SOON MAY THE WELLERMAN COME

Sail the seven seas of rock with TG’S guitar version of this 19th century sea shanty!

Now, admittedly, we can’t imagine that guitar, amp and pedalboard featured too highly in most 19th century sailors’ luggage – we’ll concede that.

Still, we’re not going to let that stop us from plugging in and rocking out with our own version of Wellerman, the 150+ year-old sea shanty which recently became Nathan Evans’ sensational viral Tiktok hit and number one single in the UK chart. An unlikely and unfathomable new trend it may be, but this traditional tune has endured thanks to its strong, instantly memorable melody line. As with What shall we do with the Drunkensailor or a trad. folk tune like The wild rover, one listen to Wellerman and it’s in your head for good!

So, here we present our own version of this traditional tune. There are only two four-bar sections to learn, but we’ve let rip during the last eight bars to give you some ideas for your own version, and tabbed it all out for you.