, John ended up in the center of most of them. Go figure.
