Viva la Musica

Yesterday was quite a day for music! Tuesdays are not usually great for us Troubadours because the passengers are pensioners. Which is the equivalent of our senior citizens or retired peoples back home. They are very nice people it’s just that they are there just to be getting out of the house and go on an overnight that is fairly inexpensive and they generally don’t want to hear songs like Hotel California or California Dreaming. They want to hear Finnish Songs that James and I have never heard of. So back to yesterday; the pub was empty so we thought that we would have a practice session on stage. A couple sat down that we’re probably in their late fifties and asked us to play Irish drinking songs and James being the Irishman that he could be said sure…so play we did.
Well they loved it and they drank a bit too. The wife decided to tip us 10 Euro, which is about 13$ US, after Jpat pointed out that our sick mothers at home needed money for their operations. This has been a running gag that has landed us a good deal of loot. Sorry Mom, you may get some get well soon cards from some compassionate Finns.
In the evening sets, that start at 11pm, we showed up and there was a whole group of English university students that were on tour with their chamber choir. They had some requests that ended up to be kinda lame, we were hope for a rough time in trying to please them after all they are choir singers. But alas the choir kids in Britain are just as much dorks as the ones in the US. Just kidding. When I talked to them at set break I found out that a lot of the material they sing is stuff we used to sing at Koinonia. So I had fun showing off some singing skills that they thought were funny. All in all the evening sets left a bit to be desired, with the requests that were coming in and the songs we played between it was a little flat. The real joy of the evening was just about to begin in the Fun Club. Celebration the (Bulgarian band) decided that it would be jam session night and so they brought up on stage some of the other entertainment staff myself being included in that. First up was Cecilia, and she sang some dance tune I don’t know the name of but she killed it. It was good hearing a real English-speaking singer after listening to Danielle the normal female vocal in the band whose pronunciation of words is quite comical sometimes. Then it was Marks turn, he sang purple rain like he owned the stage and had written it himself, dance moves and all. Then I got up and sang and played guitar to I shot the Sheriff what a blast to play with trumpet and saxophone and lights and staging and great musicians. I think it’s even on video. I will try and get ahold of that and post it up on you-tube. Then this afternoon between sets we walked down to the fun club from the pub and Jpat got on stage with the band and sang Mustang Sally.
The weather here is unseasonably warm, I only have to wear a sweatshirt when I go out of doors. They say that it is a good 10 degrees warmer than it usually is for this time of year, I am sure glad I didn’t buy more cold weather clothing as it is totally unnecessary. Hoping that some deep-pocketed music lovers jump onboard tonight in Stockholm as today was not that great for tips. I am hoping to have a chunk of change to use for travel at the end of our work. Turns out that the tickets home are actually for Thursday not Friday so I have one less day. But that’s ok I am hoping if all goes well to be back onboard one of these ferries as soon as I can be. It suits me very well. I have lots of time to read, there is a gym that I started using yesterday, I don’t have to buy food and as long as I am on a boat that stays in port for longer than 5 hours a day I could do this for a stretch of time. My thinking is that it is a great way to save money for college and pay off my debt. Wooohooo. How are things back home. I haven’t any clue what is going on in the world and I love it. But I would love to hear from all of you out there in cyberspace. Drop me a line sometime?
Right now the boat is doing what I call the big turn. When we get into port and the ship is docking it spins around to then face the open water so that we can just shove off and sail on. Tonight I might try out the new infared sauna onboard they say it will make you feel amazing. Although the Finns love to be naked I haven’t quite figured out the rules of the sauna yet. Although I do know it is very common to go naked in the sauna with your whole family.
Hope to hear from you!!