In this, our third CD, we continue our exploration of chanteys (shanties), the work songs of sailors, stevedores, and fishermen as well as some non-working songs of seafaring life. We dedicate this recording to the memory of Barry Finn, our friend and a great chantey singer.

All songs arranged by Richard Adrianowicz & Peter Kasin

Front cover photo courtesy of San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park.

Recorded, mixed, and mastered by Derek Bianchi at Muscletone Studios, Berkeley, California.

HEAVE AND GO, MY NANCY O! - Track 1

Lead: Peter

This Danish capstan chantey was first collected by Laura Alexandrine Smith for her book, Music of the Waters (1888). Stan Hugill published it with the lyrics organized differently in Shanties from the Seven Seas. A melody was never collected, so Peter composed one, using Hugill's version of the lyrics

‘WAY, ME SUSIANA!: - Track 2

Lead: Richard

This hauling shanty is of African-American origin and was collected by Stan Hugill from one of his shipmates, a black seaman who hailed from Barbadoes and was called Harding, the Barbadian Barbarian. Harding said that the song was also used for pumping and cargo work. The word 'heave' suggests pumping, although some black hauling songs had the word 'heave' in their refrains, indicating most possibly that they had at one time or another been used at the jack-screws aboard cotton-ships. The lyrics to the sixth verse are an example of what is called camouflaging, meaning that the original words were obscene and had to be changed for publication.

William Main Doerflinger, another shanty collector also has a version of this song, his informant giving it for capstan and pumps, and sometimes for hauling. The underlined words in the chorus are where the pulls would occur.

THE LANG AWA’ SHIP - Track 3

Lead vocal and fiddle: Peter

Harmony, guitar and tin whistle: Richard

Written by Isabella Boyd (1808-1888), found in Nigel Gatherer’s Songs and Ballads of Dundee.

BILLY BOY - Track 4

Lead: Peter and Richard (One of the few shanties calling for two shantymen).

Billy Boy is an example of a shore song taken to sea and turned into a work song, sometimes sung by two shantymen, one for the questions and one for the answers. There are two main versions of this capstan shanty, the well-known one that we sing and one in a minor key. One collector, R.R. Terry, notes the song as a Northumbrian capstan shanty but Stan Hugill states that he met many seamen from London, Liverpool, and South Wales who also knew the song.

Following are some examples of some the original shore songs this shanty may have been derived from:

From American Ballads and Folk Songs, Lomax Note: Francis Child considered this a version of Lord Randal. Child #12

BILLY BOY

Where have you been, Billy Boy, Billy Boy?

Where have you been, charming Billy?

I've been down the lane to see Miss Betsy Jane,

She's a young thing and cannot leave her mammy!

Where does she live, Billy Boy, Billy Boy? Where does she live, charming Billy? She lives on the hill, forty miles from the mill, She's a young thing and cannot leave her mammy!

Did she ask you in, Billy Boy, Billy Boy? Did she ask you in, charming Billy? Yes, she asked me in with a dimple in her chin, She's a young thing and cannot leave her mammy!

Did she take your hat, Billy Boy, Billy Boy? Yes, she took my hat and she threw it at the cat,

Did she set you a chair, Billy Boy, Billy Boy? Yes she set me a chair, but the bottom wasn't there,

How old is she, Billy Boy, Billy Boy? Twice six, twice seven, three times twenty and eleven,

How tall is she, Billy Boy, Billy Boy? She's tall as a pine and straight as a vine,

Can she fry a dish of meat, Billy Boy, Billy Boy? Yes, she can fry a dish of meat as fast as you can eat,

Can she make a loaf of bread, Billy Boy, Billy Boy? She can make a loaf of bread with her nightcap on her head,

Can she bake a cherry pie, She can bake a cherry pie, in the twinkling of an eye,

Can she bake a punkin well, Billy Boy, Billy Boy? She can bake a punkin well, you can tell it by its smell, Can she sew and can she fell, Billy Boy, Billy Boy? She can sew and she can fell, she can use her needle well

Can she make a pair of breeches, Billy Boy, Billy Boy? She can make a pair of breeches fast as you can count the stitches

Can she make a feather bed, Billy Boy, Billy Boy? She can make a feather bed that will rise above your head

Can she milk a muley cow, Billy Boy, Billy Boy? She can milk a muley cow if her mammy shows her how

Is she fitted for your wife, Billy Boy, Billy Boy? She's fitted for my wife as my pocket for my knife,

Did she sit close to you, Billy Boy, Billy Boy? Yes, she sat as close to me as the bark upon a tree,

Did you ask her to wed, Billy Boy, Billy Boy? Yes, I asked her to wed, and this is what she said,

Can she milk a heifer calf, Billy Boy, Billy Boy? Yes, and not miss the bucket more than half,

Can she feed a sucking pig, Billy Boy, Billy Boy? Yes, as fast as you can jig,

Can she pull the sheet away, Billy Boy, Billy Boy? No, that's a game my wife can't play,

Are her eyes dark brown, Billy Boy, Billy Boy? Yes, she was raised out of town,

Is she very, very fair, Billy Boy, Billy Boy? Oh yes, she's fair, just touch her if you dare,

Here's a version printed in the Burl Ives Songbook:

