From: finfam41@verizon.net   
      
   Finn & Haddie (Barry Finn & Niel Downey) have just released a new CD of Sea   
   Music, mostly shanties.   
   Here's a list of the songs & notes about them;   
      
   1. Roller Bowler; Trad. 2:57 (Barry)   
   I got this from Polish shanty singer Marek Siurawski, who was something of a   
   first mate of the Polish wishbone schooner Zawisza Czarny during the 1992   
   tall ship's parade in Boston Harbor. Hugill has this in his "Shanties of the   
   Seven Seas", though slightly different. It was used at the capstan. Hugill   
   says it's a "Negro-Irish type of sailor work-song". Cecil Sharp also   
   collected  a version of this. I also have to thank John Townely for   
   reacquainting me with Marek's version years later.   
      
      
      
   2. Yangtse River Shanty;(words:Hamish Maclaren, Sailor with a Banjo,©1930)   
   3:08(Barry)   
   I got this from Charlie Ipcar of Maine. It comes from the pen of Hamish   
   Maclaren and his 1930 folk opera "Sailor With A Banjo". Charlie adapted this   
   to make it more singable and gave it a better life by setting it to a great   
   tune for which he's too modest to take credit. I adapted it a bit further to   
   be sung at the capstan.   
      
      
      
      
      
   3. Heavy Cruiser; (lead: Neil) Words & Tune by Neil Downey ©1999, 2:18   
   (Neil)   
   Written for the Cruiser, the USS Salem, where we spent the weekend in Boston   
   Harbor during a Tall Ship's parade. The reference to "we were a "4.0 war   
   machine" refers to the ships inspection & performance, in this case making   
   it a perfect war machine.   
      
      
      
   4. Schooner Industry; (trad., tune & chorus by Neil Downey © 2003) 6:07   
   (Barry)   
      
   My friend, great singer/musician & writer of sea songs & shanties, Jerry   
   Bryant dug this up from the log of the Industry & culled it down from 40   
   verses to eight. Jerry put this to a traditional tune, without the chorus,   
   as he found it. The tune here is from Neil Downey as well as its new chorus.   
   Historically I've found the song very accurate & from the report of the   
   Commissioners of Fish & Fisheries where in the remarks column it has the   
   crew as "manned wholly by blacks" as well as the brig Traveler also   
   mentioned in this song. Absalom S. Boston a Nantucketer, land owner, inn   
   keeper & merchant put to sea at the age of 15 in 1800 & retired from sea   
   after this voyage. He was married to the granddaughter of the famous   
   Black/Indian sea captain Paul Cuffe who also commanded & owned a brig by the   
   same name of Traveler only 7 yrs earlier, most likely they are one in the   
   same although I've yet to verify this. Interestingly enough the Bostons were   
   also no strangers to litigation. His uncle Prince Boston, a slave sailor was   
   the first on Nantucket to sue for his ships pay & won. Absalom himself sued   
   the state of Massachusetts on behalf of his daughter & niece for school   
   integration of the state school on Nantucket & won, this being a first time   
   in the nation. I'd like to thank Jerry for his blessing to record this gem.   
      
      
      
   5. Ida Lewis  (By Barry Finn © 1997, tune traditional; Jackie Rhubarb) 1:50   
   (Barry)   
      
   I wrote this after reading about Ida Lewis in the book 'Women Who Kept The   
   Lights' by Mary L & J Candace Clifford. I give thanks to them for the   
   inspiration for this song.   
      
      
      
   6. Fine Time of Day; Trad. 0:58 (Neil)   
      
   A British West Indian rowing shanty that Neil found in the Roger D. Abraham's   
   collection "Deep The Water Shallow The Shore".   
      
      
      
   7. London Julie; Trad. 2:23 (Barry)   
      
   Another shanty I got from Marek Siurawshi during the same tall ships parade   
   in Boston Harbor.  He was playing concertina & the schooner was motoring   
   from the dockside while the cadets were making ready to set sail. This is   
   the first shanty he sang as work got underway and the crew was quite   
   comfortable performing their duties to this shanty. This can be found in   
   both the Carpenter & the Gordon collections. I rewrote the verses,   
   originally I had only some of the usual filler verses from Marek and felt it   
   needed better than just the usual floating filler verses. I believe this   
   came to Marek from Roy Harris by way of a woman shanty singer, whose name I   
   can't find.   
      
      
      
   8. Hard Times in Ol Virginia; Trad. 3:22 (Barry)   
      
   I got this from the Georgia Sea Island Singers CD on Lomax's Southern   
   Journey collection "Earliest Times vol.13. Lydia Parrish in her "Slave Songs   
   of the Georgia Sea Islands" has a version of this and says what she has is a   
   combination of the shanty 'Hard Times in Ole Virginny', the religious song   
   "Aye Lord, Budding on the Fig Tree" and a dance song, "My Ole Missus Promise   
   Me".   
      
      
      
   9. Main Royal Yard; (Words & Tune: Neil Downey ©1998) 3:00 (Nie   
   This gem is another familiar story, from Neil, of a woman having her way   
   with a sailor in port only in this case the mutual consent and out come has   
   an agreeable ending.   
      
   10. One More Day; Trad. 3:34 (Barry)   
   I got this great capstan shanty from Susanne Friend formely of San   
   Francisco. Her version would be much more suited to the capstan than some   
   other versions I've heard as this makes use of the full chorus & it's tempo   
   matching the required work. I'm still grateful for her gift of this song and   
   her patience in teaching it to me. My gift of a bottle of wine I'm sure,   
   didn't get as much mileage as I've received singing this song.   
      
   11. Hell of a Hell of a Wedding; Trad. 1:32 (Neil)   
      
   Or Monkey Married the Baboon's Daughter is a BWI used at the oars. It   
   originated out of the 19th century music hall tradition. This here,   
   according to Roger D Abrahams "is a parody, at least in part, of 'The Frog   
   And The Mouse. Another one Neil got from Roger Abrahams's collection "Deep   
   the Water Shallow the Shore".   
      
      
      
   12. Good Ol Brig; Trad. 2:15 (Barry)   
   I collected this rarely sung shanty while acting as honorary shantyman and a   
   sometime volunteer aboard the brig Carthaginian at Lahina, Maui in 1979.   
   There I met George Herbert, an old Cape Horner who had stopped to visit   
   friend Drake Thomas who was working on the Carthaginian. He sang this shanty   
   as well as others during his stay. I believe he picked this up while working   
   the Baltic trades as a boy just prior to WWI. Hugill has a Norwegian version   
   of this pump shanty in his "Songs of the Sea". You'll find in listening to   
   this, that the lead voice alternates the third line some of the time. The   
   reason is because when I first recorded George he sang it one way and 15   
   years later sent me a home recording of him singing it slightly different.   
      
      
   13. Bowline; Trad. 3:51 (Barry)   
   This version comes from the Bahamas & can be found on the Lomax's collection   
   'Deep River of Song Bahamas 1935.  Roy Harris also recorded a similar   
   version   
      
      
   14. Ranzo Rae; Trad. 2:32 (Barry)   
      
   I first heard this halyard shanty by sung Dick Holdstock & Alan MacLeod &   
   later had to swipe it off their CD "Deep Water  Shanties". Hugill has this   
   as Afro American in origin. This version's verses come from a variety of   
   sources.   
      
      
      
   15. Coal Black Rosie;  Trad, 1:1 (Neil)   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
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