Second Saturday Shanty Session (NH)

Subject: RE: Second Saturday Shanty Session (NH)
From: GUEST,Julia
Date: 07 Feb 03 - 11:43 AM

Fred says it's the painting of the snake along the side that makes it really interesting... Oh dear.

Subject: RE: Second Saturday Shanty Session (NH)
From: Naemanson
Date: 07 Feb 03 - 11:56 AM

Will he bring his 6 foot thingie to the Middle Earth dinner?

Subject: RE: Second Saturday Shanty Session (NH)
From: GUEST,Julia
Date: 07 Feb 03 - 12:23 PM

It lives here Brett- Actually he has been practicing making ent-like noises on it- come if you dare

Subject: RE: Second Saturday Shanty Session (NH)
From: Naemanson
Date: 07 Feb 03 - 12:51 PM

Hum, Hoom, digeridoo, a hasty name for an instrument that plays long ent notes.

Subject: RE: Second Saturday Shanty Session (NH)
From: Barry Finn
Date: 07 Feb 03 - 06:28 PM

S.O.B. just found out that cause of the weather what we had planed for tonight (visiting my sister-in-law from San Fran.) has changed to tomorrow afternoon. Have a hell've sing. Barry

Subject: RE: Second Saturday Shanty Session (NH)
From: Charley Noble
Date: 07 Feb 03 - 07:11 PM

Barry-

Sorry to hear that. Are you sure your sister-in-law wouldn't enjoy experiencing the shanty swap? We can be very good, errr, well-behaved, well, some of us....maybe.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Second Saturday Shanty Session (NH)
From: curmudgeon
Date: 08 Feb 03 - 08:53 AM

You will be missed, Barry. But there's always next month and many more to come.

See the rest of you this afternoon -- Tom

Subject: RE: Second Saturday Shanty Session (NH)
From: SINSULL
Date: 08 Feb 03 - 11:09 AM

Damn Barry. You will be missed. Tinker may be here for next month's. See you then?

Subject: RE: Second Saturday Shanty Session (NH)
From: Jeri
Date: 08 Feb 03 - 11:42 AM

Jeez, Barry! And I was gonna sing "Carmelita, haul that bowline, the sun is sinkin' down...

Sinsull, methinks if you're posting at 11:09, you aren't gonna get here early!

Subject: RE: Second Saturday Shanty Session (NH)
From: Charley Noble
Date: 08 Feb 03 - 12:07 PM

Jeri-

How long does it take you to get from Portsmouth to Portland, more than an hour?

Oh, do bring your fiddle.

The Roll & Go van leaves Portland around 2 pm and should reach Portsmouth around 3 pm and then we'll take another 15 or so minutes to find parking. See you all around 3:30 pm.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Second Saturday Shanty Session (NH)
From: SINSULL
Date: 08 Feb 03 - 09:15 PM

I was supposed to meet Jeri at 12 for lunch with Brett. Brett ran late and so we arrived at 1:05, about 5 minutes before Jeri.

I didn't know quite what to make of it. Brett showed up at my door in crotchless jeans. He was walking funny to disguise the problem but between the icy path and icy blasts... So we took a detour to a shopping mall to get him decent again. I bought some new sneakers and we were late but modest and socially acceptable. Jeri, on the other hand, had no excuse. She was just plain late

Good friends, good music. Barry Finn made it with his son and was invited to sing breathlessly as he sat down. Never saw Barry lose his timing before. Mean trick.

We raised a few glasses, hauled a number of bowlines, sank a few ships, broke a few hearts, and went home quite satisfied.

Subject: RE: Second Saturday Shanty Session (NH)
From: Charley Noble
Date: 08 Feb 03 - 10:34 PM

I's back home. Had a great time singing with everyone and now it's to bed!

zzzzzz,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Second Saturday Shanty Session (NH)
From: Brían
Date: 09 Feb 03 - 01:05 AM

Well I must say I enjoyed myself. I am looking around at the info on THE HARP WITHOUT THE CROWN. Joe Heaney says the name of the boat was the Dennis O'Brien. The harp without the crown was the flag it flew. I'd like to know about any books on the subject since Naemanson and others affirmed that the boat was built in Bath.

I am going to try to learn at least one shanty for the next one. I wasnt to see if anyone can prove I was just making up the words to that song about poor ol' Mrs. Clougherty dying all by herself away from her own people and not even having a proper wake because the wind was blowing for three days.

Brían

Subject: RE: Second Saturday Shanty Session (NH)
From: curmudgeon
Date: 09 Feb 03 - 09:25 AM

It was a grand time indeed. in addition to the usual suspects, we were joined by first-timers Tyler Buck, Brian Marston, Jean Jennings, Steve ?, and Mudcatter Just another Dave, who drove all the way from Connecticut.

Less than four weeks to the next session on 8 March. Hope to see all of you and more at that time -- Tom

Subject: RE: Second Saturday Shanty Session (NH)
From: GUEST
Date: 09 Feb 03 - 09:43 AM

Brian,

Try this link -- scroll to the second article on the page:

http://hometown.aol.com/shanteyman/page2.html


All:

Had a great time !! NIce to be able to connect faces with Mudcat names. Hoope We can do it again. If not, hope to see you all at Mystic for the Seamusic fest.

