Our third album; a collection of folk music for the nineties!
Journey through 200 years of folk music from the far corners of our travels while examining the humorous qualities of coffee drinking and New Age themes, the virtue of drowning one’s husband, and even introducing a lawn mowing chantey!

• Mason’s Apron/Jerry the Rigger

• Do You Want Your Old Lobby Washed Down?

• Give Me Coffee

• Old Woman from Wexford

• The Star of the County Down

• Peaceful Warrior

• Bonnie Isle O’Walsay

• Mobile Bay

• Flowers of Edinburgh/Timour the Tartar

• Mow Johnny Mow

• The Leaving of Liverpool

• The Keel Row

• St. James Infirmary

• Coffee and Half & Half

This album is available at Amazon.com
Click here to order

• “Loch Ness Monster” (Greg Henkel and Jim Henkel)

The album opens with the wonderfully dark ode to the creature lurking beneath the murky waters of Loch Ness. Here the beast is less the benign and almost dopey plesiosaur used to sell trinkets to tourists and much more the accursed beast with “Huge red eye, long sharp tooth / slicing knives, ragged spines” which will drag you from the banks and tear you to pieces despite your screams and struggles. Nessie, indeed.

• “Irish Rover” (traditional)

An old favorite, it tells the tale of the ill-fated voyage of the Irish Rover, sailing from Cork to New York. After seven years at sea, the measles wiped out the crew and she ran aground in the fog, leaving a single survivor to tell the tale. Greg Henkel replaced the second verse, which introduces the crew, with one describing the Flying Fish Sailors themselves:
There was fighting Jay Lee, none more surly than he
There was Jimbe from County Montrose
There was mighty Mitch Lawyer, stood seven feet tall
There was Joseph Linbeck and his nose
There was Bouzouki Jim playing a mandolin
And Greg Henkel prone to falling over
And this crew of the doomed played a Flying Fish tune
As we sailed on the Irish Rover!

• “The Flupandemic” (Greg Henkel)

Only the Flying Fish sailors could come up with an up-beat and happy song about the world-wide flu epidemic that killed millions in the first part of the twentieth century. They sing gleefully about the deaths of soldiers and nurses and postmen and families from America to England to the far corners of the world all secumbing to the pandemic.

• “The Good Ship Calabar” (traditional)

Also known as “The Calabar” and “The Cruise of the Calabar,” this fast and funny song tells of the adventures of the one horse-power (literally) coal barge The Calabar. In this version, the narrator is an old Lisbon tar, but other regional variations include Irish or British. Everything that can go wrong does, and the crew falls overboard to be rescued by a local farmer. It’s enough to convince anyone to give up sailing and “go by the bloody train.”

• “The Cat Came Back” (traditional)

Another rendition of the Harry S. Miller song about old Mr. Johnson’s yellow tom cat. While the words are the same as the version on the Flying Fish Sailors’ debut album, there are subtle differences in the arrangement that show the evolution of the band. They are much more playful in this version, especially with the inclusion of background vocals at the transitions between verse and chorus.

• “The Wharton UFO” (Greg Henkel)

Wharton, Texas, is just about the last place on Earth an alien would want its spacecraft to crash, as they learn when a good ol’ boy comes upon their wreck. After they abduct him and begin their various probings and measurements, he loses his “temper for those three foot bastards with their big black almond-shaped eyes,” and turns the tables on them. Rumor has it they can still be seen mowing his lawn and teleporting him beers on his front porch down in Wharton.

• “Fire Maringo” (traditional)

A traditional cotton screwing shanty from a time when, with the approach of winter, Irish crews would desert their Western Packet ships to head south to work in the cotton stowing ports like Mobile or New Orleans.

• “The Rivers of Texas” (traditional circa 1900)

A soft traditional American folk song listing and describing the rivers of Texas, but always returns to the Brazos, where the singer’s heart was broken.

• “Crawdad Man” (lyrics by Greg Henkel)

Sung to the tune of the “Spider-Man” theme by Paul Francis Webster and J. Robert Harris, Crawdad Man takes the Flying Fish Sailors back their roots to examine their favorite crustacean, the crawdad. Now he’s a superhero, lending a gamma ray-enhanced leg (“cause he can’t lend a hand”) to those in need. This is most likely the only song you’ll find that contains the word cheliped (the legs with large grasping claws on a crawfish) in its lyrics.

• “Ode to the Lima Bean” (lyrics by Cynthia Lee, music by Greg Henkel)

Children around the world should be overjoyed to discover that far from being “healthy” and “good for you,” the lima bean is the worst scourge known to man. As this ode explains, it is responsible for everything from Original Sin and the explusion from Eden to the extinction of the dinosaurs and the Black Plague.

