It was a fine session, and even more so since I'd missed the July one. There were about two dozen singers. For the first time in my experience there were gaps in between the songs, and people had to be encouraged to sing. Maybe we were all just suffering August burn-out.

I tried out a few new songs, "The Sea Cook" and "Sea Dream," that I've adapted for singing from poems by old sailor-poets Bill Adams and Burt Franklin Jenness respectively. I revived "The Pirates Own Song" which I've set a tune to and plan to sing with Roll & Go at the Downeast Pirate Fest in Rockland Labor day weekend. I also sang my arrangement of "Lee Fore Brace" by Cicely Fox Smith. I first sang "Concrete and Glass" which is an anti-urban displacement song to the tune of "All for me Grog" which Tom Hall had led; "Concrete and Glass" was first composed in Sydney, Australia, back in the late 1970's during an urban renewal battle in the Woolloomooloo neighborhood but the verses I sang were based on my own experience on Portland's working waterfront in the 1980's.

It was nice to have a listening table energized enough by the singing to lead a couple of songs as well. However, the three bikers who came in didn't even raise an eyebrow. The kitchen staff provided their usual spirited accompaniment.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble