The whole world is now a shanty town as sea songs blow up online
For once, I was early to the cultural party.
I’ve loved sea shanties since I was a kid and listened to my dad, a former Navy man, singing them. My friends and I sang them on canoe trips and during long car rides during college and in my early 20s. I’ve gone to several Chicago shanty sings in recent years and belted them out occasionally in pre-pandemic gatherings at the Inner Town Pub in Ukrainian Village.
The rousing choruses, the relentless rhythms, the often ancient lyrics and the opportunities for raw harmony add up to an easy, satisfying yet highly niche musical experience. I never even considered the idea that shanties could have mass appeal.
But now, suddenly, they’re everywhere. At the end of December, 26-year-old Scottish postal carrier Nathan Evans posted to TikTok a video of him singing “Soon May the Wellerman Come,” a catchy song said to have originated among merchant seafarers in New Zealand in the mid-1800s (Purists insist that it’s not technically a shanty for reasons that need not concern us here).
“Wellerman” exploded, not simply in views of the original but also in versions that layered the voices of other users on top of Evans’, a style of collaboration that’s become popular during a time when musically inclined people are isolating at home. Other shanties and variations on “Wellerman,” such as a Packerfan version, went viral. Stephen Colbert declared 2021 “the year of the sea shanty.” Google searches for shanties skyrocketed. At #ShantyTok a new generation of would-be old salts is trying to transform such popular songs as “Another One Bites the Dust” and “Africa” into sea songs.
“It’s delightful and a little bizarre,” said Mareva Lindo, a Chicago musician and Inner Town Pub friend who specializes
in shanties and performs and tours with a singing partner who goes by “Spitzer Space Telescope.” “This weird thing that I’ve done for years with my family and my friends has become cool.”
Lindo said she grew up singing shanties with her parents and their friends at a heritage boat club in Montrose Harbor. And, like me, she resonated with the emotional power of full-throated singing that comes from the onboard rituals of 19th century sailors, but that also has echoes of call-and-response traditions in unaccompanied work, spiritual and drinking songs from many traditions.
And while it might seem ironic that this intensely social folk-art form is having its heyday during a time of social distancing, Lindo said she sees the viral phenomenon as evoking “a feeling of being together that we’re all missing right now.”
“These songs were originally sung by people who were far from home and family,” added Kathy
Whisler, organizer of the Chicago Shanty Sing, an event open to all comers that was held monthly at the Atlantic Bar & Grill on the Northwest Side until COVID-19 came along last spring. “A lot of the songs are about looking forward to the end of the voyage, of returning to loved ones or even the opportunity to go to a bar to drink beer and socialize. Others are about the difficult conditions and the mental and physical fortitude needed to overcome them. I think those concepts speak to many of us more than ever these days.”
Further, most of the songs “have a narrow range and simple rhythm which makes them relatively easy to sing, “Whisler said via email. “And the repetitive choruses give people lots of chances to try to find a harmony if they are so inclined. I often try to encourage self-identified nonsingers to join in on the chorus of a shanty with the argument that even if they think their voice is not so pretty, it will just sound more ‘authentic’ as part of the group.
“These songs give people permission to enjoy joining in however they can without worrying too much. So if anything comes of all this, maybe more people will realize that they can sing, that it is fun to sing, and that they will keep doing it.”
So true. Fads come and go. But the joy of singing together is forever.
Rod went low but got a ‘no’
In an apparent bid to persuade outgoing President Donald Trump to grant him a full pardon, disgraced former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich sacrificed his last remaining shred of dignity last weekend when he called on incoming President Joe Biden to award Trump the Presidential Medal of Freedom “for giving voice to millions of law-abiding citizens who have a right to have their voices heard.”
Speaking to Politico columnist Shia Kapos and referencing Trump’s speech to supporters Jan. 6 just before a subset of them stormed the U.S. Capitol, Blagojevich said, “Any time a president or political leader can mobilize public support behind a worthy cause, he or she deserves praise — not condemnation.”
A campaign of flattering the president on Fox News led by Blagojevich’s wife paid off last February when Trump set Blago free by commuting his 14-year sentence, but since it wasn’t a pardon, his conviction on federal corruption charges still stood. Thankfully, this latest plunge into the oily depths of obsequiousness — there was nothing “worthy” about Trump’s false and incendiary braying about election fraud — didn’t do the trick. Blago’s wasn’t among the names of numerous bootlickers whose legal slate Trump wiped fully clean on his last day in office.
Re: Tweets
The winner of this week’s reader poll to select the funniest tweet was “My kid asked where babies come from and I said, ‘Everywhere, man. They’re worldwide,’” by @capnwatsisname. In fifth place was the one that struck closest to home for me: “My husband and I have this routine where we both avoid picking up some random piece of trash for days on end, silently daring the other to do it, until I realize I’m the only one who even sees it and I pick it up,” by @LizerReal.
The poll appears at chicago tribune.com/zorn where you can read all the finalists. For an early alert when each new poll is posted, sign up for the Change of Subject email newsletter at chicagotribune.com/newsletters.