Matthew Moeller to Lead October 14th Shanty Sing!

Matthew Moeller is a gifted shantyman and musician who hails from Olympia. He'll be returning to Port Townsend this October to lead a rousing October 14th Shanty Sing! Read what Mike James has to say on the flyer about Matthew. You won't want to miss this Sing-Along with Matthew Moeller; he's a hoot!

Matthew Greeting Helen Gilbert at WBF

JW Sparrow returns for August 13th Song Circle

JW Sparrow returns to lead the August 13th Song Circle at the Maritime Center in Port Townsend!

Click here for more about John Sparrow. You won't want to miss this Song Circle. Sparrow is an amazing and entertaining storyteller and balladeer!

 

Thank you to our sponsors: Northwest Maritime Center, Courtyard Cafe, Pippa's Real Tea and the Pizza Factory

Ahoy, Mateys! Dan Roberts leads November 7th Song Circle!

Sing Shanties Song Circle &

Sing-Along with Dan Roberts

1^st Thursday in November

6:00-8:30 P.M.   

Uptown Community Center, 

620 Tyler St., Port Townsend

FREE! All Ages Welcome!

Singin’ encouraged, but knot required.

Join us Thursday,

  NOVEMBER 7th 

for our monthly community, family-friendly gathering to learn, sing and enjoy shanties and other maritime music.

Join us on Thursday, November 7th for a rousing song circle and sing-along with shantyman and minstrel Dan Roberts!

 “A voice as masculine as John Henry’s biceps and as rich as a well-oiled wooden boat’s deck.” – “Playing music that can be fun, enriching and participatory… Dan does this about as well as anyone.” - Victory Review 

Dan Roberts… with his big baritone voice and whose musical background ranges from opera to street singing, is an engaging entertainer, known for his powerful voice, various vocal stylings, and encouraging audience participation on choruses and familiar songs. Dan’s performances are always fun and interesting. In addition to the release of his own solo CD “Rowing Minstrel,” he is a featured performer on the albums “Victory Sings at Sea” and “The curse of the Somers,” both by Victory at Sea. Dan also performs with the groups The Whateverly Brothers and Seattle Labor Chorus, and as a soloist at fairs, festivals, aboard several historical ships and many other venues around the Pacific Northwest. Besides singing, Dan has a background in radio and theater. Dan plays the guitar, mandolin, spoons, penny whistle and Appalachian mountain dulcimer. Among all the styles of music he performs, Maritime music is one of Dan’s favorite genres to play and sing.

Go here to LIKE the Whateverly Brothers on Facebook. 

JW Sparrow leads October 3rd Song Circle!

John Wesley Sparrow was born a long time ago and far, far away but quite near his mother. Shocked and surprised to find himself in bed with a woman, he immediately began singing loudly for his supper. His father heard the noise and believing he detected a nascent budding of musical genius, he swaddled the infant in an old coat and carried it straightway to the doorstep of a nearby conservatory of music.

John was taken under the wing of Professor Dieter Von Helgenringer to matriculate a classical music education. He was drilled in memorizing the first seven letters of the alphabet, how to count to four and to sit on his own stool. Further education was abruptly ended when he was told by the lunchroom overseer to eat every potato and pea on his plate and did.

Returning home, John was given a warm welcome by his family until the day his father bought him a suitcase for his 16th birthday and his mother packed him a lunch. Venturing out into the world, the boy began a long sojourn occasionally interrupting his natural proclivities for sloth and indolence by working for brief periods of time as a pearl diver, broomsman, sewing machine repairman and yellow journalist. The occupations did not secure his attention however, and he chose not to apply himself to anything much beyond storytelling.

His storytelling abilities can be traced back to his early years where he was very gifted in telling whoppers. It was his mother's fault. She was much too curious and rather than hurt her feelings, he began to elaborate and fabricate until he was quite good at it. Not good enough to fool her, of course, but still and all better than average. This gift lead him into many colorful adventures and form the basis for a truly remarkable set of songs.

John has been a married man for over 40 years. It was to four different women, but who's keeping count? He has no children and believes the secret to happiness is to have your grandkids first. There is some old man who stands on stages from time to time and tells everyone that he is John Sparrow. His songs have been sung and recorded by many artists. Most of them sound better than John but that doesn't discourage him from trying.

John is the founding member of Victory Sings at Sea, Vol 1. His songs have been recorded by Hank Cramer, Shangied on the Willamette, The Shifty Sailors, The Ferryboat Musicians and more, and is about ready to release a new CD… and will have it available at our Oct 3rd shanty sing.

Invite yer family, invite yer friends to our free, community song circle and sing-along. Some bring instruments, some dance a jig. "Singin' is encouraged, but knot required."Coffee, tea and songbooks provided.

