More information about Che Rodgers, our Shanty Leader for Wednesday Dec 9th...
Che was a self-educated and highly driven child. He started
working on boats at around fifteen; and studied boatbuilding and traditional
rigging shortly thereafter.
He worked as a rigger for a couple years before taking to
the water full-time as a bosun, and later as chief mate on the schooner Spike
Africa. He obtained his captain’s license at 19.
Che has sailed on many traditional and modern vessels since,
several of them schooners, and spent most of 2014 in the UK aboard a pilot
cutter yacht built by Luke Powell of Working Sail. He and the owner (of limited
experience) sailed about 1,200 miles over seven-plus months from Falmouth,
Cornwall, to the Outer Hebrides of Scotland via the Irish Sea. It was a hell of
a learning curve! Currently he’s working on small adventure-cruise vessels in
Southeast Alaska.
On to music...Che plays mostly mandolin and banjo, usually in
American old-time or Irish circles. Lately he’s been collaborating with fellow
local musician and sailor Daniel Macke; often performing as a duo. They play
folk-inspired, original compositions on mandolin and bouzouki.
Che also dabbles in instrument building and repair, and he’s
slowly building a fiddle with the full intention of actually learning to play
the thing one day. He has rebuilt his mandolin after a critical case of
"terminal gap-osis", and has enjoyed renovating a couple of banjos
from the 1880's to 1890's.
