October Shanty Session @ Press Room (NH)

Subject: October Shanty Session @ Press Room (NH)
From: curmudgeon
Date: 18 Oct 06 - 06:01 PM

The Shanty / Forebitter session for October will be taking place this Saturday, 21 October, at the Press Room, Portsmouth NH, from 3:30 to 7:30 PM.

For this session, at least, we will be dispensing with the circular format, and instead attempting the melee which was eminently successful at the Maritime Festival session.

Should any one person attempt to retain the limelight, I will have a belaying pin at hand, and maybe Sisull will bring a cat o' 9 tails.

See you Saturday -- Tom

Subject: RE: October Shanty Session @ Press Room (NH)
From: Barry Finn
Date: 19 Oct 06 - 02:33 AM

Hi Tom, new format, eh? A tryout? Just after I replyed to a post not an hour ago saying it was a circle sing, you've made a liar out of me &.... I guess,,,, I glad? Charlie says he'll be showing up straight in from the UK but he's not getting past the barroom door, not if he doesn't bring in pictures. Maggie Bye (of Johnson Girl's) e-mailed me, she & her husband Mark are in the area for a confrence so they'll be making it too, as well as myself, I'm trying to get her to go Fri nite too. I won't be messing with your "Belaying Pin" but Sinsull with a cat & whips,,,,BATWOMAN, oh la la. Did she grow long red fingernails too?

Barry

Subject: RE: October Shanty Session @ Press Room (NH)
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 19 Oct 06 - 07:21 AM

Bat GODDESS has a cat o' nine tails, too -- braided black leather, very chic.

But, alas, I'll be missing this Saturday's "melee" -- I have too much to do and not enough time to do it in.

Linn

(Perhaps I'll loan Tom the cat to add to his belaying pin?)

Subject: RE: October Shanty Session @ Press Room (NH)
From: SINSULL
Date: 19 Oct 06 - 09:02 AM

Actually I have switched to a bullwhip. Jacqui and I are doing a craft fair on Saturday so our participation depends on how tired and cranky we are. We do however have new hats purchased especially for the Shanty Sing.

By the way - I am expecting the return of certain property stolen from home by a pair of ruthless pirates who will be made to pay for their transgression.

Subject: RE: October Shanty Session @ Press Room (NH)
From: Jeri
Date: 19 Oct 06 - 05:31 PM

"Pilfered by a pair of pirate perpetrators who will be pressured to pay and perhaps imposed upon to perambulate the plank for their perverse misappropriation." (Not to mention Peter's perverted propensitiy for putting 'produits de pain'* in his pants.)

* bad French for bread products

I plan on being there.

Subject: RE: October Shanty Session @ Press Room (NH)
From: Charley Noble
Date: 20 Oct 06 - 09:43 AM

Tom-

I plan to be there and I'll see if I can get some more Roll & Go folks to stir their stumps.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble, back in Maine!

Subject: RE: October Shanty Session @ Press Room (NH)
From: adventure
Date: 21 Oct 06 - 08:31 AM

Hello everyone...
Some of us are going to try to make it to the Press Room, but it may be a bit later than startup time. We have a gig at the Essex Clam Festival at 12:30 today. I'm wearing lead shoes to hold me down as the wind is really up quite a bit. This is a fun event with about 1500 people in attendance. Gardi is back from his travels...twas good to see him on Tuesday evening. Tom, I have forty individually controlled anti-bark collars from a kennel.....great control devices....I'll bring them along with us. May help you in keeping the gang in line. Don't work well on fur bearing animals though. Barry's in trouble unless he can grow a quick beard...or go to the local costume shop...it is that time of year ya' know. Could be a significant improvement...ya' think. And as far as the thievery goes..ancestors from our past still seem to haunt our beings...just a genetic throwback as well as the rum running during prohibition. It's all in the chemicals. You want your booty back....well I don't have one...never did!!!!! Bread is the food of life....my mother was always at me for playing with my food. You should see what I made with steamed clams and spaghetti last weekend....with bread!
Always a please to spend time with you....it's something we have to look forward to on a regular basis...pretty nice thing to have in our lives.
See you later.
The doryman and his mate.

Subject: RE: October Shanty Session @ Press Room (NH)
From: Charley Noble
Date: 22 Oct 06 - 07:52 AM

This was another fine gathering. It did start out slow with only three of us but the momentum picked up as Jeri, the Adventure crew, Barry, Carol, Maggie and Marc, Bruce, Dave, and several others swept through the doors and hove to.

