External Links
Resources
The Lomax Digital Archive provides free access to the collections compiled across by folklorist Alan Lomax (1915–2002) and his father John A. Lomax (1867–1948).
Many sea songs have roots in these mass-produced shoreside pamphlets. This searchable database includes English broadsides from the 16th to 20th century. Note: a 2023 cyberattack has severely limited the utility of this collection.
The JMC collection consists of thousands of transcribed songs, notes, and audio recordings collected firsthand, mostly in Scotland and England between 1929-1935.
The Kodály Center’s American Folk Song Collection is an online database provided by the University of Redlands in California, USA. The original print collection was curated over 35 years at Holy Names University until HNU’s closure.
An invaluable reference for maritime music research, with deep coverage of the English folk tradition from which many shanties draw.
The MMDI is the go-to directory for sea shanty and maritime music acts, venues, events, and recordings worldwide.
The leading maritime museum and book publisher in the United States, located in Mystic, Connecticut. The website includes an art gallery, ship plans, an online bookstore, crew lists, sound archives, and other collection databases.
The Percy Grainger collection is hosted online by the British Library. It contains hundreds of wax cylinder recordings of English folk singers which Grainger collected in the early 20th century.
This database from the Maritime Studies Program of Williams College & Mystic Seaport lists North American authors and their sea-themed works: fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and plays.
The Mudcat Café remains the best place for online folk music discussion. Volunteers maintain a remarkable tune database.
The Traditional Ballad Index catalogues thousands of folk songs from the English-Speaking World.
“The essential folk resource” for English folk music, including the Roud song index and a wonderful song subject catalogue. Maintained by the English Folk Dance and Song Society.
Jerzy Brzezinski’s tireless work to research and recreate traditional sea shanties, with a strong emphasis on authenticity and working-song context.
Festivals
Appingedam, Netherlands hosts the annual Bie Daip International Folk and Sea Songs Festival in August.
This annual August festival meets in Saint-Jean-Port-Joli, southern Quebec, Canada. It features shows, conferences, sculling races, regatta, outdoor market, dance, workshops and more.
A yearly festival in Falmouth, Cornwall, southwest England. The free event is typically on a weekend in June.
The Celtic-Maritime Festival du Chant de Marin draws large crowds to Paimpol, Brittany in Northwest France. Held in even years, in August.
Poland’s large sea song festival, held in Kraków, February. Other events and resoures are available as well.
Harwich, in Essex, England, hosts an annual shanty festival in October in addition to other shanty events throughout the year.
Each fall, the Liereliet organizes an international maritime music festival in Workum. Several experts lead the crowds through exercises of active participation.
The Portsmouth Maritime Music Festival in New Hampshire, United States. Held in September each year
In South Australia… specifically, in Albany, on the southwest coast of Australia, this Folk ‘N Shanty Festival gathers every July.