"There weren't a whole lot of fragile hurdy-gurdies aboard old
sailing ships, nor were there electric guitars and drum kits,
for that matter. But that's no reason not to crank up Anglo-American
sea music and have some fun, as the Seattle-based vocal/instrumental
duo of William Pint and Felicia Dale do here on their fourth
album. Their arrangements are modern, harmonious and sometimes
rocking, but always true to the saltwater spirit of this collection
of mostly-traditional sea shanties and nautical ballads.
Pint, who handles most of
the vocal leads, isn't a classic shanty singer -- his voice
is more earnest than resonant. He has a sense for the power and
feeling of the songs, though, whether they tell of a sailor's
longing for home, as in their slow arrangement of "Come
Down to Hilo," or of the exuberant celebration of the successful
rounding of Cape Horn in "Round the Corner, Sally." |
The most striking thing
about the diverse, multi-instrumental arrangements is Dale's
hurdy-gurdy, which adds an ominous buzz to the broken-token ballad
"John Riley," a plaintive wail to the story of "The
Sailboat Malarky," and a jubilant scream to the very electric
title track. "Sugar in the Hold," a New Orleans cargo-loading
song, gets a Bourbon Street boogie shuffle, while the Channel
Islands song "Marguerite" (sung in French by Dale)
gets grafted onto an Irish jig. There are some quiet tracks,
too. A setting of Rudyard Kipling's seal legend "The
Beaches of Leukannon" is a close-harmony duet, while the
shanty "Haul on the Bowline" is sung as a straight
unaccompanied chorus piece."
-Tom Nelligan
Dirty Linen, USA |