And the Commander chimes in (I came straight from work at the Pentagon, where I'm on 6 months Active Duty doing a computer project)...

That was one of the best Chantey Sings we've pulled off lately! As Naemonsen says, it was a good crowd in good voice, with lotsa new songs and a good bit of wit to boot. Many thanks to him, Wotcha and Mrrzy for joining in -- and for the new songs they've sung and written down for me! I should note that the vast majority of the lyrics in the Chantey Hymnal, now some 40 pages and 125 songs long, come from DigiTrad. I started building the Hymnal two years ago to help my own faulty memory, and now print 5-6 copies each month for folks to use at the session. I try to be careful to include songwriter names where known, and limit both distribution and printrun to not step beyond Fair Use...

We had another unexpected visitor: Grace Griffith of Caeltoire (sp?) came by, contributing her fine sweet soprano. And when the staff threw us out at 10:00, we weren't done yet; a group of half-a-dozen hardcores sang for another hour on the sidewalk in front of the place.

This was the first time I've been to a South End/Alexandria (as opposed to North End/Wheaton) sing. The acoustics at Cates' are much better than at Royal Mile, the pub where we meet the first Tuesday of the month in Wheaton, though the food is slower, not as good and much pricier down south. Still, well worth being groggy the first half of the next morning!! Lynn T CDR USNR