Ooops, I meant to type "performed off record."

Barry, I look forward to your insights. I was hoping you might spot this. For instance, I think "Roller Bowler," a song you guys champion, could be set it this category. Since you learned it via an oral tradition (as I understand it), it may be a chantey that escaped a death with the break of the oral link, which many others have not.

***
I've done a pretty crappy job so far trying to articulate the theme of this thread (though by no means is discussion limited to that theme). The thread title sucks. So one more try, now that I've though about it more:

There are a number of chanteys, ones that have been notated down (words + music) but for which the "chain" of oral transmission seems to have been broken. Yeah, maybe on some island somewhere people have handed down a version. But to the vast majority of the audience interested in chanteys, these are known only as print specimens. Interested people (in which I include myself) try a hand at developing renditions from print, but without any connection to earlier performances, we can only guess at how to perform them.

So I'm making an effort to gather info on sources for these, in an on-going list, in hopes to better inform performances, I guess. To see what other people have come up with in trying to render them, to see if any other print sources pop up to add clues.....and maybe with luck.....to see if anyone with versions handed down through an unbroken oral tradition is out there.

Gibb