Album Notes

My interest in traditional music began in the early 70s. I was part of several groups in the San Francisco Bay Area, the best known of which was Out of the Rain. Out of the Rain did traditional and some contemporary songs from England, Ireland, & Scotland, performing in the Bay Area from about 1983-1996. We were probably best known for three-part a cappella singing although we did accompany ourselves as well (guitar, mandolin, tin whistle, bodhran, concertina, fiddle). The band recorded two studio cassettes, A Common Treasury and Song of the Wage Slave. A few years ago I also produced a cd of the band, With the Friends I Love Best which is a compilation of concert performances over the years. It is comprised of songs and tune sets not found on the two cassettes.

For the past few years I have been concentrating on nautical music. I am one of the regular shanty singers at San Francisco's Hyde Street Pier, which just celebrated the twentieth anniversary of the monthly shanty sings held aboard either the schooner C.A. Thayer or the square-rigger Balclutha. Hyde Street Pier is part of the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park. I've just released Time Ashore is Over, a new CD of sea shanties and sea songs which features a chorus of singers from Hyde Street Pier. Sea shanties were the work songs of sailors in the days of wind driven ships. They were used to coordinate the hoisting of sails, general hauling, and work at the capstan (raising the anchor), among others shipboard duties.

I was inspired and influenced by Jon Bartlett who I first heard singing shanties at the San Diego Folk Festival back around 1975 or so. I was also greatly influenced by the late Stan Hugill (1906-1992) who was an actual shanty singer aboard sailing ships. I had the good fortune to meet him and hear him sing at his many appearances at the annual Festival of the Sea at San Francisco's Hyde Street Pier.

I've gotten good responses for Time Ashore is Over. It is available in the UK through the Chantey Cabin website in England and portions of the recording will be used for an online Moby Dick course soon be offered by Stanford University in California. This recording has become one of the best selling albums at the maritime store at Hyde Street Pier in San Francisco.

I now sing in a nautical duet with Peter Kasin. In 2005 we released our first album together, Boldly from the Westward and in 2006 we released a second album, Cast Off Each Line. A third album, With Shipmates All Round, will be released in 2008.

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