Group with Judi Spiers

"The biggest buoy band in the West Country - the fabulous Exmouth Shanty Men - they are just SENSATIONAL!"

Judi Spiers - Television personality and Radio Devon presenter

 

 "The Exmouth Shanty Men are surely one of the most exciting, colourful and entertaining acts to appear on the traditional folk scene in years.

And a more raggedy-arsed gaggle of rascals you are never likely to meet! They appear on stage looking as though they have just stepped ashore after a 9 month voyage around Cape Horn, their garments threadbare and their hats battered, but this crew sings some of the finest sea songs with passion and gusto.

In fact they deliver these gems as they would have been sung on the decks of the tall ships or in the dockyard taverns in the golden age of sail: hard-bitten work shanties, saucy shore songs and heart-rending laments of love and loss. And each one helps to remind us of the true cost of our rich maritime heritage and gives us an authentic glimpse of the harshness and humour of a sailor’s life.

Their rip-roaring performances are heady concoctions of powerful vocals, raucous wit and surprising tenderness with a good dollop of British tomfoolery. The lads haul ropes, turn the capstan, and pump the bilges as they sing and their genuine camaraderie and wicked below-decks banter enthral audiences of all ages. These boys have sailed many a voyage together, and it shows in every note and gesture, but their jiggery, and indeed their pokery, are highly infectious..."
 
Aaron C. Resque