Lost at Sea
Lost at Sea is Bounding Main’s 2nd professionally released CD, This collection of sea shanties and nautical ballads have been masterfully reworked into a sound that has been enjoyed by audiences from Chicago to Krakow. Bounding Main has mastered a rich harmonic sound and has applied it to this collection of traditional and contemporary songs.
Listener Testimonials
“With their second album, ‘Lost at Sea,’ Bounding Main continues in the fine tradition of the first. While remaining firmly rooted in acappella maritime songs, they never-the-less span a wide range of emotions and styles. From the catchy drinking shanties like ‘Haul Away Joe,’ ‘Marching Inland,’ and (naturally) ‘All for Me Grog’ and on to more haunting and even soulful pieces such as ‘Northwest Passage’ and ‘Dreadnaught,’ the entire crew of Bounding Main put their voices to maximum impact, accompanied only by occasional claps and the selective use of sound effects. An excellent CD that hoists the bar for sea shanties everywhere.”
— Gerard Heidgerken
Beautiful acapella, great to sing along to. Nothing compares to this group live, but this all acapella recording is AMAZING. They picked really beautiful songs that you can’t help but find yourself humming, and then they picked hilariously fun songs that you find yourself belting out loud to at stop lights.
— Lindsay on CDBaby
Puts you in a great mood! This CD will put you in a great mood the moment you start listening to it. The group members sound like they are having fun, and if you read the blurbs that go with each song you can tell they have a great time together! Thanks, Bounding Main for giving your Mainiacs a great CD!
— Wendy Lutzke
Lost at Sea Liner Notes
High Barbaree
(Traditional Fo’c’sle Song)
A ship song and guess what? A ship sinks! Tragedy! Gotta love it. There is choreography that goes along with this one. Drop by a show some time and Maggie will be overjoyed to teach it to you, over and over again.
Soloist: Maggie Hannington (Retired)
Haul Away Joe
(Traditional)
A tack and sheet shanty. That−s right, a tack and sheet shanty. Say that fast a few times (Bounding Main is not responsible for the filth that may pour from your lips while saying “a tack and sheet shanty”).
Soloist: David Yondorf (and if by “Yondorf” you mean…)
Marching Inland
(Contemporary Maritime Song; Words and Music by: Tom Lewis)
A cure for sea-sickness song. We love this song as we are the WORST sailors ever! Not a lot of drinking in the group, Gina gets sea-sick (the tall ship the Denis Sullivan tried to kill her you know), Maggie is afraid of water, Jon doesn’t know what the difference is between a capstan shanty and a halyard shanty, Christie is afraid to sing in public, David … actually we are all kind of afraid of him so the less said the better. Dean of course, well he knows all this stuff and is the closest thing to a sailor/historian/shantyman that we have.
Vocals: We’re all on this one.
“Actually, I think the harmonies – and the slight departures from the original melody – were very inventive and attractive, and the variation of pace is good ‘ear candy.'”
— Tom Lewis
Author or “Marching Inland”
Herzogin Cecile
(Words and music by: Ken Stephens)
This is a ship song. The ship sinks. We love it when that happens! We had a hard time keeping to the traditional seafaring style of music that this piece deserves. Christie’s lyrical storytelling about the ship makes us all want to snap our fingers, turn the lights down low, and do a little jazz.
Soloist: Christie Dalby
Bully in the Alley
(Traditional Halyard Shanty)
A love song, sort of. Roughly translated it’s a song about a boy and a girl and someone being blind drunk and stumblin− in an alley. We do that too but without the alcohol. We just like being in blind alleys.
Soloist: Jon Krivitzky
Northwest Passage
(Words and Music by: Stan Rogers)
An explorer song. Ahhh … exploring. Something that we do every time we get into a car and try to get to a gig. This is a beautiful piece about explorers trying to find the Northwest Passage to the Orient.
Soloist: Gina Dalby.
Little Boy Billee
(Traditional Fo’c’sle Song)
A few of the boys die song. Tragedy? We think not. In fact, they get what’s coming to ’em.
Vocals: This is a guys’ song. The girls were nowhere near it when it happened and take no responsibility for it.
A Capital Ship
(Words and music by: Charles Edward Carryl (1841-1920))
A grammar song. Get it, A “Capital” Ship? Not buying that? Well then it’s a ship song. But sadly, the ship does not sink. The song does however contain mysterious lyrics that sound like, “on the Gulliby Isles where the pooh-poo smiles and the anagazanders roar.” Spend some time figuring that one out. A special thanks to Anne Delfeld for introducing us to this song.
Vocals: This is an all-sing featuring the girls.
Irish Rover
(Traditional Irish Tune)
A ship song. And yes, gloriously, it sinks! Not only does it sink, it takes the crew and their mangy, flea-bitten, poop-machine of a dog with them. Boy we miss that dog.
Vocals: This has all of us, featuring the guys. Egg Percussion: Christie Dalby
Dreadnought
(Traditional, sung as a Fo’c’sle Song)
A ship song. Gina thinks this song is long and insists that it makes her butt look big. She also thinks the held note near the end of the piece is pretentious but we know she could have held it longer. However, between the possible unending duration of the note, and the size of her butt, we just left it the way it is and moved on.
Soloist: Gina Dalby
Cape Cod Girls
(Traditional)
A capstan or pump shanty, also known to us as a “shanty-shanty.” This one tells you all you would ever need to know about the girls, kids, cats, and shoes that inhabit Cape Cod.
Duet: Dean Calin and David Yondorf
Cadgewith Anthem
(Traditional Cornish Ballad … but so updated as to hardly resemble the original. New lyrics composed by Gina and Christie Dalby.)
A “girls blame the guys” song. The ladies are in desperate circumstances, just take a look at with whom they sail, and they are forced to turn to a life of crime. They only steal from the audience though, just like Robin Hood. Kinda. Maybe. Well, okay, not at all like Robin Hood, but they still haul in some sweet loot!
Vocals: This is a girls’ song only. We sent the guys out for, well anything just to get them out of here.
All For Me Grog
(Traditional)
A drinkin’ song and a church song. Well ok, it’s only a church song at the end but we do what we can.
Vocals: This is an all-skate.
Randy Dandy O
(Traditional)
This is a capstan shanty. You can really hear the crew working and complaining on this song. Dean leads us kicking and screaming into this one but it all works out in the end. Mostly.
Soloist: Dean Calin
