r/seashanties • u/Hotkow • Aug 01 '22
I have noticed a lot of people on this subreddit talking about or sharing songs that are not chanteys. Therefore it seems we really need someone to share an explanation about what is and what isn’t a Chantey. One might call this gatekeeping and to a degree they are right. The fact is for decades upon decades people have collected these types of folk songs. They have done the research about where they came about, how many different variants there are and so on. This has been a subject among Folklorists and others for a while. Reminding people of the definitions is a way to respect all that work they did.
Now when we talk about folk music there is a lot of cross pollination, so tunes, lyrics and subject matter goes from one subset to another. So instead of Gatekeeping this would be more akin to setting up lighthouses while giving people a map so they know where they are going.
All of what we will be discussing falls under the umbrella of Folk music, specifically Traditional Folk music (Or trad folk). Folk songs written after the great folk revival of the mid 20th century would fall under “Contemporary Folk’ (With an exception I will get to) This, like Trad folk, can encompass a broad amount of sounds.
Work Songs are Trad Folk songs that were sung while doing a work to aid in the completion of the task. A Chantey is a work song that was song by sailors on merchant ships while performing work tasks. Chanteys are flexible songs that can be adjusted in length depending on how long the work needs the be done. They are also call and response songs, going back to their roots among the enslaved black population of the southern United States and caribbean. Their heyday was in the 19th century.
A Chantey (Chanty,Shantey,shanty, it’s all up to your preference) can come in slightly different forms depending on the work being done. They tend to be divided between Hauling, heaving and other. Hanging Johnny is a Halyard Chantey, Rio Grande is a Captstain chantey. Huckleberry Hunting is a Pump Chantey.
Chanteys were sung during work and for work. Not for pleasure. For pleasure sailors would relax and sing Fo’c’s’le songs or Forebitters. Some of these songs were maritime in theme, but many were songs that were popular on land. Old Maui is one of these, as would Spainish Ladies. There are also plenty of folk songs that are written about the sea and originated on land, The Mermaid is one of these (Those interested click here to learn more about the family tree of the song from Jerry Bryant).
All this music would be considered Maritime Music. Many songs people attribute as Chanteys are Maritime songs, the Wellerman is a notorious example of this.
Folks also have a habit of grouping trad folk songs that are not even considered maritime music and calling them chanteys. This is for a couple reasons. one many of the performers who do chanteys also perform other types of folk music from the Atlantic folk traditions. This is combined with the fact that these traditions all existed and developed around the same time, much of them cross pollinating. Some people also make the opposite mistake and due to a song not sounding like what they think a sea song should sound like they ignore other maritime songs. The Fight Of The Hatteras And Alabama is one that could be overlooked like that.
Most chanteys that are performed today are not sung exactly in the traditional way they would be sung. This is because the temp would be slower and not conducive to performance settings. In fact most sailors of the time thought it bad luck to sing a chantey off a ship.
Now with these points of reference one might be thinking, can people not write chanteys anymore? Balderdash. People can write chanteys and other kinds of maritime and folk songs. There are several folks who do this, one of my favorite maritime songs is This Dreadful Life. It was written by Kevin Brown in the late 20th century. It would be considered “In the tradition” written and performed in a way to sound as if it was older, in the same kind of tradition. One could make a new chantey in this way, it just would have to sound like a chantey would, not just be a song that mentions nautical terms and pirates.
So I hope this has been a good primer to help define what actually is a chantey and what is just maritime music. None of this is saying you can’t sing or enjoy the songs that aren’t, it’s just good to be accurate and not to spread misconceptions if one can help it. This subreddit seems very amenable to maritime music, not just chanteys. Use this post and its links as lighthouses to help you on your journey in this kind of music.
r/seashanties • u/ThomasJaunism • 1d ago
Found a bunch of footage from a 2015 tour of Bretagne. Slowly sorting through...
Wellington Sea Shanty Society & Croche Dedans.
r/seashanties • u/spudsgonecrazy • 2d ago
Shanty weekend is the highlight of life in Harwich, Essex. 3 days and hundreds of shanty crews in dozens of venues. Highlights this year were Nordet (from Brittany), North Cape (Poland) and the Wilson Family (County Durham). Was anyone else there?
r/seashanties • u/polymorphicprism • 3d ago
An article on the Weller brothers and the southern right whale industry around the 1830s.
Please, drop a comment if you found anything interesting or have suggestions.
r/seashanties • u/aster-deadnettle • 4d ago
Hi folks! I shared a little while back about a queer shanty sing I facilitate in Pittsburgh - unfortunately we'd been on hiatus these last few months while in search of a new venue, but we are back at it for October! Our next sing is next Sunday, 10/18, at Bantha Tea Bar (5002 Penn Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15224) from 4-6pm.
This is an LGBTQIA+-centered community sing in the Pittsburgh area. We welcome singers of all skill/knowledge/experience levels, and all genders and all sexual orientations. I am no shanty purist, and so we sing sailing songs and pub songs, new and old, along with our shanties. We also queer the lyrics to traditional songs as we see fit! For example, I did a rewrite of Haul Away Joe that celebrates gender nonconformity. Another time I did a rewrite of "Wellermen" as "Wellerthem" that filled in gendered pronouns with neopronouns because the idea was amusing to me, but it ended up being kind of a mouthful to sing and we've never done it again! And there's a lot of songs that we sing just as they are, because we just like to sing them!
The most important thing is that you're accepting of lyric changes that do away with racist, sexist, homophobic, or otherwise oppressive language, and that you're accepting of the LGBTQ+ people you're showing up to sing with. TL;DR: Don't be a bigot. Don't be a jerk.
