For more than two decades, the Ship’s Company Chanteymen (est. 1996) have shared sea salts' songs with tens of thousands, all over the East Coast. Aside from being scurvy-free, they portray the musical part of nautical life in the 1700s and 1800s. Many of their songs originally set a pace to keep ship crews rowing in time or doing rhythmic chores such as turning a capstan. Some just filled long hours or lonely nights at sea. Simple and direct, wild and spirited, salty and rough as a North Atlantic gale, they were a reflection of the sailors themselves. The practice of voicing rhythmic sounds while working may be as old as mankind and probably is intrinsic to human nature.

Since early sailors spent years away from home, first-time listeners should not be surprised that many tunes mention fair maidens, home, and “other” entertainments. With rollicking tunes and sing-along choruses, it’s also fun. This jolly band of merrymakers has been seen and heard all up and down the east coast of the United States.

Join them in 2023 for their 27th year of pubsings in the DC area, and be sure to follow them on Facebook: The Ship’s Company Chanteymen.

• 1st Thursdays (except March): The Auld Shebeen Irish Pub & Restaurant in Fairfax, VA (https://theauldshebeenva.com/). Held 8-10pm in the expansive cellar, some of the pubsing patrons gather the hour prior to eat upstairs in the main pub, & drinks purchased upstairs taken down the spiral stairs for the pubsing itself.

• 2nd Wednesdays: The Anchor Bar (https://www.anchorbarbaltimore.com/) in the basement of the Admiral Fell Inn, in Fell’s Point, Baltimore MD. 8-10pm. This is a bar (ie drinks only; ok, a few snacks), but if you want dinner, lots of restaurant choices on the waterfront street the hour prior.

• 3rd Thursdays: we recommend Chanteymen friend Johnny Strumm’s pubsing at Limerick Irish Pub, Wheaton MD. Food & drink available. 8-10pm.

• 4th Sundays (except December): 2-4pm (note AFTERNOON, vice our other pubsing evenings), at Los Compadres Restaurant (https://www.loscompadresmd.com/), Ellicott City, MD. Food & drink available. A unique mix of excellent Mexican cuisine & maritime/tavern/traditional song!

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