I'm not sure which would make me throw up first...

Cruises for Music Lovers Jam Their Way Across the Seas

June 17, 2004
By CHRIS NELSON

Les Claypool, the bass-guitar player and leader of the
oddball psychedelic band Primus, has a taste for the
strange. He has, after all, written a song called "Pork
Soda" and has named another of his groups Colonel
Claypool's Bucket of Bernie Brains.

So it comes as little surprise that he got a charge from
the surreal vision he witnessed this last January onboard
for Jam Cruise 2, a four-night sea outing for fans of
improvisational rock bands.

"Here we are playing at 4 in the morning, we're doing this
demented, twisted version of "Another Brick in the Wall,'
he said." You know, people are tripping and having a good
old time and we're cruising past Cuba."

The experience proved so enjoyable for Mr. Claypool that he
has signed up for Jam Cruise 3 next January. So did nearly
500 fans who registered to pay between $550 and $1,125 for
next year's trip even before the musical lineup was
announced. The cruise, which was organized by Cloud 9
Adventures in Boca Raton, Fla., is scheduled with multiple
sets from jam band favorites like Galactic, Jon Fishman of
Phish, North Mississippi Allstars, Ozomatli and DJ Logic.

The jam bands, however, do not have the seas to themselves.
Also next January, the honky-tonk singer-songwriter Delbert
McClinton is staging his 11th - and largest - Delbert
McClinton & Friends Cruise, with the singer John Hiatt and
others. The same month, the Legendary Rhythm & Blues Cruise
sets sail with Taj Mahal, Dr. John, Susan Tedeschi and the
Derek Trucks Band. It sold out a year in advance.

Although the concert industry does not track sales from
music-related cruises, their number appears to be
increasing, said Ray Waddell, who reports on the tour
business for Billboard. The cruise business has plenty of
room to grow with jam bands, said Roger Naber, one of the
producers of Jam Cruise and a longtime producer of the
Legendary Rhythm & Blues Cruise. "It's a new concept for
this genre of music. They've only thought of cruises being
for newlyweds or nearly deads. It is changing." These
cruises, organizers said, are drawing customers who are
slightly older than the usual rock festival crowds, who may
be burnt out on the dirt, junk food and porta potties that
come with most rock festivals.

"Now that I'm getting a little bit older, I'm not all about
fighting the crowds, camping out in some big muddy field
and stuff like that," said Marc Smith, 33, of
Charlottesville, Va., who went on last January's Jam Cruise
to Nassau. "With the Jam Cruise, you get your own cabin, a
clean bathroom, food to eat, showers. All that stuff's
important to me."

Music-theme cruises - primarily jazz and big band - have
been popular for at least 20 years, said Gary Bongiovanni,
the editor of the concert trade publication Pollstar. Not
surprisingly, the music on those trips was geared toward a
slightly older crowd, since older customers had more money
to afford cruises. Today any number of travel agencies
promote theme trips like oldies cruises, country cruises,
even banjo cruises.

But charter music trips like the Jam Cruise differ from the
more traditional theme cruises because they trade elements
like black-tie dinners and bingo for a music schedule that
can run around the clock.

This new circle of cruisegoers wants to sail with musicians
who are willing to toss out standard set lists and jam as
the muse calls them, often playing in spontaneous groups.
While the audiences for these outings are not teenagers,
they are not the A.A.R.P. crowd, either. Jam Cruisers, as
participants call themselves, average between 25 and 35,
and several music cruises attract crowds in their 30's and
40's, organizers said.

Tickets for Delbert McClinton's seven-night cruise cost
$995 to $4,300 a person; the rhythm and blues cruise ranges
from $1,250 to $2,500.

"The idea is definitely appealing to a younger generation,"
said Todd Wickersty, 33, of also of Charlottesville, a town
known for its fondness of jam bands, who went in March for
a weeklong cruise on which the jam band called moe played
six nights. "I can't say that I would have enjoyed the
nightime entertainment on the ship as much if moe hadn't
have been there."

Beyond the enticement of shows and sun, the cruises also
offer fans the chance to spend time hanging out with the
musicians onboard. "The artists are accessible and
available, and eat dinner with you and go snorkeling with
you on the shore excursions," said Dale McGinnis, 34, of
Melbourne, Fla., who was on the first of the two Jam
Cruises last January and is planning to be there next year
as well. "We're all on the same boat, literally and
figuratively," he said.

For many younger cruisers, the highlights are hidden in
unannounced or unanticipated music combos. Mr. McGinnis
recalled one spontaneous jazz jam in an unused bar on a Jam
Cruise that featured the bassist Rob Wasserman (who has
played with the likes of Lou Reed and Elvis Costello),
members of the Dirty Dozen Brass Band and Galactic, plus a
fan onboard who just happened to play.

This kind of improvisational group falls together easily
among blues, jazz and jam musicians. Whether the cruise
environment will translate so easily to other smaller
musical niches is unclear. But Josh Moore, the Jam Cruise
band booker, said he would like to assemble alternative
country and neo-soul cruises as well.

"I would imagine it would work with any situation," Mr.
Claypool said, even for a heavy metal marathon like
Ozzfest. "I'm not sure I'd want to be on it," he add. "But
you could do it."

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/17/arts/music/17CRUI.html?ex=1088436118&ei=1&en=d2d60eb381edd8b7