Encore: Maine couple revives sea shanties thought lost to time

Encore: Maine couple revives sea shanties¹ thought lost to time

Transcript²

Sea shanties, revisited: Maine couple resurfaces works thought lost to time

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

For the past decade, a folk duo from Maine has been on a mission to find the long-lost melodies of traditional songs that date back as far as the 17th century. Keith Shortall of Maine Public Radio spoke³ with the couple at their home in Maine's Midcoast, where they performed their own versions of some of the scratchy, archived recordings⁵ they've uncovered in their research.

KEITH SHORTALL, BYLINE⁶: Julia Lane says since the age of 10, she's been on a quest to find the melodies to go with the well-published, written lyrics⁷ about love, longing⁸ and the lure⁹ of the sea.

JULIA LANE: Very frustrating¹⁰, you know, finding a great set of lyrics but no tunes¹². So throughout my life, I've been looking for books that would include the melodies.

SHORTALL: Lane grew up and formed the folk group Castlebay with her husband, Fred Gosbee. About 20 years ago, they started poring over archives of audio field recordings made by curious folk music collectors in the 1930s and '40s. That's where she found this 1941 recording⁴ of Oliver Jenness (ph) of York Village, Maine, singing a tune¹¹ called "The Dreadnaught."

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THE DREADNAUGHT")

OLIVER JENNESS: (Singing) - (inaudible) - and all my friends here bound away in the Dreadnaught to the eastward¹⁴ we steer¹⁵. Bound away...

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BOUND AWAY")

CASTLEBAY: (Singing) Bound away, where the stormy...

SHORTALL: Lane and Gosbee used the recording to arrange their own version of the song.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BOUND AWAY")

CASTLEBAY: (Singing) Bound away, bound away, where the stormy wind blows. Bound away in the Dreadnaught to the eastward we go.

SHORTALL: "The Dreadnaught" - or "Bound Away," as it's also called - is one of 163 melodies that the couple has just published in "Bygone Ballads¹⁶ Of Maine." Lane says it's the book for which she had always searched but never found.

LANE: The one that has all the tunes, that has all the background for all the geeks that are interested in where the song came from, what it's really about, what are the code words in there, what do they mean - all of these things I've always wondered about.

FRED GOSBEE: One of the code words that appears frequently is referring to the tarry sailor.

LANE: Oh, yeah.

GOSBEE: If he's a tarry sailor, chances are he's British because the British sailors wore their hair long in a queue or braid and kept it neat with tar¹³ 'cause the ships - they used a lot of pine tar to preserve the wood. And they would just put it in their hair to keep it out of their eyes and to keep down the lice.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THE TARRY SAILOR")

CHARLES FINNEMORE: (Singing) And judge - (inaudible) - be, and he said, my lovely Nancy.

SHORTALL: This 1942 recording of "The Tarry Sailor" is sung by Charles Finnemore (ph) of Bridgewater, Maine.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THE TARRY SAILOR")

FINNEMORE: (Singing) Into her apron¹⁷ fold, take this from a tarry sailor.

GOSBEE: Listening to the original recordings, you can hear how excited and passionate¹⁸ some of these singers were about the songs they were singing for the collectors. And of course, in their minds, these were going to go down through the years, and people were going to share them and remember them. And most of it has been untouched for 75, 80 years - my guess is 90 years now, some of it. So unearthing¹⁹ that stuff and bringing those songs forward in a way brings those singers alive again. We've gotten really fond of some of these singers.

SHORTALL: And Lane says the couple's already working on a second volume of bygone ballads - songs about love, tragedy, murder and drinking on the farm and in the forest.

For NPR News, I'm Keith Shortall in Thomaston, Maine.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THE TARRY SAILOR")

CASTLEBAY: (Singing) The judge spoke up just as bold as could be, and he said, my lovely Nancy.

