The Bards of Gungywamp



Bards of Gungywamp is a folk music group from southeastern CT, who formed for one impromptu St. Patrick’s Day show and has been playing together ever since. They offer a complete cornucopia of musical styles, ranging from Celtic, sea songs, Old Time, Bluegrass, Cajun, punk, classic and heavy metal rock. They travel the hills and valleys of Old New England, bringing their tunes and songs to Irish pubs, Renn Faires, festivals, farm markets, and more. BOG draws on their namesake to tell stories of New England life, weaving their modern sound with tradition and history, such as the prehistoric stone site of Gungywamp.

Bob Walser



Bob Walser worked as a shantyman at Mystic Seaport Museum in the 1980s. Since then, he has presented Folklore In Action folk music and dance programs as an artist-in-residence in schools across the USA, and performs as a singer, dance leader and dance musician from Maine to California and overseas. Bob earned his Ph.D. in ethnomusicology at the University of London, School of Oriental and African Studies, researching music teaching and learning across cultural differences, based on fieldwork in Uganda and England. His folk music and education research has been published in the Folk Song Journal (UK) and publications by World Music Press. In addition, he has three CDs for The Old and New Tradition label, as well as guest appearances on another dozen recordings in the US, France and England. Learn more about Bob at bobwalser.com

Cindy Kallet & Grey Larsen



Cindy Kallet and Grey Larsen have been joining musical forces for over 20 years, delighting audiences around the country. Cindy is a superb singer, guitarist, song- writer, and multi-instrumentalist. Grey is one of America’s finest players of the Irish flute and tin whistle, as well as an accomplished singer and concertina, fiddle, piano and harmonium player. Cindy’s interest in sea music started when she volunteered as a teenager on the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, and has continued through the years while living on the New England coast. She performed for many years at the Mystic Sea Music Festival. The duo’s performances are enlivened by Grey’s array of seagoing instruments.

Craig Edwards



Craig sings and plays fiddle, banjo, guitar, mandolin, and button accordion. He studied Ethnomusicology at Wesleyan University and worked as a staff musician at Mystic Seaport Museum for over 35 years. He has learned from master source musicians in numerous styles, including Appalachian fiddle tunes, banjo songs, and ballads, Blues, Cajun, Cape Breton, Irish, African American maritime work songs, and Zydeco, and explores the deep historical and cultural relationships among them. His performances often feature rare musical gems and little-known connections. He has performed maritime music across North America and Europe and works as a consultant creating musical components for museum exhibits and documentaries. He also plays at farmers’ markets, dances, taverns, weddings, barbecues, barn raisings, festivals, music camps, and corn shuckings.

Danny O’Flaherty



Galway native, Danny O’Flaherty, has spent much of his life dedicated to preserving and promoting Celtic history and culture. Growing up in the Aran Islands and Connemara on the West Coast of Ireland, Danny experienced life as one of the last generations to be raised in the pure Gaelic culture. His first language is Gaelic and he developed a deep love of Irish song, dance, and storytelling from his ancestors during long winter nights spent around the turf fires. His huge repertoire of haunting bal- lads, sea songs, pleas for tolerance and peace, lively jigs and reels, Gaelic old style singing, children’s songs, and his knowledge of Irish history and other Celtic nations make Danny a true ambassador of Ireland.

John Mayberry & Jamie Beaton



John and Jamie fell in love with traditional song, more years ago than they will admit, at the legendary Fiddler’s Green Folk Club in Toronto. Since then, they have been singing an assortment of British and North American songs at music camps, clubs, festivals, pubs, and other public and private locales, sometimes individually, but preferably together, when they can indulge in close harmonies and satisfying choruses. (They are also fairly reliable contacts for those renowned showmen, the Bullero Brothers.)

Janie Meneely & Rob van Sante



Rough as a riot, soft as a sea spray, international duo Janie Meneely and Rob van Sante bring a breath of salt air to any stage. Their collaborative effort, marked by evocative instrumentals, strong vocals, and original arrangements, support an array of mostly maritime and new material. Janie’s original songs celebrate the maritime history, characters, and traditions of the Chesapeake Bay region, where she was born and raised. They inform as much as they entertain, chronicling the stories of Bay watermen or poking fun at sailors’ traditions. Dutch-born van Sante lends his knack for melodies and flair for vocal harmony to Janie’s compositions. He draws deep from the well of traditional music, often supplanting his virtuoso guitar with spellbinding a cappella renditions of gems he has collected during a lifetime of performing around the world.

