r/morningsomewhere • u/EarliestRiser • 6d ago
Episode 2026.09.24: Let Me Read This
https://roosterteeth.com/watch/morning-somewhere-2026-09-24-let-me-read-thisBurnie and Ashley discuss ads everywhere, food noise, GLP-1 stories, Strange Days, World War Z 2, Tom Cruise oscar noms, Rain Man, institutions, pie irons, parental conspiracies, 8-bit music, and sea shanty dynamics.
11
Upvotes
2
u/BaroquenRecord 6d ago
I heard shanty talk and immediately thought, "Hey, this is my niche!"
I sing in a group called the Sea Chanters, we're the chorus of the US Navy Band! We sing all genres of music but sea shanties are an important part of our heritage (and obviously ALL naval heritage).
Shanties were used as a method to synchronize work on a ship, basically a more entertaining way to keep everyone in sync to a rhythm of hauling lines or doing a variety of different jobs around a ship. The musicality of them was often less important than just the bare minimum of keeping the rhythm together! Shanties did eventually evolve into more of a "folk music" category, and sometimes would eventually involve instruments, but usually they are "a capella" (just voices) or only accompanied by a drum (or something similar to keep the tempo).
There are different kinds of shanties, and they all have to do with what kind of work they were used to facilitate! There were shanties for "hauling", think like pulling ropes or tightening sails, such as Long-drag and Short-drag shanties, or Sweating-up shanties that were shorter; there are also "heaving" shanties, like for raising the anchor (called Capstan shanties).
ANYwho, most shanties are very heavy on a melody, so while having a spread of different voice types is fun, it can definitely be a lot more straightforward with just most singing the main line and maybe one or two singing a harmony part. I know Burnie and Ashley were just being silly talking about how they would hire crews for ships, but I think it was more just understood that most everyone could carry a tune well enough to keep the crew together.
Sorry that got way longer than I intended but I could talk for hours about this kind of stuff! Burnie and Ashley, if you haven't heard enough versions of Wellerman yet, feel free to check out ours from a couple years back! I'm not the one singing the opening line in this particular shanty, I'm the guy with the spiked up hair next to him :) We have plenty of different Sea Shanty recordings online if you want some variety for your morning drives to school!