West Coast Shanties and Sea Songs
In 2024 Travis Pratt and, Aaron Clegg, both highly recognized as sea music performers,
joined with Dick Holdstock to perform at the first post COVID San Francisco Sea Music
Festival. They had such a great time performing together, that they decided to do it again the
following year. Dick told them of a fun workshop of Pacific Ocean Sea Songs he had done in
Seattle in 2023. So they decided to put together a collection of songs from the golden days of
sail off the west coast of the Americas – that’s Cape Horn to the Bering Strait. The more they
researched, the more songs they found to make a useful collection for a CD.
This collection includes songs from the gradual spread of trade around Cape Horn from the
later years of the 18th century, until the use of steam in the later half of the 19th Century. It
does not include the many years that the Spanish circumnavigated Cape Horn for their
numerous colonies and the trade roots to Asia and Australia. The addition of Packet Ships,
followed by clipper ships, went a long way to increasing traffic around Cape Horn, including
whaling, pelts, guano, and gold. New England, the British Isles, and other European nations
were soon sending tall sailing ships to take advantage of these new and financially beneficial
commerce routes. The increase in freight around the Horn has added to the use of sea songs
abut the voyages and shanties to help sailors work together during the many hauling jobs on
a tall ship.
Dick, Travis, and Aaron are happy with the results of the recording made at Foxtail Sound in
Dixon, California. We need to thank our five friends who joined us on the choruses of the
shanties. All of the words and a brief background of all eighteen songs included in West
Coast Shanties and Sea Songs can be found below. Copies of the album are available from
Bandcamp and are also available below.
