The Book of Sea Shanties: Wellerman and Other Songs from the Seven Seas

by Nathan Evans

An epic journey through sea shanties, high tides and seven seas.

From the international bestselling singer comes The Book of Sea Shanties.

The world sang in harmony with Nathan Evans, the Glaswegian postie turned singer of sea shanties. Join him as he takes you through time and seafaring history to discover the true meaning of Wellerman, and who and what exactly was the Drunken Sailor?

Featuring over 35 best loved shanties, Nathan will share the meaning behind each of his favourite shanties and show how they have shaped and inspired him. Beautifully illustrated throughout, it will also include original shanties and bonus content written exclusively for this book. Whether you're young or old, gather around and discover the riotous world of sea shanties.


Praise for Nathan Evans:


A 'Sea Shanty sensation' Rolling Stone


'An artist who really lifts the mood when he performs' Daily Telegraph


'Too good to miss' Brian May, Daily Express

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Poetry

192 pages, Hardcover

Published November 16, 2021

Reviews

[Rozarka · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such a pretty book: the cover, the illustrations, the content. It was interesting and educational and the only reason it took me so long to finish it is that I just had to google every other song and listen to it while reading about its origins and meaning.

[Anthony · Rating 1 out of 5]

Deceptive title.

Didn't have a single sea shanty in it, just words to a sea shanty.

I was honestly expecting musical notation from a musician.

[janet g · Rating 3 out of 5]

this is a lovely book to just flip through when you feel like it - largely thanks to sally taylor’s stunning illustrations. nathan evans’ love for the core spirit of shanties shines though in the enthusiasm of his writing, and the overarching sense of unity is certainly needed more in the world today. it would have been nice to have a more detailed history of each shanty, and the genre as a whole, but overall this was an enjoyable ramble across the seas and an easy read

[Aimée · Rating 5 out of 5]

Während der Pandemie wurde Nathan Evans berühmt, weil er das uralte australische Seefahrerlied "The Wellerman" coverte und so eine Musik-Karriere starten konnte. Als wir auf St. Michael's Mount waren, entdeckte ich dieses Buch erstaunt im Shop - ich hatte keine Ahnung, dass er auch ein ganzes Buch zum Thema geschrieben hatte.



Das Buch enthält insgesamt 35 Shanties - jeweils mit Text und nachfolgender Erklärung zu Hinweisen, Details und Besonderheiten des Liedes. Durch den repetitiven Charakter der Arbeitslieder sind die Texte schnell gelesen, das Recherchieren und Entdecken auf Youtube dauert dafür umso länger. Ich habe euch ein paar Versionen verlinkt.





Vorwort

Roll the Old Chariot along

Shenandoah

Lowlands away

A long time ago

Drunken Sailor

Johnny's gone to Hilo

Roll, Bullies, Roll

Heave away

Spanish Ladies

Running down to Cuba

South Australia

Blow the Man down

Santianna

Haul away, Joe

Derby Ram

Johnny Boker

Old Billy Riley

The Black Ball Line

Wellerman

Rolling down to Old Maui

Blood red roses

Randy-Dandy-O

The Maid of Amsterdam

Paddy Doyle's Boots

Liza Lee

Bully in the Alley

Don't forget your old Shipmate

Strike the Bell

Fire down below

One more Day

Leave her, Johnny

Poor old horse

The Fishes' Lamentation

Roll the Woodpile down

Goodbye, fare ye well



Es folgen zwei Texte von Evans selbst, Ring Ding und Told you so.

Ergänzt werden die Texte durch düster-mitreißende Illustrationen von Sally Taylor.

[Alanna Vane · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an easy read with interesting bits of background dropped in. I prefer "Sailor Song" by Gerry Smyth, mostly because it has music notation. Still, this one was fun too.

[Mike Watson · Rating 4 out of 5]

That was a fun and interesting read.
As someone who discovered the TikTok Sea Shanty trend far too late, I discovered Nathan Evans and others like him and was hooked into singing with them (the quality is questionable but still!).
Nathan’s book is easy to read and gives a simple and accessible insight into the origins and meaning of lots of popular shanties. The hardest part was trying to get the song/tune out of my head so that I could read the synopsis!
A one/two sitting book that is a nice bedside book.
Would recommend to anyone who is into sea-songs and folk music.

