1. How did you get started singing Sea Shanties and Sea Songs?

I started working in construction around the age of 18 & always had a love of the water & boats. Having already fallen for folk during the folk scene of the 60's, when I got back into it in the early 70's I naturally drifted towards the songs of labor & the work song genre, espically prison worksongs & shanties. They eventually becaume my favorites to sing.

2. How do you learn your songs? Where do you find them?

At first I learnt off records (LP's), then from taping festivals & concerts. It was slim pickings back then (early 70's) so it was off to the never ending digging through libraries. About that same time I joined the Folk Song Society of Greater Boston which opened more avenues. By the late 70's I had been made the honorary shantyman of a museum ship the brig Carthaginian in Lahinia on Maui where I met George Herbert an old Cape Horner/master mariner/master rigger, singer, musician (anglo concerina, tenor uke & harmonica) & collector as well as a source. We became friends until he died, from him I collected maybe better than 1/2 dozen songs that I have't heard elsewhere. The Mystic Sea Music festivals started up shorty after that when I returned to Boston, so now there was a place for shanties & shantey lovers to get together & network. Talking shop with others was also a great source of shanties.

3. Do you teach others your songs? If so in what way?

No, I never taught, though I have done workshops. I sing them freely & welcome anyone to them. When asked I've always been happy for others to sing them. If they'er decent enough that others ask for them or about them I think of it as gardening from seed. Spread them & they'll grow on their own & in their own way. I feel as if I've done a good job (& I feel it is my job & as well a labor of love if they're passed on) when I hear that others are singing songs that they've had from me, espically if they've recorded some of them. Shortly I'll put some out on my 1st ever recording.

4. Who or where have you learned most of your sea music from?

Mostly from other singers of shanties and sailors. Most blue water or deep water sailors (espically tall ship sailors) have a couple that they love & can relate to in their back pouch somewhere, and other shantey singers, if they love them, they are always on the hunt for new good material to sing & bring forth.

5. Would you say the internet is helping or harming the traditional sea music? How?

I agree with the above others that the internet has been a wonderful place for all music types. Through the olnline forums, availability of lyrics & music, the face to face meetings arranged though the internet, the group meetings, festivals, singing clubs all benifit & inhance the spreading of musical infomation, pleasure, history, knowledge & the sharing of shanties & other musical forms. It's a great place for digging, mining & exploring espically for those songs within the traditional genres.

Barry