and lessons from Jim Mageean, a Newcastle based singer whose knowledge on sea and shanty music is so hugely vast I could learn for years and still not know everything. The lessons I have with Jim are truly great and we sit and talk about various differing experiences which I think is very important when in the music performance world.
Last year I was part of a duo that released the first album on Hobgoblin Records, it was called „Simple Folk“ and it included a bass player Mark Willshire. I met Mark at a play scheme for disabled children where I used to work during my summer breaks. The album was great fun to make and it received great feedback from vari- ous different sources. It was this album that helped myself and Mark break into the shanty world and it sort of happened by accident. I was researching various diffe- rent festivals and stumbled upon one in Germany, I thought there was nothing to lose and sent them a few tracks, the next week we had our first European festival.
Shanties and sea songs have now become a huge part of my life and a major in- terest. After Germany I was lucky enough to be invited to many wonderful fe- stivals all over Europe which has allowed me to travel to places such as Holland, Germany, Poland, France and Belgium and lined up for the future are festivals as far afield as America and Canada. The travelling and discovery of new cultures and friends is by far the most enjoyable thing about being a performer and musician. The shanty community is also an international language, a form of work song that everybody can relate to in some way or another.
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