Judy an I arrived an hour late for the session but it's always fun to swing through the doors of the Press Room to the sound of robust singing. Who was that pack of teenagers holding forth at the bar?
I understand that all of Barry's songs were covered before I got there, so I didn't have to attempt to fill his big sea-boots. The residual Gloucester gang did themselves proud with "Run Come See Jerusalem" and other sea songs, and the tall fella who led "Garnet's Home-Made Brew" was a great addition. Al and Barbara from South Street/greater NYC were there, Al leading more of Harry Robertson's whaling songs. Nor and Eli were there from Roll & Go, along with our new apprentice Carol (I'll be curious to hear what she thought of the session); Nor led "I Wish I was Back in Liverpool (Liverpool Lullaby)" which everyone seemed to be able to join in on. Later Nor led the "Marco Polo" from Jim Stewart's Marco Polo Folk Opera, commemorating that famous record-breaking sailing ship built in St. John, New Brunswick; for some reason (maybe because there's no room to breathe) folks were not contributing more than a few whimpers and gasps to the grand chorus. Judy got great support when she led "Roll the Old Chariot." Linn led the "Cannery Can Song" and then we managed to persuade Linn to lead C. Fox Smith's "Race of Long Ago," an arrangement I believe from sailing barge captain Bob Roberts, one of the first singers to re-discover this poet's fine nautical poems. I led my revised version of CFS's "Rio Grand," giving up the grand chorus. I also had fun leading "Wake Up Susiana," an obscure precursor to the better known "Wake Up Little Suzi" that I discovered some years ago lining an old sea chest. Tom led one of my favorite sailortown songs "Cruisin' Round Yarmouth" and ended the evening with "Leaving of Liverpool" as another tribute to Stan Hugill's 100th birthday bash taking place in that fair city this same weekend. Who was it who led "Northwest Passage"? They did a great job. We got Jeri to lead "Mollymauk" which gave me an excuse to try out another Bob Watson song "Neptune's Daughter."
One of the best compliments I heard was while I was taking a break in the men's room where an ex-coastguard man, who'd been playing darts by the bar, told me that he hadn't heard such good singing since he'd been with some of his buddies on his ship based in South Portland.
The kitchen crew was well-behaved and the service from the bar wench was impeccable.