Sea Chantey Sing-Alongs with Wayne Palsson - Wooden Boat Festival

39th Wooden Boat Festival

Port Townsend, Washington 

September 11, 12 and 13 - 2015

Sea Chantey Sing-Alongs with Host Wayne Palsson 

in the Marina Room at Port Hudson, 

Friday and Saturday Nights at 7:00 p.m.

Sounds of the Sea Resound by Robin Dudley PT Leader

I opened an email from Mike James to read: "Holy Mackerel!  Front page, section B.. Robin did a nice job."

I agree. Great article and photo. Thank you for telling our story, Robin!

Robin Dudley, reporter for the PT Leaders interviewed Mike James, Jay Hagar and friends... "Tug" Buse, Jim Scarantino and Steve Blakeslee, about our Sing Shanties Song Circle and songbook.

Sounds of the Sea Resound  - "The skies above Victorian seaports like Port Townsend are accustomed to loud and lusty sea shanties, which are sailors’ work songs. At the Northwest Maritime Center, 30 to 40 people meet each month to sing songs that “echoed across this waterfront like cell phone conversations do today,” said Mike James, one of the acknowledged leaders of Port Townsend’s Sing Shanties group.

People who just want to listen are also welcome at the monthly sing-alongs, and it’s free live music. Beware, matey: when surrounded by voices belting out familiar, repetitive tunes, even stalwart non-singers have been known to chime in. (Almost everybody knows the chorus to “What do you do with a drunken sailor?”)

“When it comes to shanties, you don’t have to sing well, just loud,” James said. “Number one, it’s not a talent show.”

Shanties were developed and sung by sailors who did physical labor requiring concerted effort, often lined up pulling hand-over-hand on a rope, or pushing the bars of a capstan around and around in a circle, raising the anchor.

James has sung shanties at the Northwest Folklife Festival in Seattle, astonished that the 900-seat theater was filled to overflowing when his group took the stage. The songs are so old, people just seem to know them, and performances turn into sing-alongs.

“That’s the crazy thing,” he said. “You sing through one verse, and after the first three words, everybody knows the refrain.” For the full article click here.

Wayne Palsson Returns to Launch Sing Shanties Song Circle's 4th Year!

Chanteyman Wayne Palsson from Seattle will be back to kick off our New Year celebrating our 4th Anniversary at the Northwest Maritime Center in Port Townsend on Wednesday, January 14th from 6:00 to 8:00ish p.m. Bring yer mates for a rousing, family-friendly good time, and it's FREE!

"Wayne has been singing chanteys and maritime songs for over a decade, focusing on songs with rich tones reflecting the fishing and maritime trades. Wayne is the host of Northwest Seaport’s Chantey Sing Series and sings in the local group Strikes A Bell. His own nautical experience on the high seas and local waters helps to anchor his interpretations of traditional chanteys, new and local sea songs, and even a few overlooked classics by Gilbert and Sullivan." - Northwest Seaport

Northwest Maritime Center Sponsors May 14th Song Circle with Wayne Palsson!

Wayne Palsson has been singing chanteys and maritime songs up and down the West Coast for almost a decade, focusing on songs with rich tones reflecting the fishing and maritime trades. His own nautical experience on the high seas and local waters helps to anchor his interpretations of traditional chanteys, new and local sea songs, and even a few overlooked classics by Gilbert and Sullivan. Wayne is the host of Northwest Seaport’s Chantey Sing Series.

Wayne will lead the May Sing Shanties Song Circle at the Northwest Maritime Center (upstairs, above the Chandlery and across from the offices) on the second Wednesday in May - May 14th - from 6:00 to 8:00p.m. The best maritime venue on the Peninsula, and one of the finest shanty singers in the Pacific Northwest - not to be missed!

FREE, family-friendly community gathering, and songbooks available to sing along... coffee, tea and cookies provided.

