News

NEW CD ~ BEYOND THE QUAY

A new CD ~ Beyond the Quay (WGS358CD) ~ is finally ready and will be released in August ~ at Broadstairs Folk Week and at The Landmark Theatre, Ilfracombe on August 21st.  With Tom & Barbara's previous CDs Where Umber Flows and Prevailing Winds all but sold out, and with Tide of Change heading that way, this new CD is a welcome addition to the catalogue of their work. The CD has taken a long time to be ready: Tom's voice problems over the first few months of 2008 meant that while everything else was laid: Barbara's vocals, instrumental contributions from Tom, Keith Kendrick, Emily and Hazel Askew, percussive additions from Malcolm Woods and Joan Holloway, and additional chorus vocals from Doug Bailey as well as the instrumentalists - we had to wait to re-record Tom and the duo tracks.  But finally, here it is, a CD of tracks all connected to the briny - but without a single shanty! Click HERE for more details.

Those who know Tom & Barbara well also know that it was their work on the Watchet shantyman John Short (a.k.a. Yankee Jack) and his repertoire of nearly sixty shanties that he gave to Cecil Sharp in 1914, that gave the folk revival the shanty Rosabella. Recorded on the North Devon Maritime Museum cassette Over The Bar, and given to Johnny Collins & Jim Mageean, Rosabella has subsequently gone all around the world several times since and is arguably more popular than it ever was in the tradition itself.  The work on John Short and his shanties has continued and has lead to the lecture/recital (for want of a better description) the Short Sharp Shanties.  On August 17th 2008 at 7pm, Tom and Barbara bring Yankee Jack's shanties back home with a performance of Short Sharp Shanties in the Boat Museum at Watchet itself. Admission is free - with a donation to the work of the Boat Museum requested - a suggested £5.00 per head. Visit the museum website at  http://www.wbm.org.uk