• “Haul U-Haul Haul” (Greg Henkel)

There have been long-haul shanties and halyard shanties, shanties for pretty much any activity aboard a sailing ship. Now, in the spirit of their mowing shanty Mow Johnny Mow, the Flying Fish Sailors present another shanty adapted to the modern day: the moving shanty. The song tells of the horrors of moving yourself with a 27-foot truck from the best known rental company. The lesson learned in the end: “Well the next time I move I’ll just buy new furniture.”
Lest you think the band is advising against the use of a particular truck rental company: “Greg says that it should be noted that he has personally rented U-Haul® equipment on many occasions, and that in his experience, it has proven to be extremely reliable.”

• “King of the Cannibal Islands” (traditional)

The Flying Fish Sailors return to the theme of cannibalism with this playful song that’s right up their alley. A crew sailing for Botany Bay is cast away in the Cannibal Islands, where they manage to get along quite well with the King; one of them even marries his daughter, the Princess Wishy-Wa.

• “Roswell” (Greg Henkel and Jim Henkel)

Roswell, New Mexico. Icon of the joint obsessions with UFOs and conspiracy theories. This song tells the tale of a witness to the crashed spacecraft on the farm outside of Roswell. He explains everything he’s seen and knows to be true despite the warnings of men with steel hats and the men in black with wires coming out of their heads. And in the end, though he dares not return, he still longs for “enigmatical,” “problematical” Roswell.

• “American Woman” (Randy Bachman, Burton Cummings, Gary Peterson, Michael Kale)

The Flying Fish Sailors add their own sound to this classic by The Guess Who. The result is rather reminiscent of “Weird Al” Yankovic’s “Ukranian Woman” parody.

• “Loch Ness Monster” (heavy metal version)

The album closes with a bonus track. Though the words are the same, this version of Loch Ness Monster shows that the band has a broader range that extends into modern musical styles. The darker, dirge-like tune and lyrics fit particularly well with the deep electric riffs that are a hallmark of today’s metal.

Download this recording for free!

Click here for details

“This album is dedicated to the principles of democracy and freedom of speech; to the oppressed peoples of the earth; to Frank Zappa; and to crawdads everywhere.”

• “Goodbye Mursheen Durkin”

Also found under the titles “Goodbye Muirsheen Durkin” and “Muirshin Durkin.” An Irish ballad about a man named Carney who has grown sick of the work of digging praties (Gaelic for potatoes) and decides to leave Ireland and seek his fortune digging for gold in California. There is some debate on who or what Mursheen Durkin is. Muirsheen is apparently a pet name in Kerry, the diminutive of the boy’s name Muiris (Maurice), meaning Carney is bidding his farewell to “Little Maurice Durkin.” Some believe instead that Muirsheen is a title along the lines of Mrs.

• “Barney”

Also known as “Barney, Leave the Girls Alone.” Barney is married to Judy but still has a roving eye for the ladies. This version includes additional lyrics by Greg Henkel in the form of two verses and altered chorus at the end entreating Barney to “leave the boys alone / and let them sailors be.”

• “Drowsie Maggie/Bald Pate” (instrumental)
A medley of one of the best known reels, “Drowsie Maggie” (also known as “Drowsy Maggie” or “Sleepy Maggie”) and Greg Henkel’s original tune “Bald Pate”

• “You Get a Line, I’ll Get a Pole”

Also known as the “Crawdad Song” or “Honey, Baby Mine.”
This song was part of David Letterman’s Stump the Band segment on October 10, 2002. A visitor from Texas suggested “Honey, Baby Mine” to the band, then sang the chorus when they were “stumped.”

• “The Eddiestone Light”

Also known with the title “The Keeper of the Eddystone Light,” it tells the tale of a sailor, son of the keeper of the Eddystone Lighthouse and a mermaid, who happens upon his mother while “trimming the glim”. When asked about his siblings, he tells her that “one was exhibited as a talking fish, the other served as a savory dish.” She disappears angrily at the news, crying “to Hell with the keeper of the Eddiestone light!”

• “Remnant Stew”

An original ballad by Greg Henkel, introducing the theme of cannibalism to the Flying Fish Sailors repertoire. A weary traveller arrives late at an inn seeking a meal and a bed. The innkeeper agrees, sending out her serving boys to start a cooking fire, then going out herself to prepare a “Remnant Stew.” When asked about the ingredients, she is deliberately vague in describing “a recipe from harder times, when we fastened tight our belts,” but she does ask her tenant to leave word in town as he passes through that she has room for two more serving boys.

