FTX-208 - MAGGIE, MAGGIE MAY

BOB ROBERTS Sea-songs & Shanties

12 songs with melodeon, 1 with banjo, 7 unaccompanied and 2 old-time dances from Dorset played on the melodeon. Bob, legendary for his books on sailing the World single-handed, & those about Thames barges, once a common sight on London river, and, as a singer of traditional sea songs and shanties, he was one of the most authentic of post-war music mariners.

1. MAGGIE MAGGIE MAY - 2'25"

2. Shanty: WHISKY JOHNNY - 2'29"

3. Melodeon solo: UP THE SIDES AND DOWN THE MIDDLE (from Long Ham, Dorset) - 1'01"

4. THE SINGLE SAILOR (unaccomp) - 1'02"

5. Shanty: HANGING JOHNNY (talk before) - 2'12"

6. JOHNNY TODD - 1'20"

7. THE BALL OF YARN - 3'23"

8. Shanty: HAUL AWAY, JOE - 1'39"

9. WINDY OLD WEATHER (The Fishes Song) - 2'16"

10. Shanty: LEAVE HER, JOHNNY, LEAVE HER - 1'56"

11. Shanty: CAN'T YOU DANCE THE POLKA? (with PK on banjo) - 1'59"

12. THE GREY HAWK (unaccomp) - 2'07"

13. THE CANDLELIGHT FISHERMAN (comp by Phil Hamond) - 134"

14. Shanty: MISTER STORMALONG - 2'00"

15. THE LONDON WHERRYMAN (unaccomp) - 1'52"

16. THE FOGGY DEW - 2'06"

17. MARY, THE SERVANT GIRL (unaccomp) - 1'19"

18. Melodeon solo: Father's OLD TIME WALTZ - 1'14"

19. LOWER YOUR FUNNEL (unaccomp with Peter in chorus) - 2'26"

20. CAPTAIN KIDD (unaccomp) - 1'09"

21. Shanty: THE DEAD HORSE (unaccomp) - 1'16"

22. CAN'T YOU DANCE THE POLKA? (unaccomp) - 1'56"

Recorded by Peter Kennedy, Pinmill, Ipswich, Suffolk, February 1958. Edited by Peter Kennedy and first published on Folktrax cassettes 1975.

ALFRED WILLIAM ROBERTS (1907-1982) went to sea at 14, his first ship being "The Waterwitch", the last square-rigged merchantman trading out of Britain. In the 30's he made ocean voyages on many well-known yachts and served as a mate on an American trading schooner carrying rum from the West Indies. From then on his life became a story-book adventure and in his books he has told the tales with a reverence for his ships and the sea.

Bob was born in Dorset, where he heard local singers and step-dance players, and remembered Ralph Vaughan Williams coming to visit his father to collect folksongs. After the war he settled for Thames sailing barges and lived at Pinmill, near Ipswich, working as a journalist on the East Anglian Times.

He became skipper of "The Cambria" in 1954, the last working Thames barge. He bought her from Everards in 1966 and until 1977 he was trading on his own account, up and down the East coast of England. Purchased by the Maritime Trust as a floating museum, they were unable to persuade him to remain on board to show visitors round. Instead he purchased the last of the motor coasters, "The Vectis Isle" on which he traded until his death in February 1982.