...San Franciscos infamous Barbary Coast, where saloon-keeping scum like Marr loaded patrons drinks with drugs. Said unfortunate drinkers often woke up five miles out to sea in the service of the Chinese tea trade -- hence the term shanghaied -- with little choice.
The Rovin' Tars dont need to be told this.
Leader of this motley bunch is Dennis Willmeroth, a multi-instrumentalist who thankfully restricts his accompaniment to a tuneful banjo or guitar. Like many sailors of yore, hes intimate with the waterfront of Peru -- in his case, Peru, Illinois, his birthplace and a hub of the I&M canal, which linked the state with the eastern United States in the 19th century. Right where the Michigan and Illinois canals connected, he notes.
Ill play you a little song from that area, he continues, and breaks into a Stephen Foster melody, written in honor of the steamship that plied the Ohio and Mississippi rivers from Pittsburgh to New Orleans.
The Glendy Burke is a mighty fast boat
With a mighty fast captain too
He sits up on the hurricane roof
And keeps his eye on the crew
Perhaps sea shanties, then, is a slight misnomer. Thats why we call this Sea Chanteys and Songs of the Waterways, Willmeroth notes. He lives on the waterfront of Oakland, but belts out shanties on his US Mail truck route in San Francisco. Several inland songs have gone out to the sea, like Sara Jane and Shenandoah, he adds.
(Excerpt from: East Bay Express:
Pirate Radio -
Celebrating sea shanties: Songs of misogyny, racism, colonialism and, yes, sailing.
By Brian Kluepfel
Article Published Jan 14, 2004)
"... John lives aboard a sailboat on the Oakland Estuary. Long black and silver hair, and full beard to match. He publishes The Music Scene, a free newspaper with articles and listings of local performances. He has also performed in the Scottish games in Northern California, which eventually turned into pirate gigs, he said. And he's now a member of the Tales of the Seven Seas pirate group.
"Pirates aren't nice people," he admitted. "But people like the spirit of the pirate for the anti-establishment sense of freedom that's involved. Freedom, that is, unless you get caught." He grinned a pirate's grin.
John has the sea in his veins too — great-grandfather stowed away on a ship out of Scotland when he was 12 and made his way to San Francisco. And another ancestor was on the Essex when it was whacked by a whale, becoming the inspiration for "Moby Dick," he said, sipping his rum...."
Excerpt from"Pirates Steal Oaklanders Hearts" By Angela Hill, Oakland Tribune STAFF WRITER Article published; 8/14/06
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