Cruisers Jam Session - Trinidad

Tom on the bongos

Every Monday night at Coral Cove (our marina) the grill is lite (that is barbie for you Auzzies) and cruisers from all over the area show up with whatever they want to grill.  They also arrive with any and all musical instruments and an open jam session takes shape.  Every week is unique as different people show up with different instruments.  Those without instruments can sing along or simply sit back and enjoy.  S/v Cape has a very musical crew and come prepared with not only instruments but songs and song notebooks which is very helpful.  Last week there was an acoustic guitar, two electric guitars (with amp/speaker combos), banjo, harmonic, maracas, flute, and a recorder.  Tom took his bongos and finger shaker last week.  This was a welcome addition as I don think they often get a drummer or percussion.  I dashed back to the boat for our viberslap.  It was a huge hit as most had never seen one.  What?  You aren't familiar with the viberslap either?  Well ok.  Let's take a minute to introduce you to it.

Viberslap - 

Check out the Wikipedia Viperslap if you want the details.  Listen to ANY Cake song and you will hear plenty of viberslap.  There are some famous viberslap songs - "Sweet Emotion" by Aeorsmith, Ozzie Osborn "Crazy Train", and at 2:33 mins into Elton John's song Captain Fantastic there is a clear, solid viberslap that was my first ever!  Best of all, the sound of the viberslap just makes you smile.  Check it out here Viberslap sound for a sample, although it's not the best sample.  You are better off checking out the above songs for a sample.

John off m/v Banjo and Sarah and Bethany off s/v Cape

Anyway, the weekly jam is a chance to relax after a day of boat projects, interactive with fellow cruisers and learn.  An example of learning -John off s/v Rhumbus and Bren off s/v Cape played a Rodriguez song last week.  That is world famous American singer song writer Rodriguez from the late 1960's that no American has ever hear of.  See documentary  "Finding the Sugarman" if you are interested.  All types of music is shared at these jam sessions.  Sea shanties, folk songs, oldies, current tunes and even newly released songs as the crew of s/v Cape shared their version of "Radioactive" by Imagine Dragons.

It's all good fun.

Bren off s/v Cape on electric guitar, Tom on bongos and Sean on acoustic guitar