This is so good. Don't let the very niche theme scare you away, because you'll be missing one of the better comps of the year. Picked this up tonight, and my god, how I'm enjoying the rollicking tracks on here. This is most assuredly late night brandy swilling music, but hey, we all need a soundtrack for our decadence, right? So many musicians lend their talents. From Nick Cave, Teddy Thompson, Bryan Ferry, Loudon Wainwright III, Sting (with Mocean Worker), Lucinda Williams, Van Dyke Parks, Jarvis Cocker, Lou Reed, Richard Thompson, Joseph Arthur....etc.
Packed 2 discs. Very nicely put together, great liner notes from Hal Willner about how Shanties came into his life, and why they put this together. The great thing about this comp is that most of the artists are so at home with these pirate songs that you really don't think about the archaic nature of them. Nick Cave's "Fire Down Below" is swarmy and dirty, just like a good Bad Seeds record should be, while Jolie Holland is sumptuous in her song.
Surprisingly John C. Reilly is featured a few times, and his voice sounds great doing these irish-tinged songs backed mostly by Jack Shit (who served as musical director of the LA artists). When you have great people involved, its not a guarentee that the outcome is going to be great, but having people like Warren Ellis and Jack Shit on yr side doesn't hurt.
Very highly rec'd.
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:8g67gjer66im
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