BILLY BOY

Where have you been all the day, my boy Willie? Where have you been all the day, Willie won't you tell me now? I have been all the day courting of a lady gay But she's too young to be taken from her mother

Is she fit to be a wife, my boy Willie? Is she fit to be a wife, Willie won't you tell me now? She's as fit to be a wife as a fork fits to a knife But she's too young to be taken from her mother

Can she cook and can she spin, my boy Willie? Can she cook and can she spin, Willie won't you tell me now? She can cook, she can spin, she can do most anything But she's too young to be taken from her mother

Can she bake a cherry pie, my boy Willie? Can she bake a cherry pie, Willie won't you tell me now? She can bake a cherry pie quick's a cat can wink her eye But she's too young to be taken from her mother

Does she often go to church, my boy Willie? Does she often go to church, Willie won't you tell me now? Yes, she often goes to church in a bonnet white as birch But she's too young to be taken from her mother

Can she make a feather bed, my boy Willie? Can she make a feather bed, Willie won't you tell me now? She can make a feather bed and put pillows at the head But she's too young to be taken from her mother

Did she ask you to come in, my boy Willie Did she ask you to come in, Willie won't you tell me now Yes, she asked me to come in, she's a dimple in her chin But she's too young to be taken from her mother

Did she tell how old she is, my boy Willie? Did she tell how old she is, Willie won't you tell me now? She's three times six, seven times seven, twenty-eight and eleven But she's too young to be taken from her mother

Here is a version from a 19th century broadside printed in Baltimore by T. G. Doyle (American Memory). This version is identical to the sheet music from 1847: "Billy Boy, A Curious Legend," by Edward L. White, published by Ditson, Boston.

BILLY BOY

Oh, where have you been, Billy Boy, Billy Boy? Oh, where have you been, charming Billy? I have been to seek a wife; She's the joy of my life, She's a young thing and cannot leave her mother.

Did she bid you to come in, Billy Boy, Billy Boy? Did she bid you to come in, charming billy? Yes, she bade me to come in, There's a dimple in her chin, She's a young thing, etc.

Did she set for you a chair, Billy Boy, Billy Boy? Did she set for you a chair, charming Billy? Yes, she set for me a chair, She has ringlets in her hair, She's etc.

Can she make a cherry pie, Billy Boy, Billy Boy? Can she make a cherry pie, charming Billy? She can make a cherry pie, Quick as a cat can wink her eye; She's etc.

Is she often seen at church, Billy Boy, Billy Boy? Is she often seen at church, charming Billy? Yes, she's often seen at church, With a bonnet white as birch; She's etc.

How tall is she, Billy Boy, Billy Boy? How tall is she, charming Billy? She's tall as any pine, And straight as a pumpkin vine, She's etc.

Are her eyes very bright, Billy Boy, Billy Boy? Are her eyes very bright, charming Billy? Yes, her eyes are very bright, But alas, they're minus sight, She's etc.

How old is she, Billy Boy, Billy Boy? How old is she, charming Billy? She's three times six, four times seven, Twenty-eighth and eleven, She's etc.

JOHN BROWN’S BODY - Track 5

Lead: Peter

Chorus: Richard, Walt Askew, Shay Black, David Levine, Jim Nelson, Malcolm Rigby, and Benjamin Sachs.

Sailors of many nations adapted this famous Civil War marching song for use at the capstan. The lyrics demonstrate how chanteymen used humor to lift the sailors’ spirit.

LYRICS TO THE SHORE SONG:

John Brown's body lies a-mouldering in the grave, 2x

John Brown's body lies a-mouldering in the grave,

But his soul goes marching on.

Glory, glory, hallelujah, 2x

Glory, glory, hallelujah,

His soul goes marching on.

He's gone to be a soldier in the Army of the Lord, 2x He's gone to be a soldier in the Army of the Lord, His soul goes marching on.

John Brown's knapsack is strapped upon his back, 2x John Brown's knapsack is strapped upon his back, His soul goes marching on.

John Brown died that the slaves might be free, 2x John Brown died that the slaves might be free, His soul goes marching on.

The stars above in Heaven now are looking kindly down, 2x The stars above in Heaven now are looking kindly down, His soul goes marching on.

Written: 1861 (The song originated with soldiers of the Massachusetts 12th Regiment and soon spread to become the most popular anthem of Union soldiers during the Civil War. Many versions of the song exist. One particularly well written version came from William W. Patton, and is reproduced below. The Brown tune inspired Julia Ward Howe, after she heard troops sing the song while parading near Washington, to write her lyrics for the same melody, "The Battle Hymm of the Republic.")

HISTORY OF THE SONG

John Brown by William W. Patton

Old John Brown's body lies moldering in the grave,

While weep the sons of bondage whom he ventured all to save;

But though he lost his life while struggling for the slave,

His soul is marching on.

John Brown was a hero, undaunted, true and brave,

And Kansas knows his valor when he fought her rights to save;

Now, though the grass grows green above his grave,

His soul is marching on.

He captured Harper's Ferry, with his nineteen men so few, A

nd frightened "Old Virginny" till she trembled thru and thru;

They hung him for a traitor, themselves the traitor crew,

But his soul is marching on.

John Brown was John the Baptist of the Christ we are to see,

Christ who of the bondmen shall the Liberator be,

And soon throughout the Sunny South the slaves shall all be free,

For his soul is marching on.

