Search - The Boarding Party :: 'Tis Our Sailing Time

As you listen to 'Tis Our Sailing Time, the exuberance, enthusiasm, and love that The Boarding Party has for this music is quickly apparent. Each song has been thoroughly discussed and arranged, using the group's vast collective knowledge of the sea, ships, music and lore. The harmonious blending of voices and vibrant delivery are the result of hundreds of hours of singing together.An often sea-related term of 'motley crew' is one I sometimes affectionately call this group of fine singers, for in its real meaning 'motley', according to Webster, means: of many colors; of many different elements; heterogeneous - which aptly describes both the songs The Boarding Party sings and the group itself. Washington, D.C., based, the five members come from both sides of the Atlantic and bring an extensive background of music, performing, and nautical experience to this record.Tom McHenry left his native West Virginia fifteen years ago and has been a Washington, D.C., area resident ever since. A financial manager with the Navy, he spends a great deal of his 'spare time' as a chief medical corpsman in the Naval Reserve, with nearly twenty years of service. Tom's musical background runs the gamut from jugbands and country-western to the harmony singing of Rock Creek (a group which can be heard on Folk-Legacy's Sharon Mountain Harmony) and sea shanties. He has owned and learned his way around on his own sailing vessel. Tom has an incredible repertoire of songs and is a storehouse of nautical and historical information.K.C. King, with thirty years as a musician and sailor under his keel, adds a 'fo'c's'le tenor' to The Boarding Party and provides banjo and concertina to the occasional instrumental numbers. As a data processing consultant, he has worked on five continents, using his music as a language and cultural barrier breaker. Offshore, he has skippered and crewed sailing craft, as well as served on the sloop Clearwater, thereby acquiring a wealth of nautical experience and lore. K.C. says The Boarding Party combines his love for sailing, good music, and good times all into one.Bob Hitchcock came to the U.S. from Sussex, England - definitely the colonies' gain. He met up with the rest of the The Boarding Party when he moved to Washington, D.C., in 1978. A computer systems analyst/programmer, he has been playing the guitar for twenty of his thirty-two years (he prides himself in being the youngest member of the group). Descended from generations of officers in the Royal Navy, he has always loved ships and the sea. Bob is well rooted in traditional British music, versed in many other styles, and plays mandolin in addition to guitar.Jonathan Eberhart has been involved in folk music since the late 1950's and has been singing shanties since the early '60's. He helped sail the Hudson River sloop Clearwater down the Atlantic Coast on her maiden voyage, using shanties as the work songs they are. Jonathan is especially interested in the backgrounds and styles of the songs he sings, as well as in the people who lived and sang them, and researches constantly. A singer, guitarist, and songwriter, his recordings include an album of shanties with Louis Killen and his own album, Life's Trolley Ride. Jonathan is the Space Sciences Editor of Science News magazine.Dave Diamond is a Londoner who has lived for many years in the United States and is currently working as a data processing manager at the U.S. Embassy in London. The recording session cleverly coincided with his home leave. Dave has sung with both British and American shanty groups. Among this eclectic group one finds a total of over 100 years of singing traditional music!Diverse, well researched, and presented with The Boarding Party's striking blend of voices, the songs on this album will absorb all who listen to the call of the sea.-Mia Gardiner