Suggested WORKSHOps
Times in parentheses are approximate and all workshops may be tailored to fit any time span required including week-long workshops. In addition these may be geared to a setting with multiple performers trading ideas and songs.
Women and the SeA
In this time in history, women may be found working in every imaginable role in the maritime world, from deckhand to captain. In earlier times, women went to sea in a variety of ways, as wives of whaling and merchant captains, as passengers, dressed in men’s clothing posing as, and carrying out the duties of, foremast hands, and sometimes, as pirates. More often, women stayed on shore, raising families, running businesses and holding communities together while the men, fathers, husbands, brothers and sons were at sea for weeks, months or even years. This is a sampling of women’s views of the sea and songs about the women. (45-60 minutes)
chanteys 101
Chanteys: the use of a singing for all kinds of work: pumping, raising sails, lowering/raising anchor and more. Brief descriptions of the work and demonstrations of the kind of chanteys used in that work. (30-60 minutes)
Songs of Fishermen
19th Century America’s greatest fishing port, Gloucester, Massachusetts, sometimes lost more than 200 men a year in the fisheries – a crushing toll for a town with a population around 10,000. In 1994, fishing had the highest death rate of any occupation in the United States. The songs of this trade commemorate the courage and grief of fishing communities, while also showing flashes of the wry humor and matter-of-fact attitude that often sustain people in difficult situations. This workshop illustrates many of these songs. (30 to 40 minutes.)
Ballads
The ancient practice of telling stories through song thrived at sea and among shore dwellers enthralled by the beauty and grace of ships and the wonders and terrors of the sea. Sailors sang ballads on all sorts of themes, nautical and otherwise, while ballads on nautical themes were popular among people who never saw the ocean. (30 to 45 minutes.)
Sailors, Landsmen, and Ladies
Sailors often plied other trades either before their first sea journey or after their last. In some parts of the world, farmers would become miners and then sailors or vice versa. As far as the ladies, well, sailors spent long periods at sea and found it difficult to compete with rivals for their sweetheart’s affection. (30-45 minutes)
Worksong Traditions
Chanteys are perhaps the most widely known and documented examples of the ancient practice of singing at work. The tradition sprang from earlier worksong forms and influenced others as changing technology gave rise to new occupations. We will illustrate songs from, or about, a number of occupations with an emphasis on chanteys. (30-40 minutes)
Contemporary Sea Songs
Sailors often wrote songs of their journeys, as did other contemporary musicians. This will focus on contemporary songs of maritime life, whether a poem set to music or stories of sailor’s working conditions. (30-45 minutes)
Forecastle or foc’sle Songs
These are songs sailors sang in their off-duty times. Traveling the world over, sailors often sang songs they heard in their travels, either from other sailors, or while ashore. From ballads and laments to music hall and rock and pop (for modern-day sailors), anything you can imagine, sailors sang. We will focus on the earlier times here. (30-40 minutes)
Miners and Mining
The life of a miner was (and is) hard. Whether mining tin, coal, gold, or diamonds, the work was dangerous, the living conditions atrocious. Songs of the work, the conditions and family. Ballads, laments and chorus songs. (30 to 45 minutes)
Pub Sessions
Set in a local pub or reasonable facsimile thereof– 2 or more chantey groups or performers get the audience singing along with rousing choruses. (Trade off songs with at least one other chantey group or performer) (60 minutes)
Harmonize with The Johnson Girls
Not a theory workshop, but a participatory one where attendees can work on their own harmonies to popular Johnson Girls’ songs or ones in progress. Discussions about how The Johnson Girls come up with their harmonies. (45 minutes to 2 hours)
On the Rocks
Songs about mining, shipwrecks, relationships, drinking, or whatever goes with “rocks.” Sailors faced many dangers at sea, both real and imagined. There were the terrible storms that could drive ships into the rocky shores. Then there were hopes and dreams that were dashed upon the rocks, the sirens sitting on the rocks, beckoning ships to their doom. Let's not forget about love "on the rocks" when the sailors went off to sea for many months or even years. And the women at home, often waiting on the rocks near the shoreline for their sailor to come home. Of course, there are those times on shore when sailors were usually in the pubs, toasting each other with alcohol over those rocks of ice and swearing they would never to go to sea again. Inevitably most did when they ran out of money. Some others may have decided to stay on land and become farmers where they tilled the soil and the rocks in the ground, water coming out of their pores, others went underground and worked on the rocks in the mines. Water and rocks, on land or at sea, both seem inescapable. Participatory. (45 minutes to 60 minutes)
The Sacred and the profane
Self explanatory.
Best of the Johnson Girls
A mix of favorites – songs taken from each of the categories previously listed. (any length)
special WORKSHOps
Meet the Johnson Girls
Talk show format with a moderator interviewing the group and individuals within the group. Each person would sing a song during the individual interviews. The moderator would then invite questions from the audience. (45 to 90 minutes)
Family Workshop
Songs and games about animals, ships and other things. (30-45 minutes)
Remembering Stan Hugill and William Main Doerflinger
No one embodies the traditions of sailor music more thoroughly or authentically than the late Stan Hugill, singer, sailor, artist, storyteller, teacher and author of the classic “Shanties from the Seven Seas” and several other books on like in the age of Sail. Bonnie Milner knew him well and will reminisce and raise a few songs in Stan’s memory. The late William Main Doerflinger was a collector of songs. Most known for his “Shanty Men and Shanty Boys” published in the 1950s, and later re-released in the 1970s as “Songs of the Sailors and Lumbermen,” Bill had a sincere love of the music and wanted to keep the tradition alive. He spent much of his time researching the origins of songs, taking time out to share his knowledge with musicians and friends, and participate in folk music weekends. Several of the Johnson Girls knew Bill and will offer up songs from his collections. (35-45 minutes)
Fire down below -(Adults only
Bawdy ballads and such…