The conflict that he heralded he looks from heaven to view,

On the army of the Union with its flag red, white and blue.

And heaven shall ring with anthems o'er the deed they mean to do,

For his soul is marching on.

Ye soldiers of Freedom, then strike, while strike ye may,

The death blow of oppression in a better time and way,

For the dawn of old John Brown has brightened into day,

And his soul is marching on.

BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC by Julia Ward Howe:

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord

He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored,

He has loosed the fateful lightening of His terrible swift sword

His truth is marching on.

Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!

Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! His truth is marching on.

I have seen Him in the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps

They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps

I can read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps

His day is marching on.

I have read a fiery gospel writ in burnish`d rows of steel,

"As ye deal with my contemners, So with you my grace shall deal;"

Let the Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with his heel

Since God is marching on.

He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat

He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment-seat

Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him! be jubilant, my feet!

Our God is marching on.

In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,

With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me:

As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free,

While God is marching on.

Original publication of the text of the John Brown Song, according to George Kimball, "Origin of the John Brown Song", New England Magazine, new series 1 (1890):371-76 "John Brown's Body" (originally known as "John Brown's Song") is an American marching song popular in the Union during the American Civil War. The tune arose out of the folk hymn tradition of the American camp meeting movement of the 19th century. The song's origins are disputed; some accounts suggest the lyrics referred to Sergeant John Brown of the Second Battalion, Boston Light Infantry Volunteer Militia, a Boston based unit. More commonly, the song was associated with abolitionist John Brown and later verses were added that referred to him.

The "flavor of coarseness, possibly of irreverence" led many of the era to feel uncomfortable with the earliest "John Brown" lyrics. This in turn led to the creation of many variant versions of the text that aspired to a higher literary quality. The most famous of these is Julia Ward Howe's "Battle Hymn of the Republic," which was written when a friend suggested, "Why do you not write some good words for that stirring tune?" History of the tune:

"Say, Brothers, Will You Meet Us", the tune that eventually became associated with John Brown's Body and the Battle Hymn of the Republic, was formed in the American camp meeting circuit of the early to mid 1800s. In that atmosphere, where hymns were taught and learned by rote and a spontaneous and improvisatory element was prized, both tunes and words changed and adapted in true folk music fashion.

Specialists in nineteenth-century American religious history describe camp meeting music as the creative product of participants who, when seized by the spirit of a particular sermon or prayer, would take lines from a preacher's text as a point of departure for a short, simple melody. The melody was either borrowed from a preexisting tune or made up on the spot. The line would be sung repeatedly, changing slightly each time, and shaped gradually into a stanza that could be learned easily by others and memorized quickly. The written record of the tune can be traced as far back than 1858 to a book called The Union Harp and Revival Chorister, selected and arranged by Charles Dunbar, and published in Cincinnati. The book contains the words and music of a song "My Brother Will You Meet Me", with the music but not the words of the "Glory Hallelujah" chorus; and the opening line "Say my brother will you meet me". In December 1858 a Brooklyn Sunday school published a version called "Brothers, Will You Meet Us" with the words and music of the "Glory Hallelujah" chorus, and the opening line "Say, brothers will you meet us", under which title the song then became known. The hymn is often attributed to William Steffe, though the category of "composer" fits poorly into the camp meeting and oral folk tradition of the time. Steffe's role likely fell as transcriber and/or modifier of a commonly sung tune or text that had arisen through a folk tradition - or originator of a text and tune that was honed and modified by many others before reaching the forms best known today - as composer per se.

Robert W. Allen summarizes Steffe's own story of composing the tune, based on letters now found in the Kansas Historical Society—a story that confirms the flexible oral tradition in which "Say, Brothers" originated: Steffe finally told the whole story of the writing of the song. He was asked to write it in 1855 or 56 for the Good Will Engine Company of Philadelphia. They used it as a song of welcome for the visiting Liberty Fire Company of Baltimore. The original verse for the song was "Say, Bummers, Will You Meet Us?" Someone else converted the "Say, Bummers" verse into the hymn "Say, Brothers, Will You Meet Us." He thought he might be able to identify that person, but was never able to do so. As with many similar tunes arising from an oral and folk tradition in this period and milieu, precisely tracing authorship is problematic. For instance, some sources list Thomas Brigham Bishop, Frank E. Jerome, and others as the tune's composer. As Steffe himself indicates, many others—known and unknown—undoubtedly did play a role in creating different versions of the hymn, modifying it, and disseminating it.

Some researchers have maintained that the tune's roots go back to a "Negro folk song," an African-American wedding song from Georgia, or to a British sea shanty that originated as a Swedish drinking song. Given that the tune was developed in an oral tradition, it is impossible to say for certain which of these influences may have played a specific role in the creation of this tune, but it is certain that numerous folk influences from different cultures such as these were prominent in the musical culture of the camp meeting, and that such influences were freely combined in the music-making that took place in the revival movement.

It has been suggested that "Say Brothers, Will You Meet Us," popular among Southern blacks, already had an anti-slavery sub-text, with its reference to "Canaan's happy shore" alluding to the idea of crossing the river to a happier place. If so, that sub-text that was considerably enhanced and expanded as the various John Brown lyrics took on themes related to the famous abolitionist and the American Civil War.

