The Cowboy and the Sailor – Mike Aiken’s “Tall Tales and Troubadours”

Not too often you find a sailor and a cowboy together in one singer-songwriter, a Virginian one at that. But, Mike Aiken is that singular performer, one shit kicker boot in full cowboy Nashville, one Top Sider on his sailboat home in coastal Norfolk, and a third, vestigial boot planted in the historical American West, while his own cowboying experience was when growing up on a farm/ranch in western New York. On the waters, he has sailed much of the world in his own sailboat after serving as a captain in the United States Coast Guard.

An award-winning songwriter and performer, Mike and his wife and bandmate Amy live part of the year on their sailboat in the aptly named Rebel Marina in Norfolk, VA, and the other part in the house of a good friend in East Nashville (along with much of the performing world). Much of the year, they are on the road touring, sometimes with full band.

Other parts of the year, they develop musical projects such as Aiken and Friends Fest and Amy’s independent recording label, and the rest of their time, when not sailing, is spent at conferences and callouts seeking gigs and booking others for their festival.

Aiken and Friends Fest has for the past 13 years presented musical performances and workshops, largely by Mike’s Nashville colleagues and other top acts, with the proceeds benefiting local music programs for youth.

In collaboration with the Smithfield Little Theater, Aiken and Friends Fest presents shows at the theatre’s facility in historic downtown Smithfield and in a large city park in the countryside just outside town, utilizing a historic mansion and an outdoor stage. Prior to Aiken and Friends Fest, songwriter competitions are held regionally that culminate in performances by the winners at the Fest.

This year, there were musical jams and events throughout the day on Saturday, a singer-songwriter in the round program Friday night, and, the part I was able to attend this year, Mike Aiken’s Tall Tales and Troubadours (TT & T). The park was undergoing a facelift this summer, so the entire event took place downtown.

Tall Tales and Troubadours is a tour de force performance in music and slides of Aiken’s songs, which in large part derive from his unusual history as both farmhand/cowboy and sailor, with much of the sailor part having been shared by Amy in many exotic locales around the world.

Mike and Amy have presented TT & T in Nashville and other locales, most recently in Austin, TX, but this was the first time in their Hampton Roads (region),VA, home.

Tall Tales and Troubadours is performed before a sailcloth spread as backdrop. Visuals evocative of each song are projected behind three versatile and talented performers: Mike, on vocals and several guitars including one unique miniature, Amy on various exotic-looking percussion instruments and a washboard suit, and old friend,  David Glaser, on mandolin and all manner of acoustic instruments.

Visuals on the sailcloth include photographs and original graphics composed and created by a talented assistant the Aikens discovered while he was a student at nearby Norfolk State University and who now works full-time for them on stage management, visuals, and technical aspects of their shows.

This night began with the lively sailor song Jump Up, followed by another boating song, Get Down River. Jump Up swings with the tidal rhythms of life on the oceans:

Your Memory Wins then brings to account the power of memory over the nullifying effects of booze.

“When the whiskey wears off, you’re still gone/And I still wake up without you all alone/You’re still in my heart, and this empty bed is all you left behind/Between the whiskey and your memory – your memory wins every time.”

Following that, the toils of  Appalachian miners is the subject of Coal Train, complete with historic coal mining images looming stage rear.

“Loanin’ up that mountain on the Norfolk Southern Line/Running to the ocean, coal pier #9/fillin’ up them boats till their sinking low/Shipping out of Norfolk that Appalachian coal/Long as money changes hands, everything is fine/Meanwhile that coal train/ moves on down the line/Coal train, Coal train/how long can you run?/Coal train, Coal train/How long till there’s none?

Amy and Mike have been a couple since Amy was 16, and they have played together long enough to be able to anticipate and compliment each other at every one of Mike’s rhythmic turns. Amy, still looking young and lovely, is an energetic band partner.

“If everybody’s having as good a time as I am, you all must be having fun!,” Amy said as she switched from her exotic circle of percussion to don her washboard “jacket,” and a somewhat small but enthusiastic audience clapped in agreement.

Love You Tonight followed, addressing their long-standing love affair in a caring, appreciative way.   An especially appropriate choice, as this was Amy’s birthday, celebrated with birthday cake after the show.

My favorite of Mike’s songs is 90 Miles from Hemingway, about a moon-lit night when he and Amy had recklessly and illegally ventured on their sailboat into waters just outside Cuba, turning back just in time before getting stopped by Cuban authorities.

“90 miles to Hemingway/Just across the stream/Lookin’ at El Morro’s lights/Life is what it means/Sippin; on a cool Mojito/Eating rice and beans/Senoritas on the boulevard/Cuba’s in my dreams.”

Night Rider’s Lament is my favorite cover that they do, a song I’d learned from a beloved Chris LeDoux CD and from singing around Wyoming campfires in my own brief cowboying days. “But they’ve never seen the northern lights/They’ve never seen a hawk on the wing/They’ve never seen the spring hit the Great Divide/They ain’t never heard old Camp Cookie sing.” Amy lit a lantern stage-front to evoke a campfire the performers sang around.

This rounded out an evening of 18 songs (17 of them Mike’s) and a couple of encores.

Performances by winners of the songwriting competition preceded Tall Tales, one by a surprisingly entertaining and talented younger artist and the other by a somewhat older, more seasoned songwriter whose well-crafted songs evoked the life of the vanishing Chesapeake crab fishermen among other subjects.