Tune Req: Shanties

Subject: Tune Req: Shanties
From: fiddler
Date: 24 Jun 03 - 08:02 AM

Whilst trotting around Reading Waterfest on Saturday I was accosted (as I had been performing) - not physically and damagingly I hasten to add, by a canal boat owner who is looking to Buy a collection of Sea Sahnties and music so he cna learn to sing them for canal gatherings.

I learned all the ones I know and have forgotten in Clubs and at festivals.

Anyone (at the risk of opening a serious can of worms) got any ideas of a good boof to reccommend?

Thanx

X

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Shanties
From: Geoff the Duck
Date: 24 Jun 03 - 08:12 AM

There is one written by Stan Hughill which is pretty comprehensive. It also contains background about how songs were used.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Shanties
From: alanww
Date: 24 Jun 03 - 09:24 AM

Shanties from the Seven Seas, Stan Hugill, Mystic Seaport Museum, Mystic, Connecticut, USA 1994 ISBN 0-913372-70-6
Boxing the Compass - Sea Songsand Shanties, Roy Palmer, Heron Publishing, 53 Wellington Road, Todmorden, West Yorkshire, OL14 5DY, UK 2001 ISBN 0-9540682-0-3
Songs of the Sailor and Lumberman, William Main Doerflinger, Meyerboobs, Glenwood, Illinois, USA 1990 edition ISBN 0-916638-40-5

Happy learning!
"I thought I heard the old man say ...!"
Alan

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Shanties
From: GUEST
Date: 24 Jun 03 - 09:30 AM

Stan Hugill's collection is the one, but there are also smaller collections. Doerflinger is a great book, but I wouldn't describe it as chock-full of shanties, per se.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Shanties
From: Dave Bryant
Date: 24 Jun 03 - 11:06 AM

He'd be better off learning Canal Songs - there's not much call for longhaul shanties on board a narrowboat - not even when you've run aground. There is a canal version of "Poor old Horse".

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Shanties
From: Schantieman
Date: 24 Jun 03 - 12:09 PM

Hugill wrote another book (after the bible that Alan referred to above), imaginatively entitled Sea Shanties. It's smaller and paperbacked (and therefore considerably cheaper) but probably out of print. Contains a lot of background on how sailing ships work and how the shanties were used. Some of the shanties in here don't appear in the big one.

My copy's at home so I don't have the details to hand at the moment.

Steve

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Shanties
From: fiddler
Date: 24 Jun 03 - 01:22 PM

This is all brilliant stuff I can print it off and give it to him!

Cheers

X

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Shanties
From: GUEST,Anne
Date: 24 Jun 03 - 09:14 PM

This is not a book (sorry)but a modern canal song written by John Warner of Australia and sung by John Warner and Margaret Walters on their CD "Who Was Here", available from their website (just put their names into a search engine) or email [e-mail]
Called "Telford's Bridge", it is a lovely song with a great catchy chorus:
"So butter some bread,Sally, brew us some tea,
For it's cold on old Telford's Bridge over the Dee"
Anne

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Shanties
From: Peter Kasin
Date: 25 Jun 03 - 01:55 AM

What Schantieman mentioned:

Stan Hugill, Sea Shanties: 1977, Barrie and Jenkins, LTD. Another Hugill book with lots of background info on how shanties were used, is Shanties and Sailors Songs: 1969, Praeger. there are a few copies of this out of print book at www.bookfinder.com, which is a great source for rare books.

Some essential recordings (IMHO) available on CD:

Ewan MacColl and A.L lloyd, BLOW BOYS BLOW
Louis Killen, et al, STEADY AS SHE GOES
Stan Hugill, A SALTY FORE TOPMAN
Stan Hugill, SAILING DAYS
Stan Hugill , CHANTS DES MARINS ANGLAIS (les chasse-maree anthology of sea songs, vol 3)                     
Johnny Collins, Dave Webber and Pete Watkinson, SHANTIES AND SONGS OF THE SEA
Mystic Seaport's Forebitter, AMERICAN SEA CHANTEYS( le chasse-maree anthology of sea songs, vol. 11)
Holdstock and MacLeod, DEEPWATER SHANTIES

Chanteyranger

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Shanties
From:
Date: 25 Jun 03 - 11:18 AM

Hopefully in the next few months, the Helen Creighton Folklore Society will be offering a 2 CD-set of actual field recordings. The recording has the working title, Sea Songs Project. It's going to have about 28-30 tracks taken from the original recordings Helen Creigton made with her informants. They've been cleaned up, ie snap/crackle/pop, but otherwise untouched. Included in the booklet is going to be lyrics, and a small amount of information on whom she gathered the song from.

The aim is to be finished by August/September (just in time for Christmas, right?). We haven't set a price yet. Watch for an announcement when available here at the Mudcat. For a bit about the Sea Song Project, go the the site below, and click on Sea Song Project:

Helen Creighton

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Shanties
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 25 Jun 03 - 02:16 PM

Wow! That's great to hear, George.

~ Becky in Tucson

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Shanties
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 25 Jun 03 - 02:21 PM

For canal boat songs, you get lots of results if you search the DT & Forum using "canal".

~ B in T

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Shanties
From: SINSULL
Date: 25 Jun 03 - 05:29 PM

The Boarding Party CDs and Shipping News' CD, available at Old Songs from the Patons or from Dick Greenhaus.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Shanties
From: Peter Kasin
Date: 25 Jun 03 - 11:24 PM

Yes, keep us posted on the Creighton collection's CD debut, George! I'll PM Radriano, Barry Finn, and Charley Noble about your post. Thanks for the heads-up. Are you involved in distribution/sales?

Chanteyranger

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Shanties
From: GUEST,Dustin
Date: 26 Jun 03 - 01:52 AM

Uh, folks, some clarifications from memory: Sea Shanties is Shanties and Sailor's Songs with some of the chapters omitted, not an independent book. I can't tell you which chapters because I don't know where my copy of Sea Shanties is (I think I gave it away because I have the parent volume), but Shanties and Sailor's Songs has the best description of how shanties were used (better than the original Shanties From The Seven Seas) as well as a history of shanties which reflects some evolution in thinking from Shanties From The Seven Seas and a rather nice discussion of recordings and books up to the time of publication. It was a couple of those long initial chapters which were omitted--the songs are all there.

Stan also had a third book (I don't count the Sea Shanties abridgement) of sea music titled Songs of the Sea which is also worth having, particularly for the discography and the nice illustrations (production values took a big jump on this one). Thematically, the big difference is that the second book adds non-working sailor songs to the working shanties and the third book includes shore songs of the sea. In terms of content, the first book attempts to be complete and encyclopedic and therefore is invaluable to the enthusiast but probably not the best first book. (Which of the hundreds should you learn? Which versions of the melody? Which versions of the lyrics? Which verses selected from that version?) The other books try to present single versions suitable for performances--Shanties and Sailor's Songs in particular would be suitable for building an initial repertoire.

Hope that helps. I always assumed this was common knowledge, since the books can be tracked down if you look hard enough, but perhaps it is not.

Dustin

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Shanties
From: Gurney
Date: 26 Jun 03 - 02:20 AM

See if you can get a copy of Tawney's version of 'the Calabar' which is a canal song. The words are in the digitrad but Tawney uses a different and less Irish-sounding tune.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Shanties
From: Naemanson
Date: 26 Jun 03 - 04:15 AM

I have a wonderful CD of canal songs but I will not have my music collection until my household goods arrive in August.