I've been enjoying listening to my new copy of "Close-Hauled on the Wind of a Dream" for the last few days. It really is a "sea chest" of songs which folks will treasure. "Sea Dream" remains my favorite but then there's all the other songs.

As I've said above, my other personal favorites include The Blue Peter, Casey's Concertina, Ice: The Bosun's Story, The Tryphena's Extra Hand, Portsmouth Road, Ships That Pass, Racing Clippers, Bill's Christmases, Eight Bells, Leave Her Johnnie. The other are well worth a listen.

I do enjoy the final track, "Frisco Bound," in which C. Fox Smith describes a bucko mate cussing out the hung-over crew as a tall ship prepares to make sail, finally pulling them together with a shanty. Lyn Lewis narrates as C. Fox Smith and Tom raises the dead as the shantyman! Great fun and I wish I could have been there when the scene was being produced.

Zentz will be performing for the first time in years at the Mystic Sea Music Festival, the second weekend of June. He will also be conducting a workshop on C. Fox Smith and her nautical poetry.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble