Songs sung by sailors come to N.B. seaside town this summer
The tiny seaside village of St. Martins, N.B., will serve as the backdrop to the first-ever Fundy Sea Shanty Festival this summer, an event that will pay tribute to the time-honored east coast tradition of sailing songs and the region’s rich maritime history.
“[St. Martins] was a big shipbuilding port, major shipbuilding port, and Yarmouth was a major ship-owning port,” says Eric Ruff, skipper for the group the Yarmouth Shantymen. “[The festival] will give us a chance to talk about the history of where we come from.”
Sea shanties are traditional tunes that were sung by sailors during work aboard ships and, as Ruff explains, each song has a particular rhythm to match the task at hand.
“For example, if you’re hauling in the anchor you’ll use the capstan shanty as the men walk around pushing the capstan,” says Ruff. “They’ll walk around and around the capstan, and that’s a slow and steady beat.”
The sea shanty itself has seen something of a resurgence and revival in recent years thanks to social media, and particularly TikTok.
Artistic director for the festival, Gary Caines, says many songs that are pub favourites actually have their roots on the high seas.
“Our songs like ‘Billy Boy,’ and ‘Michael Row The Boat Ashore,’ ‘My Bonny Lies Over The Ocean,’ a lot of the young people would call them drinking songs,” says Caines.” But what they are, are shanties that groups have added bass to, added drums and brought them up-tempo.”
The Fundy Sea Shanty Festival is taking place from Aug. 12-14 this year with a line-up of performers that include Jimmy Flynn, Melanie Ross, Yarmouth Shantymen, Before the Mast, Fundy Ceilidh, Frantically Atlantic, Craic at the Cask, Chris Ricketts, Sonia Painchaud, Brise-Glace-Chants de Marin and Pressgang Mutiny.
There will also be rum tasting and decorative knot tying workshops, lectures on nautical history and folklore, and more.
“You can’t say enough about that human connection,” says emcee and performer Melanie Ross Breen.
“Especially with the sea shanties with the fact that they were done as a human piece, as basically just human power — that when you have people together, it just moves it to the next level."
Tickets for the event will be going on sale through the Fundy Sea Shanty Festival website on April 30.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Serial sexual offender linked to unsolved 1970s homicides of four Calgary girls, women
An investigation into unsolved historical homicides from the 1970s has linked the deaths of two girls and two young women in and around Calgary to a now-deceased serial offender.
Woman with liver failure rejected for a transplant after medical review highlights alcohol use
For nearly three months, Amanda Huska has been in an Ontario hospital, part of it on life support, because of severe liver failure. Her history of alcohol use is getting in the way of her only potential treatment: a liver transplant.
BREAKING Craig Berube named as next head coach of Toronto Maple Leafs
The Toronto Maple Leafs have named Craig Berube as their new head coach.
A look back on Alberta's record-breaking wildfire season: Preparing for potential challenges in 2024
By the end of the 2023 wildfire season in Alberta, 1,088 wildfires had burned more than 2.2 million hectares of land, and this year, the wildfire season is already in full swing.
Person charged in random assault on actor Steve Buscemi in New York
A person wanted in connection with the random assault on actor Steve Buscemi on a New York City street earlier this month was taken into custody Friday, police said.
B.C. man 'attacked suddenly' by adult grizzly near Alberta boundary: RCMP
A B.C. man is recovering from multiple injuries after he was "attacked suddenly" by an adult grizzly bear near Elkford Thursday afternoon.
Australia's richest woman seeks removal of her portrait from exhibition
Art is subjective. And while many artists long to share their work with the world, there's no guarantee that the audience will understand it, or even like it.
Video appears to show Sean 'Diddy' Combs beating singer Cassie in hotel hallway in 2016
Security video aired by CNN appears to show Sean 'Diddy' Combs physically assaulting singer Cassie in a Los Angeles hotel hallway in 2016.
Anglers reel in 3.5-metre-long tiger shark off coast of Florida: 'She found my bait'
A group of fishers said it took roughly 20 minutes to reel in this 3.5-metre-long tiger shark off the coast of Florida.