206 - MAINSAIL HAUL

PADDY WALSH - Devonport Sailor

A Plymouth sailor, with both steam & sailing-ship experience, sings 8 Shanties and 8 Sea-Songs, as well as a fine version of SYLVIA, THE FEMALE HIGHWAYMAN. He also has some interesting historical talk about shantying, the mixed nationalities, the musical instruments on board ship: fiddle, squeeze-box & the "squeegee bands", "The Holy Ground", stowaways and the boarding house master, PADDY WEST, who ran a land-based "Sailing Academy".

1. Shanty: WHISKY FOR MY JOHNNY (talk before) - 2.06

2. Talk about working capstans, weighing & stowing anchor, need for tugs, harbours at Queenstown, Ireland and Sydney, Australia, need for "goosewinging", about the next shanty - 3.58

3. Shanty: WHEN THE PEA SOUP'S SOUR AND THE WAGES LOW (TIME FOR US TO LEAVE HER) - 2.48

4. Shanty: WE'RE HOMEWARD BOUND FOR LIVERPOOL TOWN (GOODBYE, FARE THEE WELL) - 1.18

5. Talk about shantying on sailing ships, fiddler on the capstan, stowing anchor, halyard and braces, the next shantey - 4.38

6. Shanty: ROLL DOWN THE COTTON - 2.35

7. Talk about mixed nationalities & their shanties: sings German one: THE MONKEY JACKET, Scandinavians, squeeze-boxes and "Squeegee" bands with bass fiddle & canvas drum, Danish (Norwegian) shanty fragment - 2.34

8. WATCH HER, CATCH HER (talk before) - 1.08

9. MAINSAIL HAUL (PADDY LAY BACK) - 1.08

10. SYLVIA (THE FEMALE HIGHWAYMAN) - 3.35

11. YOUNG McCARTHY OF LIVERPOOL (THE CITY OF BALTIMORE) (talk before & after) - 1.42

12. BALLYTRAPEEN (THE GIRL FROM THE HOLY GROUND) talk before & after about the Plymouth-Cork boats & meaning of "The Holy Ground" - 4.35

13. A SHORT TIME AGO I WAS DIGGING MY LAND (THE IRISH RECRUIT) - 1.32

14. MY SON TIM (Recruiting Song) - 1.27

15. THE YOUNG INDIAN LASS (THE LASS O' MOREA) - 3.13

16. FRISCO TOWN (Pirate version of SALLY BROWN) (talk before) - 3.15

17. PADDY WEST - 3.54

18. Talk about Paddy West, "flogging the dead horse", clothing supply & "donkey's breakfast" (straw pallet), Stowing-away to and from Cardiff, Wales & helping another seaman - 4.20

19. GO TO SEA NO MORE - 1.58

Recorded by Cyril Tawney, Devonport, Plymouth, Devon, 5th April 1960. Edited by Peter Kennedy and first published by Folktrax 1979.

Other recordings of sea shanties & sea songs:

FT-035 STAN HUGILL with accordion & chorus

FT-141 FT-142 & FT-143 these are Archive recordings made by Edward Carpenter in Britain 1928-9

FT-203 Work Songs & Chants recorded at Portland Stone-quarries, Dorset

FT- 205 Commander HALLIDAY & Captain RASMUSSEN

FT-207 STANLEY SLADE Bristol shantyman

FT-208 BOB ROBERTS some with melodeon

FT-512 Songs of Storm & Shipwreck

FT-513 Songs of Fighting Sailors

FT-514 Songs of Sailor's Sweethearts

& FT-515 Coastal Songs & Forebitters.