Well, Jeri was there, our gracious hosts Sharon and Stevens Bunker; from Roll & Go we had Brett Burnham, Norris Dale, Eli Dale, Dick Dufresne, and Charlie Ipcar; other Mudcats included Kendall Morse, Uncle Jaque, Brian Hoye, Great Lakes Tim, Mary, Sinsull and Edmund; then there was Bobbi Keppel, Mamma Beth, assorted spouses, relatives and significant others, not to mention incredulous customers (What are these people doing? What planet or time warp are they from?); last but not least were the "squigglies.". The bourbon balls certainly kept things rolling, the beer flowed, the lemon squares did their job of cementing vocal chords, the chips went down, the pizza was dessimated, and the coffee cake strangely under appreciated.

Brett consumed only a modest handful of bourbon balls, contrary to what Jeri alleges, and even reserved the last one for her, that unappreciative hussy.

Oh, yes, the singing. Well, about half the songs were shanties. I was able to lead a couple that Roll & Go has been reluctant to work up (well, we do have a working repetoire over over a hundred songs) – Shanghai Brown (Shanghai Passage) and Fresh-Water Whaling (Superior Serm); Kendall was deluged with requests and was finally persuaded to render I Don't Look Good Naked Anymore; he also led the lovely Bob Coltman version of Patrick Spence. Boobi did the lovely broken token parody of the sailor with the piano leg around his neck. Brett did a recitation of C. Fox Smith's "Ship of Dreams (?)" Dick led Yangtse River Shanty. Jeri did Fire Down Below after the Johnson Girls – a Balkan-like shanty that's truly a knock-out. Brian did some Gaelic sea songs, with careful translations. Our Canadian visitors did some traditional sea ballad, shanties including one French Canadian song. Eli risked her voice again with a robust Mexico, and Nor, Brett & Eli pealed the paint from the ceiling with Blood-Red Roses. We got to get Capt. Bunker to led more songs.

The two "squiglies" were introduced; I didn't dare bring more of them – likely to cause a major riot.

Things gradually wound down by 10 PM, and the survivors did a good job of clearing away the wreckage, where once there had been a China Sea Marine Trading store. What have I left out?

The next event of this nature in Portland, ME, will be a series of Shanty Sings at the Portland Observatory on Munjoy Hill, a recently renovated octogon wooden watchtown built back in 1807 to keep track of USO's, unidentified sailing objects; time: beginning in June and ending in September, the 4th Sunday at 7 PM (no alcohol but non-alcoholic drinks for sale); more about this on a separate thread.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble et al