Customer Reviews

Sailors' Songs & Sea Shanties

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is a collection for the true fan of the sea shanty (or chantey). The compilation is done acapella and feels as if you are on board a sailing ship in the 19th century. Eleven are sung by A. L. Lloyd, one of the foremost collectors of these songs andeight are by the late Ewan MacColl, a British folk icon.
If you want to hear and learn sea songs as they were most likely done by sailors pumping and hauling, this is a fine resource/

If you want to know how sea chanties originally sounded on the decks and under them back in the 18th and 19th centuries, this is an album for you. It can be a time-consuming process to sort through the load of sea chanty albums out there that when you're trying to find the traditional sound. Therefore, if you like the sound of this album I also recommend the following albums, composed by various performers including some on this album: Blow the Man Down; Round Cape Horn; Shanties & Songs of the Sea. These albums have a great mix of emotion in them, from rip-roarin' drinking songs to inspirational working songs to melancholy tunes about ships that were swallowed up by the sea.

Look at that beautiful ship on the cover ... and inside? It lists all the parts of the ship - fer ye landlubbers - from a flying jib to a main brace. Some songs are familiar - Away, Haul Away - to Bring 'em Down and a few pirate ballads to boot.

This is bad on nearly every level. Most of the songs are are without accompanyment so the fact that they are off key is quite apparent. I am sure there are good recordings of these songs however this is not one of them.

This album failed to meet my expectations. The titles are why I bought it.

Unfortunately, the arrangements are horrible; the voices are REALLY bad.

It left a sour taste in my soul.