So, perhaps thinking in terms of each set of recordings, moving chronologically...

1. The 1950s Cecil Sharp House recordings: what do we know?

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2. The first album, Shanties from the Seven Seas. Very interesting set list. It strikes me as slightly uncharacteristic of the kind of stuff he'd later do.

The Ebenezer
Stormalong
A Long Time Ago
Essequibo River
Liverpool Packet
John Cherokee
Row, Bullies, Row
Paddy Lay Back
John Kanaka
The Flash Packet
Way Down in Dixie
The Companayro
Ranzo Ray
Swansea Town.

There is slightly more emphasis on the songs he gathered from his West Indian informants. Or maybe the emphasis is just on songs that had few sources / that were not well known. Because there is also maybe an avoidance of the songs that would have been really well known.

My guess is that a goal was to follow up the SfSS publication with some examples of what was really special in it, stuff others didn't have in their repertoire/ record collection.
In later years, Hugill settled into what he really *liked* to sing, I suppose.

How were these performances (for this album) worked up? Did Hugill do them all from memory, or were some oddball items from his collection for which reason he needed to reference the book or jot down words?

Who were "the York & Albany Crew"? McGrath of Harlow shared this memory 13 yrs ago on Mudcat:

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Date: 27 Nov 99 - 09:24 PM

When Stan Hugill was recording "Shanties of the Seven Seas" many years ago, down in the cellar of Cecil Sharp House in London, he was very keen on keeping them authentic as working shanties.
So he had the shanty crew (of which I was one) walking round in a circle for the capstan shanties, till we got it right, and hauling on cables for some of the other songs - whatever was the appropriate kind of activity.
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