Dave

Subject: RE: Second Saturday Shanty Session (NH)
From: Just another Dave
Date: 09 Feb 03 - 09:47 AM

oops !-- musta lost my cookie

DAve

Subject: RE: Second Saturday Shanty Session (NH)
From: Charley Noble
Date: 09 Feb 03 - 10:20 AM

I was particularly pleased to hear Linn sing "Race of Long Ago" (thread just refreshed), from a poem by Cicely Fox Smith ("Racing Clippers"),
as adapted by Bob Roberts and sung by Dave Webber & Anni Fentiman. The tune really brings this old poem to life.

I responded with my adaptation of C. Fox Smith's "Flying-Fish Sailor" which I found difficult to balance between my voice and banjo without a sound system; it's a nice driving version and I have to figure out a running chorus to bring other people in.

Barry did show up, or perhaps it was a clone but a very convincing one, and demonstrated how Peter Bellamy's "Roll Down" could be brought closer to a traditional shanty, despite the efforts of our chorus to retain the more contemporary interpretation. What a dynamic tension!

It was good to hear Jean singing again; haven't heard her since the Mystic Sea Music Festival.

And Mudcat's Just Another Dave did some fine work singing, backed up with his banjo; I believe he gets credit for driving the longest distance. Next time, Dave, why don't you shanghai some of them other CT shantysingers to help you drive on the way back?

Thanks again, Tom, for making this fine session possible.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Second Saturday Shanty Session (NH)
From: Jeri
Date: 09 Feb 03 - 10:41 AM

In case anyone's interested (since a couple people asked where I got the song), the lyrics to "The Luckiest Sailor" are here: http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=35861#492452.
Author Linda Kelly (AKA Ickle Dorritt) posted the background in the same thread, here: http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=35861#498747
Here's a MIDI

Dave, it was a pleasure to have you here and I hope you can make it again!

Some people say they're coming and don't show up, but I prefer Barry's version - saying he's not coming then just blowing through the door. It was my turn to sing when Barry showed up. I was thinking about what I wanted to do, when Tom saw him walking towards us and said "Barry, sing something!" Barry launched into a song about a second later, before he even sat down.

Subject: RE: Second Saturday Shanty Session (NH)
From: SINSULL
Date: 09 Feb 03 - 01:22 PM

A Mondegreen - I thought "Just Another Dave" was "Just Another Day". No wonder my line "...on the Grey Flannel Line" fell on deaf ears. My favorite moment - "Roll, Alabama, Roll", booming verses and full chorus. Neat!

Subject: RE: Second Saturday Shanty Session (NH)
From: Brían
Date: 09 Feb 03 - 02:24 PM

Thanks, Just Another Dave. I stumbled across that site last night but didn't see the obvious. I can probably get the book at the local library.

Joe heaney calls the ship the Thomas O'Brien. The melody is similar, but the chorus is more or less the same.

I have been listening to the tape I made this morning. Bat Goddesses song about marrying the Keelman was great. I thought Barry's entrance was superb, considering he had posted to say he wouldn't come. I noticed his son was doing some fine drawing in the corner when I walked over.

Brían

Subject: RE: Second Saturday Shanty Session (NH)
From: Jeri
Date: 09 Feb 03 - 03:41 PM

Hey Brían, that's Just Another Dave's website. Must poke around the rest of it sometime.

Subject: RE: Second Saturday Shanty Session (NH)
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 09 Feb 03 - 05:27 PM

The version of "The Harp Without the Crown" that I've been, uh, "learning" for any number of years now doesn't actually mention the name of the "Yankee ship flying the green burgee. The words I have are different from the DT and I think I got them from a recording by Stuart Frank (but I'd have to check -- I didn't actually put that information in my file copy).

My version of "Sandgate Girl's Lament" is mostly from the singing of Betty and Norman MacDonald, with a couple lines from Joyce and Danny McLeod and a reference to The Highlevel Ranters' version (which configures the verses a bit differently, doubling up verses). There -- does that confuse everybody? It's a wonderful song -- I get comments on it every time I sing it.

"He's an ugaly body, a boobaly body
An ill-faced hideous loon.
Since I married a keelman
All my good days are done."

Linn

Subject: RE: Second Saturday Shanty Session (NH)
From: Brían
Date: 10 Feb 03 - 07:00 AM

Thanks, Linn. I wuz embarrased to ask what the chorus was.

Brían

Subject: RE: Second Saturday Shanty Session (NH)
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 10 Feb 03 - 06:48 PM

And I just checked: the recording that I have of "The Harp Without the Crown" is Stuart Frank's "Songs of Sea and Shore" (which I have on LP).

Linn

Subject: RE: Second Saturday Shanty Session (NH)
From: Barry Finn
Date: 10 Feb 03 - 08:23 PM

Lost my timming, hell I lost my breath, yes mean trick but cute. Liam's Brother (Dan Milner) did a great recording of 'Harp Without a Crown' with Bob Conroy on his 'Irish Ballards & Songs Of The Sea'. Charlie, that's the way Peter Bellany sang it, high harmony on the chorus & all. I recorded him singing it at a concert but more I can remember his energy. It was another great session. Thanks, Tom & Lin

Subject: RE: Second Saturday Shanty Session (NH)
From: Charley Noble
Date: 10 Feb 03 - 08:31 PM

Barry-

Sad to say I never heard Bellamy sing "Roll Down." I do have Cyrill Tawney singing it on THE TRANSPORTS CD, and James Keelaghan on one of his early CD's which probably was the major influence on how our Roll & Go crew sings it.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Second Saturday Shanty Session (NH)
From: Brían
Date: 26 Feb 03 - 07:13 AM

I just thought I'd refresh this to say I'm looking forward to the next singaround on March 8!

Brían