37th Wooden Boat Festival - Sea Chantey Song Circles hosted by Wayne Palsson

This year's 37th annual Wooden Boat Festival runs from September 6th through the 8th. On both Friday and Saturday nights at 7:00 p.m. in the Marina Room, located at Port Hudson Marina in Port Townsend, Wayne Palsson from Northwest Seaport in Seattle will lead a "Sea Chantey Song Circle" (free). Check back in September for more information about our October 3rd Sing Shanties Song Circle with John Sparrow.

Sweet Shanties, Wayne Palsson will be back leading our February 7 Song Circle!

Join us once again for our second Song Circle of 2013 with Wayne Palsson from Northwest Seaport leading our February 7 Sing Shanties Song Circle & Sing-Along. We'll be gathering at the Uptown Community Center on Tyler Street off Lawrence Street, across from Aldrich's Market. Since Valentine's Day follows closely thereafter, you are welcome to bring chocolate or other confectionaries to share. Coffee and tea are provided. Remember this a free, family-friendly community event, where "Singin' is encouraged, but knot required!"

Wayne's music bio:

Wayne Palsson has been singing chanteys and maritime songs up and down the West Coast for the past several years, focusing on songs with rich tones reflecting the fishing and maritime trades.  His own nautical experience on the high seas and local waters helps to anchor his interpretations of traditional chanteys and forebitters (leisure songs), new and local sea songs, and even a few overlooked classics by Gilbert and Sullivan. Wayne is the host of Northwest Seaport’s Chantey Sing, a monthly sing-a-long that continues a decades-old tradition of maritime music in Seattle and the Pacific Northwest (visit www.nwseaport.org).  Wayne has appeared in Northwest Folklife Festivals and Tacoma’s First Nights, participated in many of the chantey camps in the region, hosts the annual Chantey Sings at the Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival, and produces maritime concerts.

Bring you sweetheart, invite your friends. Have a maritime love song (bitter or sweet) you'd like to share? Well, bring that too!

Songbook, Song Circles and Wooden Boat Festival

Ahoy Mateys,

Lots of great news to share with you today with the Wooden Boat Festival coming up next week with our new book of maritime lyrics available in the Chandlery at a special discount from September 7 thru Oct 4!

September Song Circles and Our Long-awaited Sing Shanties Songbook

A friendly reminder that we will not be having our monthly, first Thursday, Sing Shanties Song Circle in September, during the week of the Wooden Boat Festival. Instead, we encourage everyone to support and attend one or both of the two, free and fun song circles held annually during the WBF on both Friday and Saturday nights, see more information below.

We've all very much appreciated having multiple copies of several of Steve Lewis' notebooks to circulate amongst our song circle to sing from these past months, filled with many of his favorite shanties and maritime song lyrics, but now we will quite literally "be on the same page" - singing from one songbook with a collection of over 100 song lyrics.

The Sing Shanties Songbook Committee is very pleased and excited to announce that the songbook our committee has been working on this past year Sing Shanties & Songs About the Sea - Special Expanded Collection of Stephen Gottlieb Lewis will be available during this year's 36th Annual Wooden Boat Festival at the Northwest Maritime Center Chandlery and before, during intermission and after the two free song circles hosted by Northwest Seaport shantyman Wayne Palsson, Friday and Saturday nights at 8:00 p.m. in the Marina Room at Port Hudson. They are known to be well-attended musical gatherings.

Here are the links for more information and a printable handbill with a special 15% discount valid for a limited time only. After our October 4 Sing Shanties Song Circle with Tugboat Bromberg, the Sing Shanties songbook can be purchased for the regular retail price of $11.95 + tax. To receive the 15% discount through October 4, print out the handbill with coupon and present it to the cashiers either at the Chandlery or at the table set up at the Marina Room where the WBF Song Circles are hosted.

