Hi Barry

Sounds interesting - I've always been more drawn to folksongs like shanties and worksongs that have sprung from some kind of work ethic: hardship, fellowship, intimations of mortality - they have a very special quality.

Do you know Odea Matthew's rendition of "Something Within Me" on one of the recordings from Angola Prison? Superb - to think this was a woman who was banged up for the rest of her life, to work away, and yet it's such an inspiring song of hope and optimism.

I wrote a shanty for a show a couple of years back about the scientists and botanists on Captain Cook's ship the Endeavour. They went off to the great Terra Australis Incognita in the hope of completing the Great Chain Of Being (according to Linnaeus' theorem, they were only a few hundred species short), and ended up discovering far too many new species for the theorem to hold - thus ushering in, 80 years before Darwin, the concept of evolution. I called it Botany Bay (not to be confused with the other of the same title!) and would be happy to paste up the words for you. It's fun, and there's not too many out there about flower collectors!

All the best

Chris