I just listened to all the samples.

I believe the adjective I'd use would be 'uneven.'

I forecast a couple of unfortunate outcomes. One, people will
innocently buy it for their kids. Oops. And that will put them
off the genre. Two, John and Jane Q. Public will buy the thing,
find it hideous, and that will put them off the genre.

Some of the tracks were obviously mastered in the studio, for
the purpose.

Others sound like they were gleaned from someone's home-made
CD or tape.

Still others sound as if someone stuck a microphone in the
center of a chantey sing (we've had people do that) with
bad result.

That about covers the recording quality.

Now, as to the performance quality:

I had a feeling that in some cases neither the performers nor the
producers knew what the material is supposed to sound like. Some
of the performers seem to be of a level of talent that causes
people to take potty breaks at sing-arounds. Others just sounded
inebriate.

I wonder who Sting was impersonating. He didn't sound like Sting
but rather some folk club denizen impersonating a primary source.
Personally, I don't think there's a thing wrong with his own voice
and I would have liked to hear that 'instrument' applied to the
material.

I guess what I find frustrating is this: if you were going to do
a compilation CD, why not just go out and license some of the best?
The best tracks on this were probably not as good as any of the
tracks on the Mystic Seaport Festival CDs, nor on some of the
Folkways compilations (such as X-Seaman's Institute and Friends
or the San Francisco Festival of the Sea recording).

Nor did I hear many 'fresh approaches' and what were there were
really rather indifferent and tolerable at best.

With two CDs and this many tracks, and this kind of cache...they
could have done so very much better.