1 shanties   

n.简陋的小木屋( shanty的名词复数 )；铁皮棚屋；船工号子；船歌

参考例句：

• A few shanties sprawl in the weeds. 杂草丛中零零落落地歪着几所棚屋。 来自辞典例句
• The workers live in shanties outside the factory. 工人们住在工厂外面的小棚屋内。 来自互联网

2 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

3 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

4 recording   

n.录音，记录

参考例句：

• How long will the recording of the song take?录下这首歌得花多少时间？
• I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。

5 recordings   

n.记录( recording的名词复数 )；录音；录像；唱片

参考例句：

• a boxed set of original recordings 一套盒装原声录音带
• old jazz recordings reissued on CD 以激光唱片重新发行的老爵士乐

6 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

7 lyrics   

n.歌词

参考例句：

• music and lyrics by Rodgers and Hart 由罗杰斯和哈特作词作曲
• The book contains lyrics and guitar tablatures for over 100 songs. 这本书有100多首歌的歌词和吉他奏法谱。

8 longing   

n.（for）渴望

参考例句：

• Hearing the tune again sent waves of longing through her.再次听到那首曲子使她胸中充满了渴望。
• His heart burned with longing for revenge.他心中燃烧着急欲复仇的怒火。

9 lure   

n.吸引人的东西，诱惑物；vt.引诱，吸引

参考例句：

• Life in big cities is a lure for many country boys.大城市的生活吸引着许多乡下小伙子。
• He couldn't resist the lure of money.他不能抵制金钱的诱惑。

10 frustrating   

adj.产生挫折的，使人沮丧的，令人泄气的v.使不成功( frustrate的现在分词 )；挫败；使受挫折；令人沮丧

参考例句：

• It's frustrating to have to wait so long. 要等这么长时间，真令人懊恼。
• It was a demeaning and ultimately frustrating experience. 那是一次有失颜面并且令人沮丧至极的经历。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 tune   

n.调子；和谐，协调；v.调音，调节，调整

参考例句：

• He'd written a tune,and played it to us on the piano.他写了一段曲子，并在钢琴上弹给我们听。
• The boy beat out a tune on a tin can.那男孩在易拉罐上敲出一首曲子。

12 tunes   

n.曲调，曲子( tune的名词复数 )v.调音( tune的第三人称单数 )；调整；（给收音机、电视等）调谐；使协调

参考例句：

• a potpourri of tunes 乐曲集锦
• When things get a bit too much, she simply tunes out temporarily. 碰到事情太棘手时，她干脆暂时撒手不管。 来自《简明英汉词典》

13 tar   

n.柏油，焦油；vt.涂或浇柏油/焦油于

参考例句：

• The roof was covered with tar.屋顶涂抹了一层沥青。
• We use tar to make roads.我们用沥青铺路。

14 eastward   

adv.向东；adj.向东的；n.东方，东部

参考例句：

• The river here tends eastward.这条河从这里向东流。
• The crowd is heading eastward,believing that they can find gold there.人群正在向东移去，他们认为在那里可以找到黄金。

15 steer   

vt.驾驶，为…操舵；引导；vi.驾驶

参考例句：

• If you push the car, I'll steer it.如果你来推车，我就来驾车。
• It's no use trying to steer the boy into a course of action that suits you.想说服这孩子按你的方式行事是徒劳的。

16 ballads   

民歌，民谣，特别指叙述故事的歌( ballad的名词复数 )； 讴

参考例句：

• She belted out ballads and hillbilly songs one after another all evening. 她整晚一个接一个地大唱民谣和乡村小调。
• She taught him to read and even to sing two or three little ballads,accompanying him on her old piano. 她教他读书，还教他唱两三首民谣，弹着她的旧钢琴为他伴奏。

17 apron   

n.围裙；工作裙

参考例句：

• We were waited on by a pretty girl in a pink apron.招待我们的是一位穿粉红色围裙的漂亮姑娘。
• She stitched a pocket on the new apron.她在新围裙上缝上一只口袋。

18 passionate   

adj.热情的，热烈的，激昂的，易动情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的

参考例句：

• He is said to be the most passionate man.据说他是最有激情的人。
• He is very passionate about the project.他对那个项目非常热心。

19 unearthing   

发掘或挖出某物( unearth的现在分词 )； 搜寻到某事物，发现并披露

参考例句：

• And unearthing the past often means literally and studying the evidence. 通常，探寻往事在字面上即意味着——刨根究底。
• The unearthing of "Peking Man" was a remarkable discovery. “北京人”的出土是个非凡的发现。