It’s always hard to explain Delbert McClinton’s SBC to someone who hasn’t gone. Basically, it’s a 7 day, floating festival with a couple thousand of your best friends. It’s grabbing some freshly tossed fettuccini (or more likely a bowl of ice cream) with Spooner Oldham, who, amongst many other classic soul recordings, played Wurli on Aretha Franklin’s “I Never Loved a Man” and then went on to write “Sweet Inspiration” with Dan Penn. Good Lord.
It’s sitting like a kindergartener while some of the most revered and respected songwriters in the business share war stories. It’s finding salvation on the Lido Deck while the McCrary Sisters blend gospel, funk, soul and rock into a concoction too hot for the Devil his own damned self. It is one of the coolest things Mingo gets to do. And we’ve been lucky enough to do it 8 times. Starting with the pre-cruise party in Ft. Lauderdale it’s like we never left the dock the year before; right back into the swing of it. The parameters of excess get stretched past their theoretical limits and the party, literally, never stops. 
And so it was again this year. An amazing week of music with the likes of Delbert McClinton, Marcia Ball, Paul Thorn, Seth Walker, Eric Lindell, Clay McClinton, the McCrary Sisters, Raul Malo, Teresa James, Fred Eaglesmith, Gary Nicholson, Lee Roy Parnell, Spooner Oldham, Donnie Fritts, Al Anderson, Chuck Cannon, Lari White, Jill Sobule, Danny Flowers, Jimmy Hall, Tom Hambridge, Bob DiPiero, Matraca Berg, Herman Matthews, Mike Zito, Debra Donkin and another couple dozen fantastic musicians, singers and songwriters. Don’t know a name? Start Googling.
It’s freakin’ impressive. 
This year we left Fort Lauderdale on the MS Westerdam with her amazing crew (seriously, these folks are the business) and made port in St. Barts and St. Kitts. And while they were both gorgeous, honestly I’m always just anxious to get back on the ship so we can crank up the music again. For Mingo’s first show this year we were actually still anchored in St. Barts, which was a first. We did our thing with paradise as our backdrop while the sun set. It just doesn’t get better than that.
McCrary Sisters, Rog |
The shows start at noon and go until…well, until whenever. The two main stages close down around 12:30am or so and then the jam sessions kick up. And there were probably at least three simultaneous jams going on every night this year! A couple years ago with the help of the unbelievable Foy Vance from Belfast, the Piano Bar became an after hours venue (“Come on. We’re having a sing-song.”) This year, a couple singer songwriter friends of the band, Brian Dunne and Dave Sher, brought their talents to that sacred forum and KILLED! Dave was kind enough to join Mingo on a couple of our shows as well, playing some of the most brilliant guitar ever.
McCrary Sisters, Rog, Dave Scher - Yes We Can! |
It’s this crazy situation where we watch these great artists & incredible shows and we get psyched up to do our set and push the bar and on and on it goes…’til we had Mingo Augmented: five horns, two percussionists, the McCrary sisters, and Dave Sher on guitar – pumping out Allen Toussaint’s “Yes We Can Can,” which we had never played ‘til that moment. That’s pretty cool, y’all. 
The weather was order made, the music was great, the people were kind and amazing. We are honored to have been a part of it once again. Thanks to Delbert and Wendy and our SBC family.
You have to do this. Don’t wait. Trust me.
See more pictures from SBC18 - Click Here
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