Shanty Soundtrack

I’m off on an Indian Ocean cruise for the next few days. It promises to be an interesting voyage along Kenya’s palm-fringed shores to, erm, Somalia. Just me, a couple of books and the crew of a Canadian Halifax-class frigate, the HMCS Ville de Quebec. Naturally I have sought out the right music for the trip, adapting my Safari Soundtrack into something suitable for the sea.

• Ewen and the Gold, Dick Gaughan (Redwood Cathedral) – You caught the line they threw you, you helped to make her fast, You heard the sailors talking in the rigging. Marvellous
• Bottle of Smoke, The Pogues (If I Should Fall From Grace with God) – not really a sea song or shanty but certainly the sort of thing Leonardo di Caprio and Kate Winslett might dance to below decks
• The Wild Goose, Kate Rusby (Sleepless) – plenty of nonsense lyrics. And if the sirens sound like Kate Rusby then I’m a goner
• Jolly Roger, Adam and the Ants (Kings of the Wild Frontier) – still one of the greatest albums of all time
• Rolling Sea, Eliza Carthy (Rogues’ Gallery – Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs, and Chanteys) – a new purchase for the trip. I’ve long been a fan of Eliza Carthy but Johnny Depp’s sea songs side project has had distinctly mixed reviews