Richard and I recorded a new CD of chanteys and sea songs, titled "Cast Off Each Line." It's now in the hands of Oasis mfg., and should be shipped and ready for sale in a month. Here is what we say about it in our liner notes, plus the track list:

In this, our second CD, we continue our exploration of Anglo and Black traditions of chanteys (or shanties), the work songs of sailors, stevedores, and fishermen. We also include some of our favorite non-working songs of seafaring life. There are a number of sea song collections and field recordings waiting to be ined by today's singers. There is a quiet revolution hapening in the world of sea music, as more and more collections are being made available to the public, and as more source recordings are being relerased onto CD.

1. Roll The Cotton Down.      Lead: Richard
   A very popular tops'l and t'gallant halyard shanty that was also used at the capstan. Our version, having a grand chorus, is a capstan chantey.
2. We're All Surrounded.    Lead: Peter
   A cargo-loading chantey with roots as a minstrel song and spiritual.
3. The Ward line.   Lead: Richard
   A cargo-loading chantey collected by Ivan H. Walton, from the recently published book Windjammers: Songs of the Great Lakes Sailors.
4. Never Weatherbeaten Sail.   Lead vocal, guitar & tinwhistle: Richard. Fiddle: Peter
   John Conolly's reworking of an old mariner's hymn.
5. The Old Tar River.    Lead: Peter
   A Georgia Sea Islands chantey used for loading heavy timber into ships.
6. Homeward Bound.   Lead: Richard
   From Stan Hugill's Shanties From The Seven Seas. Hugill felt that this capstan shanty stemmed from the old forebitter, a process often repeated in the days of sail.
7. Run, Let The Bulgine Run.   Lead: Peter
   A halyard shanty found in Stan Hugill's Shanties From The Seven Seas, a different song than the popularly known capstan shanty "Clear The Track, Let The Bulgine Run." A "bulgine" was a 19th-century African American slang term for a railroad engine.
8. Oro Mo Bhaidin.   Lead: Richard
   A rowing song learned from our good friend Shay Black, who sings it in Irish. We kept the Irish chorus and refrains, but we sing the verses in English, translated for us by Shay Black.
9. The Bark 'Gay Head.'   Lead: Peter; guitar and harmony: Richard
   A forebitter from mid-19th century New England whaling. "Root, hog or die" is an old slang term meaning search for what you need to survive, or perish. Very true for whalemen whose pay depended on a succesfull voyage.
10. Shenandoah.   Lead: Richard
    Another cargo-loading shanty with verses reflecting the love of Shenandoah as a geographical location.
11. Mary, Come Join our Religion.   Lead: Peter
    A Bahamian chantey from Andros Island, used for sponge fishing and hauling boats. Peter learned this from an Alan Lomax field recording.
12. Just As The Tide Was A-Flowing.    Voice and Guitar: Richard
    A traditional English song of seduction.
13. Gonna Get Home By 'N' By.    Lead: Richard
    A typical West Indian or Southern states work song taken to sea and turned into an American hauling chantey.
14. Caller Herrin.'    Lead: Richard
    Learned from Australian singer Danny Spooner who we met at the 2005 Mystic Seaport Sea Music Festival. This is about the cry of Scottish fisher women as they paraded the day's catch for sale.
15. The Capstan Bar.   Lead: Peter
    A capstan chantey, learned from the singing of the English nautical group Salt Of The Earth (Danny and Joyce McLeod and Ingrid and Barrie Temple).
16. Unmooring.   Lead: Richard
    From W.B. Whall's "Sea Songs and Shanties," a song dear to the old-time sailor, and full of seamanship.
17. Swell My Net Full. Lead vocal and fiddle: Peter, guitar and harmony: Richard
    Roy Palmer collected this fishing song from the English bargeman Bob Roberts. In his collection, "Boxing The Compass," Palmer cites it as one that "may have been used to accompany rowing or net hauling, as well as for the pleasure of singing."
18. Fire Down Below.   Lead: Richard
    A capstan chantey collected by Professor James M. Carpenter in the 1920s from Welsh seaman William Fender of Barry Docks who served at sea from 1878 to 1900.
19. In A Handy Four-Master.    Lead: Richard
    Another from "Windjammer: Songs of the Great Lakes Sailors." Collected from Captain Henry Ericksen, Milwaukee, 1932. No melody was given for the song in the book so Richard wrote one for it.
20. Paris Here I Come.   Lead: Peter
    A French capstan chantey Peter first heard sung by Mike Kennedy at the Mystic Seaport Sea Music Festival. Mike graciously supplied Peter with the lyrics. Richard adds his inimitable vocal styling in the last verse.
21. Nothin' but a humbug.    Lead: Richard
    Collected by Professor James M. Carpenter from Welsh singer Rees Baldwyn who learned it from singers in Savannah and New Orleans.

PM if interested in pre-ordering. $16, plus $1.50 P&H, or if you'd like more information.

Thanks.

Chanteyranger