
Jon Boden, Seth Lakeman, Ben Nicholls, Emily Portman, Jack Rutter
Sea Song Sessions
Topic Records
30 September 2022
Given Britain’s position as an island nation, it should not be surprising that music and song related to the sea feature prominently in its social and political history. With evidence of sea shanties going back to at least the mid-1400s, sea songs and ballads from the 17th century onwards and forebitters from the period of 1780-1830, there is a wealth of material to be trawled. More recent times have been a fecund spawning ground, too, for example, Sea Songs, the early 20th-century arrangement of three British sea songs by Ralph Vaughan Williams through to 2021’s excellent Seaspeak album of original compositions from Joe Danks (read the Folk Radio review here.)
As might be expected, the oldest independent record label in the world and leviathan of British folk music, Topic Records has a long and enviable reputation for recording maritime/sea songs, for example, Sea Songs & Shanties, from 1971, Blow The Man Down, and our Editor-in-chief’s pick Farewell Nancy, from 1964. Now add to this list Sea Song Sessions, an album which sits remarkably comfortably with its illustrious predecessors and one which is sure to make waves and be a copper-bottomed success.
This latest nautically themed collection, produced and mixed by Ben Hillier (Blur, Doves, Elbow, Magic Numbers, Nadine Shah) at his Agricultural Audio studio “of incredibly rustic proportions, built out of straw, in the middle of a field” just north of Lewes over two days in May of 2022, features a collaboration between five stellar figures in the contemporary folk world, Jon Boden, Seth Lakeman, Ben Nicholls, Emily Portman and Jack Rutter.
The initial stimulus for the album came to the musicians in 2021 when they were asked to prepare an evening of sea-related songs for the Folkestone Festival. With several of those involved already having worked in collaboration on other musical projects, indeed with Ben too (see Kings of the South Seas), all five are well-versed in sea-faring songs, and the decision was made to record material from each of the artist’s repertoire. The 13 tracks, in the main traditional broadsides, ballads and shanties, with the odd new composition and more recent song, will mostly be familiar. Still, the freshness and originality with which this talented collective re-interprets the folk standards and breathe new life into such classics mean that each unfolding track is revelatory.
The collection opens with the traditional The Rambling Sailor, the first single taken from the album. Widely known and collected around the world, whilst the occupation of the protagonist ranges from miner to soldier,
Here the version tells of the philandering of a sailor, one young Johnson, and is based on the version by Tim Hart and Maddy Prior from their 1968 release Folk Songs of Old England Vol.1.
‘..with my false heart and flattering Tongue, I’ll court all girls both old and young, I’ll court them all but marry none, and still be a rambling sailor.’
Having found The Dreadnought (Bound Away) in The Oxford Book of Sea Songs, Jack added his own music and chorus. Obviously referencing the eponymous clipper famed for its speedy crossings between Liverpool and New York, Jack adds, “…it’s full of the excitement of large sailing ships, larger oceans and the prospect of new beginnings”.
There have been many recent recorded versions of Rock’n’Row Me Over, Roud 704, an end-of-voyage shanty sung with enthusiastic anticipation by those on board. The Home Service, Ashley Hutchings and the Blair Dunlop-led incarnation of The Albion Band immediately spring to mind. This gentle reading, however, with Emily taking lead vocals, is a thing of beauty, truly on a par with these previous esteemed versions. Her outstanding vocals also take centre-stage on Short Jacket and White Trousers. A song which sits within the group relating to young women dressing up as men, also known as The Rakish Female Sailor, Emily sang a further variation, I Am A Maid That’s Deep in Love, on the Fathoms album by The Furrow Collective, here her lead vocal is given ample space to breathe in front of sympathetic guitar from Jack and double bass from Ben, and careful listening to the lyrics will pay dividends.
Young Susan on Board of a Man-of-War is another traditional song in which a female ‘put on a jolly sailor’s clothes, and daubed her hands with tar/To cross the raging seas for love, on board of a Man-of-War’, although in this case Young Susan took this action to accompany her sailor lover, unbeknown to him and the story inevitably unfolds. With Jack on lead vocals, the additional accompaniment on this version presents a fuller sound to that on his Hills release, neither better nor worse, merely different.
Ben provides sonorous lead vocals on two old broadsides, Jack and the Bear Skin and The Mermaid’s Song, the latter featuring some excellent harmonies in a song which has a distinct Transatlantic air. The former, a humorous piece delivered here with a melody, to these ears, has very much an Eastern European, perhaps unsurprising given the fact that, according to The World On The Street website, the song was probably published between 1880 and 1900 and tells of a sailor’s return from the Baltic with an enormous beard cultivated using bear grease,
‘Jack to her now appeared with a most enormous beard
A head of hair transmogrified him so you see
That his sweetheart never knew him ‘till at her feet he fell in
A rolling on a bear skin from the Baltic Sea’
Of the remaining traditional songs, Fire Marengo, recorded by Jon as both a Bellowhead track and also as part of his one-year “Folk Song A Day” Project, unbelievably some 12 years ago, is given an electric, sparkling makeover, whilst The Lady and the Lantern is the tragic tale of a shipwreck and the loss of a baby, the mother of whom died of grief and whose spirit still inhabits the area.
This is a hauntingly eerie piece delivered by Seth in a suitably sombre tone over mournful harmonium and violin.
‘They sometimes still see her float over the water,
a portent to warn of disaster and doom.
Through storm and rough weather her spirit lies restless,
her lantern still shines through the dark and the gloom’
Of the non-traditional offerings, there is Seth’s The Good Ship Anny, the sole instrumental on the album, Jon’s wonderful Salvation Army Band Girl, which I venture to suggest is a ‘traditional song in waiting’, and what is undoubtedly a modern classic Some Old Salty, by Lal Waterson and Oliver Knight.
The closing song on the album, the Victorian ballad Deep Blue Sea, learnt by Jon at Forest School Camp, is a spartan track featuring his piano and lead vocal together with close, hymnal harmonies from Ben, Emily, Jack and Seth, creating a celestial atmosphere that is a perfect ending to a glorious album which showcases some of the best of the current crop of British folk artists delivering some of the best music you’re likely to hear this year.
Pre-order the album here: https://seasongsessions.lnk.to/album
My thanks and credit to David Atkinson for information taken from his “Introduction to English Sea Songs And Shanties”
UK SEA SONG SESSIONS TOUR DATES:
TICKETS: https://charlestown-harbour.myshopwired.co.uk/event-tickets
Tuesday 27 September 2022
LOOE HARBOUR
JON BODEN, SETH LAKEMAN, BEN NICHOLLS & JACK RUTTER
Wednesday 28 September 2022
CHARLESTOWN HARBOUR
JON BODEN, SETH LAKEMAN, BEN NICHOLLS & JACK RUTTER
Friday 30 September 2022
FALMOUTH MARITIME MUSEUM
SETH LAKEMAN, BENJI KIRKPATRICK, BEN NICHOLLS & GEOFF LAKEMAN
Sea Song Sessions is out on 30th September 2022 on Topic Records.