Jeff Tweedy — 1 March 2025, somewhere in the Caribbean Sea (Stardust Theater aboard the Norwegian Gem) [Cayamo cruise]

[bböp]

Can’t remember how I did this last time in terms of recapping Jeff’s various shows and appearances on the Cayamo cruise, if I in fact even did, and I’m too lazy to look it up now so I guess I’ll just write a separate post for each of his three main sets and then fold in any other cameos and whatnot into one of those entries as needed.

 

Jeff’s first set of the 17^th edition of this floating festival wound up being a strictly solo affair in the Norwegian Gem’s largest indoor space, the Stardust Theater. It’s a pretty nice space that they have on these ships — there was also a virtually identical one on the Norwegian Pearl, which hosted Cayamo in 2023 when Jeff made his second appearance — with stadium seating and limited standing room for just over 1,000. It can be a somewhat sedate room because nearly everyone stays seated throughout for most of the shows in there and the older-skewing Cayamo crowds are generally there to listen and not get too rowdy.

 

But with all of that said, leave it to at least one guy at any Jeff show to get a bit overserved and inject himself into the show somehow. That happened toward the end of the 75-minute set when a gentleman to my left who had been getting increasingly boisterous as the show went on finally responded to Jeff questioning whether he had been cursing too much for this relatively genteel audience — he had dropped more than a few F-bombs by this point — and quipped that he “thought we were supposed to be able to talk like sailors on this boat.” The boisterous guy yelled out, “You’re a genius. You can curse all you want.” Jeff, of course, took the comment in stride and then told the self-deprecating anecdote he has repeated on more than a few occasions about once playing a show at an adult day care center and a board outside reading, “Meds: 12 pm, Jeff Tweedy 12:30.” And he proceeded to play Passenger Side next, perfectly timed for the tipsy man’s outburst.

 

That audience member was certainly the exception rather than the rule, though. For the most part, the majority of the attendees seemed to eat up Jeff’s visits to Banter Corner and enjoy his sense of humor. Such as introducing Normal American Kids with a brief anecdote about how when he had written the song, his wife had told him not to “play that for the kids (because) they’re gonna join ISIS.” Or his comment prior to A Lifetime To Find about it being a conversation with death in the folk song tradition. “Not that I’m judging you guys or saying you look old or anything.” Or prefacing The Universe by mentioning that he “saw a little bit of Emmylou (Harris’) set last night, so I know you guys aren’t allergic to sad songs.”

 

(Special to reader who I know was eager to hear about any sort of collaborations or crossing of paths between Jeff and Emmylou: It hasn’t happened yet, at least that I’ve heard, and that mention of her by him might be the closest we come because she has already played her two primary sets on this voyage. But one never knows.)

 

In terms of Banter Corner, there were plenty of visits as I’ve already described. But there was at least one I can’t recall Jeff making, at least not in as much detail and candor, as the one he made before playing I Am My Mother. Jeff said the song was inspired by his late father, a longtime railroad man and a “pretty conservative” guy (at least by old-school conservative standards), and how when Jeff and his family were going to O’Hare Airport in Chicago in 2017 to protest the Muslim travel ban ordered by Trump, Jeff’s dad had told him he wished he could come with them. Jeff said that his dad — a man, Jeff noted, “whose name was Robert E. Lee Tweedy” — said he wished he could have joined them at O’Hare because he “was a good man,” adding that his dad had said if he had to crawl through the desert to ensure the safety of Jeff and his siblings, he would have. “That meant a lot to me,” Jeff said, “and that’s what this song’s about.”

 

While that was the emotional high point of the set, there were some other humorous moments as well, mostly centering on Jeff’s use (or not use) of the guitars set up on stage behind him. It’s a bit that has been developing at solo shows over the last year or two and during this set, it manifested about midway through when Jeff mused that he might not have time to “get to all these guitars,” and said he would squeeze in some of the other ones but that he was “not feeling it in the moment.” So of course he attempted to play Sky Blue Sky and almost immediately flubbed a lyric and/or a chord and turned around and changed guitars. The timing was almost too perfect. “See, they exert some control over me,” Jeff quipped.

 

The good news was that after abandoning Sky Blue Sky for the unreleased song KC Rain, Jeff did come back to it and got through it OK. “I’ll go back to the shitty-sounding guitar … and if I mess up again, it’ll be a special moment for all of us. Like, ‘He fucked up that really simple song twice in a row.’” A bit later, he got to the 12-string Martin hybrid for a couple of tunes — Country Song Upside-Down and Kamera — before revealing a “secret” guitar that came from backstage for the penultimate Laminated Cat. That big-bodied model drew a big cheer from the audience, which by then was more or less eating out of Jeff’s hand.

 

As mentioned, stay tuned for two more recaps of Jeff's other main performances on this cruise — one of which, the eagerly awaited collaboration between Jeff and Nickel Creek (dubbed Tweedy Creek on the schedule), I'll hopefully have time to get to fairly soon — as well as any other Jeff-related happenings that wind up taking place this week.

 

Here was the complete setlist, as played, for Jeff’s solo set at Cayamo 2025:

 

Story To Tell

Normal American Kids

New Madrid

Remember The Mountain Bed

A Lifetime To Find

Please Tell My Brother (started and restarted)

I Am My Mother

The Universe

Even I Can See

Sky Blue Sky (aborted)

KC Rain

Sky Blue Sky

Either Way

Ambulance

Country Song Upside-Down

Kamera

Passenger Side

Radio King

Laminated Cat (aka Not For The Season)

I’m The Man Who Loves You

[bböp]

I neglected to mention in my words above that I was a tiny bit surprised that Be Not So Fearful (or another Bill Fay song) didn't get played during the set, but it was on Jeff's list of songs (not setlist). I suppose he did pay tribute to Fay in his most recent Substack post and perhaps we'll get Fearful during the final Tweedy set in a couple of days. That one figures to be a Tweedy trio show, with Spencer and Liam Kazar.

[kidsmoke]

Wonderful recap, bbop! 

[Albert Tatlock]

17 hours ago, bböp said:

“saw a little bit of Emmylou (Harris’) set last night, so I know you guys aren’t allergic to sad songs.”

No indeed, fully vaccinated and with a cupboard full of hankies.

Sending vibes for the emergence of the Emmylou supergroup/duo.

Harris Tweed(y)?

Whatever happens as my Dad used to say "worse things happen at sea", and he should have known having been in the Merchant Navy.

Ta very much indeed as ever.

P.S. VC site looks messed up in casual viewing. Only seems to work properly when signed in seems to be the trick. For a while I thought I might miss all your reporting but you pulled through for the team.

P.P.S. Just in case it's useful - the Scottish cure for seasickness is to put your head over the side with a pound coin between your teeth.

[Brian F.]

Thanks, bbop. I'm pretty sure Jeff has related the story about the protest and his dad saying he would've crawled through the desert etc., but I don't specifically recall if it was in onstage banter or in an interview he did promoting Cruel Country. I do not recall the "Robert E. Lee Tweedy" detail, though.