I’m so terribly delayed at keeping up with my TRBX posts. So bad, there’s already a new logo and site up for Rock Boat Eleven. For shame. I’ll blame my cat.

In keeping the spirit of “Things That Mel are INCREDIBLY bad with,” I cannot retain the names of singular band members. I know I love Better Than Ezra, but I have no clue what the lead singer’s name is. Unless the name of the group is “Hall & Oates” I only know there are two guys — one with the name of Hall, the other with Oates — and even then, I still muck up their first names. Bob Seger made it easy, as have other artists who reached solo career successes.

The Rock Boat does something to you as a music lover — you meet these artists one-on-one constantly, and they almost become friends. This trip taught me a lot about musical groups and the incredibly-talented individuals behind the full stage.

So, truly lame story: while listening to the promotional CD from TRBX, I told the boyfriend my list of artists/bands to which I was looking forward seeing live — mostly, The Bridges, Andrew Hoover & Scott Munns (both of whom I didn’t get to see — dammit!) and some dude named Ken Block.

I am apparently the only fan on Earth (and cruise ship) who had no clue that Ken Block was the lead singer of Sister Hazel.

He’s listed singularly on the CD because of his solo album – GREAT song, “Blue to a Blind Man,” by the way.

As such, each time we passed him on the boat, the joke became “Hey, it’s Ken Block!” because nearly every time I talked to people I forgot who this “Ken Block” cat was who I was excited to see live (The Boy had to correct me several times). I caught on once I was a passenger.

You see, you cannot miss Ken Block – he is an Everywhere Man on that boat (in fact, I think his cabin was just a couple down from ours). He’s boarding the Carnival cruise ship right beside you (or me, as it were), he is on the PA waking you up from a 8pm nap (wha? sleeping?!), he is in the atrium playing two-man acoustic set with Drew… You feel as though he is commanding the ship.

Then there is Ken Block is AT MY BREAKFAST TABLE on the last full day of the cruise. I’m in between a bad case of Hangover and rolling bouts of sea sickness. Yet, boyfriend told him the story of my listening to his music blindly and unknowingly of his attachment to Sister Hazel.

He was appreciative, nonetheless, while I was embarrassed and wanted to puke on someone’s shoes… and then, he called me a “Blockhead” — as in, someone who is a fan of Ken Block.

Awesome.

Here’s Sister Hazel, kicking off TRBX! Day #1.

If you stopped the screen at JUST the right moment, you can see me there in a crowd shot in the beginning… AND the end. Sweet. And yes, it was a cruise where we not only wore birthday hats, but WINTER hats. See: Ken Block.

Ken Block, along with Sister Hazel, make for great party hosts for the duration of the vacation. Especially during the sail away — what an amazing experience being around 2000+ people who do this thing EVERY year and cannot WAIT to get the party going again.

When in this moment, you feel it just cannot get better (well, perhaps the weather could get better in Mexico, right? RIGHT?!), just wait. Sister Hazel one-upped themselves on Day #2 — a day themed around cover songs — performing as “Fleetwood Hazel.” Yes, FLEETWOOD Hazel, as in, Sister Hazel played a live set of the ENTIRE Fleetwood Mac “Rumours” album. It was one of the single greatest moments of any live performance — I imagine pretty damn near seeing the actual Fleetwood Mac perform the album in its entirety.

Here is “Fleetwood Hazel” performing “Chains.” (I apologize for all the shitty videos. I didn’t pack my own video camera, so I’m left to find YouTube crap – this one, much like our rocky boat adventure, you may want to just listen and not watch all the shaky cam).

Stay tuned for more about Covers Day on TRBX.