Page 45 - WINE DINE AND TRAVEL SPRING 2023 SPECIAL CRUISE EDTION

Ingram and Jackie Venson, two of the brightest ‘We were sitting there just talking, and then
new lights in the blues genre. Or you might one member of his band showed up, then an-
share a simple elevator conversation with the other, and another,” she recalls. “And, they were
affable Tommy Castro, who has become a staple just talking about music so I just sat there and
of these cruises over the past 15 years or so. listened. Here I was, soaking in these great sto-
Take on the ship’s day excursions and you might ries I might not have ever heard otherwise.”
find yourself snorkeling along with Castro. But the relationship between bands and
Somayaji, for instance, found herself sitting their fans is anything but one-way. Singer and
at a table with her new friend Tony Braunagel, a harmonica player of Rick Estrin has come to
veteran drummer who has been part of the embrace the interaction.
bands of Taj Mahal, Bonnie Raitt and Eric Bur- “When I first started going on the cruise, I
don through the years. On this cruise, Tony’s kind of hid in my room,” he says. “I wasn’t very
band, the Phantom Blues Band, was playing social. But I realized that being with these fans
nearly every day. is really important.

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