For the Love of the Sea, Music, Culture, Community (S2C E47)
Admittedly, I have some history with sea music, having gone on school trips every year to Mystic Seaport Museum, then having worked there for two summers in college. After this interview, my resolve is to make some future history with more music of the sea. Maybe some singing, possibly playing some bones, almost certainly a few beers.
Music connects. It informs. It calms and inspires.
Sea music, including ballads and work songs, has a vibrant and not-yet-all-discovered history mixing cultures, societies, concerns, and tall tales. It paced the work at hand, soothed souls, or scolded the Captain, as it chronicled life on sea and shore.
Geoff Kaufman is our very welcome and generous guest in this most recent Subject2Change session. He is knowledgeable, for certain. he has sung with Pete Seeger on the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, travelled nationally and internationally to sing chanteys in as many as 250 performances a year, and engaged in research to learn the stories of the songs and to meet source singers who still use these chantey tools today. He is a singer, a storyteller, and an historian. He opened a whole new world for Lauren, being the land-bound soul she is, and he reminded me that I learned to swim in salt water, in one of the great oceans that connect us, before I even learned to walk.
- If you are interested in some songs, watch “Sea Music” for 15 minutes.
- If you want to know what is going on with the most important “Sea Music Festival” in the world, watch the 20 minute cut, and then join us in Connecticut on June 11 + 12 to experience the new form of the festival.
- If you want it all, and I know you do, we invite you to watch the full cut titled “Sea Music: History, Culture, Sustainability”.
Below are some of the links mentioned in the interview. Copy the URL into you browser and learn more!
- Sea Music Festival (pre 2019): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mystic_Seaport_Sea_Music_Festival
- Maritime Music and & Tradition Society (home of the new Sea Music Festival): https://maritimemusicandtraditionsociety.org/
- Clearwater: https://www.clearwater.org/about/the-clearwater-story/
- Mystic Seaport Museum: https://www.mysticseaport.org/
- Geoff’s website: http://geoffkaufman.com/music/
- Pete Seeger: https://peteseeger.org/ (he really changed the world)
- Marine Layers Re-spun shirts: https://www.marinelayer.com/pages/respun-2021
- River Keeper: https://www.riverkeeper.org/
- NRDC Stop Offshore Drilling https://www.nrdc.org/stop-offshore-drilling
Check out our YouTube channel. We’ve had so many exceptional conversations, each reveals new perspectives to consider, and new ideas to explore. Please like, comment, and subscribe, and we’d love it if you would share!
We wish fair winds to you all, and hope your life is full of song and story,
Jodi and Lauren
1 Like this post (no login required)