Maritime Music Directory International

Subject: RE: Maritime Music Directory International
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 06 Apr 24 - 10:59 PM

I've seen a few current groups I know & a long gone old favourite Rocky River - last time I saw Pete before his death it was bit odd to see a pirate in a mobility scooter, but he wore one of his pirate shirts & played & sang at his usual volume!

I passed your post to my shanty list which includes Olde Phartes (or Salts) as well as newer groups so I hope to see the newer AUS shanty singers on the page when I next look.

Thanks for all you've done & keep up the good work

Subject: RE: Tech: Maritime Music Directory International
From: Joe Offer
Date: 06 Apr 24 - 05:02 PM

Very nice work, Dean. I've got lots of friends listed in the directory. I guess I hang out with the right sort of people.

Subject: Tech: Maritime Music Directory International
From: Dean Calin
Date: 06 Apr 24 - 04:12 PM

Hi, my name is Dean Calin, and I created the Maritime Music Directory International three years ago specifically to promote maritime music to the general public. I have been performing maritime music, myself, for about thirty years and have been able to tour across North America and Europe with my own group, Bounding Main. Over these years I have observed some things about this genre of music that called me to action.

About the time of the pandemic there was a public fascination for the idea of "sea shanties", but only about eight musical acts found the spotlight, and of those, two of the most popular had no prior relationship to the genre whatsoever.

Because fame is so capricious I wanted to build something that would at least point the compass toward the real maritime music scene - the Maritime Music Directory International. Even though the genre is rich with entertainers and venues it does not have its equivalent of a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nor a Country Music Awards. The MMDI portal aggregates a growing list of past and present musical acts and places at which to hear them. To counteract the increasing limitations that search engines put on websites I made sure that the MMDI is search-engine optimized, is "secure" (even though there is no ecommerce conducted on it) and is mobile-friendly. This gives a critical advantage to some of the older, technically challenged performers whose management of their own websites prevent them from being indexed and therefore discovered by fans.

This was designed to be a community project and I welcome suggestions, submissions and volunteers to help assemble information to add to the site. Please have a look at https://seashanties4all.com.