Dear Musicians, Tim Redman, bandleader of his band “Retrospect” has put together a library of backing tracks for songs that him and his band have been performing on cruise ships for a number of years. Tim is offering to sell these backing tracks to those that are interested in adding relevant songs to their repertoire. [...]
Dear Musicians, In this 21st episode of our podcast “Music on cruise ships” I’ll discuss the details of a cover bands’ job with bandleader Tim Redman. You’ll get insider tips on repertoire, equipment, life on a ship and much more. Feel free to contact us with questions via email at info@oceanbound.ca or via phone at [...]
Dear Musicians, This is one of the funkiest songs I know. Get ready to shake it. (Yes another song for Steve Gadd to shine). Artist: Al Jarreau Album: Roof Garden Song: Roof Garden [Audio clip: view full post to listen]
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Dear musicians, Sax players face a couple of unique challenges on cruise ships such as having to double on flute and clarinet, packing their instruments so that they make it to the ship safely and more. Rob Pratt, a friend, client and saxophone player was nice enough to record a conversation with me about these [...]
Dear Musicians, In the coming weeks I’ll be posting interviews with some of our clients and friends that work on cruise ships. This way you’ll get some first hand accounts on what these gigs are all about. Today, I’ll talk to George Adams, a guitar/vocalist who has recently added cruise ship gigs to his successful [...]
Dear Musicians, We get many demos from artists that have a bit of a false sense of entitlement when it comes to cruise ship jobs. Often, this entitlement comes from the fact that these entertainers have already worked on ships before and thus think that what was good enough once will always be good enough. [...]
Dear Musicians, Memorizing repertoire is an important part of your performance and can be the deciding factor for cruise lines to, or not to, hire you. This affects literally all lounge entertainers, whether you’re a classical ensemble, cover band, cocktail pianist, piano vocalist, guitar vocalist etc. Now, for some of the above-mentioned entertainers this has [...]
Dear Musicians, You’ll love this one, I know it… A friend passed this along. Funny. You can learn more about the artist on his site. Artist: David Tull Album: I just want to get paid Song: The minutes pass like hours when you sing [Audio clip: view full post to listen]
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Dear Musicians, In episode 15 of our podcast “Music on Cruise Ships” we’ll talk about the audition for bass players looking to be a part of the orchestras on ships. Episode 11 – General remarks about auditions Episode 12 – Solo Entertainers and Bands Episode 13 – Piano (orchestra auditions) Episode 14 – Guitar (orchestra [...]
Dear musicians, If you’ve been considering a gig on cruise ships for your cover band and you want to have a leg up on your competition, you may want to get ready for Rock-a-roakie. Rock-a-roakie is the fun-for-passengers-but-not-so-fun-for-musicians activity where passengers sit in with the band and sing a song of their choice. As you [...]
Don’t have a drummer for your gig? The solution is in your barn…
Dear Musicians, In a previous blog post I wrote about the fact that more musicians apply for cruise ship jobs because they can’t find jobs on land. By now it’s clear that this has created a huge backlog of musicians that can’t get back on ships because the supply is larger than demand and this [...]
