Click to see a gallery of photos from various music cruises, including Cayamo and Kid Rock's Chillin' the Most cruise (this image of Kid on his cruise in 2010: Will Byington).
On Friday, Jan. 21, Taylor Swift will take the stage for another sold-out concert, this time in Mexico. As usual, her fans will be screaming, and Swift will almost definitely treat them to hits such as “Love Story” and “Back to December.” But this time, after the show, fans won’t have to worry about traffic headaches, though some might find themselves a little seasick. After all, they’ll be on water.
The show, aboard Royal Caribbean’s new Allure of the Seas, will take place while it’s docked in the city of Cozumel. Many other cruise concerts, however, are nonstop, multi-day celebrations for all passengers.
Whether it’s just playing on a docked ship, or performing — and then vacationing — among fans who are out to sea, Swift and a long list of other musicians are taking to music-themed cruises, a growing wave in travel and entertainment choices that features artists emphatically rocking the boat. Acts who have played these venues over the years include John Mayer, Zac Brown Band and Lynyrd Skynyrd.
And Nashville is playing a leading role. At the helm of many of these cruises is Sixthman, an Atlanta-based music cruise company founded by Nashville native Andy Levine. The company first sailed into uncharted territory with a rock-themed cruise in 2001, and it wrapped up the decade with 27 cruises, 10 in the past year alone. Throughout that time, the cruises have been packed with big Nashville names, including Kid Rock, Patty Griffin and Buddy Miller, as well as a handful of rising independent local artists. The cruise Cayamo, like most of Sixthman’s excursions, will take its passengers from south Florida through scenic spots of the Caribbean.
“We’re trying to be the best in the world at bringing like-minded people together on vacation,” Levine says.
New audiences, new experiences
These trips are attracting new audiences to cruises and giving musicians a cushy alternative to the grind of the road while they make new fans, all in a scenic setting that’s alluring to all. Some cruise lines, like Royal Caribbean with Swift’s show, bring in superstars for one-off concerts (pop singer Rihanna in 2009, for example), require a surcharge and aren’t available to everyone on board. But on many of them, the stars are passengers too, and the shows are part of the ride.
And unlike most music festivals, fans will have the chance to see some of their favorite performers on stage more than once: Most acts perform multiple sets during a trip.
Also unlike some catchall music festivals, music cruises tend to cater to specific crowds. Middle Tennessee-based Christian music star Michael W. Smith has helmed his own faith-based cruises to Alaska in 2007 and 2010.
Kid Rock’s “Chillin the Most” cruise — returning in April for its second consecutive year — features rap-rock fare, while VH1’s Best Cruise Ever features soft-rock names like Nashville’s Mat Kearney and Safetysuit when it sets sail in April.
“We always joke with the audience,” Levine says. “I say, ‘You know, if we all lived in the same town, these are the people you’d be friends with.”
But with Cayamo, Sixthman’s Americana/rock cruise, many of the performers do hail from a single town.
Next month, the fourth annual (sold-out) cruise will set sail with Miller, Griffin, John Prine and others. But the cruise will also feature emerging artists like local folk/soul duo Sam & Ruby, who’ll be taking the ship’s stage for the first time.
“It’s going to be a great way to capture new fans,” says Ruby Amanfu, “but also to capture fans that happen to be musicians also. That’s what we’re totally excited about.”
On-board camaraderie
Nashville roots-rocker Will Hoge, also on the Cayamo bill, just finished performing on his third Rock Boat cruise with Sister Hazel and NEEDTOBREATHE, among others. The camaraderie on board, Hoge says, is a big part of the draw for artists.
“You’re on the road all the time and you’ve got all your other friends in bands that you never really get to hang out with. You pass them in truck stops,” he says. “It’s great to be on the boat with these other musicians that you’ve known for years.”
Cruise-goer Karla Linden of New Mexico says fans feel closer to the artists they see as well.
“To be able to sit around with 50, 60 people and hear Chuck Cannon and Shawn Mullins talk about songwriting and their guitars was magical,” she says.
Linden had her first music cruise experience with Cayamo last year. This year, she’s returning with two of her friends.
“I didn’t even get off on the second port in 2010 because I wanted to rest, and I knew there was going to be music going on all night long. The biggest dilemma is that you want to be two places at once. There’s so much happening.”
The party never stopped for Nashville rockers American Bang when they joined Lynyrd Skynyrd on their Simple Man Cruise in 2008, says drummer Neil Mason.
