Shanties are having a Moment

Martyn Waitt, of the Shalfleet Shanty Singers, has achieved TV fame, thanks to the power of TikTok. The humble marine work song has been much in the news since a young Scot, a postman called Nathan Evans, shared a video of his version of the ‘Wellerman shanty’ on the site. Martyn’s daughter suggested he should join in and together they came up with a covid-related rewrite. Within two days it had reached over a quarter of a million views, then half a million just four days later. Appearances on both BBC local news and national news followed quickly. Martyn has since shared a number of other shanties on TikTok and now can boast nearly 30 thousand followers! Here is the link if you would like to sing-along-o-Martyn. https://www.tiktok.com/@martynwaitt/video/6919619034170281218

The Wonder of Zoom

Meanwhile, the three zoom ‘folk club come all ye’ sessions a week are as as popular as ever. It is wonderful to see and hear local friends as well as meeting fresh faces from all over the country also and America, Hawaii, Canada etc, etc, etc. A recent highlight was the Oddfellows Burns themed afternoon with Ian Watterson’s dramatic rendition of the Address to the Haggis. These get-togethers are so valuable, keeping us all ‘tuned up’ until we can finally return to the old haunts such as the Dairyman’s Daughter, pictured below with Ian on ‘stage’.