Summer Shanty Days

When the Bastardos went away the days became some sort of routine again. Bea went to work in her hotel and I….I had some more tourists for a tour of the island.   Last evening with “The Bastardos” However, FOGFEST went on with music everywhere and we visited a few of the venues. It had brought a lot of new folks to Campobello. We even had line-ups at the border again.                                           Sunset from “Friars Head” Most days were calm, but today a fresh wind sprang up from the west. No more fog! It became a picture perfect day for the 2015 Public Library Gala. At 12 noon I was at the library to enjoy “Before The Mast” , a group of men performing sea shanties. And if you don’t know a shanty from any other song I tell you that shanties were the songs of the sailors when working hard in the ropes and with hauling up cargo. Not so unlike the songs of African Americans the music sprang up through the work they did. So it is not surprising that many shanties are about purchased love in foreign harbours, about sailing to far-away Australia, and about bad weather as it also is about all the hard life and hard work they had to do onboard of a vessel.     A good shanty performance goes with a lot of body language and illustrating movements. “Before The Mast” had a stunning performance today and how appropriate this music is on an island that has survived through 3 centuries with a  seafaring population. I grew up in a northern German fishing harbour and for me coastal life is a 100 times more exciting and worth to live than a life on the prairies.