If they'd had the self-restraint to leave "shanties" out of the discussion, it might have been good. Even though there was hardly a shanty in the program, they kept invoking this quaint idea of "shanties", as if to piggy-back on their history and the idea of these "roughie toughie" work songs. The info on shanties, however, was mostly erroneous, and the "demonstration" did not work (songs were improperly matched and the work performed clumsily -- they could at least have a demonstration by people who were experienced). And then you have the Fisherman's Friends, who can't seem to get past "Nancy Blair" before ending their 3-5 verse shanty inspired cover-songs. Hmm, that lobster pot shanty didn't look like it was coordinating anything, to me.

Basically, cut the pretense. Make the program about the GROUPS/PERFORMERS, whatever they are doing. Stop making up history and subjecting them to pretense. Focus on what they are ACTUALLY doing: their comraderie, their community, and their great singing of songs inspired by the sea and nautical life. Leave in the stories about the performers and their lives, and the communities they address. Leave out the constant, erroneous, nationally/ethnically biased fluff....seriously, there is already enough misinformation, and already enough damage done to traditional genres.