Cayman Islands musical group Hi Tide is back from headlining the Space Coast Festival in Cape Canaveral, Florida, last weekend. 

The usual duo, of Shane Allenger on drums and lead vocals and Sean Hennings on rhythm guitar and backing vocals, that fans of the band know and love were joined by fellow musicians Roger “Bugs” Wilson on bass, Johnathan Ebanks on lead guitar, special guest saxophonist Paul Messina and drummer Joel Enriquez to form a larger ensemble. 

“The event was essentially a festival, though we were able to use that as a backdrop to introduce our latest album The Studio Centre Sessions,” says Sean Hennings. He says the album is a DVD and CD of the bands work recorded live. The project features the same musicians that joined the men on-stage at the Space Coast Festival.  

“The reception from the crowd was excellent. There were about 1,500 people in attendance,” Hennings says.  

With Hi Tide’s style being a unique flavour of adult contemporary melodies and lyrics infused with jazz, as well as nuances of Caribbean genres, the band is essentially a musical hybrid and has consistently won the hearts of audiences around the world, as their sets tend to come as a breath of fresh air when other bands can tend to be similar in sound. 

The hour long set played by Hi Tide not only pleased the crowd but organisers of the event have also expressed interest in having the band back for next year’s festival. 

The honour of headlining such an auspicious festival in the United States was in no small part due to the band’s relentless promotion of their original songs and live shows. 

“We heard they were having a festival there and I decided to send the organisers our new DVD album ‘The Studio Centre Sessions’. They then ended picking us to be the headliners,” explains Sean Hennings of Hi Tide. 

One of Hi Tide’s songs called “Unity”, which features young children singing, was a song the organisers of the festival took a liking to; so much so that they arranged for school children from Capeview Elementary to join the band on stage for that song. 

The Studio Centre Sessions is the 12th studio album from Hi Tide. The group has also done several other festivals in the US, including an acoustic festival in Sarasota, Florida, where they were well received and sold many albums, Sean says. 

Hi Tide has also performed all over North America, France, England, Peru and Hawaii. The group can be seen at Decker’s Bar and Grill from this Thursday through Saturday from 7.30 to 9.30pm and at theReef in East End on Tuesday nights from 7 to 10pm. 

For more information on Hi Tide, visit their website. Look out for a launch of the Studio Centre Sessions in Grand Cayman coming soon.
 

You can check out a video of the band’s performance at cayCompass.com