• Songbook cover photo and details
• Printable handbill with 15% off coupon

Note: (1) Thank you to Port Townsend's Friends of the Arts for funding our cultural maritime project to make this special collection of maritime song lyrics available to everyone during our song circles. (2) For those who are unable to or prefer not to buy a songbook, our Sing Shanties Songbook Committee will have songbooks to loan out during both WBF song circles and at our own monthly song circles. (3) A songbook has also been donated to each of our local, public and maritime libraries. The Jefferson County Historical Society and both Jefferson County high schools will each receive a copy for their library as well.

After Oct 4, songbooks can also be purchased online using PayPal. Songbooks are also available wholesale to retailers with a UBI number. We appreciate your financial support by buying one or more songbooks and participating at song circles to revive and keep alive the tradition of maritime music and the working songs of the sailor. 

Contest to Win a Songbook

Tell us, What Shall We Do with a Drunken Sailor? 

Submit your original, family-friendly response(s) to this popular song's question by emailing them to singshanties(at)gmail(dot)com, to be eligible to win a Sing Shanties songbook. You have as many chances to win as the number of entries you submit. Deadline is October 3. Type "Drunken Sailor" in the subject line with one or more entries in the body of your email along with your Name and Phone Number. Winner's name will be drawn and announced at our October 4 Song Circle.

For details click here.

Tune in to KPTZ 91.9FM

If you have your car, business or home radio tuned to our local community radio station KPTZ 91.9FM, tune in to Phil Andrus' show Tossed Salad at 12:30 p.m. on Friday, September 7 during the Wooden Boat Festival. Broadcast live from the Station, Phil will be talking with shanty singers Wayne Palsson, Helen Gilbert, Tugboat Bromberg, Mark Olson and Mike James about maritime music with an opportunity to sing some of their favorite shanties, and chat with Lee Erickson about the release of our songbook. You can also stream KPTZ (kptz.org) live from your computer.

Please share this post with other shanty enthusiasts far and wide.

Be sure to LIKE us on Facebook and join us on Twitter (right sidebar links) to stay connected. 

Keep on Singin' Shanties!

Wooden Boat Festival Sea Chantey Song Circle

Reminder: In September, we will not be having our regularly scheduled, first Thursday of the month, Sing Shanties Song Circle at the Maritime Center. We encourage you to participate in one or both scheduled, Friday and Saturday at the WOODEN BOAT FESTIVAL, September 7 and 8. Held in the Marina Room at Point Hudson Marina at 8:00 p.m. Wayne Palsson is the presenter both nights. Free.

50 Folks came out to warm their vocals at our Junuary Song Circle

Though a rather cold and blustery night, what a great turn out and wonderful evening of singing shanties with Wayne Palsson leading our "Junuary" Song Circle! Among the 50 folks who attended our June gathering, a group from the Port Townsend Yacht Club joined us. We hope they will be regulars at our monthly gatherings!  

Jim Amis and Bob Evans of the Shifty Sailors are regulars at our monthly sing-alongs. Bob explains the phrase  "shin bone al" in the shanty Bully in the Alley.

Wayne Palsson led the Song Circle, encouraging folks to lead, request or pass to the next shanty enthusiast... until everyone had an opportunity to participate, including the gentle man with the banjo below who led us in song with a chorus about Harry Truman who lived and died on Mount St. Helens.

Ahoy, mateys - spread the word! Wayne Palsson leads our June 7th PT song circle.

Wayne Palsson has been singing chanteys and maritime songs up and down the West Coast for the past several years, focusing on songs with rich tones reflecting the fishing and maritime trades.  His own nautical experience on the high seas and local waters helps to anchor his interpretations of traditional chanteys and forebitters (leisure songs), new and local sea songs, and even a few overlooked classics by Gilbert and Sullivan. Wayne is the host of Northwest Seaport’s Chantey Sing, a monthly sing-a-long that continues a decades-old tradition of maritime music in Seattle and the Pacific Northwest (visit www.nwseaport.org).  Wayne has appeared in Northwest Folklife Festivals and Tacoma’s First Nights, participated in many of the chantey camps in the region, hosts the annual Chantey Sings at the Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival, and produces maritime concerts.