Sea songs - ideas?

Subject: RE: Sea songs - ideas?
From: Charley Noble
Date: 04 Apr 06 - 07:59 AM

Sounds like you've come up with some suitable choices for the immediate future.

You may want to consider adapting the nautical poems of Cicely Fox Smith to traditional tunes. Smith was a poet who as a young woman traveled from England to the Pacific Northwest, spent 10 years in the early 1900's talking to sailors along the Victoria waterfront, and composed over 300 poems. Many of her poems in the original form are now posted at the Oldpoetry website: Click here for website

In the UK Danny and Joyce McLeod have recorded many of her poems. Bob Zentz in the States has recorded as many and I have also recorded over a dozen of her poems. You can see and hear samples of my work at this website: click here and search for lyrics!

My first suggestion is try "Shipmates." It's based on Smith's personal experience, has an accessible refrain, and the tune should be a familar traditional one.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Sea songs - ideas?
From: Purple Foxx
Date: 04 Apr 06 - 07:55 AM

Blow the wind Southerly suits a contralto,gives a female perspective
& is particularly appropriate for the region.
The keel row is also a lovely song but that's about the river rather than the sea so that might be cheating.

Subject: RE: Sea songs - ideas?
From: Emma B
Date: 04 Apr 06 - 07:38 AM

One of my favourites - "My Donald" check the DT

Subject: RE: Sea songs - ideas?
From: Flash Company
Date: 04 Apr 06 - 07:34 AM

How about 'Lord Franklin'?

FC

Subject: RE: Sea songs - ideas?
From: GUEST
Date: 04 Apr 06 - 07:34 AM

The beauty of theme nights is that you can sing anything that can be made to fit the theme. Sometimes the more tenuous the link you can get away with, the better.

By all means sing Skye Boat Song, it's probably your best chance for it to go down well.

Subject: Sea songs - ideas?
From: Northerner
Date: 04 Apr 06 - 07:31 AM

One of the folk clubs that I go to is having a theme night on Thursday on sea songs. As yet my repertoire is very small so I am searching for good material. I have a sweet (but contralto) female voice and although I absolutely love sea shanties I am not certain that they suit my type of voice.

We are allowed two songs, but I am happy if I can do one and do it well. I was considering "Here's the tender coming" as my first choice. I'm from the north-east of England and although not strictly in the local area I am near enough to it to make this a good choice. Also it's a good song for a lady. I have Frankie Armstrong singing it on CD too, and have also found the lyrics to it on the Internet. I like the song and had been considering putting it into my repertoire anyway.

And now for my second choice. I had been wondering about singing "The Skye Boat Song". I sang this with a friend at a folk club last month, and a couple of musicians at the club played accompaniment for us. My friend has only just started going to folk clubs and needed a song that she could sing with me. It's such a well-known song that I thought it would be easy for her to start off with (she sings in a choir and has a good voice). I have to say that we went down really, really well! Lots of people joining in! Would this be suitable for this other club do you think? I do have a reservation about whether it is really a folk song. The old bone of contention that strictly speaking it is a traditional style song rather than a traditional one. It's not anonymous but a composed song. However, I don't think that this club will mind. The club organiser is keen for performers to have material that encourage audience participation.

So, what do you think?   Can you suggest any other songs that I could perform as an alternative? Songs about the sea but that come from a female perpsective. Even if I don't sing them for this particular occasion I can still think about using them in the future. I live in the north-east of England and sing English and Scottish songs.

Thank you in advance!