Cruising with Something Corporate, Jack's Mannequin, and Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness

Friday, October 11 - We checked out the surprise soft opening of the long-anticipated East Nashville Beer Works - Wilson County tonight along with a large group of friends.  It was great! Lines were long as expected, and the parking was an adventure as even the unpaved overflow lots were jammed.  But the pizza was solid, and the beer was cold and tasty.  What a great addition to our area!!  

October 30 - Damn right, we did!! And early too.   Up yours, Rump!!! 

Thursday, October 31 - We TREATED ourselves this Halloween to some new sofas in the living room as well as a repainting of same said living room and the adjoining dining room.  

Saturday, November 2 - We attended our local Bark in the Park event at the Wilson County Fairgrounds today to help support New Leash on Life Pet Rescue.   Sunny enjoyed herself with a lot of butt-sniffing hellos given and taken.  Our friend, Tarryn, who was in from Indiana joined us as well at this fun time in some beautiful fall weather. 

Tuesday, November 5 - Election Day was a huge disappointment unfortunately.  Gonna be a long four years with Adolf Shitler embarrassing us left and right again.  Hopefully that's all he does...

Friday, November 8 - We flew to Miami today to prepare for our first Sixthman music cruise in a good while. The quickly SOLD-OUT Andrew McMahon's Holiday from Real Cruise starts tomorrow!! This unique line-up headlines with Andrew each day with his three bands throughout his career:  Something Corporate, Jack's Mannequin and Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness.  Pretty neat concept.  Supporting acts were not very well known to us except for Augustana, who has been probably our favorite band throughout the last twenty years to see live, so we were very excited about this one and we feel lucky that we went ahead and put a deposit down about a year ago to secure our space on this pricey, but exciting, opportunity.   

We stayed overnight at the Hilton Garden Inn near the airport and close to the port as well.  Our room had a nice pool view.  We didn't use the pool, but the view was lovely considering ours is all covered up for winter currently.  We had a surprisingly good dinner in the hotel lobby tonight as well. 

Saturday, November 9 - Holiday from Real Cruise - Day 1 - Our first day on board was great!  Andrew and his Jack's Mannequin band (which is the music where we first discovered him) had a great sail-off show on the pool deck.  But the highlight of the day/night was getting to FINALLY meet Dan Layus, the heart and soul of Augustana, after their great set on The Atrium Stage.  This dude has no idea how long we have stalked him!!!  What is really fascinating about Dan is that despite being a dynamic singer and musician (guitar, piano, harmonica) on stage, the guy is PAINFULLY shy, so getting this selfie and a handshake really means a lot to us.  Thanks, Dan, we really love you!!! 

Sunday, November 10 - Holiday from Real Cruise - Day 2 - The seas were too choppy today to stop at Great Stirrup Cay in the Bahamas since you have to tender to the island from the ship.  No biggie, we've been there before.  So instead, we started to explore some of the other performers on the ship that we didn't know much (or anything) about.  First up was Zac Clark who we've actually seen before open for Augustana in Nashville.  He's also got a great duet with Andrew McMahon.  His one-man crooning set back in The Atrium was pretty darn good. Next it was Nashville's own alt-country (he calls it "dirt emo") artist, Ruston Kelly (photo above).  Witty, deep and talented - we really enjoyed Ruston's intimate set in the yet very large Stardust Theater venue. 

Next up was Augustana again in the same Stardust Theater (photo above).  They were loud and rocked the place to its core.  What a great show!!  
We stopped out on the Pool Deck next to catch some of the poppy and energetic tunes from Misterwives.  They reminded us a little of Fitz and the Tantrums, but lead singer, Mandy Lee, is a force of nature all on her own and their announcement of going on a hiatus as a band after the cruise had us wondering if a solo career is coming her way now.  We shall see.   Capping off the night was Mr. McMahon again out on the Pool Deck stage with his Something Corporate hat on...well, actually they were pajamas.  Yep, the theme tonight was pajamas night, so he did the entire show in a pair of silk PJs.  Classy, Andy, classy!! 

Monday, November 11 - Holiday from Real Cruise - Day 3 - We finally got to get off the ship today as we docked in Nassau, Bahamas, for the day.  It was a bit windy and partly cloudy for any beach activities, so we kind of slept in and then took a walk into town this afternoon.  We've actually been on this ship, the Norwegian Gem, before for two other back-to-back Sixthman Cruises (Michael Franti's Soulshine Cruise and The Rock Boat) back in 2022.  We also recently learned that Norwegian has actually bought Sixthman and will be the exclusive cruise line for their popular music-themed cruises going forward.  

Once off the ship, we took a rather long walk out of the touristy port area of Nassau to Rip Ty'd Craft Brewery which is a very nice place.   The female-owned and brewed establishment had some great craft beer that we enjoyed in their roomy tasting room while playing some spirited two-handed UNO. 

Back on the ship tonight we enjoyed an intimate Q and A session with Andrew going behind some of his songs as well as some cool impromptu song covers including the Guns and Roses classic, "November Rain."  Later, after checking out a few more tunes from Misterwives again, we queued up early on the Pool Deck to get a good view of Andrew's third night as the headliner with his current band, Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness.  Another stellar show!! 

Tuesday, November 12 - Holiday from Real Cruise - Day 4 - Our last full day was at sea, so we checked out some of the bands we had missed up until now.  We thought Wildermiss was, well, a miss.  Cartel was pretty good as was Jukebox the Ghost, but nothing life changing.   Andrew was the winner again with a final show out on the pool deck doing covers and oldies of his own along with several other performers from the cruise.  Even Dan from Augustana helped out with "Message in the Bottle" by The Police.  Andrew's second ride in the inflatable duck came closer to us this time and i got this great screen grab above from a video I shot.  

but only for one more night...

Andrew wins the cruise swag game for sure!!  These beautiful, signed posters were waiting for us in our stateroom tonight.  Each night of the cruise, we got special swag including very nice pins and sharp luggage tags as well.  

Wednesday, November 13 - Our disembarkation and flight home from Miami were easy and smooth. Ruston Kelly was even on our flight back to Music City and we got a chance to say hello to him when we landed and to express how much we enjoyed his set that we saw.  Very nice and humble fellow.  Another great cruise wrapped in a musical bow.  Let's start looking for the next one!!