Another way to explore our songbook
by The Auntie Shanty Crew
Looking for a song on a particular subject? – click a link
We’ve got loads of songs about seafaring women, both real and fictional. Women who have inspired more than one song include Grace O’Malley and Jeanne de Clisson.
We’ve got songs written by women, non-binary people and others who are not men, songs narrated by non-male characters, and songs including women who don’t go to sea.
We’ve got songs that we consider to be overtly feminist in their outlook, and those that we consider to have LGBTQ+ themes. We’ve also got songs with African or African-American origins.
You can view songs based on what the people are doing at sea – songs about fishing, whaling, saving lives, trading and transport, and of course, rebellion and piracy (Yarrrrr!).
We’ve got songs about naval warfare, the Royal Navy, and songs about being press-ganged into the navy (or trying to avoid it).
There are songs with loads of joining-in bits (choruses and/or repeated lines). The opposite of these are the ballads – songs which tell a story, and (generally) have very little for other people to join in with.
There are comedy songs (your definition of ‘comedy’ may vary), and songs that are parodies of other songs. We’ve also got rewritten songs – traditional songs that have been given dramatic overhauls.
For a less human-centric viewpoint, we’ve got songs on ocean creatures, which include whales, fish, albatrosses and mermaids. And songs which include ghosts and supernatural phenomena in various forms. We’ve also got songs about the ships themselves.
Some of the most joyful songs are about coming home and drinking. On the sadder end of the spectrum we’ve got songs about saying goodbye, either to the land or to the sea. There are some minor-key songs and laments, alongside uplifting songs about hope and perseverance in the face of adversity.
The songbook contains songs by lots of people – and among our favourite writers and performers are Nancy Kerr, Janie Meneely, Cicely Fox Smith and Stan Rogers. We’ve also got a load of lyrics which were originally published as poetry and set to music later.
Some tell stories about real historic events. And we’ve got songs which acknowledge the modern nautical world – that is, those that reflect that we’re (mostly) not travelling about in sailing ships any more.
Songs originate from around the globe, and we’ve got songs tagged with France, Ireland, Scotland and Australia. These are either ‘from’ that place, ‘about’ that place, or have some other link to it. From closer to home, we’ve got songs from or about the Northeast, the Northwest and the South of England.
We’ve got shanties that are heard in the “Assassin’s Creed” computer game (although the Auntie Shanty versions are slightly different). We’ve also got songs which appeared in popular films, songs from the Fisherman’s Friends movies, and (because it’s an excellent bit of trivia) we’ve got sea songs that appear in Russell Crowe films.
We’ve got songs for multiple ‘voices’ – these can be led solo, but we think they work best with different people (or groups) singing the different parts. Some of these have fancy colours in the songbook version.
A few miscellaneous categories – we’ve got songs about love, rivers, shipwrecks and The Northwest Passage. There are also very short songs, childrens songs, songs written since 2000 and songs in languages other than English.
And last-but-not-least, for the Auntie Shanty sessions in which “herring half-hour” happens, we’ve got the perennial favourite songs about herring.