Info from Augusta Heritage Centre:

Tuesday, January 26, 2021
7 pm Eastern [ USA, so I presume EST]
YouTube Watch Party Link- https://youtu.be/dSOXbqRooNU
Sea Shanties: Adding Historical Context to the Hottest New TikTok Trend (+ singing along!)

John Roberts and Chris Koldewey will present a discussion about sea shanties, their place in history, and their current use (including the history behind the current viral TikTok collaboration video, Soon May the Wellerman Come). This presentation is brought to you with support from the West Virginia Humanities Council. Join us via a YouTube watch party! We will monitor the chat to make certain as many questions get answered as possible.

John Roberts - Born and raised in Worcestershire, England, of a Welsh family, John is a national treasure. He is one of the foremost culture bearers of his genre, specializing in songs of the sea, pub songs, and traditional British Isles folk songs. He is also considered one of the foremost Anglo concertina players in the English-speaking world and uses the banjo for unique settings in many of the songs he sings. He can give the background of any song he performs, often telling the listener the circumstances from which it might have been written and from whom the song was collected. John's latest album is a collection of maritime songs entitled "Sea Fever."

Chris Koldewey has been singing and playing folk music, and sea music in particular since he was a teenager. He comes from a family rich in maritime traditions, and his lullabies as a child were traditional songs of the sea. Raised on the North Shore of Long Island, he was exposed to a wide variety of folk music. A public school music teacher by trade, Chris spends his "free time" as a Shantyman at Mystic Seaport Museum in Connecticut: one of the few places left where shanties are used for their original purpose — coordinating shipboard tasks.

UPDATE 5 APRIL 2024 - STILL VIEWABLE ON YOUTUBE