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When he’s not singing a cappella on these 15 whaling songs, sea
shanties, and ballads, Roberts usually accompanies himself on
concertina, and is joined by Lisa Preston on Celtic harp, Mary Lea on
violin and viola, and Ray Wall on tin whistle. As this well-produced
recording eschews any vigorously strummed acoustic guitar parts, the
backing here sounds more serene than what you might expect.
Folk music spans the
longest time period of all genres, and the selections here accordingly
range from a 1993 song, “Boatman’s Cure,” by local bard George Ward back
to “Sir Patrick Spens,” a Child ballad about the 13th century loss at
sea of a Scottish vessel carrying a knight on a mission to Norway for
King Alexander III. Other goodies are “The Weeping Willow Tree, a
Vermont variant of the famous “The Golden Vanity” and the rousing “The
Campanero*” a tale of the rough-and-tumble life of a deckhand. Roberts
does jump ship, though, long enough to play clawhammer-style banjo on
“Sally in the Garden,” a melancholy old-time fiddle tune.
With John Roberts’
resonant, full-throated vocals and his expert pick of songs, folkies
will welcome “Sea Fever.”
Index of Metroland
Articles by Glenn Weiser ©2008 by Glenn
Weiser. All rights reserved.
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