One Song Each: What Would We Lead at a Shanty Shout?

A shanty shout is a wonderfully simple thing. Get a group of people together, usually somewhere with a bar, and take turns leading songs. One person starts, everyone else joins in where they can, and when the song is done, somebody else takes over. There’s no set list, no real hierarchy and, crucially, anyone can have a go.

If it were my turn, I’d probably reach for All For Me Grog. Strictly speaking, it isn’t a sea shanty at all, but that hardly matters once a room full of people is belting the chorus back at you. It’s funny, loud, easy to join in with and has been part of my own singing since the early days of The Rusty Tubs.

But that got me wondering: what would everyone else choose?

So I put the question to some of The Rusty Tubs, as well as a few friends we’ve made around the contemporary shanty scene. The answers turned out to be far more varied than simply picking a favourite song. From childhood memories and Canadian pride to comedy, harmonies, festival singarounds and friendships forged through singing.

The Rusty Tubs’ Picks

Mark: Barrett’s Privateers

For Mark, the choice is an easy one: Barrett’s Privateers.

Partly, that’s because he’s Canadian, and few maritime folk songs wear their Canadian identity quite so proudly. But it also has a more personal significance for him: Barrett’s Privateers was the first song from the shanty world that he ever heard, long before he became part of The Rusty Tubs.

It’s also a song that works brilliantly at a shout. The verses carry the story along, punctuated by that great communal line “How I wish I was in Sherbrooke now!” that has everyone roar in!

Mark, counting down the moments until he can claim the limelight…

Mark has heard the song sung plenty of different ways over the years, and there’s definitely a bit of Canadian pride involved in his choice. If Barrett’s Privateers is going to be sung, he wants to make sure this particular Canadian classic gets the treatment it deserves.

Of course, anyone who knows Mark will also know that he has a remarkable talent for choosing the longest song available to him. Given the option of something over in three minutes or an epic maritime tale with enough verses to see everyone through another pint, Mark will reliably choose the latter.

Nick: Nelson’s Blood

For him, what makes it such a good shout song is what happens when you get a whole crowd with different vocal ranges singing it together. As Nick puts it, “these beautiful harmonies always emerge”, with different voices naturally finding their place around the song.

He got a particularly good reminder of that at Shrewsbury Folk Festival. During a late-night singaround, Nick found himself right in the middle of it all.

“Being right in the middle of it felt so immersive,” he says. “I found a hypnotic, driving drum beat I was really pleased with, and I really went into the zone. Beautiful!”

That combination of voices, harmonies and rhythm is exactly what draws Nick to Nelson’s Blood. Nobody needs to be carefully arranging parts beforehand; put enough different voices into the room and those harmonies begin to emerge for themselves.

Nick also confidently informed us that Nelson’s Blood is one of Daevid’s favourites.

It isn’t.

Daevid: Rowdy Soul

Daevid's choice is more than just the title track from our debut album. It’s a song we often open our sets with and, as far as Daevid knows, we’re also the only UK-based shanty gang currently singing it.

But, more than anything though, it has great energy and really gets the room’s attention from the start. As Daevid puts it, it’s a “grab you by the lapels of your jacket” kind of song, demanding: “you will listen to me… now!”

There’s a cockiness and bravado to it, almost like a calling card. The song is about boasting your way through life as a carefree rogue who values freedom, drinking and misbehaviour over steady employment, which is hardly a million miles away from The Rusty Tubs’ general outlook.

It also suits Daevid’s style of performing rather well.

At The Fountain in Gloucester, he was giving Rowdy Soul the full treatment: beating his chest, flapping his arms around and generally indulging in his usual stage histrionics. Then he punched a hanging basket, and it flew across the stage!

So for a song built on swagger, cockiness and cheerful disregard for consequences, Daevid has at least always performed it with complete commitment.

Jack: Paddy Lay Back

A great tune for everyone to join in on, it’s easy to grasp, has one hell of a story, and, in Jack’s words, is “a whole barrel of laughs”. That makes it a great fit for a shanty shout: there’s plenty for the lead singer to get stuck into, while the chorus is simple enough for everyone else to pile in almost immediately.

