About · Entertainment

Get ready to dance in Mexico with our fantastic entertainment lineup:

Onboard
Bob Karwin
Jeff Pike
Erica Sunshine Lee
and
The Jonas Lorence Band


Onshore at the Parrothead Cruise Bon Voyage Party
Jerry Gontang and Friends

    

Bob Karwin
   
(Photo on left taken during the in-port party on Parrothead Cruise 2008)

Bob Karwin is a lot.  A lawyer, a songwriter, an entertainer.  Bob is all that and a bag of Dunkin' donuts.  Bob was born in Brooklyn but learned his craft in the college bars of Boston. It started in 1990 the night a band’s guitarist called in sick and Bob stepped in. Many more nights in many more Boston area bars followed through the 90’s and helped him build his onstage repertoire – and his songwriting skills. Cut to 2016 when Bob, now a full time Californian, was named the Trop Rock Music Association “Entertainer of the Year”! Bob has claimed he is retiring more times than KISS, but he has cut down his performance schedule to select events – and we are honored that he considered the Parrothead Cruise one such event.  If anyone asks, tell them you’re with the band.

WHAT'S MY NAME? Bob Karwin


Jeff Pike
  

When you talk about Godfathers of Trop Rock, Atlanta, GA’s Jeff Pike may be the Godfather of the Godfathers. His connection to the very first Parrot Head club in the world, the Atlanta Parrot Head Club, goes back almost to the beginning of that organization, when Jeff and the founder of the club, Scott Nickerson, joined musical forces via their mutual love of Jimmy Buffett. Jeff’s band A1A, the “Official and Original Jimmy Buffett Tribute show” followed soon after and have been wowing audiences with their high-energy shows ever since. Jeff and A1A have even shared stages with Jimmy and The Coral Reefer Band and were featured in the 2012 movie, “What To Expect When You’re Expecting.” Jeff was in Jimmy’s MTV video, “Fruitcakes” and his performance of “Cheeseburger In Paradise” with Jimmy and his band was included in the limited edition “Barometer Soup Radio Special” CD. And we can’t mention Jeff without a shout out to the Frozen Gringos, his collaboration with the late, great Hugo Duarte. In addition to all of his Trop Rock/Buffett Tribute bona-fides, Jeff is also an accomplished solo musician – not many can include Berklee College of Music on their resumes – with a number of albums of original music to his credit.   Jeff last performed on a Parrothead Cruise twenty years ago on Parrothead Cruise 2005.  We are excited about his long-overdue return!

Learn more about Jeff on his website


Erica Sunshine Lee
    

Erica Sunshine Lee has earned a trophy room full of hardware, including the 2020, 2021, and 2022 Trop Rock Music Association “Female Artist of the Year,” “Horizon Artist of the Year,” and in 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022 the "Music Video of the Year".  Erica has been called the “hardest working woman in country music” and we’re not going to argue with that.  Since 2007 Erica has been a full time songwriter and performer, logging over 250 shows a year - not just in America but across the world - and has written countless songs recorded by other artists. We’re thrilled she has agreed to take a week off the road to come sail with us on Parrothead cruise 2025.  Erica is currently touring in support of her latest album "Country & Western"

Join the Sunshiners and learn more about Erica here.


The Jonas Lorence Band

The Jonas Lorence Band, featuring Jonas Lorence, Tim “The Tank” Casterline, and Matt “Beach Bum” Bongirno is a party band that specializes in their own blend of high energy Texas Trop Rock. The JLB makes a point to cover a lot of fun classic rock hits and beach bar favorites from Stevie Ray Vaughn to Jim Morris as well as plenty of JLB crowd favorites. The goal of a JLB is show is without a doubt to create a fun interactive experience and leave you with a night to remember.

The JLB is based in Austin Texas but you can catch them all over Texas, Florida, Louisiana, and Oklahoma. Over the last few short years the band has been invited to perform at some of the top Parrot Head and Trop Rock events through out the south included Music on the Bay, Pardi Gras, Trop Rock River Phlock, Riddles in the Sand, Phlip Phlop Phling, The Pirates Ball, A1A Beach Bash, and the Lone Star Luau.

The Jonas Lorence Band has won multiple awards from the Trop Rock Music Association including the prestigious Horizon Award in 2021 as well as Song of the Year, Video of the Year, and Trio of the Year in 2023. You can catch the JLB on many of your favorite Trop Rock stations including Radio Trop Rock, Tiki Man Radio, RadioA1A, and Shore Life Radio as well Radio Georgetown 106.7 and Texas Select Radio.

The Jonas Lorence Band on the web

    

Performing at the Parrothead Cruise Bon Voyage Party

Jerry Gontang
  

Jerry Gontang is a west-coast Trop Rock legend.  Solo, and with his band Stars on the Water, Jerry has played thousands of shows for audiences far and wide.  Rather than us tell you who he is, here's Jer in his own words from an interview with Canvas Rebel:

I’ve had music in my life for as long as I can remember. My siblings and I were given piano lessons which lead to experimenting with other instruments like accordion, flute, saxaphone, drums, harmonica, violin, and GUITAR. The folk song era had just entered the scene and I wore the grooves off the first Kingston Trio album learning chord progressions and lyrics. A talent contest at school afforded me the opportunity to perform in front of a live audience. The applause was deafening and at that moment I was hooked.  Years of learning the history, theory, art, and application of the music business, in school and on the road, has given me experiences, adventures, and friends that I would never have encountered otherwise.  I am a Trop Rock musician, a genre which a few of my friends and I lobbied to have introduced to several of the music distribution agencies. We had been labeled as Gulf and Western artists but that didn’t really fit the niche we had created with the Parrot Heads. Their avid love of music combined with the penchant to party and raise money for charities has created a network of events that musicians like myself can build tours around.  One of the greatest rewards of being a singer/songwriter is creating and performing songs from the memories of these people and places that have invited me into their world and then having them sing along with the words from those songs.

Jerry is a veteran of Parrothead Cruise 2007 and we are honored to have him join us once again as the headliner of our Bon Voyage Party! 

Learn more on Jerry's Website

 

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