[Christopher · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this hardbook edition up because Waterstones had a good offer on it. It's a beautiful looking book, largely due to each of the 35 sea shanties' illustrations by Sally Taylor. Maybe the book is a bit of a cash in following Evans' surprise social media success with the Wellerman shanty, but if so, why not? I suppose you could look up the tunes on the internet these days, but the book would still greatly benefit from some simple musical annotation for the tunes. Sometimes the lines of the shanties don't seem to scan very well, but maybe that's with not knowing the tunes. Each shanty is followed by Nathan Evans giving that shanty some context and background and these pieces written by him do not become too repetitive and are clearly written showing promise for his next book.

[Stuart Davis · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good collection of sea shanties to look through as you want but not entertaining enough to read straight through.

[Adele Wyers · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was worried at first that this might have been a bit of a cash grab based on the lockdown 2020-2021 phenomena of sea shanty popularity, especially as the author is the one who started the viral trend on Youtube. And yes, there are probably elements of this, especially with the inclusion of his own songs at the end, but overall, this was a physically stunning book and a nice entertaining intro to the world of sea shanties.

This creates a conundrum, though, as I think listening to it as an audiobook would be best, but the book itself is a stunning addition to the bookshelves. A gorgeous embossed hardcover (no DUST JACKETS!!!) with really lovely illustrations throughout, which beautifully added to the shanties. So, the book itself is a work of art to own. However, it is difficult to read sea shanties, realistically, as you need to know the rhythm. The author makes a sound effort to inform the audience of this, but I am not musically inclined enough to interpret that accurately. So I Youtubed the shanties and listened to them as I read, and I think this is the ONLY way to actually 'read' the book. It brought the shanties to life, and I thoroughly enjoyed listening to the different versions. But it did make me wonder if I should have tried to find the audiobook instead, so that the wording matched and I could reduce my Googling. Best advice I have is to read along AND had the audiobook going. I imagine that will be very entertaining.

Lastly, some reviews have mentioned that they wished it had more history for the sea shanties. I didn't really find that an issue, as I wanted an easy introduction. If I feel the need for a more academic look at the genre, which I think is unlikely, then I will find a more detailed exploration. If you yourself want a detailed informative text, this won't be for you. If you just want to listen to some sea shanties and know a bit about the story behind them, then read away away, Johnny read away! Hey!

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had never heard of Nathan Evans before I read the book of sea shanties. I had never seen him on youtube or tiktop. I saw the book and thought oh, how interesting sea shanties. So I decided to read it.

I liked that the book was small and its a quick read. I also liked the illustrations in the book. Very fun to look at.

For each song profiled in the book there is the text then Nathan explains some of the term in the song and what they mean or might mean. Very interesting.

I also liked the bibliography. Which lists books and websites about sea shanties. Well the websites list groups that sing sea shanties.

I never thought that there were groups that sung sea shanties before reading this book. For that matter I never gave sea shanties much thought. Now after reading the book of sea shanties I know about a different type of music I can listen to.

I am glad I decided to read the book of sea shanties.

[Jamie McDonald · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was excited to read this along side the release of Nathan Evans album as I have love british folk music, and grew up with it around me.

As a keen folk singer and guitarist myself I was also keen to learn about the history of songs which I have been singing for some time.

This book is set out in a really exciting way to not only go over the words of many well known shanties, but also to give you context of it's history.

I have the hardback version of this book which is also a lovely book on my shelf.

I would of loved some extra musical hint on each shanty however, like some suggested basic chords, but there are countless versions of these online, and I knew some anyway, so didn't stop me enjoying it.

[Cody Zimmerman · Rating 4 out of 5]

First off, this book is simply beautiful. From the gilt cover with the imposing ship to the individual illustrations inside this book is as much a piece of art as it is a work of literary art.

The songs were interesting to read and I liked the explanatory notes that gave not only background for the song but also pointed you towards modern versions to hear.

The one thing I wished, and this is extremely personal to me, was that there was sheet music or rhythm provided for the songs. I am an instrumentalist, not a singer, so I think having that would help me visualize the tune more than just the lyrics by themselves.

[Rhys Causon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve read another “history of sea shanties” book before and I feel the same way about this book that I did about that one.