Time: 6:00 - 8:30 p.m.

Location: 620 Tyler Street, Port Townsend

Need a ride from and to the Whidbey Island Ferry? Pop us an email to: singshanties(at)gmail(dot)com.

See you there, mateys!

Scenes from a Shanty Sing

These images are from our May shanty sing, which was led by The Shifty Sailors from Whidbey Island. We met at the Cotton Building in downtown Port Townsend. Great turn out and camaraderie!

Maritime Music at Northwest Folklife Festival in Seattle

May 24, 25 and 26 - This weekend, there will be a lot of great maritime music at the Northwest Folklife Festival in Seattle - Alice Winship, Victory Music Review

Friday, 3:40 pm, Chris Roe
Saturday, 11:40 pm, Spanaway Bay
Saturday, 12:20 pm, Percy Hilo
Saturday, 3 pm, Maritime Showcase at the Northwest Court: The Baggywrinkles 3:00 PM 3:25 PM (Dan Roberts, Matthew Moeller, Tom Rawson), The Great Sanger and Didele 3:30 PM 3:55 PM, Dan Maher 4:00 PM 4:25 PM, Broadside & the Handsome Cabin Boys 4:30 PM 4:55 PM, North by West 5:00 PM 5:25 PM, and Shanghaied on the Willamette 5:30 PM 5:55 PM
Saturday, 6 pm, Beer Garden Chantey Sing
 Saturday, 6:30 pm, Mary Garvey
Sunday, 4 pm, Sea Chantey Sing-Along
Sunday, 9:30 pm, Piper Stock Hill


For more information about maritime music, please read Alice's Maritime Musings column in the online Victory Review Magazine. Victory Music has a new website, you can read the May Review at VictoryMusic.us

The Shifty Sailors singin' and sailin' to Port Townsend, May 2!

 The Cotton Building is located on Water Street next to Pope Marine Park on the waterfront. See you there, mateys!

Kick-started the New Year Celebrating with Song!

We've received great feedback about our January Sing Shanties Song Circle & Sing-Along - that night nearly 50 of us gathered at the Cotton Building on Water Street to sing shanties and celebrate our first year of monthly song circles. What a fun way to kick off the new year. Good energy all 'round. There were fifteen people sitting around the circle that were there for the first time. Welcome! Thanks to everyone who turned out for the occasion and to Mike and Val James for leading the song circle!

THANK YOU to Mike James for being the first to show enthusiasm and help kick start our community shanty sing, leading our our first song circle January 5, 2011. Thank you to Helen Gilbert and Mark Olson for your additional contribution as Sing Shanties Blog and Facebook administrators. Helen has been an awesome support throughout this past year, coming over every month from Seattle to assist in any way she can. 

Thank you to Mike James, Mike Fleming and now Jay Hagar for helping to distribute our flyers each month - it's a lot of work to spread the word...but, we are all very happy to volunteer our time to do so.

Thank you to Crossroads Music for printing our color flyers each month, the PT Arts Commission and City of Port Townsend for your endorsement and use of the Cotton Building for our community gathering in January and four other times this year. 

The songbook committee was thanked publicly for the great work they did this past year to assist Lee in bringing the songbook project to fruition and published for use and distribution before the 2012 Wooden Boat Festival - Mike James, Ellie Mathews, Carl Youngmann, Helen Gilbert and Susan Jensen for your contributions. We are enjoying the fruits of their collaborative labors. Thank you to the Friends of the Arts for making the songbook project possible with your grant. Lee also handed out certificates to those present - Mike, Helen and Mark who led a song circle this past year. Tug, your replacement certificate is in the mail! 

Thank you again to PDN's reporter Charlie Bermant for your article about our first anniversary song circle that was published on January 3. Thank you to Sheila Ramsey, show host of "Everybody Can", who interviewed Lee, Mike and Val at KPTZ the Tuesday following our January 3 shanty sing. This segment will air sometime shortly before our February 7 shanty sing.

A very special thank you, which was not made public at our January Song Circle, but is long overdue, is to profusely thank Cliff Bisch, who hangs in the shadows and sings softly, but has never missed a shanty sing. Cliff, aka DZ, comes an hour early and stays a half-hour or more later each month to haul in songbooks and much more, help set up and break down tables and chairs, then haul away what was hauled in three hours earlier and take out the trash. Without his faithful encouragement and support this monthly song circle would not be possible to maintain and sustain. DZ is Lee's husband... going on 38 years! Thank you and Cheers, DZ!

Thank you to the Courtyard Cafe for the $10 gift certificate door prize, which I believe was won by Karl Sebastian.

