Search - William Pint, Felicia Dale :: Seven Seas

Seven Seas finds Pint & Dale performing traditional work songs of the Tall Ships sailors as well as new works by some wonderful songwriters in the folk tradition. The traditional titles include "High Barbaree", a tale of piracy, battle and revenge, "Cheerily Man", one of the oldest of all hauling songs updated with a contemporary spin, and the deep water shanties, "Oh Mary, Come Down," "Billy Boy" and "The Wild Goose Shanty". Contemporary songs are represented by Alan Maslen's "The Mary Stanford of Rye," a true saga of a British Royal Naval Lifeboat Institute crew's tragic sacrifice in a rescue operation gone wrong. Ron Baxter and Ross Campbell's "Lost" is a poignant, emotional litany of ships and their crews that disappear in the daily struggle between man and sea. Tim Laycock's "Heaven's a Bar" tells of the sailor's unique vision of paradise, where "the liquor is free -- they keeps a great stock." "The Packet Rat" is William Pint's setting of a poem by the English nautical writer, C. Fox Smith. As on several of their previous recordings Pint & Dale are joined here on several songs by Tania Opland and Mike Freeman on violin, percussion and additional vocals. Traditional English, Irish, and Northumbrian dance tunes featuring Felicia Dale's trademark wailing hurdy-gurdy along with mandolins, guitar and fiddles are featured among the songs. The album runs from sensitive, introspective a cappella songs to bursts of rollicking, joyful musical energy.