Sea Shanties (arr. 2013)

Moderately advanced level. Shanties are shipboard songs that were sung by sailors as they worked the great clipper ships and other merchant vessels of the 19th century. The Flying Cloud set the record for the fastest time from New York around Cape Horn to San Francisco in 1853, a record that stood until 1989. What Shall We Do With a Drunken Sailor? is one of the more famous, having been sung by generations of American schoolchildren. Shenandoah - perhaps the most lyrical of shanties - is an enigmatic song of longing that was sung by sailors on flat-bottom boats plying the Mississippi. Jack Wrack tells the story of a young sailor who loses his earnings in an unfortunate relationship with a woman ashore.   $9.95, available from Alfred; order here.