Jeff Warner



Jeff Warner sings traditional American and English folk songs. His banjo tunes, 18th- century hymns, and New England sailor songs are rich in history and a sense of place. He has performed at festivals, folk clubs and schools throughout America and the UK, and has toured nationally for the Smithsonian Institution. He is a Folklorist and Community Scholar for the New Hampshire Council on the Arts and a former State Arts Council Fellow. He performed at the Mystic Sea Music Festival many times since the early 1980s and also founded the Portsmouth (NH) Maritime Folk Festival in 2000. His songs and stories bring us the latest news from the distant past.

The Johnson Girls


The Johnson Girls have been an internationally acclaimed, all-women, a cappella maritime group since the 1990’s. Joy Bennett, Alison Kelley, Bonnie Milner, and Deirdre Murtha met in the NYC sea music community, sang at South Street Seaport as members of the NY Packet, have all been in the NY Revels, and each bring a special influence to the group. Believing that sea chanteys were the first real “world music,” the JGirls remain true to their mission to keep chantey singing alive while bringing women’s voices to the fore. Whether performing at festivals, clubs, workshops, or in educational settings, they deliver rousing chanteys, maritime songs, ballads, and laments – with hair-raising harmonies – and sweep their audiences along in a tidal fervor.

The Jovial Crew



The Jovial Crew is a traditional folk music group and long time house band of the Griswold Inn in Essex, CT. Started by Cliff Haslam in 1986 to augment his solo act that began there in 1972, the band presents a variety of historical, traditional, and contemporary songs every Monday night. They sing of the sea, old England, early America, Ireland and Scotland, love and consequence, drinking, the working class, and ballads. Band members include Cliff Haslam, Joseph Morneault (founding member and current manager), Rick Spencer (formerly of Mystic Seaport), Mike Hotkowski (songwriter), and occasionally Paul Elliott (co-founder, who relocated).

Lutchinha



Maria “Lutchinha” Neves Leite was born on Sao Vicente, Cape Verde Islands (Cabo Verde). Raised by musical parents, she started singing at age 7, competed and excelledin singing contests., and performed in several “Noites Caboverdianas” in Sao Vicente.
In 1989 she moved to the US, where she performed with a band throughout New England and Florida. For almost 40 years, she has traveled the world performing and representing her island and Cape Verde, and has received many honors and awards.
She has recorded with many Cape Verdean singers and has released several of her own CDs, including one with an all-female band Cruzamente. She organizes local Carnival celebrations, where she passes on the songs and dances of Cabo Verde to the next generation, reflecting, “We want kids who were born here to have that culture in them.”

Rick & Donna Nestler



Husband and wife team, Donna & Rick Nestler, have been playing together profes- sionally for over twenty years. Though they perform in various traditional genres in- cluding folk, Irish, and maritime, it all falls under roots music. They are both multi- instrumentalists, playing 6 & 12 string guitars, tenor banjo, ukuleles, and concertina, among other things. Their Late Night, Early Morning CD showcases their instru- mental talents and Rick’s original songs, especially The River That Flows Both Ways.

Steve Turner



Steve Turner is known as a pioneer of highly sophisticated English concertina song accompaniments, stretching the boundaries of traditional forms, with one of the best voices in the business. He is a multi-instrumentalist, who also accompanies himself on the cittern, and plays mandolin and tenor banjo. Since beginning his career on the Manchester, UK folk scene in the late ‘60s, he has toured nationally and internationally, releasing nine albums. His latest, “Curious Times,” featuring Martin Carthy, was released in Spring 2023.

The Dirty Blue Shirts



The Dirty Blue Shirts is an experiential collective of living historians, scholars, and artists who know that uncovering history is dirty work. Its members worked together on the front lines of Mystic Seaport Museum for nearly 20 years in the Chantey and Roleplaying Programs and on the Special Demonstration Squad, where their blue shirts got the dirtiest. They now bring customized, museum-quality programming to historic sites throughout New England, offering presentations and workshops on environmental history, blacksmithing, fiber arts, woodworking, historical dress, original and traditional music, immigrant history, theater, and, of course, maritime culture and history.

And more singers, chanteymen, and presenters!