At a flag-raising ceremony at Fort Warren, near Boston, on Sunday May 12, 1861, the John Brown song was publicly played "perhaps for the first time." The American Civil War had begun the previous month. Newspapers reported troops singing the song as they marched in the streets of Boston on July 18, 1861, and there were a "rash" of broadside printings of the song with substantially the same words as the undated John Brown Song! broadside, stated by Kimball to be the first published edition, and the broadside with music by C. S. Marsh copyrighted on July 16, 1861, also published by C.S. Hall. Other publishers also came out with versions of the John Brown Song and claimed copyright.

In 1890, George Kimball wrote the story of how the 2nd Infantry Battalion of the Massachusetts militia, known as the "Tiger" Battalion, collectively worked out the lyrics to "John Brown's Body." Kimball wrote: We had a jovial Scotchman in the battalion, named John Brown. . . . and as he happened to bear the identical name of the old hero of Harper's Ferry, he became at once the butt of his comrades. If he made his appearance a few minutes late among the working squad, or was a little tardy in falling into the company line, he was sure to be greeted with such expressions as "Come, old fellow, you ought to be at it if you are going to help us free the slaves"; or, "This can't be John Brown--why, John Brown is dead." And then some wag would add, in a solemn, drawling tone, as if it were his purpose to give particular emphasis to the fact that John Brown was really, actually dead: "Yes, yes, poor old John Brown is dead; his body lies mouldering in the grave."

According to Kimball, these sayings became by-words among the soldiers and, in a communal effort - similar in many ways to the spontaneous composition of camp meeting songs described above - were gradually put to the tune of "Say, Brothers"

Finally ditties composed of the most nonsensical, doggerel rhymes, setting for the fact that John Brown was dead and that his body was undergoing the process of dissolution, began to be sung to the music of the hymn above given. These ditties underwent various ramifications, until eventually the lines were reached,--

"John Brown's body lies a-mouldering in the grave, His soul's marching on."

And,-- "He's gone to be a soldier in the army of the Lord, His soul's marching on."

These lines seemed to give general satisfaction, the idea that Brown's soul was "marching on" receiving recognition at once as having a germ of inspiration in it. They were sung over and over again with a great deal of gusto, the "Glory hallelujah" chorus being always added. Some leaders of the battalion, feeling the words were coarse and irreverent, tried to urge the adoption of more fitting lyrics, but to no avail. The lyrics were soon prepared for publication by members of the battalion, together with publisher C. S. Hall. They selected and polished verses they felt appropriate, and may even have enlisted the services of a local poet to help polish and create verses.

The official histories of the old First Artillery and of the 55th Artillery (1918) also record the Tiger Battalion's role in creating the John Brown Song, confirming the general thrust of Kimball's version with a few additional details.

Maine songwriter, musician, band leader, and Union soldier Thomas Brigham Bishop (1835–1905) has also been credited as the originator of the John Brown Song. Bishop's biographer and friend James MacIntyre, in an interview with Time Magazine in 1935, stated that this version was first published by John Church of Cincinnati in 1861. Bishop, who would later command a company of black troops in the American Civil War, was in nearby Martinsburg when Brown was hanged at Charles Town in 1859 and, according to MacIntyre, Bishop wrote the first four verses of the song at the time. The "Jeff Davis" verse was added later when it caught on as a Union marching song. According to MacIntyre, Bishop's account was that he based the song on an earlier hymn he had written for, or in mockery of, a pious brother-in-law, taking from this earlier song the "glory hallelujah" chorus, the phrase "to be a soldier in the army of the Lord", and the tune. According to MacIntyre, this hymn became popular at religious meetings in Maine. The phrase "to be a soldier in the army of the Lord" is not found in any extant copies of "Say, Brothers"--either those published before or after 1860.

A number of other authors claimed to have taken part in the origin of the song. From the many different versions and variants of the text and music printed throughout the 1860s, it is clear that many different people had a hand in creating, modifying, singing, and publishing different versions of the text, which was in general associated with strong abolitionist sentiment. "Multiple authors, most of them anonymous, borrowed this tune [ie Say, Brothers], gave it new texts, and used it to hail Brown's terrorist war to abolish the centuries-old practice of slavery in America."

Once John Brown's Body became popular as a marching song, more literary versions of the John Brown lyrics were created for the John Brown tune. For example, William Weston Patton wrote his influential version in October 1861 which was published in the Chicago Tribune, 16 December of that year. The "Song of the First of Arkansas" was written, or written down, by Capt. Lindley Miller in 1864,[25] although (typical of the confusion of authorship among the variants and versions) a similar text with the title "The Valiant Soldiers" is also attributed to Sojourner Truth.[26] "The President's Proclamation" was written by Edna Dean Proctor in 1863 on the occasion of the Emancipation Proclamation. Other versions include the "Marching song of the 4th Battalion of Rifles, 13th Reg., Massachusetts Volunteers" and the "Kriegslied der Division Blenker", written for the Blenker Division, a group of German soldiers who had participated in the European revolutions of 1848/49 and fought for the Union in the American Civil War.

