Not many lead singers from an 80’s rock and roll band could write a compelling song about ship scrapping, but then Mark Knopfler is not just any singer/songwriter. Knopfler was born in Glasgow, Scotland on the River Clyde, which was … Continue reading
Category Archives: Songs
Singer/songwriter Tom Munch plays his original song about the last great historic wooden schooners of Maine in the early 20th century. The photos are historic shots of the Wyoming and other ships built at Percy and Small shipyard in Bath, Maine … Continue reading
We hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season. Here is a slightly different take on Jingle Bells by members of the US Navy band. Dueling Jingle BellsHere’s one of our favorites from this year’s holiday concerts, with a bit … Continue reading
In the summer of 1995, a group of lovers of the music of the sea got together on the deck of the windjammer Peking at the South Street Seaport Museum on the East River in New York to sing sea shanties. … Continue reading
One hundred and fifteen years ago today, on September 8, 1900, the city of Galveston Texas was struck by what today would be classified as a Category 4 hurricane, with winds of 145 mph and a storm surge of 14 feet. Somewhere … Continue reading
My novel, The Shantyman, begins with a fictionalized Bill Doerflinger recording the tale told by a retired ship’s captain of a shantyman who saved his ship and its crew. The old captain lives close to the sailor’s retirement home, Sailor’s Snug … Continue reading
A new musical is coming to Broadway this summer, which features a ship’s captain and stage sets with lots of ship’s rigging. It is based on the story of Captain John Newton and the song Amazing Grace. The musical is described: … Continue reading
Not quite two years so, we posted about the death of the British folk and shanty singer who as born as Louis Killen. The post title was “Lou Killen, British Folk Song and Shanty Singer, Dies at 79.” Now after the … Continue reading
The Hardtackers Shanty Crew put out a fine new promotional video just a week or two before the publication of my new novel, The Shantyman. The events are unrelated but feel fortuitous. See our review of the Hardtacker’s CD, Don’t … Continue reading
We hope that everyone is having a most merry Christmas. Here is a poem by C. Fox Smith adapted for song by Charlie Ipcar. As we posted last June, Cecily Fox Smith was a Victorian poet best remembered for her poems about … Continue reading
On Trafalgar Day, the anniversary of Admiral Horatio Nelson‘s victory and death at the Battle of Trafalgar, a ballad describing the battle, “On board a Man o’ War,” sung by Ian Page. Feel free to grab a mug of porter, … Continue reading
Just over a year ago, I was surprised — shocked might be a better word — to hear of a play about a shipyard. The Boat Factory was set in Harland & Wolff of Belfast, the shipyardyard that built theTitanic as well as roughly 1,700 … Continue reading
If you are in the area on Friday, May 9th, at 8PM, be sure to stop by the Noble Maritime Collection at the Snug Harbor Cultural Center at 1000 Richmond Terrace in Staten Island where the legendary British folk singer Hughie … Continue reading
We hope everyone is having a joyous holiday season. Here is a beautiful version of Robert Louis Stevenson’s poem “Christmas at Sea.” Sting – Christmas At Sea (Live from Durham Cathedral) … Continue reading
My younger son, a senior in high school, mentioned to me a few mornings ago that the newest version of the historical action-adventure video game, Assassins Creed, which is Assassins Creed IV – Black Flag, has a feature that lets … Continue reading
I was saddened to learn that the singer that I knew as Lou Killen died early this month after a six year battle with cancer. Killen was an influential voice in the British folk song revival of the 50s and … Continue reading
The Hardtacker Shanty Crew, a seven-man shanty crew based in Columbus, Ohio, released a great new CD a few months ago, Don’t Forget Your Old Shipmates, which features a wonderful mix of shanties and sea songs, old and new. The twenty one songs … Continue reading
Trevor Grill was a self employed builder from Port Isaac on Cornwall’s rugged north coast, who enjoyed getting together with friends to sing sea shanties and folk songs. The group came to call themselves the Port Isaac’s Fisherman’s Friends and they performed at … Continue reading
This will be a great couple of weeks around New York harbor for lovers of the music of the sea. “Sailing to Staten Island: The Immigrant Experience” is a free concert Saturday night at the Noble Maritime Collection at Snug … Continue reading
Mystic Seaport has put together a wonderful short video where lovers of sea music speak of just it means to them, just in time for the Seaport’s upcoming 33rd Annual Sea Music Festival from June 7-10, 2012 in Mystic, Connecticut. The three … Continue reading