THANK YOU to EVERYONE who enjoys coming to our Song Circles. It's all about community where singin' is encouraged, but knot required."

I apologize if I left anyone out... everyone is important and appreciated!

I still haven't figured out how to get good photos of our indoors community gatherings, but here's the best of what I have. Maybe amongst us is an amateur or professional photographer who has nailed down how to work with such uneven lighting without a flash? I'd love a lesson. Unfortunately, these photos were taken later in the evening, after our break; some of us had to leave early. Please let me know the name of the sweet gal in the blue t-shirt, if you know her. 

Zhenya Lavy

 Helen Gilbert, Mark Olson and Tugboat Bromberg

 Mike & Val James - Song Leaders

 Sheila Ramsey and Cindi Dinan

Jay and Donni Hagar (center)

Joe Lavy

Tugboat Bromberg

Celebrating Our First Anniversary!

Thank you to Charlie Bermant for writing the following article about our first anniversary shanty sing, published in the Peninsula Daily News on January 3, 2013.

Sea Shanty Song Circle to celebrate first anniversary
By Charlie Bermant
Peninsula Daily News

PORT TOWNSEND — In January 2012, a loose coalition of sea chantey enthusiasts decided to meet each month to sing songs of the sea.

A year later, the group has developed into a monthly gathering that goes a long way toward keeping the tradition alive.

“It has exceeded our expectations,” said Lee Erickson, one of the organizers of the gatherings.

“At first, we thought we might meet every other month, but the people who attended said they wanted to meet monthly.

“It's a family-friendly night where no one has to have a great voice,” Erickson said.

Preserving traditions

“The people are just giving a little bit of themselves in order to preserve the traditions,” he added.

The Sea Shanty Song Circle and Sing Along celebrates its anniversary from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. today at the Cotton Building, 607 Water St.

Port Townsend musician Mike James, who led the first song circle, will lead the anniversary celebration.

The gathering is held the first Thursday of every month, aside from September, when a chantey sing-along is held in conjunction with the annual Wooden Boat Festival.

The evenings begin with everyone sitting in a circle. In turn, participants can either lead a chantey or pass to the next person.

The chanteys, many with multiple verses in a call-and-response format, were published this year in a collected lyrics book and will be on hand during the event.

The impetus for the gatherings came after the 2011 death of Stephen Gottleib Lewis, a Port Townsend resident who had a huge collection of chanteys he was attempting to preserve for posterity. The book, which was published last summer, contains 141 pages of lyrics from Lewis' collection.

The enthusiastic response also prompted a location change. The first gathering was held in the coffee shop at the Northwest Maritime Center, 431 Water St. The crowd spilled out into the Chandlery, which caused a move upstairs to the maritime center's meeting rooms.

After a few months, the upstairs rooms were no longer available because they were being rented out with increasing frequency, so the song circles now alternate between the Port Townsend Community Center and the Cotton Building. 

To read the full article, click here.
________

Jefferson County Reporter Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at charlie.bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.

Join Tugboat Bromberg for our October 4th Song Circle!

Welcome back Tugboat Bromberg, who returns to lead our October Sing Shanties Song Circle. Our new songbook Sing Shanties & Songs About the Sea is available through October 4 at the NW Maritime Center Chandlery and the evening of our October Song Circle (cash/check only) at a special 15% discount to shanty enthusiasts. So don't miss this opportunity to purchase a songbook for yourself at our introductory price. We do have songbooks to loan out during our shanty sings as well. We want everyone to be able to sing from our songbook - and all be on the same page, thanks to the grant we received from the Friends of the Arts. Take a look inside. Enter our contest to win a songbook!

Please print and share this flyer and link with others you suspect might be or have the potential of becoming a shanty enthusiast too!

T'was a great night for singin'... and sailin'!

Little did I know, when I conservatively set out 40 chairs, that last night's Song Circle would have the second highest number of attendees since we started last January! Although one of the most spectacular summer evenings of the season with ample opportunities to enjoy other venues, including attending the Concert at the Dock next door and walking local beaches, seventy-five folks gathered in the Maritime Meeting Room to sing shanties along with the Shift Sailors from Whidbey Island. We had a number of first-time visitors hailing from Seattle, Portland, from the East Coast and Canada... who arrived by car and by boat.

Such a memorable and rousing sing-along to "What do we do with a Drunken Sailor", which was requested by a young boy who came with his father. And as we took turns going around the circle and singing, the beautiful Schooner Adventuress sailed back and forth in front of the Maritime Center on Admiralty Inlet, much to our delight.

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.

Join Us on May 3 to *Snap the Line Tight!* with Helen Gilbert