Professor Gibb Schreffler of Pomona College - better known to Mudcat as "Gibb Sahib" - has just published a fascinating and important little book on chanteys called "Boxing the Compass" (CAMSCO Music, 2018).

Gibb has immersed himself in the theory and practice of chanteying probably more thoroughly than anyone else alive. (For starters, he recorded every one of Stan Hugill's chanteys for presentation on YouTube - just to get the feel and the feedback.)

Not a song collection, the hundred pages of "Boxing the Compass" instead examine how, between about 1860 and 1980, a succession of journalists, collectors, editors, folklorists, revival singers - and a handful of actual chanteymen - have shaped our understanding of chanteys, where they come from, and how - supposedly - they "should" be performed.

Naturally Stan Hugill gets a beautifully balanced chapter of his own. Important lesser known figures like John Robinson, Dick Maitland, and Frank Bullen, all of whom learned their chanteys in the generations before Hugill, also get some overdue attention.

"Boxing the Compass" will be indispensible to anyone with a serious interest in chanteying, not least because it includes the most extensive bibliography ever compiled on the subject.

It's a fascinating read, too. No academic jargon. I'm headed back for a second pass right now.