The fact that it gives lyrics of the different shanties before giving a short history of their origin and usage on ships was a good layout. But the way this book lets that down in my mind is not grouping some of the similar styled songs together, which the other “history of” book I’ve read did.

And having a couple of the authors own songs at the end of the book was a nice surprise, even if I only really liked one of them.

[Sarah Hannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really interesting book about the history of sea shanties. It was good to see a selection of those not quite as well known as well as some of the most well known, such as Drunken Sailor, Haul Away Joe, and Nelson's Blood/ Roll the old chariot along. More elaboration into the history of the shanties would have accentuated the book further. The illustrations are absolutely stunning.
I was introduced to the world of sea shanties through Port Isaacs's Fisherman's friends, and the amazing German band, Santiano. It's good to see another following the same footsteps.

[Melissa Convertino · Rating 5 out of 5]

Carinissimo volume, ricco di testi meravigliosi e illustrazioni incantevoli. Non sono presenti spartiti, ma alle canzoni sono associati dei commenti utili sulla loro storia. Nonostante sia solo in lingua inglese è perfettamente comprensibile, anche per chi lo parla poco e niente come me. Se amate le canzoni marinaresche, questo piccolo volume arricchirà il vostro bagaglio culturale e anche la vostra libreria.

[Rachel Feeck · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this up as a reference guide to shanties, and it had almost everything I needed - shanty lyrics, background on song structure and application to shipboard tasks, and commentary on the origins of each. No sheet music included, but the references to online recordings are a nice addition, as well as the illustrations. The style leans more anecdotal than academic, so it's an easy introduction to the subject, and I'm happy I have plenty of leads for further research.

[Shirin Chawla · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is so pretty and cool to flip through, the illustrations feel apt and are well done and learning the history of some well known and lesser know sea shanties is fun, especially with recommendations by Nathan Evan’s of performances to check out on YouTube in the notes of the book. This was a valentines gift to me by my partner who knows I love the shanties from Assassins Creed Black Flag and it was certainly well chosen, as I’m now also a fan of Nathan Evan’s shanty performances online

[Alex Carpenter · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun read. There were interesting facts in the synopses such as the origins of rock and roll etc but I would have liked if it were a little more informational on a whole rather than just generally translating crew slang into modern language. The illustrations were brilliant and visually appealing though.

[Laura Leilani · Rating 4 out of 5]

A simple and lovely looking book. Has the words and background stories for many old sea songs. It was interesting learning the different types of songs and what they were used for. I like singing these old shanties while I do the housework. This book is a good starting place to explore more about these old songs as it gives lots of names to look up.

[Michal Paszkiewicz · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice collection of shanties, along with some explanations of shanty culture and where the shanties fit in. The book is a lovely edition with neat illustrations. It could be a bit better if the shanties included a brief musical notation for the shanty themes.

[Ari Plant · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is a good introduction to sea shanties and contains a paragraph or few about their origins and where they were sung, how, and why but it wasn't as in-depth as it could have been and, therefore, was a little underwhelming to read on a park bench.

[Paul Groos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun little book with the lyrics to a lot of shanties and Wikipedia-level explanations of history, music and lyrics of the songs. Not very in depth, but more than enough to keep you entertained. Have Spotify of YouTube ready to listen to the songs.

[Lisa Montgomery · Rating 4 out of 5]

During the pandemic, Scottish singer Nathan Evans began posting performances of sea shanties on social media. The "Wellerman" rose to worldwide fame. Evan offers a collection of sea shanty lyrics with his notes on their meanings, as well as a few original songs.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bought this book because I went to Word on the Water and thought it was a fitting being a sea shanties books on a bookstore on a boat. I really liked the book, specially that at the end of eat shanty the author explained more about it's history.

[Harrison Root · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short and Sweet, includes an introduction of Sea Shanties, the author/songwriter, and it provides brief but interesting information about every sea shanty included in the book as well as their lyrics and origins.

[Stuart · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting book about sea shanties and the history of each song. I enjoyed reading it with my young son.

[Jessica Hooley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Brought some new shantys to my knowledge, and a new favourite. Loved the drawings that coincided with the songs. I did have to look up the majority on YouTube since I was unfamiliar with them