Sunday, November 5th - Sea Day

I survived the first week! Now I’m starting to get into a groove with the boys, and I’m learning more than I ever could have imagined about musicianship. It’s a very different feeling – not at all like musical theatre, which is so prescribed, and especially some of the places that I’ve worked at where every last detail is so structured that you fear for your job if you don’t turn your head on the right word or get off your number one too many times.

Singing pop songs with this band is a little more off the cuff, something I’ve only barely tasted with the few jazz songs I know. I can arrive to a set with a pocket full of songs, never knowing which ones will be called for until we’ve learned the crowd a little bit, and what kind of mood they’re in, or – in the case of this cruise line – what AGE they are and how much they’ll be able to dance, or what volume they’ll be able to stand before they’re all covering their ears. Ha ha.

Today I actually worked! 4 sets and an hour of rehearsal – hooray! It was a day at sea, and a rocky one at that! (The captain says we are sailing through the Gulf Stream against crosswinds, but that all should be smooth sailing again once we round about the end of Cuba and head back east towards the Cayman Islands.) But with no ports at all today, the band and I were booked all over the place to keep it hopping. At 11:30 we did a 90-minute double-set on the Lido deck by the pool. Unfortunately, with the overcast skies they had the deck roof closed and it was like a sauna inside! Blech! But I sang six or seven songs, so it was a pleasant afternoon for me.

Next was the Captain’s Cocktails’ sets at 5 pm and 7 pm. This is my kind of music – slow dancing jazz ballads like Blue Moon, It Had to Be You, and Moon River. Unfortunately, since the ship has been rocking hard all day, not many people got up to dance. However – funny story! It’s the third song of the set, and the first song with me, so I’ve just made my grand entrance onto the stage. Everyone in the room (about 500) are looking right at me – a vision in a long blue ballgown, with a white rose in my hair, doing my best to channel a 40s songstress. I’m singing “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head” for the first time. About two lines into the song, the ship hit one really big hard wave and sea legs or not, I tripped a step – me and simultaneously the other four guys in the band who are standing! The entire audience GASPED, as everyone had felt the jolt and they’re all looking at us losing our balance! But praise the Lord, and bless these guys – none of us missed a beat or a lyric, and the audience was quickly relaxed again.

The rest of those two sets went fine. Then we had a 90-minute double-set up in the Crow’s Nest at 9:30. When we got there to take over from the pianist, there was no one in the entire room except two or three seniors in the very back, and the three very bored-looking waiters. Wow! That’s a tough crowd! So I decided to make the most of it. Now that I’ve got about 15 songs that I’ve performed at least once, this was a good opportunity to just cut loose and make choices, and if they turn out to be mistakes, well, at least no one was around to hear them. It was great! It was like a good solid 90-minute rehearsal, which went mostly well! I just took all the lyric sheets I have and set ‘em up in alphabetical order on the music stand. We were all just flying by night – throwing out whatever song came next. I sang a total of eight songs, including a new one, “Rock Around the Clock.” Finally, as we were wrapping up for the night to turn it over to the dj, a crowd was beginning to form. But it was really nice to have the chance to rehearse WITH the boys, WITH a mic, in a performance SPACE. It was the best kind of education.

Now as I sit here, we’re only about six hours away from the Cayman Islands, but the ship is still knocking about quite loudly. Oh well… it’s been a long day, and I am looking forward to only one set tomorrow. Pray for good weather in Grand Cayman – or this will be the third new country I’ve been to with bad weather!!