It’s hard to believe it’s been a month since my much needed vacation on Outlaw Cruise West, Nov. 3-7.
“ I’m going to take you back to your childhood, and mine,” chuckled Stray Cats drummer Slim Jim Phantom on the last night of the cruise as he lead his trio plus Social Distortion guitarist Josh into rousing renditions of Stray Cats ’80s hits “Stray Cat Strut,” and “Rock this Town, which Slim Jim introduced by saying “Let‘s rock this boat.”
That pretty much summed up the first Outlaw Cruise West, which left Los Angeles. Nov. 2 , stopped by Cabo San Lucas and Ensenada and back in time to catch a plane to Great Falls in time for the last of the snowstorm I missed while away.
The annual Outlaw Cruise is my annual treat to myself, to spend five or six days as part of a floating music festival, mostly featuring acts who rarely or seldom make it up to Alberta. I wouldn’t cruise any other way. I spent a lot of time communing with a cadre of transplanted Canadians also on the cruise, and it got pretty drunk out. So while my memory is a little hazy, I remember having a really good time.
It was to be expected, but I missed a lot of great shows while I was away including Barney Bentall’s Cariboo Express returning to the Geomatic Attic at Southminster United Church and Bryan Adams, and jumped right into a busy November, almost immediately after returning home.
It was fun to just escape from the world for five days, running all over the Norwegian Jewel trying to catch as many shows, live interviews, autograph sessions on six different stages and even a little bit of sunshine. The cruise’s sponsor, Outlaw Country on Sirius XM is just starting to play some of the interviews and live sessions during Steve Earle and Elizabeth Cook’s shows.
This time Outlaw Country on Sirius XM, which sponsors the Outlaw Cruise, decided to branch out and have a west coast cruise, featuring headliners Los Lobos and some of California’s more popular alt country, cow-punk and country acts, with of course, the usual cast of Outlaw Country characters like Mojo Nixon and Elizabeth Cook and Steve Earle and usual performers like Lucinda Williams.
I loved the idea of having a cruise “closer” to me as the Outlaw Cruise usually leaves from Florida and I could not pass up a chance to see punk legends Social Distortion again. I haven’t seen them since they played one of the greatest shows I’ve ever seen at MacEwan Hall at the University of Calgary back in 1990 something. Plus three of four original members of L.A’s punk icons X.
I also couldn’t pass up the chance to take part in Steve Earle’s Club Copperwood, an abbreviated version of the course he teaches in New York. A small group of us got to spend a couple hours talking about songs as literature and songwriting in general with Steve Earle. He mostly talked about himself and his love for Bob Dylan, but offered some different ideas. He assigned us homework of writing a haiku to get us thinking in syllables and rhythm (five syllables, seven syllables, five syllables and reflecting a season without naming it), which he promised to critique in the next session. He also offered up an interesting tip of putting a capo on the second fret of the guitar, and all strings except the low E, noting that forms an A chord. He also noted a lot of his melodies come from just finger-picking. he even critiqued a couple of the participants’ songs— those with the foresight to bring a computer with a recording of their song on it.
Los Lobos opened the cruise on the pool deck and closed it in the Stardust Theatre on the last night.
All of the acts I wanted to see played the first of several shows throughout the trip, on the first night. Dave Alvin stole the show from an impressive lineup. Alvin, who came to prominence in the early ’80s with original cow punk roots rocker the Blasters, lead his band through a few Blasters songs, solo tracks and classic country delivered with his soothing baritone while tearing out scorching, swampy blues fuelled solos.