Patty Griffin at Cayamo

Today’s stop is Grand Cayman and we are all going out to feed the fishes. Okay, not all of us. Actually, I was the only one with enough nerve to feed the stingrays. You know, the fish that killed the alligator guy. But these guys were so cute and cuddly. It was like touching wet mushrooms. They would just swim up to you and rub against you. Just don’t step on one or you’re gonna be in a world of pain. We all got in the water, some longer than others, and just had a blast. Speaking of water, the pictures will come later, but it was a beautiful emerald green and crystal clear. After feeding the stingrays, we went over to a coral reef and did some snorkeling. It was all pretty amazing with the fish swimming by and the coral all around. What a special day it was. And it needed to be, because it is going to take a lot to beat Patty Griffin on a boat. That’s up next.

We had dinner with the members of the Mad Mission discussion group. It was fun putting faces and voices to names. Each of us in the group has a very different view of music, which was so interesting. But what we did have in common was that we were all there to see Patty.

Patty has been fighting a cold/flu for the last week, and although she has recovered and her voice was fine, the energy just wasn’t there. But hey, it’s Patty and that means, energy or not, it is always a special show. The set was also a bit short; maybe running an hour and 10 minutes. Patty, as always, was fabulous. Like most of the performers on the ship, she played with a scaled down band with just percussion and guitar (and the occasional Buddy Miller on whatever). Emmylou and Shawn showed up for some background harmonies. One of my favorite moments was a reworked version of Tony. Apparently she wanted to take it back to the original version before it got rearranged on Flaming Red. I waited too long to write this though and the songs have started to blur into all of the other music. But there will be several songs on Youtube soon (and not just from me I’m guessing. I saw a few other people videoing the shows). Patty wasn’t the highlight of the week for me, but I loved the show. We had a shore excursion the next day at 8am, so we all called it a night and prepared for Jamaica.