The tune was later also used for "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" (written February 1862; this song was directly inspired by "John Brown's Body"), "Marching Song of the First Arkansas," "The Battle Hymn of Cooperation," "Bummers, Come and Meet Us" (see facsimile), and many other related texts and knock-offs during and immediately after the American Civil War period. The World War II song, "Blood on the Risers", is set to the tune, and includes the chorus "Glory, glory (or Gory, gory), what a hell of a way to die/And he ain't gonna jump no more!"

The tune was also use for perhaps the most well known union song in the United States, Solidarity Forever. The song became an anthem of the Industrial Workers of the World and all unions that sought more than workplace concessions, but a world run by those who labor. Sailors are known to have adapted "John Brown's Body" into a sea shanty - specifically, into a "Capstan Shanty", used during anchor-raising.

The "John Brown" tune has proven popular for folk-created texts, with hundreds of knock-offs, parodies, and school-yard versions created over the years. The Burning of the School is a well-known parody. A version about a baby with a cold is often sung by school-age children. The "Baby" version includes sound effects and pantomime. A variant version of this was "John Brown's baby has a pimple on its bum," which was popular with First World War British soldiers, who spread it throughout the British Empire. An African-American version was recorded as "We'll hang Jeff Davis from a sour Apple Tree". In Sri Lanka it was adapted into a bilingual (English and Sinhala) song sung at cricket matches - notably at the Royal-Thomian, with the lyrics "We'll hang all the Thomians on the cadju-puhulang tree...". Another adaptation sung at the annual match between the Colombo Law and Medical colleges went "Liquor arsenalis and the cannabis indica...." This was adapted into a trilingual song by Sooty Banda.

Yodobashi Camera, a Japanese media shop chain, uses the same song (with different words) as shop jingle repeated indefinitely during the opening hours of all shops. The text of the jingle mainly shows how to reach the main shops and which products are sold in them.

Len Chandler sang a song called "move on over" to the tune on Pete Seeger's Rainbow Quest TV show.

The lyrics generally show an increase in complexity and syllable count as they move from simple, orally-transmitted camp meeting song, to an orally composed marching song, to more consciously literary versions. The increasing syllable count led to an ever-increasing number of dotted rhythms in the melody to accommodate the increased number of syllables. The result is that the verse and chorus, which were musically identical in the "Say, Brothers," became quite distinct rhythmically in "John Brown's Body," and even more so in the more elaborate versions of the "John Brown Song" and in the "Battle Hymn of the Republic."

SAY, BROTHERS

Say, brothers, will you meet us (3x)

On Canaan's happy shore.

Glory, glory, hallelujah (3x)

For ever, evermore!

By the grace of God we'll meet you (3x)

Where parting is no more.

Jesus lives and reigns forever (3x)

On Canaan's happy shore.

JOHN BROWN'S BODY :

John Brown's body lies a-mouldering in the grave; (3X)

His soul's marching on!

Glory, glory, hallelujah!

His soul's marching on!

He's gone to be a soldier in the army of the Lord! (3X)

His soul's marching on!

John Brown's knapsack is strapped upon his back! (3X)

His soul's marching on!

His pet lambs will meet him on the way; (3X)

They go marching on!

They will hang Jeff Davis to a sour apple tree! (3X)

As they march along!

Now, three rousing cheers for the Union; (3X)

As we are marching on!

Version by William Weston Patton:

Old John Brown's body lies moldering in the grave,

While weep the sons of bondage whom he ventured all to save;

But tho he lost his life while struggling for the slave,

His soul is marching on.

John Brown was a hero, undaunted, true and brave,

And Kansas knows his valor when he fought her rights to save;

Now, tho the grass grows green above his grave,

His soul is marching on.

He captured Harper's Ferry, with his nineteen men so few,

And frightened "Old Virginny" till she trembled thru and thru;

hey hung him for a traitor, they themselves the traitor crew,

But his soul is marching on.

John Brown was John the Baptist of the Christ we are to see,

Christ who of the bondmen shall the Liberator be,

And soon thruout the Sunny South the slaves shall all be free,

For his soul is marching on.

The conflict that he heralded he looks from heaven to view,

On the army of the Union with its flag red, white and blue.

And heaven shall ring with anthems o'er the deed they mean to do,

For his soul is marching on.

Ye soldiers of Freedom, then strike, while strike ye may,

The death blow of oppression in a better time and way,

For the dawn of old John Brown has brightened into day,

And his soul is marching on

THE KINSALE HERRING - Track 6:

Lead vocal, guitar and tin whistle: Richard - Harmony and fiddle: Peter

An Irish sea song from the south coast. This can be found in James N. Nealy, Irish Songs of the Sea. Stan Hugill, in one of his "Bosun's Locker" articles in Spin Magazine, tells about a sailor who sang a shanty version of this song.

MISTER STORMALONG - Track 7:

Lead: Richard

Chorus: Steve Baughman, Michael Black, Shay Black, Peter Kasin, Allan MacLeod, Dick Holdstock, Doug Olsen, Riggy Rackin, Ed Silberman, and Dave Swan.

