Mando madness at Mountain Song @ Sea

[Bigtuna]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhJ875ZoJs0

Found this earlier today. Maybe next year for me!

[Jonathan James]

Yeah, this is definitely on my radar for 2014!

[Tim]

I attended this one. Because it was technically a charter and not a normal NCL cruise, they wouldn't include any of their normal future marketing promotions. One the other hand, no one was on the boat who wasn't either NCL crew or event staff or there for the show.

The joke question from the stage about who was there for the entire festival was funny the first few times, by Sunday evening it was annoying.

Scheduling didn't meet my standards. Tim O'Brien was at the top of my list. I want to check out Mandolin Orange. They each had two scheduled sets and both times they overlapped. Granted they might have put MO opposite Grisman on an alternate schedule but it would have been a different choice.

Sound in the main venue and the smaller indoor one were both good. The first night on the deck in the wind it was difficult. Other deck events the sound was okay.

I didn't go to the beach or attend any of the panel discussions although while waiting to meet my wife I stepped into a room where there was a banjo building discussion and the next day the same room had a mandolin building discussion.

They had the Super Bowl available in a sports bar but not the Caps-Pens hockey game.

I don't drink beer but there was free beer on the pool deck the first night - one specific brand that I can't remember. In the duty free shop I got a liter of 12 year old Jameson for $30.

My mother-in-law was in the hospital so we wanted to be in touch. 60 minutes of slow Internet cost $25. That was enough for us to do quick email checks twice a day.

[mandolino maximus]

Thanks for posting that vid. Like all festivals, you can't see everything and I was busy with the very-well-worth-it-but-no-mando Krueger Brothers which was new for me and another highlight. Many, many great mando moments on this cruise including some Thile Bach and many very fine lesser-known players . There are some pluses to the boat-based festival - comfort, showers, more intimate venues with the ability to avoid too loud crowds even for main stage performers, everything in proximity. Good mix of people too - young, old, 44 states and 4 countries. Good bluegrass clarinet joining the jam. Some sun, sand, water and fewer passed-out people on the lawn to trip over too. And I don't even like cruises.