Mudcat was down when I tried to post this yesterday:

Mystic Sea Music Report 6/10/02

Just got back in after an extra day of recovery at the Mystic end. Unlike Barry, I packed it in early Friday and Saturday nights getting four hours of sleep each night aboard the Conrad. I do have this recurring image from the closing songs at Sunday's final concert - The Barrouallie Whalers (traditional singers from St. Vincent), The Johnson Girls, and associated friends raising the rafters with "Goin' Down to Cuba for a Load of Sugar." What energy, what joy! Barry said afterwards he could go to Heaven now - it just don't get no better.

I also enjoyed meeting Greg and Jan from the NYC crew, jamming with them on "West Indies Blues", and some time I've got to check in on the shanty sessions at or near the South Street Sea Port. I also got together with Chanteyranger whom I'll be seeing this September in the Bay area, and I'm sure we'll sing another round of "Shanghai Passage."

I had a great time running sound as a volunteer with the crew at the North End stage, and participating in the C. Fox Smith Workshop (I sang my arrangements of "Shanghai Passage" and "Flying-Fish Sailor") with those fine folks Danny and Joyce McLeod. That was pretty close to Heaven for me; I even got to leaf through Danny's notebook of C. Fox Smith personal hand-written sea poem collection.

Now I've got to see if a song the Ancient Mariners sang, "The Spray," is in the DT; they've really nailed the arrangement and as far as I could determine they haven't recorded it yet on a CD.

Thanks again to Craig Edwards and Rick Spencer for doing the chief organizing work for this remarkable and, to me, unique sea music festival.

See you all next year! And some of you in Kennebunk next weekend!

Cheerily,
Charley Noble