A pumping shanty that was later also used at the capstan. The melody I use is from our Canadian friends Jon Bartlett and Rika Ruebsaat, who recorded the song on their excellent album, The Young Man from Canada, B.C. Songs from the P.J. Thomas Collection, Our Singing Tradition, Volume 2. The liner notes from the album say they learned the shanty from the singing of Captain Charles Cates (1899-1960) of North Vancouver, who most probably had it from his friend Captain George W. Roberts (1870-1952). Accompanying their song is the fall of the capstan's pawl as the capstan is turned.

Jon and Rika sing the verses shown below. Additional verses on our album (the floating verses mentioned above) are from Hugill's book Shanties from the Seven Seas.

The version on our album With Shipmates All Around is the one recorded for the In Harmony’s Way album in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Ah, Stormy's gone, that good old man

Way, high, Stormalong

Ah, Stormy's gone, that good old man

Aye, aye, Mister Stormalong

Well he's moored at last and he's furled his sails

He's free from wrecks and far from gales

Well we'll dig his grave with a silver spade

Of the finest silk his shroud will be made

Well we'll lower him down with a golden chain

Each eye will dim but not with rain

As Stormy's heard that bugle call

So sing this dirge, now, one and all

JOHN, JOHN CROW - Track 8:

A Barbadian cargo unloading chantey, from Frederick Pease Harlow, Chanteying Aboard American Ships.

GOOD MORNING, LADIES ALL - Track 9:

Lead: Richard

A shanty Stan Hugill collected from West Indian seamen. The words "heave" and "haul" both appearing in the same song would indicate a pumping shanty but might also point to a song used by the hoosiers of Mobile Bay to work the great jackscrews to force as much cotton as possible into the hold of a ship.

GOODNIGHT, LADIES - Track 10:

A capstan chantey, and another example of a popular song adapted for shipboard use. Found in Shanties from the Seven Seas.

Some examples of the shore song (popular on many college campuses):

GOOD NIGHT (as sung by the Yale Yachting Club)

Good night, ladies! Good night, ladies!

Good night ladies! We're going to leave you now.

Merrily we roll along, roll along, roll along,

Merrily we roll along,

O'er the dark blue sea.

Farewell, ladies; (2x)

Farewell, ladies; we're going to leave you now.

Sweet dreams, ladies; (2x)

Sweet dreams, ladies; we're going to leave you now.

Song with score included in: (shareholders), 1892, 3rd. Ed., "Scottish Students Song Book," p. 316 with score, no attribution. In twenty-five years, more or less, the song seems to have become universal among English-speaking college students.

GOOD NIGHT LADIES (lyrics by E.P. Christy, music by "unknown" - 1847) :

Good night ladies, good night ladies, good night ladies,

We're going to leave you now.

Merrily we roll along, roll along, roll along.

Merrily we roll along. O'ver the dark blue sea.

Farewell ladies, farewell ladies, farewell ladies,

We're going to leave you now.

Sweet dreams ladies, sweet dreams ladies, sweet dreams ladies,

We're going to leave you now.

Good night, ladies! Good night, ladies! Good night, ladies,

We're going to leave you now,

Sweet dreams, ladies! Sweet dreams, ladies!

Sweet dreams, ladies!

We're sad to see you go.

"Both the melody and words of the first part of this song were clearly indicated in 1847 in Farewell Ladies, written, composed and sung by E.P. Christy, and copyrighted Nov. 19, 1847, by Jaque Brothers.... [...] The first known printing of the complete song as we now know it was on May 16, 1867, in Carmina Yalensia, compiled and arranged by Ferd. V.D. Garretson, and published by Taintor Brothers & Co., ... The song appears on p. 47 under the title, Good Night.... The second part of the song... has the same melody as Mary Had a Little Lamb,.... The melody of the first part of the song... is the melody of Someone's in the Kitchen with Dinah, ...." (James J. Fuld, The Book of World-Famous Music, 4th ed., Dover, 1995, pp. 255-256)

FARE YOU WELL, LADIES. Composed and sung, with deafening shouts of applause, by B. F Stanton, in White's Band of Serenaders, at the Melodeon Saloon, New York.

The Hendrick Hudson is a bully boat.

She's bound to make dem Trojan's smoke.

You pay your money and you go to bed.

You're lucky in de morning if you is not dead.

Fare you well, ladies.

I'm gwan to leave you now.

I came down on the Alida the other day.

The Troy overtook us at Newburgh Bay.

She tried to play wid us for awhile,

But we beat her into York about one mile.

Tother day I met old Captain St. John.

Ses he, "Are you going on de Oregon?" "I can't this trip, not very well,

For I've 'gaged my passage on board of the Belle."

Water now is very low,

And Opposition is all de go.

De berths are free on board of the Belle.

If you find your boots in the morning, it's well.

Now to passengers that's going west,

Take my advice, an' you'll do de best.

If you wish to go through cheap,

Get aboard of the Empire at Courtland-street.

"Goodnight, Ladies" was written by Edwin Pearce Christy in 1847 and was originally called "Farewell, Ladies". Nowadays, the chorus is often sung alone as "Merrily We Roll Along" to the tune of "Mary Had a Little Lamb":

Goodnight, Ladies:

Goodnight, ladies! Goodnight, ladies!

Goodnight, ladies!

We're going to leave you now.

Merrily we roll along,

Roll along, roll along.

Merrily we roll along,

O'er the dark blue sea.

Farewell, Ladies!

Farewell, ladies!

We're going to leave you now.