There are few things that put a grin on a young mans face like sea shanties…

It’s been one of Jack’s favourites for a while because it really allows him to embrace the comedic side of so many shanties. As he puts it, it can feel almost like a singalong in a pantomime, with plenty of room to lean into the story and have some fun with it.

And there’s certainly a lot packed into six verses: spending your coin, getting blind drunk, getting into trouble, and eventually being pushed out to sea for far-away lands.

That mix of storytelling, comedy and audience participation is exactly what Jack enjoys about leading it. Give him six verses, a ridiculous story and a room full of people willing to roar the chorus back at him, and he’s essentially got himself a maritime pantomime.

Friends Join the Shout

A shout isn’t much of a shout on your own. The best ones are full of friends, familiar faces and people you’ve only just met, all bringing their own songs and stories to the room.

So we asked a few of our friends from around the shanty scene what they’d choose to lead, and why.

Richard of Green Around the Gills: A Long Time Ago

Richard would go for a shanty he learned as a child, A Long Time Ago. At the time, he didn’t even realise it was a sea shanty; it was simply one of the many songs sung in the children’s tent at folk festivals.

The teachers of those songs were Doctor Sunshine (Dave Hunt) and Professor Wingnut (Vic Baker). Their Pavement Circus introduced Richard to a number of folk songs, and those sessions remain some of his fondest childhood memories. They made song and dance genuinely fun, rather than something that meant having to sit quietly in a folk club.

As a teenager, Richard came to enjoy ceilidhs, and there was Dave Hunt again, calling the dances. But just as that child is now middle-aged, Dave has also aged, and called his last ceilidh with Cheltenham’s own Old Swan Band in 2017.

Rather than stick to the tune and words in Hugill, Richard sings the refrain he learned at a young age. Instead of “to me way hey hey hi oh”, he prefers Dr Sunshine’s “Well now, what do you know?”, while still wondering what tricks the monkey was playing to amuse the hyena.

While Richard admires plenty of singers, it was Dave Hunt who really instilled a love of folk music in him.

Ali Cater of The Silver Darlings: Cape Cod Girls

For Ali, part of the appeal of Cape Cod Girls is that it’s a little out of the ordinary; not everyone sings it. It’s quick and easy for other crews to learn and join in with, while also being wonderfully rousing and joyful. But the real advantage of Cape Cod Girls is that Ali gets to accompany herself on the shaky egg!

The Silver Darlings have been singing Cape Cod Girls since June, and it rapidly became a firm favourite. Ali’s favourite performance came at Vegesack Maritime Festival, when they invited the Stuns’ls and Kimbers Men on stage with them.

“They created a phenomenal wall of sound with their glorious bass voices behind us. It was uplifting!”

The Silver Darlings performing at Harwich, 2025

Her second favourite came at Bie Daip in Appingedam, when Ali led it on her own during a singaround. Once again the Stuns’ls and Kimbers Men were there, alongside the Tow Rope Girls, The Longest Johns and, as Ali puts it, “a whole raft of international shanty singers extraordinaire”. It was a moment she says she’ll never forget.

I like to pretend her third favourite was singing it with The Rusty Tubs, sometime, somewhere…

John of The Shanty Shipwreck: Last Shanty or Drunken Sailor

The wonderful people of The Shipwreck Shanty Crew

For John, the choice depends on who happens to be in the room. If Tom Lewis isn’t around, he’d probably give Last Shanty a go. If he is, John might instead pull out Drunken Sailor.

More than twenty years ago, John’s best friend decided that he, another friend and John were going to start their own shanty group. They met in his kitchen a few times to rehearse, and Last Shanty was always his friend’s favourite song to sing.

Unfortunately, before anything solid could come of the idea, his friend was killed in a motorcycle accident.

Ever since, John has mentally dedicated two songs to him. The first is Last Shanty, for obvious reasons. The second is Drunken Sailor, because of a verse his friend came up with all those years ago.

John has made it a quiet personal goal to get “Tie him to the wheel and call him captain” into the general lexicon of Drunken Sailor verses. He sings it whenever he gets the chance and has managed to get a few other people singing it too.

As John puts it: “In my mind, as long as that verse keeps getting sung, a little piece of my friend lives on.”