Songbooks are provided in case you like to have the lyrics, and also because there are currently more songs I'd like to sing than what I have committed to memory.
We also have an Instagram now: https://instagram.com/queerballadeerpgh
Hope to see y'all there to sing out with us!
r/seashanties • u/Gwathdraug • 5d ago
This popular maritime musical act from Shropshire and Herefordshire is a strong supporter of RNLI, local charities and food banks. You can learn more about the group on their MMDI listing here: https://seashanties4all.com/groups-artists/lower-deckers-shanty-group/
r/seashanties • u/CaregiverUsual4127 • 8d ago
r/seashanties • u/theoctoberprize • 12d ago
I've been fascinated by the Franklin expedition for years.
What fascinates me isn't just what happened, but what it must have felt like to be one of those men as the expedition slowly unravelled. Trapped in the ice, increasingly isolated, and with absolutely no idea that nearly two centuries later people would still be trying to piece together their story.
That became the idea behind a song we've written called HMS Terror.
Rather than trying to literally retell the history, we imagined the song from the perspective of one of the men aboard. I wanted the lyrics to capture that isolation, fear and uncertainty of knowing something has gone terribly wrong, but having no idea how the story is going to end.
The thing that's always fascinated me most, though, is the name. It's literally called Terror. And terror is presumably exactly what those men must have felt as everything started falling apart. It's kind of insane when you think about it.
Anyway, I'm Matt from The October Prize and we've released the song today. The lyrics took me a while to write, and I'm hoping people in this thread will spot some of the nods to the story :)
Would genuinely love to know what you think. And don't forget to turn it up loud.
https://open.spotify.com/album/6Vao5exoTieUqaLr1cYqEY?si=FbrbHPZOS12QGg8x86Ck8A
Love,
Matt (& Emma)
The October Prize
r/seashanties • u/Gwathdraug • 12d ago
Kanerien Trozoul is a large group of male and female shanty and sea-song singers from Brittany.
Learn more about this energetic group on their listing on the Maritime Music Directory International:
https://seashanties4all.com/groups-artists/kanerien-trozoul/
r/seashanties • u/patangpatang • 14d ago
The popular version of Bound Down Trinidad (here sung by Kimber's Men: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVu1_oF_3mw) includes the phrase "booch free me bully boys and burtoned in the archway."
What does that mean? I imagine it's some Caribbean sailor slang for being drunk, because that seems to be what most uncommon turns of phrase in sea shanties are, but I figured I'd ask to see if anyone else has thoughts.
r/seashanties • u/Nervous-Matter-5142 • 15d ago
r/seashanties • u/Dominik_Pokorny • 15d ago
r/seashanties • u/Gwathdraug • 18d ago
Jim Mageean is one of the genre's foundational members. His command of folk and maritime music is legendary. He is not only sought after as a solo performer, but his ensemble work provides audiences all over the world with rich examples of musical historicity. Learn more about Mageean on his Maritime Music Directory International listing here:
https://seashanties4all.com/groups-artists/jim-mageean/
r/seashanties • u/matthewsaaan • 20d ago
I asked some friends from The Rusty Tubs and friends around the shanty scene what one song they’d lead at a shout, and why.
r/seashanties • u/matthewsaaan • 23d ago
r/seashanties • u/49tacos • 22d ago
This counts, right?
Totally functions as a work song.
r/seashanties • u/CaregiverUsual4127 • 22d ago
Fingers crossed you guys like it!
r/seashanties • u/Great-Orange-301 • 24d ago
Just would love know of more artists, at the moment all I really know of are the dreadnoughts and the longest johns. Irish/scottish/english folk musicians/albums are also very welcome :)
r/seashanties • u/Gwathdraug • 25d ago
The Idlers were formed in 1957 from a group of US Coast Guard Academy members and have continued to perform through today. Learn more about this legendary group on their MMDI listing here: https://seashanties4all.com/groups-artists/idlers/.
r/seashanties • u/AerisPryde • 26d ago
Hey guys, I’m throwing a halloween pirate party and I’m looking for fast paced polka songs with a pirate vibe! Any recommendations? Thanks!
Edit: Thx for the recs guys! Will def check out The Dreadnoughts!
r/seashanties • u/Joe_Rocket • 26d ago
Filmed this Spring on the North Coast of Ireland- at Lacada Brewery 🍻
r/seashanties • u/ArrantPariah • 29d ago
r/seashanties • u/Shoddy-Trust1848 • 29d ago
alas my home in high germany is many miles from the open sea…
but I’m travelling via Britain in October and I have a week to spare, so I wanted to ask if anyone knows of shanty singalongs/jams or just regular old concerts that I might go to. Doesn’t have to be strictly shanties, any vaguely maritime folk will do, I just never meet anyone else who enjoys or frankly knows this music and thought my chances might be sliiiiiightly better over there!
Unfortunately being a woman hampers my shanty singing a bit, but I can shut my gob for long enough to listen to others sing if that’s a problem.
I haven’t decided my itinerary yet and could really go anywhere. All I know is I’m landing at Birkenhead on 02 Oct and have to leave from London some time around the 11th.
(It’s a long shot but if anyone wants to meet and sing shanties in Dublin till then, I’ll happily join in! Haven’t been able to find anything in Ireland though. I don’t have my guitar with me but I’ll bring a mediocre soprano voice, semi-passable alto voice, unreliable but sometimes useful ability to harmonise, and spotty knowledge of most classics haha)
r/seashanties • u/Gwathdraug • Sep 11 '26
At 90 years old, Hughie Jones, a venerable former member of Liverpool's The Spinners, has a rich maritime heritage music pedigree with his work. Learn more about him on his listing on the Maritime Music Directory International.