Sweet dreams, ladies!

We're going to leave you now.

HO, THE LAST ONE: - Track 11

Lead: Richard

A boat-launching song collected by Alan Lomax in the Bahamas in 1935 from a group of Andros Island men. We learned this one from Bob Walser.

THE JAMESTOWN HOMEWARD BOUND - Track 12:

Lead: Peter

A patriotic forebitter from the 1840's, in Joanna Colcord, Roll And Go: Songs Of American Sailormen.

I SAILED THE SEA - Track 13:

Lead: Richard

A modern sea song written by Englishman Geoff Higginbottom that we learned from local singer Malcolm Rigby, formerly of Lancaster. Geoff is part of the English shanty group Three Sheets to the Wind with Derek Gifford and Keith Kendrick.

OH, ROW, HEAVE AND GO - Track 14:

Lead: Richard

This pulling shanty was collected by Cecil Sharp from a Mr. Allison of Perth. Only one verse was given and the remaining verses were culled from a related shanty. A "lazareet" is a name originating in the countries which border the Mediterranean meaning a leper quarter; used aboard of sailing ships for a room set aside as a sick-bay, or store-room when no one was sick.

WALK ALONG, MY ROSIE - Track 15:

Lead: Peter

A hauling chantey found in Shanties from the Seven Seas.

RED IRON ORE - Track 16:

Solo ballad: Richard

This is a traditional sea song from the Great Lakes region in America. The earliest version seem to appear around 1926. Most versions of this song have "derry down, down, down derry down" at the end of each verse and most versions are sung at a faster tempo (see the Sandburg section below). I decided to sing this with a slower, more ballad-like tempo. There is a version of this song in Folk Songs Out of Wisconsin, edited by Harry B. Peters..

In The Folk Songs of North America, Alan Lomax uses an edited version of the Rickaby text, taken from Rickaby's Ballads and Songs of the Shanty Boy. The Lomax book refers to "Old Louise Island," instead of "Louse Island."

Sandburg’s notes from American Songbag: Three of the Great Lakes are traversed in this odyssey of red iron ore. It is a log, the diary of a ship and its men on one cruise. The facts are specific. The E. C. Roberts was a boat. So was The Minch. Riding up Lake Michigan, they passed through death's door; the lake storms were ugly. At Escanaba loading red ore, they "looked like red devils." The crew of The Minch thumbed their noses and taunted, "We'll see you in Cleveland next Fourth of July." But the E. C. Roberts got there ahead of the fleet. A crew of "bold boys" they were, even if they say so themselves. The singer is humble, "Now my song is ended, I hope you won't laugh." The tune is old Irish; the repeated line with each verse, "Derry down, down, down derry down," is in old ballads. It is a virile song, a tale of grappling with harsh elements and riding through, a rattling tune and a devil-may-care time beat. It may, at first, seem just a lilt with a matter-of-fact story. It is more than that; it is a little drama; the singer should know what it is to shovel red iron ore; the singer should know the wide curves of that ship path from Chicago to Cleveland on three Great Lakes.

Canadian singer Jon Bartlett notes that another source is Songs of the Great Lakes by collector and folklorist Edith Fowke, Folkways FM 4018 1964. She has The E.C. Roberts as sung by Stanley Bâby of Toronto. His dad had sailed on the Roberts as mate. "Skillagalee" was a folk idiom for "Isle aux Galets." She refers to comparative versions noted in Laws, Native American balladry, D 9. There are minor textual differences: the captain's name (v11) is given as "Captain Harve Rummage."

My friend Joe Offer says that this passage song was second only to The Timber Drogher Bigler for popularity on boats and in waterfront gathering places. The song tells of the mid-September trip of the schooner E. C. Roberts from Chicago to Escanaba, where it took on a cargo of iron ore, and the race to Cleveland that ensued with a fleet of other ore carriers. The Roberts, 273 gross tons, was built in Cleveland in 1856 for Brown and Reddington of that city for the general carrying trade. It remained on the Lakes for over half a century. F. L. Robertson of St. Clair, Michigan, owned the vessel in its twilight years as a tow barge. Captain T. J. Crockett of Port Huron shipped on the Roberts as the vessel's boy in the mid-1890s when it still carried ore. He said that the Roberts was a "handy" schooner and that the crew sang this song. Harry Anderson of St. Clair, Michigan, who had sailed on the Roberts the previous decade, recalled much of the song and said he had also learned it aboard the vessel. "Death's Door" in the third stanza is the sailors' translation of the French Portes des Mortes passage between Door County Peninsula and Washington Island, the entrance to Green Bay. The French Ile aux Galets, for "island of pebbles," was similarly mangled as "Skillagalee." The Foxes and Beavers are island groups in northern Lake Michigan, and the "dummy" referred to in the third-from-last stanza was a decommissioned light in western Lake Erie. Near the end of the song, the singers might insert the name of the vessel master, whether Captain Rummage or Harvey Shannon or someone else, as a suggestion that the Old Man buy them a drink. The song has not just two names, but two versions. The words and melody vary slightly, and both appear to have evolved from "The Dreadnaught." J. Sylvester Ves Ray of Port Huron sang this in the summer of 1934 on his eighty-fourth birthday. He said he had learned it in the early 1870s "from a shipmate, Billy Clark of Buffalo, who composed it and dozens of others." Beaver Island's John W. Green, who also could sing the song complete, insisted that his sailor uncle, islander Peter O'Donnell, had composed it.

