| Bounding Main
Bounding Main is a group of six unique individuals with
various backgrounds, interests, and day jobs. The one
thing they do have in common is a love of singing and goofing around onstage. 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”. 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. 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," 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. |