We really filled the Press Room with sound and it's always great fun to watch the reaction of the casual shoppers who drop in from a break from shopping and then get sucked into listening.

I tried out Bob Watson's song "Neptune's Daughter" which he set to an Appalachian mountain tune (no, it wasn't me that done that deed). I need to do much more work on delivering the song but it's always tempting to try out something new.

What was the new song that Joanne sang? It sounded traditional but I hadn't heard her sing it before and she does a great job.

I also liked the international bottling company protest song that Jeri composed some years ago and which she and Carol sang. It may not be a sea song, except after the bottling company sucks out several gazillion gallons of water a year from New Hampshire's water table, the Atlantic Ocean will fill in the vacuum.

Then there were the Great Lakes songs that Maggie (from the Johnson Girls) led. And did Tom lead "Maggie May" in her honor? And Marc led a fine rendition of Woody Guthrie's "Reuban James."

JudyB and I had just returned from our recent visit to the UK the evening before and this evening was a great way to welcome ourselves home and overcome jet lag.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: October Shanty Session @ Press Room (NH)
From: Jeri
Date: 22 Oct 06 - 09:38 AM

And the canal song Maggie sang that George Ward wrote. The new song Joanne did was perhaps the Gordon Bok song, The Ways of Man? ("are passing strange... and he calls the tide his master") Perhaps it was something else. The format seemed to work, even if we were still working out kinks and getting comfortable with it.

Neptune's Daughter - same tune as Charlie's for C.F. Smith's Shanghai Brown. How did THAT happen?!

'Twas good to have Maggie and Mark visit, and I hope they return one day. Missed Rose, Colin and Owen. Missed the scary ladies from Portland. It's getting close to Halloween, and I guess the broom's in the shop for a tune-up or something. Good session.

Subject: RE: October Shanty Session @ Press Room (NH)
From: Charley Noble
Date: 22 Oct 06 - 10:16 AM

Jeri-

Bob Watson's Neptune's Daughter is certainly in the same family as the tune I use for Shanghai Passage, along with Sailing Round the Ocean and Going Cross the Mountain. I'm still teasing out some of the chord changes that Watson provided me.

In addition I'm now reviewing about a dozen nautical songs Watson has composed over the years, along with a compilation CD he kindly provided, and we certainly share a lot of interests and traditions. Most nautical singers would be familiar with his haunting song Molymauk. We didn't directly connect in the UK while I was there but I found a stash of his work sent to me via the Chantey Cabin.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: October Shanty Session @ Press Room (NH)
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 22 Oct 06 - 11:05 AM

Aw, Jeri, ya didn't miss me... (sob)

This was the first shanty session I've missed in the four years since we started it -- not counting the first year when the second Saturday conflicted with EVERYTHING (including Indian Neck).

Missed the singing (and seeing Maggie and Mark again), but I got stuff accomplished which is what I set out to do.

Linn

Subject: RE: October Shanty Session @ Press Room (NH)
From: Jeri
Date: 22 Oct 06 - 11:36 AM

Of COURSE I missed you, but I knew you weren't going to be there. The others hadn't been pre-excused. SINSULL hasn't posted anything since Friday midnight-forty-two, and Jacqui posted yesterday. If Mary doesn't turn up soon, someone should notify the authorities.

Subject: RE: October Shanty Session @ Press Room (NH)
From: Jeri
Date: 22 Oct 06 - 11:39 AM

Plus, I think I stiffed the waitress for a dollar and change for a fizzy water. Damn. Haven't done that since 1987, when it was a a couple bucks for a Guinness!

Subject: RE: October Shanty Session @ Press Room (NH)
From: jacqui.c
Date: 22 Oct 06 - 01:10 PM

WE got caught up with the Craft Fair and, by the time that had been packed up there just wasn't enough energy to make the trip to Portsmouth.

We missed you lot too.

Oh, and Jeri - the broom was serviced a while back, can't leave these things to chance!

Subject: RE: October Shanty Session @ Press Room (NH)
From: SINSULL
Date: 22 Oct 06 - 02:27 PM

My Nimbus 2000 is ready to rock but getting up before dawn to pack for a craft fair did me in. I did however win the 50/50 - $68. Made up for lack of sales.
Song Circle next week.
SINS