Album Notes

"If you thought that the sea never gave up her treasures, then think again... A must for all lovers of sea songs!" - Harbourfolk News, Nova Scotia, Canada

"You can taste the salt and travel the seven seas. Delightful vocals, dazzling range of instruments." -Folk Roots Magazine, UK

William Pint was born and raised in Milwaukee, WI, then headed west to Seattle to pursue music and avoid cold winters. Felicia Dale was born and raised on an island in Washington's Puget Sound; her father was a sea captain who brought back tales and treasures from exotic ports of call. Together, they make nautical music fun, dynamic and varied -- and above all, musical. Backing themselves with guitar, hurdy-gurdy (an ancient wheel-driven instrument that sounds like a cross between a bagpipe and a violin), tinwhistle, octave mandolin, doumbek, etc., they have a wide open sense of rhythmic possibilities.


Seven Seas finds Pint & Dale performing traditional work songs of the Tall Ships sailors as well as new works by some wonderful songwriters in the folk tradition.
The traditional titles include "High Barbaree", a tale of piracy, battle and revenge, "Cheerily Man", one of the oldest of all hauling songs updated with a contemporary spin, and the deep water shanties, "Oh Mary, Come Down," "Billy Boy" and "The Wild Goose Shanty". Contemporary songs are represented by Alan Maslen's "The Mary Stanford of Rye," a true saga of a British Royal Naval Lifeboat Institute crew's tragic sacrifice in a rescue operation gone wrong. Ron Baxter and Ross Campbell's "Lost" is a poignant, emotional litany of ships and their crews that disappear in the daily struggle between man and sea. Tim Laycock's "Heaven's a Bar" tells of the sailor's unique vision of paradise, where "the liquor is free -- they keeps a great stock." "The Packet Rat" is William Pint's setting of a poem by the English nautical writer, C. Fox Smith.
As on several of their previous recordings Pint & Dale are joined here on several songs by Tania Opland and Mike Freeman on violin, percussion and additional vocals. Traditional English, Irish, and Northumbrian dance tunes featuring Felicia Dale's trademark wailing hurdy-gurdy along with mandolins, guitar and fiddles are featured among the songs. The album runs from sensitive, introspective a cappella songs to bursts of rollicking, joyful musical energy.