Comments from fellow singers Bev and Jerry Praver: We were brought up in Cleveland but we got over it. When we were kids, steel making was one of the big industries there. In fact, virtually all of America's steel was made in a relatively small area stretching from Pittsburgh west to Gary, Indiana. The reason is that three ingredients are required to make steel using the Bessemer process: Coke, limestone and iron ore. Coke is made by roasting coal which was brought to Cleveland by rail from southern Ohio, West Virginia and Kentucky. Limestone is readily available in the area. Sidewalks were made from slabs of limestone rather than concrete. Iron ore was brought by boat from the Mesabe Range in Minnesota. Now coke and limestone are available twelve months of the year but iron ore isn't. In the winter, the lakes freeze making shipping impossible. So, when the lakes are navigable, more iron ore was shipped to the mills than they could use creating a big surplus of ore. By October/November virtual mountains of ore could be seen near the mills which they would process during the winter. Every spring there would be competition to see which boat would be the first to get through. Likewise, every fall there would be competition to see which boat would be the last to get through. There was always at least one boat which would get frozen in and had to be rescued. When the lakes weren't frozen, no matter when you looked out you could always see several iron ore boats. They were easily recognized because they look a little like oil tankers - flat on top with a structure at both ends.

LINDY LOWE - Track 17:

Lead: Peter

A Barbadian hand over hand chantey, from Frederick Pease Harlow’s Chanteying Aboard American Ships.

THE PRETTY MAID MILKING HER COW - Track 18:

Lead vocal and guitar: Richard

Fiddle: Peter

This is a nautical version of an Irish song that I found in The Ancient Music of Ireland. These lyrics are credited to a "Miss Balfour" and have nothing to do with the traditional Irish song with the title Cailin Deas Cruite na mBo.

There’s an Interesting legend attached to "Cailin Deas Cruite na mBo." It was regarded in Ireland as an unlucky song. The story goes that a priest was called to administer the last rites to a dying man. On his way to the house, he stopped to listen to the singing of a beautiful young woman singing the tune of the above with the result that he was late in arriving at the house and the man had died. The story goes on to say that the "beautiful woman" was in fact the devil in disguise in order to prevent the priest getting to the man in time to hear his confession. It is also know by the first line "It Was On A Fine Summer Morning." The music is in a current songbook by Warner Brothers, called 51 Lucky Irish Classics from their Great Songs of the Century series. The English lyrics are by Thomas Moore. The tune is "Cailin Deas", and air is in Bunting's Ancient Irish Music (1796). The original words are gaelic. There are more verses by Thomas Moore in old Irish songbooks that you can get in libraries, such as Irish Street Ballads by Colm O'Lochlainn.

It was on a fine summer's morning

The birds sweetly tuned on each bough

And as I walked out for my pleasure

I saw the maid milking her cow.

Her voice, so enchanting, melodious

Left me quite unable to go

My heart it was loaded with sorrow

For 'colleen dhas cruthen na mo'. (phoenetic English)

Then to her I made my advances

'Good morrow, most beauteous maid Y

our beauty my heart so entrances.'

'Pray, sir, do not banter,' she said.

'I'm not such a rare precious jewel

That I should enamor you so.

I am but a poor little milk girl.'

Said colleen dhas cruthen na mo.

The Indies afford no such jewels

So bright and transparently clear.

Pray, do not add flame to my fuel,

Consent but to love me, my dear.

If I had the lamp of Alladin,

Or the wealth of the African shore,

I'd rather be poor in a cottage

With colleen dhas cruthen na mo.

OH, ANNIE, OH! - Track 19:

Lead: Peter

A riverboat cargo handling chantey, from Mary Wheeler’s Steamboatin' Days: Folk Songs Of The River.

COME LOOSE EVERY SAIL TO THE BREEZE - Track 20:

Lead: Richard

Chorus: Peter Kasin & Walter Askew

This is a sentimental old-fashioned song of considerable antiquity favored by sailors. A version can be found in the Roxburgh Ballads Collection, according to Captain W.B. Whall in his book Sea Songs and Shanties. According to the Contemplator website there are also versions in 1) numerous broadside collections, 2) the Cyclopedia of Popular Songs (c. 1835) and the Universal Songster, 3). In Spicer's Pocket Companion (1797) as Homeward Bound, 4) in the log of the ship Joseph Francis (1795) although without a chorus, and 5) in a collection of Charles' Dibdin's work (1841) (in this instance with verses written by Thomas Arne)

HURRAH, SING FARE YE WELL - Track 21:

Lead: Richard

This is another hauling song from Stan Hugill's Shanties from the Seven Seas. Collector Captain Whall calls it O Fare Ye Well, My Bonnie Young Girl and says it was a favorite in London ships. After a few verses the shantyman would improvise, since there was no regular story as a rule. Hugill's version, with perhaps a few more regular verses than usual, was obtained from an old Liverpool seaman now dead. Normally there was one pull in the refrain on the second syllable of 'Hurrah.'

Cecil Sharp collected a version of this shanty from John Short that differs in the rhythm of the chorus line.