Sea Shanties - Songs sung by sailors and fishermen

"It's your typical open-mike scene at a bakery on the Blue Hill peninsula. A barn has been cleared and rigged with microphones. Children play out back. Friends and relations sit and listen to folk music. Some acts hold the audience rapt, but even those that don't receive polite attention.


Then up steps Rich Gaito with what appear to be a miniature guitar and accordion. (The guitar, yes, but the other instrument is a concertina, a predecessor to the accordion.) After a brief introduction, he begins to play sea shanties, tunes that sailors have sung for centuries."

Read the rest of the article in "Kennebunk's sea shanty man", The Working Waterfront, October 2010.