Barley Bree: Jimmy Sweeney

Sailing Ships & Sailing Men
2000 - EVANDOH 1007 CD
with Evans & Doherty

Track list:
Paddy Lay Back
The Rosabella
Oh! California
The Leaving of Liverpool
All For Me Grog
Bonnie Hieland Laddie
Haul Away Joe
Pay Me My Money Down
Tiger Bay
John Kanaka
Old Moke Pickin' On A Banjo
Santianna (Bound For The Rio Grande)
Clear The Track
The Drunken Sailor
Essiquibo River
Maggie May
Blood Red Roses
Rolling Home To Nova Scotia
Leave Her Johnny

Credits

Jimmy Sweeney: lead vocal, acoustic guitar, tenor and longneck 5-string banjo
Kevin Evans: lead vocal, lead acoustic guitar, 5-string banjo, mandolin, tiple, tin whistle, harmonica, autoharp and bodhran
Brian Doherty: lead vocals and bass guitar

Tom Roach: percussion
Donnie Webb: concertina
Anthony Rissesco: fiddle

On the acapella Shanties: Donnie Webb, Brian Doherty, Kevin Evans, Jimmy Sweeny, Dan MacKinnon, Donnie Moore, Dave Hickey and John Ferguson

Produced by Glen Meisner and Kevin B. Evans
Recorded at CBC Studio H in Halifax, Nova Scotia
Engineered by Karl Falkingham
Mastered at DC Productions by Donnie Chapman and Kevin B. Evans
Art & Design: Susan Love, Wendy deCoste
Photography: front cover — Philip Plisson, inside and back cover — George Georgakakos

…CD available for purchase here.

Sleeve Notes

The immortal words of John Masefield, poet and sailor. The poet's work evokes memories of a bygone day whose mystery, adventure, challenge and romance are reborn in the mind's eye at the sight of a majestic tall ship or at the sound of an old sea song. The great sailing ships themselves were a symphony of sound with their every movement. The masts sang as the stays that supported them were drawn tight when the wind blew, the sails sounded like drums as they filled with air, anchor chains rattled through the hawseholes and pawls clicked into place. All the while, the sailors sang in rhythm to weigh anchor, set the sails or pump the bilges. Their work songs were known as shanties and the songs they sang in port or after supper were known as forebitters.

To this day, the songs of the sea are kept alive in the many shanty festivals that exist throughout the world and also in the taverns of maritime countries, their haunting melodies conjuring up something of the atmosphere of that long-ago life in the days of the great sailing ships.