Hi Charlie

I really do think you've got a great knack for finding words & tunes
& producing remarkable marriages that work very well. Some of those same words & tunes you've been finding, I swear come more from you than you'll credit yourself for. You know how much I love your Yangtse River Shanty (stole it out from under your nose, took only a New York second too) & you claim you've married it to the tunes "Tommy's Gone To Hilo" & "Congo River", bullshit! I hear far more of your tunesmithing in that shanty than I do of those two other songs, you're just to humble to claim your part in such a great song.

Some of my other favorites are "West Indie Blues". I don't know what the blues version of this sounds like but it sounds like you took it from one genre & perfectly placed it into another. Again another great marriage you've performed is the "Limehouse Reach". You mention in your notes about "Mariner's Compass" that you were able to channel a tune for it. Does that mean that you found a tune, and/or adapted it or wrote it yourself? Whatever way it works well.
"Widgery Wharf" actually sounds (IMHO) more of a traditional version from the Cruisin Round Yarmouth family than a contemporary parody. In that "Wrecker's Song" it shows you've got a keen ability as a matchmaker, once again, another great marriage. I got a good kick from listening to the "Cowardly Act", very amusing.
You're taking of the present day contemporary sea situation of outsourcing in "Swabbing Days Are Gone" & turning it around so it sounds traditionaly like an age old dilemma is beautiful, works wonderful.

Those are the ones that jumped out at me & slapped me in the face & in the case of "Yangtse River Shanty" caused my socks to roll up & down like window shades. I'd have to agree with Richard about hearing a little more of the concertina & a bit less banjo. Sorry, I just couldn't get past the notion of Little Susie(anna) & the Everly Brothers hauling on a hal'y'ard, faces caked with salt, hair all matted & backs all raw, singing shanties to a host of screeming pre-teens. Outside of some of these personnal flaws in my taste, the CD is the 'cat's meow', the 'dog's bullocks' you might even say 'the stuff of snuff' or the 'cock of the walk', well done Charlie.

Barry