A working songbook for
Mayne Singers
A Salish Sea shanty crew · Mayne Island, British Columbia
Repertoire and rehearsal book for a crew of four to eight voices on a Southern Gulf Island. Vocal-first by design — the chorus is the engine, the lead rotates, and the instruments (guitar, mandolin, bodhrán, concertina, penny whistle) are seasoning. Built to grow over a year.
Working name
Mayne Singers is a nom-de-plume — a placeholder until the crew settles on a real band name. Candidates currently on the table:
- Brickdockers
- The Overfalls
- Ballast
- The Salal Roots
- Miners Bay
- Outer Islanders
- The Archipellas (“Archifellas”)
- Salish Sea Shantymen (or “Salish Sea Shanties” as a title)
Start here
If you're walking into the first rehearsal, work through the Welcome chapter for the lay of the land. Then read Voice as Instrument and Singing Together — those two chapters are the heart of why this band exists. The song sets and the 12-month roadmap are where the rehearsal time actually goes; the instrument chapters at the back cover the supporting roles.
Beginner set — the first ten
Three- and four-chord songs with strong choruses anyone can pick up in a single rehearsal. Build the set here first, then teach the next member who walks in the door.
Intermediate set
Modal feels, longer-form storytelling, harmony arrangements. These reward a few rehearsals together — the parts start mattering, the dynamics matter, and the band starts sounding like a band rather than a campfire.
Advanced set
Reserved for songs with intricate multi-part harmony, longer arrangements, or trickier modal/key movement. (To be populated — mark a song's {difficulty: advanced} in its .cho file to surface it here.)
Maritime Canadian — Stan Rogers, Great Big Sea, the Newfoundland repertoire
Not traditional working shanties but the same sea, same voice, same kind of band. Stan Rogers wrote what felt like shanties in the 1970s and 80s; Great Big Sea built the 1990s revival on top of the Newfoundland traditional canon. The shanty bands today draw freely from both.