Search - Robert Shaw :: Sea Shanties

Moments of sublime beauty.

Howard G Brown | Port St. Lucie, FL USA | 11/26/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Granted, this is stylistically far removed from what fans of shanties expect to hear today. But if I want rough-edged, realism, I'll sing the songs myself -- and often do, while walking the dog (he howls along with me).This may be akin to Klemperer conducting Bach -- but his recording of the St. Matthew Passion is a classic, and so is this set by Shaw and his chorale. The arrangements are never less than entertaining, and take full measure of the chorale's prowess. But "Lowlands" and "Shenandoah" are performed with with such attention to vocal lustre along with emotional commitment that they must rank among the finest choral performances available to us. In "Lowlands," especially, the sheer sound -- the rise and fall of the voices --embodies the the sense of loss the words seek to express, so that the repeated phrase "My dollar-and-a-half a day..." assumes a tragic dimension, like "Poor Tom's a'cold" in King Lear.It does beat the version I sing with my dog, in my rough, authentic baritone."

Childhood memories

mattgb1 | 09/29/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"My fisherman father had this as a 33 LP. I remember listening and singing along to this album as a child. My father is gone now and his copy lost. I am happy to have found this."

Some good basic stuff

mattgb1 | New York City | 11/07/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"They're a bit more stylized than I usually like (mainly because they felt a need to package this stuff more for appeal to the "mainstream" audience back then) but some really good songs, including the best recorded rendition of "Spanish Ladies" that I've ever heard.I still have a scratched-up, well-used LP of this that I wouldn't part with."