Toss RUS. Using that (or any other "ordained" songbook) is like sitting around singing out of The Federal Old Line Song Book. Set the instruments aside and learn a bunch of genuine sea chanteys. They're easy to learn and choruses are easy to pick up and fun for a group to sing. Just rear back and let 'er rip! That's how the Seattle Song Circle got started in June of 1977, and by August, the SSC (by then, about seventy of us) had got so good at chantey-singing that we were asked to do honors at the Northwest Seaport Sail and Chantey Festival (NW Seaport is dedicated to preserving hisorical vessels, such as the schooner Wawona). Hell of a blast. We bellowed our lungs out on the deck of the Wawona, and later in the day wound up having a chance to sing fo'c'sle chanteys in a real fo'c'sle! And we performed in a concert that evening.

A couple good chanteys to start off the evening and blow the soot out of everybodies pipes, and the rest is ducksoup.