Before Norwegian Cruise Line came calling, Harrison "Slam" Allen had been on a cruise ship once. It was in Scandinavia, at the Hooter Blues Festival — not the Hooters you're thinking of, but a tour orchestrated by Maury "Hooter" Saslaff.
Slam Allen parlayed his maiden voyage into a multi-week tour of Finland, Norway, Denmark and Sweden. He doesn't remember the ship, only that it was huge and booked, and he never gave a thought to making a career of playing his blues and soul and jazz numbers for a living while sailing the high seas.
And now he does.
Slam Allen is a star on the Norwegian Epic, but only until the end of next month. How good is he? So good that Norwegian has signed him to be the headliner on its new ship, the Breakaway, when it's launched in May.
This is a perfect fit.
Not only is he popular with passengers, but he's from New York — albeit upstate — and so is the Breakaway, or at least it will be after making its maiden voyage across the Atlantic. Before agreeing to be the Fat Cats Jazz & Blues Club's signature performer when the Epic arrived in 2010, Allen was one of those multi-talented entertainers playing just under the radar…yet around the world.
"I was basically unknown," he says. "Norwegian didn't really know who I was. They didn't really know what I was going to do. As soon as I started doing it, It became an instant success. and now I've got the formula. One night a guy 86 years old came up to me and 
said: 'I never listened to this stuff my whole life, but I like you.' It really convinced me I'm doing the right thing. I finally understand now who I am. Norwegian helped me do that. Then, I was still trying to find my way, trying to find exactly who I was. I felt like I could play a little bit, like I could sing, but it was me being me is what people liked. I know now what to do and I put it into a formula every week."
At the end of February, he'll take his two-month break. When he returns, it will be on the Breakaway. That will extend his Norwegian agreement, one that has worked well for both sides.
It began when he was playing the Terra Blues Club, on Bleecker Street in New York City.
Allen remembers it like this:
"The manager, a friend of mine, knew an agent named Ben Carizzo, who was looking for a blues band. I was at a crossroads, where I want to try something different, and I was in the right place at the right time. Ben liked what he saw, saw some videos, and he sent that to the Norwegian corporate office…the rest is history. They said 'We want you to be part of the family and stay here for a long, long time.' And I will, until I say 'Enough.'”
The last time Slam Allen said “enough” was after eight years. He was touring with James Cotton, considered one of the greatest blues artists of all time. Allen played guitar and sang lead vocals for Cotton, who lost his voice after battling throat cancer in the ‘90s.
“After eight years, this was going nowhere for me," says Allen. “They were coming to see him, not coming to see me. As much as it was a privilege to play with him, and one of the highlights of my life, I had to step out. I had to kick it up a notch and go on my own. He's a legend. Hopefully I can be one, but the only way I could was to leave that situation. I left in 2010. Now I'm building Slam Allen as a brand.”
To that end, he’s going to host a theme cruise on the Breakaway — the Slam Blues Cruise for fans of Slam Allen who want to hang out with him. He's taking a week off in June to be on the ship conducting everything from a songwriter's workshop to late-night jam sessions to playing (this is a week off!) at a venue in Bermuda, where the Breakaway stops for three days.
Slam Allen's already come a long way…from a rookie, riding a cruise ship in Scandinavia, to spending two-thirds of his days on Norwegian's best ships.
Coral Princess
14 nights
April 6, 2013
Fort Lauderdale, Aruba, Cartagena, Panama Canal, Fuerte Amador, Puntarenas, Los Angeles
Inside: $999
Cost per day: $71
www.princesscruises.com