“Once you’ve played the show, there’s no getting away from the fans. Everywhere you turn, even in the cabins, you’re staying next to someone who says, ‘Oh man, you’re in that band.’ ”
Making new friends
The normal boundaries between bands and fans are likely to vanish on next month’s Bruise Cruise, a four-day punk and indie-rock jaunt that sails from Miami to the Bahamas. It’s helmed by Nashvillian Jonas Stein, who isn’t just an organizer of the Bruise Cruise but also a performer with his band, Turbo Fruits, and a serious fan of many of the bands joining him on board, including Atlanta’s Black Lips and New York City’s Vivian Girls.
Stein got the idea for the Bruise Cruise after sailing on Vince Neil’s Motley Cruise in 2008, back when his father, manager Burt Stein, was representing Neil.
“I had a blast on the cruise,” Jonas Stein says, “not necessarily because of that specific music event, but because I’d never been on a cruise before and it totally exceeded my expectations.”
As Stein points out, the bands on Bruise Cruise — or any band orbiting the garage-punk scene — have never been part of a cruise before. That’s led to considerable notice from indie-rock tastemasters such as Pitchfork.com, but the cruise’s cost — $500/$550 plus $115 in fees, plus potential airfare to Miami — hasn’t been entirely congruous with the finances of some of the bands’ younger fans.
“We noticed as soon as we sent out the e-mails for pre-sales, most of the people that were able to just buy a ticket then and there had established careers and were in their early 30s,” Stein says. “But there have also been a bunch of other kids around the college age. A lot of these bands draw the younger crowd, so a lot of (their fans) have been saving up and trying to make ends meet to go on this thing.”
One such fan is Annessa Hartey of California, who bought herself a ticket to the Bruise Cruise for “a good getaway.”
“Really, I’m a festivalgoer. I saw this online and I thought, ‘Ooh, music festival. Oh my god, it’s a cruise?’ I couldn’t help myself.”
The Bruise Cruise is starting small on its maiden voyage. Organizers reserved 200 cabins and some private rooms for shows on a Carnival ship — which means that Stein’s punk rock crowd will occasionally rub elbows with the usual cruisegoers.
“I foresee everyone running the ship together, partying together and having a good time,” he says.
Adding it up
Even for travelers who are out of college, the cost of music cruises can remain an issue for first timers, Levine says. Before selling out, per-person prices for Cayamo ranged from $849 to $5,999, plus $225 for taxes and fees.
“People say, ‘Well, that cruise, I can go on (the same route) for $499. Why are you charging $799?’ ” he says. “I always say, ‘Well, go on that cruise, if you want to see Vegas shows and be with a bunch of old people.’ You have to understand that we have to pay the bands, and for all of the production. We have to put the bands up for free. And when you put the bands and the staff and crew up, you take up about 15 percent of the cabins that you can sell.”
Levine says the price makes more sense to customers who aren’t comparing the cruise to a music festival, where rooms and food aren’t included.
“We’re in the vacation budget.”
The cruise ends up being a bargain for performers such as Hoge, who’s steadily toured the club circuit for more than a decade.
“Where we would have to go and play 70 shows in however many cities to reach all these people, we can go on a cruise ship to Mexico and reach all of them in beautiful climates with great production, and not having to play a crappy bar,” he says. “It’s a perfect-case scenario.”
According to Levine, once an artist plays a music cruise, the memory stays with fans.
“(Musicians) say no matter where they go, there’s always people in every audience going, ‘Hey! Cayamo! Cayamo!’ ”
Karla Linden, for example, not only followed perennial Cayamo performer Brandi Carlile for numerous performances on the boat, but has gone to see her on dry land in Florida and Oregon. She’s no less excited about seeing Carlile again at sea next month.
“I’ll tell people I’m going on a cruise in February,” she says. “And they’ll say, ‘Oh, where’s it going to?’ and I’ll say, ‘It doesn’t matter!’ ”
Reach Dave Paulson at dnpaulson@tennessean.com or 615-664-2278.
IF YOU GO
- For more information on Sixthman cruises (Cayamo, Chillin’ the Most, Rock Boat, Best Cruise Ever), go to www.sixthman.net. For Bruise Cruise, go to www.bruisecruisefestival.com. Some upcoming cruises have sold out, so check sites for availability. Other music cruises on the horizon include:
Boyz II Men Cruise
February 11-14; www.boyziimencruise.com
New Kids On the Block Cruise
May 12-16; www.nkotbcruise.com
The Music Boat hosted by Newsboys
November 7-11; www.musicboatonline.com