Songs of the Sea Social Sing with Shinbone Alley

Come one, come all and learn how to sing for the wind and the waves! Join in maritime songs of ol’ at a group sing along led by Alex Harvey and Shinbone Alley.

Alex Harvey is an old-world folklorist who performs street ballads and songs of the sea in a musical project Shinbone Alley. At his performances, listeners learn to celebrate the haunting intercultural exchange of 18th and 19th century maritime music whose ingredients travelled from the furthest corners of the globe to be remade and stitched anew by sailors of every shade and shape at port and at sea.

By teaching the audience to join in on most of the tunes in his gatherings, Harvey and his Shinbone Alley build bridges of time through communal singing. From Sea Shanties to Broadsheet ballads to Come-All-Ye’s to Last Good Nights to Hard Luck Satires to Brothel Boleros to Lovesick Dirges and Whaling Serenades – this music was meant as the earliest form of group therapy. And so it is again – a sepia-toned balm for our topsy-turvy time.

Guest song-leaders who perform in rotation with Shinbone Alley include luminaries such as Aldo Lavaggi, Jordan Shapiro, Alan Short, The Johnson Girls, Jerry Bryant and many more.