Accordion Noir radio playlist 2021-01-20: Shanties a’Trending?

AccNoir 2021-01-20

“Home Sweet Home“, Norman Rockwell, 1923.

No one had “sea shanty revival” on their 2020 bingo card. But because the ducks and swerves of popular culture stubbornly can’t be predicted or dictated, that improbable eventuality came to pass, with “the Wellerman” taking youth video service TikTok by storm and introducing an entire generation to a musical tradition they had likely never imagined, let alone encountered, before. Meanwhile, here we are on the sidelines, observing how if the least hip thing (I can make that claim, for over a decade I fronted a band called The Creaking Planks) sits on the shelf long enough, sometimes the odometer eventually ticks over and it suddenly becomes the most hip thing. (Maybe in 2021 it’ll be the Morrismen’s turn.) “Hey Bruce,” I says, “looks like Hell has frozen over and sea shanties are trending this week. You must have a couple dozen hours of them in your audio collection, if we jump on it we just might be accidentally relevant before the bubble pops!” Which brings us to the present — always striving for relevance, but only rarely actually having the extraordinary conditions in place to make actually achieving it remotely possible. In any case, our Nautical By Nature sea shanty episode went out over the airwaves this week — if your Apple or Android podcast subscriptions (strongly recommended!) haven’t alerted you to its availability yet, you can listen to it as digital audio courtesy of the Internet Archive. Here’s its playlist:

AccNoir-2021-01-20, Shanties a’Trending?

• Leveret – A Hornpipe – The Sailor’s Delight – Diversions (2019) – Stroud, UK – http://www.leveretband.com https://leveretband.bandcamp.com Andy Cutting (melodeon), Sam Sweeney (fiddle) and Rob Harbron (concertina)
• The Gertrudes – Sailor – Dawn Time Riot (2010) – Kingston, Ontario, Canada – http://thegertrudes.com/
• Wellington Sea Shanty Society + Croche Dedans – The Wellerman – AHOY! (2018) – France / New Zealand – http://wssscrochededans.bandcamp.com
• The McNulty Family – I Sailed Away From Dublin Bay – Unknown Album (19/01/2010 12:12:37 AM) (1939) – USA / Ireland – Internet Archive, https://archive.org/details/McnultyFamily_344 Discography: http://www.honkingduck.com/discography/artist/mcnulty_family
• Great Big Sea – Josephine The Baker – Great Big Sea XX – The Folk Songs (2012) – Newfoundland, Canada – http://www.greatbigsea.com https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XX_(Great_Big_Sea_album) The tune at the end may be “Old Man and the Old Woman” reel. https://thesession.org/tunes/4382
• Eliza Carthy – Rolling Sea – Rogue’s Gallery, Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs & Chanteys (disk 1) (2006) – Yorkshire, England, UK – http://www.eliza-carthy.com
• Daniel Kahn & The Painted Bird – Rats – Partisans & Parasites (2009) – Detroit, Michigan, USA / Berlin, Germany – http://www.paintedbird.net/
• Peter Knight’s Gigspanner Big Band – Haul on the Bowline – Natural Invention (2020) – Uk – http://www.johnspiers.co.uk http://www.gigspanner.com John Spiers (Bellowhead), melodeon acc.
• The Tiger Lillies – Sleep With The Fishes – Circus Songs (2000) – United Kingdom – http://www.tigerlillies.com/
• The Bad Things – Death of the Inferno – After The Inferno (2014) – Seattle, Washington, USA – http://www.thebadthings.com/
• Salty Dick (Richard Docker, PhD) – The Fireship – Salty Dick’s Uncensored Sailor Songs (2004) – Rhode Island, USA – http://www.saltydick.com/contents.htm http://www.horntip.com/mp3/2000s/2004_salty_dicks_uncensored_sailor_songs_(CD)/
• The Once – Three Fishers – The Once (2009) – Newfoundland, Canada – http://theonce.ca

Thanks for reading us here (and hopefully listening to us, there), but if you find you want more, you can always keep up with us on Twitter (@AccordionNoir and @AccordionBruce), Instagram (@AccordionNoirFest), and Facebook at Accordion Noir fans, the Accordion Noir Festival, and the Vancouver Squeezebox Circle (Zoom song circles the first Friday of every month, next up Feb 5, 7-9 pm PST!) Cheers & squeeze on!

Bonus: co-host Rowan was jumping on the shanty bandwagon (er, dinghy?) this week with his Stupid Accordion Tricks video series, foisting nautical tunes at TikTok as part of his midlife crisis. Enjoy his take on Ewan MacColl’s “The Shoals of Herring”: