For the past four years, my wife, Sheryl, and I took a cruise on The Rock Boat with my college roommate, Tim, and his wife Marie. The Rock Boat is hosted by a band called Sister Hazel that has five members. Since the passengers are a key ingredient in the overall experience, the name of the organization that puts on the cruise is called The Sixth Man. A number of moderately known artists besides Sister Hazel are featured on the cruises. In general, all of these bands' songs are mid-tempo rockers with jangly guitars — not quite folk, not quite country, more of something in-between.

The cruise leaves from Miami and heads to Cozumel Island, Mexico. As the boat travels there and back, as well as while in Cozumel, bands perform concerts. The shows typically start around noon each day and end around 2:00 am. Each band performs for one hour. At any given time, passengers have four simultaneous shows to choose from.

I have some photos from our vacation. You can click on any picture to enlarge it, but my pictures were taken with my iPhone. The ones taken by Tim are better. Our advance-notice information packets suggested passengers board sporting T-shirts featuring our favorite Rock Boat artists.

Here are the performances we attended.

Saturday, January 24

• Sister Hazel

  It is a tradition for the band to play a sail away show on the pool deck as we depart. Their songs "Change Your Mind" and "Sail Away" are perfect for the occasion.

• The Shadowboxers

  

  We had never seen this band before. They are a cross between Motown and traditional rock a la Justin Timberlake.

• Melodime

  

  This band reminds me of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band — good old fashioned rock and roll. "Lullaby" and "Our Time" are their greatest hits.

Sunday, January 25

• Sixth Man Sessions

  

  Each year, a week or so before The Rock Boat sails, Sixth Man takes a few artists, locks them in a ship's cabin, and has them write 10 songs collaboratively. They record them and master a CD all in about 5 days. At this session, we learned what inspired the songs and heard them performed live in public for the first time. Though the songs were stellar, this time there was less back story than in previous years.

• Vintage Blue

  

  As we walked from show to show, we could stop and hear a moment or two of other shows in progress. Vintage Blue was performing in Bar City which was one floor below us.

• The Roosevelts

  

  We also passed The Roosevelts playing in the Atrium. "Cold Sheets" and "Everybody Knows" are two of their songs you may have heard.

• Kris Allen

  

  I had never heard of Kris Allen before. His best-known song is "Live Like We're Dying." When he played it live, I said to myself, "I have heard this before, but I did not know this was who played that." On our flight home, I learned that he was on Season 8 of the American Idol TV show.

• Soccer Match

  

  Since Scars on 45 are from the UK, they challenged other bands and randomly picked Rock Boaters to a game of soccer. Scars on 45 prevailed 3 to 2 in overtime.

• Brian Fechino & Friends

  

  We also passed Brian Fechino & Friends playing in the Atrium.

• Von Grey

  

  There's a saying that "no one is as good as all of us." Though it was perhaps frustrating for artists, who typically work alone, to have to collaborate, the Sixth Man Session results were spectacular. For example, the songs on which Von Grey collaborated were cheery and uplifting, so we went to see one of their performances. To our surprise, their own material was very dark and brooding — songs about anger and pain. They even acknowledged this with their banter. "We are so happy to be part of The Rock Boat. We had heard stories about how great the artists and fans are towards each other while on board. This boat is like a family, and we are honored to be included in that family. Our next song is entitled 'Death'." Seriously though, these 4 sisters have beautiful voices.

• Carbon Leaf

  

  We passed Carbon Leaf playing on the Pool Deck. You may have heard "Life Less Ordinary."

• Melodime

  

  We passed by Melodime playing an impromptu gig on the back of the ship.

• Brian Collins

  

  We passed by Brian Collins playing in the Atrium.

• Scars on 45

  

  Sheryl and I first heard this band two Rock Boat voyages ago. This was our third year seeing them on the boat. We have also attended their concerts in Berkeley and San Francisco. We are true fans of this band. I even participated in the Pledge Music campaign to help finance their second album. Their most well-known songs are "Give Me Something" and "Heart's on Fire."

