Well, an update on the kid who was 15 and sneering at Bill D's autoharp when this old thread was new....

Now almost 19 and a college freshman, he occasionally signs on the 'Cat as "GUEST,ShadowMonk" and has been seen at the Royal Mile Pub belting out sea songs. Even made it to NYC once for the Johnson Girls' shanty sing. He and his friends get together and sing for hours on end, occasionally in our downstairs area, while Bill and I are trying to get some sleep....

The main stimulus for this change in outlook was hearing The Pyrates Royale, who sing at the Maryland Renaissance Faire and have a mentality and style precisely suited to appeal to a high school boy (:-)-- sorry, Craig!). But by now he has quite a nice collection of folk (mostly shanties) including the Boarding Party, New Tradition, etc, and has sung at the Washington Folk Festival in a workshop about "Passing It On" [folk music, that is] within families.

Rita, mom of ShadowMonk