Note to future self: Sea shanties were big right now because everyone was bored and locked inside.
And as a Canadian, I felt an urging to listen to the bands of my childhood which were sea shanty adjacent, Great Big Sea and Dust Rhinos!
Up and Great Big Sea by Great Big Sea and Plain Sailing and The Day After The Night Before by Dust Rhinos, specifically.
My two favourite songs from both bands had mary in the title, specifically Mari-Mac as sung by Great Big Sea (and it has been so long since I properly heard that song, I love it) and my first time hearing Step It Out Mary as sung by the Dust Rhinos which I mistook for an old traditional murder ballad instead of the modern song it was. The exact third listen when I heard ‘she pulled a pistol’ and I went ‘oh wait what’ and googled it and found all the various versions where she murders or is drowned and I was like ‘ahh a traditional’ but apparently people singing it have just been very busy.
My only disappointment with this listening jag is that apparently Dust Rhinos’ Helter Celtic is nowhere to be found anymore and I used to listen to that cassette over and over when I was but a wee hamster. I googled it and… there might be something called Prehistoric with the songs on it? But again not anywhere I could find available to me.
The quest continues.
As for sea shanties in general, it’s nice I know what The Wellerman actually consists of now because I never had time to just sit and listen to a tiktok.