Sea shanties and maritime music have seen a revival in the 2020s, with songs like “The Wellerman” and “Wreck of The Edmund Fitzgerald” becoming massive viral trends on TikTok and beyond.
Although the revival has introduced millions of new listeners to maritime music, Dean Calin of Racine noticed that only a handful of performers were getting traction online.
That’s why he started the Maritime Music Music Directory International, a digital archive of maritime music groups, songs, festivals and live performances.
Calin has been performing maritime music for decades, traveling the globe with his group, Bounding Main. He discusses the directory and the maritime music scene, and explains the difference between sea shanties and maritime music .in general.
“Sea shanties are a very specific kind of song that was created by sailors ... to keep gangs of men working in rhythm together to pull on the lines or pump out the bilge,” he says. “However, maritime music is that much broader encyclopedia of songs that have to do with the life of sailors, the life of the people that supported the sailors, the wives at home, the children, the ship owners."
You can see Bounding Main perform on May 16 and 17 at the Janesville Renaissance Faire.
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