On the way back from the Outer Banks of North Carolina, we made a brief stop at Dollywood for lunch and a couple of shows. We arrived just in time for a performance by the steel band from Trinidad. We heard the same group last year and as expected, got another great show.

Steel bands fascinate me. It's hard to believe that all of those different sounds come from steel drums. They take a regular 55 gallon oil drum, cut, bend, pound and sometimes even plate it with chrome until they can get anything from ding ding to boom boom. This band had seven or eight complete drums and several others that were cut off.

And they can play any kind of music. As you would expect, they play the steel band favorite, "Hot, Hot, Hot!" But would you expect Glenn Miller favorites? They started with "Pennsylvania Six Five Thousand" and worked their way all the way down to "In the Mood" complete with the buzz bomb pause. They didn't impose any different style on those swing/jazz classics. They played them just as Glenn Miller did. Only the instruments were different.

I've heard some good steel bands on cruise ships, and now I tend to check the entertainment listings as soon as I get on board. It's a lot less of a cruise without one.

The other show was Chinese acrobats, also excellent entertainment. Like the food, shows at Dollywood are always tops.
Howard