Bounding Main

Bounding Main is a group of three male and three female vocalists that sing richly harmonic versions of traditional maritime songs. "Beautiful Harmonies with a Maritime Flair!" Their shows are filled with spirit, humor and harmony; their arrangements of traditional nautical music bring the listener into the world of fellowship, adventure and romance.

Before coming together as a group, all of the members of Bounding Main knew at least one other member through their participation in various environmental gigs and singing groups. Little did they know that each meeting was building up to what would, in a few short years, become Bounding Main The six members of the crew gathered together for the first time on January 19, 2003, where they took some time to get to know one another, sing a bit and discuss putting a group together. They decided they really liked each other and had a great time hanging out. After much debate and fist fights (well, not so much fist fights as lively discussions with their mouths full of food), a name was settled upon: Bounding Main. (As in “Sailing, Sailing Over the . . .”)

The singing was also developing. The sextuplet, much to their surprise, had an incredible and unique blend of men’s and women’s voices. Dean had a particular vision for Bounding Main and introduced the group to songs of the sea: maritime songs, ballads, shanties. Songs in this musical genre expressed the complexity that surrounded an old-time mariner's lifestyle and its amazing breadth of emotions: excitement, danger, bravado, loneliness, greed, lust and, well, drinking.
 

Bounding Main officially came together January 19, 2003

Serendipitously, the musical style the group chose to perform in has proven to be a popular one. What with living on the Great Lakes and all the festivals that entails, coupled with the current societal craze for pirates, there is plenty of work for this unusual group. They can’t seem to keep the frivolity out of their songs, so they no longer try. Although they promise that they do indeed try to “rein it in.”

Seven years later, with countless musically thrilling yet humor-filled performances on both sides of the Atlantic under their collective belt and three CD’s flying off the electronic shelves, Bounding Main is still going strong. With upcoming shows scheduled from Port Washington, Wisconsin to Cracow, Poland, the members still manage to have as much fun singing together as always.

Thanks for all your support over the last seven years. We love all of you!

Sea Shanties

Shanties are the work songs that were used on the square-rigged ships of the Age of Sail. Their rhythms coordinated the efforts of many sailors hauling on lines, working the bilge pump or walking round the capstan. Much loved by modern sailors and folk musicians, they are rarely used as work songs today. This is because modern rigging doesn't require many people to be working in the same rhythm for long periods.  

There are many kinds of traditional shanties:  short haul shanties, halyard shanties, capstan shanties, rowing shanties, cotton-screwing shanties, stamp-and-go (or walk-and-go) shanties, bunting shanties, etc.  Each style is based on the work to which they are sung.  The primary separation of shanties is whether the activity is "pushing" or "pulling."  The third category of songs is referred to as fo'c'sle songs or forecastle songs.  The fo'c'sle is the raised deck at the front of the ship where the crew retired off-watch.  Here they could sing ballads and other tunes that didn't require the rhythm of the work songs.

Some sea shanties, like "Whiskey Johnnie,"
have origins that go back to Elizabethan England.

There is a school of thought that abhors "prettified" arrangements of shanty music, such as that offered by the Robert Shaw Chorale.  Instead these traditionalists think shanty music should be sung with rough-hewn honesty, throwing harmonies and arrangements over the side; accompaniment with a fiddle or squeeze-box being the only concession to musicality.  Today's shanty groups vary widely between the two extremes.  We are at one of the extremes . . .