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The Hard Tackers Shanty Crew HomeThis is a featured page

The Hardtackers
For sample tracks click on e Press Kit on the left.
The official Shanty Crew of the Santa Maria.
A full size replica harboured in the Scioto river in downtown Columbus, Ohio.

Shamrock Club Columbus 2011
The Hardtackers in Full Flood




Joe Cook of The Hard Tackers
Joe Cook of The Hardtackers on board The Pride of Baltimore ll

The Hardtackers.
The one stop place for the music of the sea, lakes and rivers, plus laughter and sing along.

The Hardtackers are available for bookings to bring your event alive.
Festivals, state fairs, county fairs, coffeehouses, house concerts, arts events, summer events, parties, schools, and any other place you can think of.

The Hardtackers win the 2009 Southern Ohio Sea Shanty Festival Award

Hard Tackers win shanty award


The Hardtackers specialise in Sea Shanties, songs of the sea, rivers and lakes. If it's wet we will sing about it.




What is a sea shanty

Shanties are the work songs that were used on the square-rigged ships of the Age of Sail. Their rhythms coordinated the efforts of many sailors hauling on lines. Much loved by modern sailors and folk musicians, they are rarely used as work songs today. This is because modern rigging doesn't require many people to be working in the same rhythm for long periods.

Traditional shanties can be grouped into two main types:

Hauling Songs

Halyard or long drag songs for tops'l and t'gallants

Short Haul or short drag songs for t'gallants and royals

Sweating -up, fore-sheet or bowline shanties, for boarding tacks and sheets etc

Bunt shanty for stowing the sail on the yard

Hand over hand songs for jibs, stays'ls and braces

Walk away or stamp and go songs for braces

Heaving Songs

Main capstan or windlass songs for heaving the anchor

Capstan songs for hoisting sails etc by mechanical means and warping in and out of dock

Pump shanties

Sea Songs

Sea shanties are not the only songs associated with work on the sea, nor the only ones sung on board. Almost any song with a regular beat can be used to synchronize steady-paced work such as winding a capstan or a winch. There are also many, many songs about life at sea. Some of these songs are traditional, others contemporary.




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