Nantucket is an island about 30 miles (48 km) south from Cape Cod. Together with the small islands of Tuckernuck and Muskeget, it constitutes the Town and County of Nantucket, a combined county/town government in the state of Massachusetts. Nantucket is the southeasternmost town in both Massachusetts and the New England region.
Massachusetts is a U.S. state in New England. The music of Massachusetts has developed actively since it was first colonized by Britain. The city of Boston is an especially large part of the state's present music scene, which includes several genres of rock, as well as classical, folk, and hip hop music.
A sea shanty, chantey, or chanty is a genre of traditional folk song that was once commonly sung as a work song to accompany rhythmical labor aboard large merchant sailing vessels. The term shanty most accurately refers to a specific style of work song belonging to this historical repertoire. However, in recent, popular usage, the scope of its definition is sometimes expanded to admit a wider range of repertoire and characteristics, or to refer to a "maritime work song" in general.
William Sloane Coffin Jr. was an American Christian clergyman and long-time peace activist. He was ordained in the Presbyterian Church, and later received ministerial standing in the United Church of Christ. In his younger days he was an athlete, a talented pianist, a CIA officer, and later chaplain of Yale University, where the influence of H. Richard Niebuhr's social philosophy led him to become a leader in the civil rights movement and peace movements of the 1960s and 1970s. He also was a member of the secret society Skull and Bones. He went on to serve as senior minister at Riverside Church in New York City and President of SANE/Freeze, the nation's largest peace and social justice group, and prominently opposed United States military interventions in conflicts, from the Vietnam War to the Iraq War. He was also an ardent supporter of gay rights.
JohnMeredith "Jack" Langstaff, a concert baritone, and early music revivalist was the founder of the tradition of the Christmas Revels, as well as a respected musician and educator. He attended the Curtis Institute of Music as well as Juilliard.
"Santianna", also known as "Santiana", "Santy Anna", "Santayana", "Santiano", "Santy Anno" and other variations, is a sea shanty referring to the Mexican General Antonio López de Santa Anna. The song is listed as number 207 in the Roud Folk Song Index.
Bounding Main is an American a cappella quintet focusing on traditional sea shanties and maritime music.
Salty Walt & the Rattlin' Ratlines is a sea shanty performing group based in San Francisco, originally formed in 2003. The group consists of Walter "Salty Walt" Askew, Daniel Briggs, Griff Nelson, and Jon Richardson. On occasion, they also perform Celtic music and since at least 2005 have been performing a show of traditional carols and wassails on Boxing Day. They were voted San Francisco's "Best Sea Shanty Band" in 2006. The group appeared at the "Festival Maritim" in Vegesack, Germany in 2007.
The Chicago Maritime Festival is a maritime music and culture festival held in Chicago, Illinois, every winter, usually the last weekend in February, usually at the Chicago History Museum. It is not uncommon for over 500 people to participate. It has existed in its present incarnation since 2003 and is the only wintertime festival featuring maritime music in the United States. The main organizers are performers Tom & Chris Kastle.
Storm Weather Shanty Choir is a Norwegian sextet from Stord, Norway that performs mostly traditional Norwegian and English sea shanties. They were formed in 2000, by shantyman Haakon Steinar Vatle, and used to introduce themselves as "the roughest, toughest and youngest boy band in Norway, singing 150 years old cover songs".
"The Maid of Amsterdam", also known as "A-Roving", is a traditional sea shanty. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 649.
William Main Doerflinger, was a book editor, stage magician, author, and noted American folk song collector, with a particular interest in maritime songs.
The Longest Johns are an English folk musical group from Bristol, England, consisting of Andy Yates, Jonathan "JD" Darley, and Robbie Sattin. They are known for performing folk music and sea shanties in the English tradition, and they also compose and record their own music. They gained popularity from their rendition of the folk song "Wellerman", which went viral on TikTok in early 2021.
"Soon May the Wellerman Come", also known as "Wellerman" or "The Wellerman", is a folk song in ballad style first published in New Zealand in the 1970s. The song refers to the "wellermen", pointing to supply ships owned by the Weller brothers, who were amongst the earliest European settlers of Otago.
Nathan Evans is a Scottish songwriter from Airdrie, Scotland. Evans first gained fame in 2020 by posting videos of himself singing sea shanties on social media service TikTok. In 2021, he released a cover of the folk song "Wellerman", which peaked at the top of the UK Singles Chart and also charted in several other countries.
"A Drop of Nelson's Blood" is a sea shanty, also known as "Roll the old chariot along" The origins are unclear, but the title comes from the line: "A drop of Nelson's blood wouldn't do us any harm". Often described as a "walkaway" or "runaway chorus" or "stamp and go" sea shanty, the song features on the soundtrack of the 2019 film Fisherman's Friends. The chorus comes from the 19th century Salvation Army hymn, 'Roll the old chariot'. This song developed into a shanty.
The Albany Shantymen are an Australian vocal group from Albany, Western Australia.
El Pony Pisador is a musical group from Barcelona that mixes various styles of folk and traditional music from around the world, including Celtic music, sea songs, bluegrass, tarantella and yodel. The band's name refers to the J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings inn The Prancing Pony, called «El Pony Pisador» in the Spanish translation.
