MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: SEAN MCCANN - SHANTYMAN

If you're still scratching your head over the whole sea shanty resurgence on TikTok a few months back, you're not alone. What started out as a joke meme created an honest-to-goodness resurgence, and a career boost for more than a few East Coast musicians. And half of Newfoundland went, 'See? We told ya so.'

It let Sean McCann return to his roots too. Not that the Great Big Sea founding member wasn't about to do that anyway at some point, but the timing was great. Using his Covid downtime, he hit the wayback machine to dig out some trad gems and rework them with new arrangements and instrumentation. Not that shanties don't already rock, but McCann (in his guise as The Shantyman) gives them a big boost of drums and bass, and sings them with great gusto. 

It's a delicate balance for sure, giving the songs a new coat of paint without making them too shiny. For that he assembled some equally-seasoned musicians from both the trad and rock worlds. East Coast string master J.P. Cormier is on board, as well as Hawksley Workman, Jeremy Fisher  and Ken Friesen. So a song like "Shantyman's Life" has a sweet whistle in the verses, but a scorching lead guitar answering back. Meanwhile, tales of brave cabin boys, parson's daughters, rebellious crews and hard and tragic lives spin by, "Go To Sea No More" the most ribald and memorable. That one'll shock the little TikTokkers.

Among all the old tales, McCann gives us one new one, his own song, "On The Water." In it, he makes the connection between the old ways and his current job: "I am just a lowly Shantyman, a servant to the song/I've sailed the wide-world over, on the water I belong." Turns out sea shanties are alive and well, and always have been, internet trends or not. McCann is selling the album on his website only, so no streaming for now, either as a digital collection, or a limited (1.000) edition signed CD. That port of call is seanmccannsings.com.