Port Townsend Sing Shanties Song Circle

12/10/2025

Hi, folks--for those of you who come to this page for the singing part, whether or not you are actually sailing, here is the latest from the new-ish Port Townsend Pub Sing the third Thursday of every month at TAPS the Guardhouse at Fort Worden. They have their own webpage now that I am posting here:

The Port Townsend Pub Sing is on! No instruments, just singing at Taps every third Tuesday of the month. And in December it all happens on Tuesday the 16th from 7:00-9:00 (although if you want some pub food, we encourage you to come early; the kitchen will close at 7:30). If you want to lead a song,...

11/16/2025

I don't think I understand what is happening with this page. There are suddenly tons of people who are signed onto it and it's been kind of dormant for a long time since our song circles, as they were, stopped meeting.

10/22/2025

Hi, folks, I see some old posts are getting put up again regarding our now defunct shanty sings. HOWEVER, I just got an email from the pub sing at TAPS out at Fort Worden yesterday. It sounds like a really good time for people who enjoy group singing especially. Many of my shanty singing friends attended (I had another commitment but do not intend to miss the next one) and many shanties as well as a few other popular songs we grew up with were sung. I'm so sorry I missed it.

BTW, many of our new folks who have signed up make me wonder if they might be joining from other communities or places. Welcome! There've been scads of you joining lately and I'm very curious. Glad you're here anyway.

10/08/2025

Okay, folks, for those of you who just want to sing whether or not it's maritime. this is the announcement of a pub sing in Port Townsend I got in my email yesterday. Friends:

Over the years many of us have talked about wanting to get a pub sing going here in Port Townsend. It is now happening! Details below.

What? First Monthly Port Townsend Pub Sing
Where? Taps at the Guardhouse, Fort Worden
When? Tuesday, October 21st from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm

What is a Pub Sing?
A pub sing is rousing participatory singing! It will be similar to the shanty sings we do at the Wooden Boat Festival but will not be limited to maritime songs. Any song is good as long as it has a chorus or refrain.

How will our Pub Sing work?
There will be a host to manage things.
If you wish to lead a song, let the host know and your name will go on a list. If you are there just to join in the chorus, take a seat and get ready to sing.
The host will let you know when it is your turn to lead your song. Depending on the length of the list, people may get a second chance to lead…and maybe a third…etc.
We encourage song leaders to know their songs well enough to lead them without lyric sheets or phones if possible. And consider teaching the chorus before you start singing.

What kind of song can I sing?
Any song that has a chorus or repeating line or refrain that the whole group can join in on. Remember, though, this is a pub SING, so don’t bring an instrument and try to avoid songs that don’t work well without accompaniment. Songs suitable for harmonizing are particularly good.

Boundaries: What a Pub Sing is not…
Not a performance opportunity; this is participatory singing!
Not an open mic – there will be no microphone.
Not a jam session; this is a SING; just voices; it’s all about the harmony.

We hope to see and hear you on October 21st.

Port Townsend Pub Sing

10/06/2025

Okay, I promised to let some of you who are local know about any new shanty sings. This is NOT about specifically a shanty sing but if you're just interested in singing with a group of other people, I just got a notice in the email that a new one is starting up. I don't think I'm allowed to share the whole thing as a post on FB but if you will DM me I can send it to you that way. Maybe see you there?

10/03/2025

We started this page for our little local shanty singing group and to keep in touch. Over the years, the sings and bands have changed. Then some folks started asking to join and, as one of the admins, I accepted. Now I see we have a whole lot of people whose names and faces I don't recognize. Are you all interested in shanty singing or is there another group taking over this page? If so, it would be nice if there was a way you could notify others and post your own photos.

10/20/2024

I have become such an admirer of the Kiffness. Even though he uses an electronic keyboard thingy to do his collaborations, he is a true folk musician as he uplifts songs of all races, species, and professions.
In terms of what is being done to help Ukraine that doesn't include air support, his remix of the Ukrainian musician/soldier from the group Boombox has got to be a great morale booster.

01/17/2024

I had the best day with YouTube today. I've been getting so fed up and depressed about the war situations and the royal situations and the various celebrity argie-bargies that you see incessantly touted--then there's all the click bait which is dedicated to coaxing you into wasting your time trying to learn about something that actually never happened.
But today started with a treat sequence of various buskers playing public pianos in train stations and mall food courts, some patron requesting a classical piece, and opera singers or other musicians joining in along with members of the staff and other patrons. This happened mostly in Italy and France but it was really cool. I am not an opera buff but a friend did tell me they are often based on folksongs and stories and myths and I've been a bit more interested since then, and have always had a lot of respect for the amount of training and talent it takes to be able to perform it. As most of you who are Anne McCaffrey fans know, she had aspirations to be an opera singer but her voice wouldn't quite make it, which was a theme among more than one of her heroines. So I enjoyed watching all those people enjoy the music.
Then at the end of the day, suddenly a special appeared on my screen while I was waiting for something else. It was about the wonderful Scottish folk singer/song writer/musician/storyteller/teacher Hamish Henderson. I would say he was a Scottish Pete Seeger (complete with having been blacklisted by the BBC instead of the committee for unAmerican activities) but actually Pete was a fan of Hamish's. Anyway, I first heard of him because my old Victory Music friend Rob Folsom used to sing Hamish's song Farewell, Ye Banks of Sicily about some of the experiences of Scottish troops in Sicily.
When I attended the Dundee Folk Festival on one of the breaks I took in writing with Anne, Hamish Henderson was one of the guests, along with my friends in Stravaig (Hi, Jeannie!) and Dougie MacClean among others. So I had to say hi and tell him how moving I found his song. Ended up spending the afternoon sitting in the lobby visiting with him as he told me about collecting ballads with the Lomaxes and a bit of the history of the song. At one point a woman came up and said, "Hamish, can I bring you a sandwich?" and he gestured toward me and said, "what about her? Maybe she'd like a sandwich too?" which I thought was really egalitarian of him--and according to this special that was certainly how he was. But turns out he was also one of the founders of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and the School for Scottish Studies and a professor at the University of Edinburgh. He also had hung out a lot with Scottish Travellers and had some family connections among them and learnd many of their songs and stories.
But the thing that tickled me the most was learning that because he was multi-lingual, including Italian and German, they put him in British Intelligence behind the lines to interrogate German POW's. Turns out he ended up getting not just name, rank and serial number but lots of versions of Lily Marlena and other German folk songs his new informants shared with him, not under duress but because it was mutually enjoyable...
Anyway, I am so glad I got to meet him and now got to know a bit more about him. He was quite old by the time I met him, very arthritic and blind and a young man sort of guided him around when he was to talk or perform, so I'm so glad I had that opportunity.

10/25/2019

Traditional and contemporary songs of the sea. High energy performances with dynamic vocals and exciting instrumental fireworks. Early music to modern – traditional to contemporary, heart wrenching to downright silly.