• Gaelic Storm

  

  This Irish band is 100% fun. They sing songs that tell tales about fighting and drinking. They know how to involve the audience. They are the antithesis of Von Grey. Everyone parties and has a good time. They even brought a blind man out of the audience, whom they met on last year's Rock Boat, and had him crowd surf. Actually they met him last year during a late night performance via a faux pas when the lead singer singled him out by asking "Hey dude, what's up with the sunglasses?"

Monday, January 26

• Mia Playa

  

  This was the day we got to get off the boat. Our excursion was to Playa Mia in Cozumel Island, Mexico. This was a scenic place with pools, a water slide, and a Gulf of Mexico beach.

  

  All we could eat and drink was included. What's not to like about that? Margaritas are now my favorite drink.

• Honor by August

  

  As we soaked in the sun, Honor by August played cover tunes of songs by artists who had formerly been on The Rock Boat. They opened with "You Wanted More" by Tonic who was on The Rock Boat last year.

• Melodime

  

  Melodime also performed cover tunes, throwing in a few extra Spanish phrases like"Me llamo Melodime" and "Donde esta la bibliotheca?" for fun.

• Scars on 45

  

  Back on the boat, we got to see Scars on 45 in the large Stardust Theater. The first performance was out on the Pool Deck. They did the exact same set list, which was disappointing, but the acoustics were better indoors.

• Epic Movie Set

  

  Sister Hazel hosted a cavalcade of bands who performed cover songs from popular movies. Kris Allen's performance of Peter Gabriel's "In Your Eyes" from Say Anything was great, but Barenaked Ladies rendition of "Part of Your World" from The Little Mermaid was a real show stopper.

  Actually all of the songs were well done except for "Staying Alive" from Saturday Night Fever which was outside of this particular artist's vocal range.

Tuesday, January 27

• The Mowgli's

  

  Though this band is a Rock Boat staple, this was our first time seeing them live. They were very positive in their songs and banter — a very glass-half-full kind of band. Their most popular songs ate probably "San Francisco," "Say It, Just Say It," and "The Great Divide."

• Kris Allen

  

  We got to see Kris Allen in the night club setting of the Spinnaker Lounge. He took requests from the crowd for the set list.

• Broken Anchor

  

  Austin Hartley-Leonard is the lead guitarist for Scars on 45 hired for this tour. He is also a member of Broken Anchor. Austin performed Broken Anchor songs with Chris Durling from Scars on 45 backing him up on drums. Austin's wife and friends were guest backup vocalists. The Broken Anchor sound reminds me of Freedy Johnston for some reason, but I can't put my finger on why.

• The Shadowboxers

  

  The first performance was in the Atrium. This one was in the Spinnaker Lounge. The Shadowboxers played material from their first album as well as new songs they plan to record for a second album. The new songs have a more mature sound than their original material.

• Barenaked Ladies

  

  This band knows how to perform intelligent songs that keep the crowd engaged. They are known for songs like "One Week," "Pinch Me," and the theme song from the TV show Big Bang Theory. It was one Rock Boater from Switzerland's 100^th time seeing the band perform, so Barenaked Ladies let her play drums on one song.

• Scars on 45

  

  This performance had technical difficulties as there were stops and starts due to microphone issues as well as feedback, so we left this show before its end to get good seats for the voyage finale. We are still loyal Scars on 45 fans, but this was not their finest moment.

• Sister Hazel

  

  We listen to Sister Hazel when we are on The Rock Boat. As this was our fourth voyage, they are starting to grow on us. Their popular songs include "All For You" and "Your Winter." They brought many of the other artists on stage for the final numbers, "Purple Rain," and "Let's Go Crazy" from Prince's Purple Rain in keeping with the epic movie night theme.

Since each show is an hour, even if you take a chance on listening to a band, and it turns out not to be your favorite, it's only an hour. Since none of the shows require tickets, passengers can come and go as they please. Another great thing is that every show starts on time — sometimes to the minute, at most 5 minutes late.

For the fourth year in a row, music appreciation is alive in the lab.