• “Cluck Old Hen”

A traditional Appalachian fiddle tune with additional lyrics by Greg Henkel about an old hen of dubious egg-laying ability.

• “Fighting for Strangers”

A dirge-like military song about a boy who signs up to fight for his king in a far-away land. His only rewards for losing an arm and both legs in battle are a military pension and medal from the grateful king, small comfort when he must beg on the streets to make ends meet.

• “Jo Ann’s Stomp” (instrumental)

An original dance tune by Greg Henkel.

• “Ringa Dinga Da”

A wonderfully silly traditional song about a distiller’s daughter, her wooden leg, her lovers, and her husband.

• “The Minstrel Boy” (words by Thomas Moore 1779-1852)

Another dirge-like song, this one from the Civil War and sung to the tune of the Irish air, “The Moreen.” It tells of a minstrel who marched off to war. Though he was slain, his songs remain pure and free.

• “Rights of Man/Tarbolton Reel” (instrumental)

A hornpipe and reel medley of “Rights of Man” and the “Tarbolton Reel”

• “I’ll Tell Me Ma”

A fun and fast-paced street song about the courting of the handsome and pretty “belle of Belfast City.” The song has several regional variations, but this “Belfast version” is one most often heard.

• “A Horse Named Bill” (a cappella)

A thoroughly silly children’s folk song that covers such topics as a horse named Bill’s uncontrollable running, Daisy’s feline-torturing singing, beer hunting, balloon rides, and whales.

• “Ground Hog”

A traditional American folk song about hunting (and eating) a ground hog.

• “Leave Her Johnny”

Also known as “Leave Her Bullies,” “Time for Us to Leave Her”, or “Leave Her.” This shanty was traditionally sung at the end of a voyage, both to keep the rhythm during the final spell at the pumps and for the seamen to air their grievances with their treatment, the food, the ship’s owners, and so forth.

The Flying Fish Sailors will be performing on Dec. 23rd at Hickory Hollow located at 101 Heights Blvd in Houston, TX.
Hickory Hollow is a fantastic BBQ joint that has a long history of presenting live folk music in Houston.

The show is free and kicks off about 7:00 pm and goes till around 10:00 pm.
Come on out, grab some grub and lift a pint of holiday cheer with the Flying Fish Sailors!

If you need a map, click here.

Anyone who has seen The Flying Fish Sailors play live has probably witnessed the spectacle that is our performance of Loch Ness Monster, a song written by Greg and the title track of our 4th CD.

It’s hard to describe but it’s VERY dramatic and features Greg and myself being rather *ahem*… animated on stage. The highlight is during the chorus of Loooooooooooch Neeeeeeeesssssss Monsterrrrrrrrrr when Greg and I stand back to back and he uses his arms to form the jaws of the monster and I use mine to form the tail.

At our last performance of the festival season we had a very nice crowd of some of our more faithful and dedicated fans. On a bit of a whim I asked the audience to help us out and mimic Greg and I during the song. The result was an audience full of monsters. I could barely keep a straight face.

Our second album is now available for download. And it’s FREE!

This is the out of print CD that contains Barney, Ringa-dinga-da, Tell Me Ma and the infamous Remnant Stew, one of the first songs ever written by Greg for the Flying Fish Sailors!

Just download the file and extract the contents to a folder on your hard drive.
You can then listen on your MP3 player or burn them to CD.

Download Remant Stew

Thanks to the magic of the Iterweb, the Flying Fish Sailors are now available via Livejournal and Myspace.
The same content that is posted here is cross-posted to both locations.

This means that if you have a Myspace account you can add our Myspace account to your Myspace contacts and if you subscribe to Livejournal you can add our Livejournal feed to your friends list to see the updates on this site.

With all the news about the bird flu and the possibilities of a flu pandemic to rival the one that happened in the early 1900’s I thought I would post the lyrics to the song Greg wrote for The Flying Fish Sailors here in the blog.

If you are interested in obtaining a copy of the song it is available on our Loch Ness Monster CD which can be ordered from Amazon.com or by contacting me via e-mail.

The Flu Pandemic

Copyright 1999 Topmast Production and the Flying Fish Sailors

Chorus: It was the Flu pandemic
And it swept the whole world wide
It caught soldiers and civilians
And they died, died, died!
Whether they’re lying in the trenches
Or lying in their beds
Twenty million of them got it
And they’re dead, dead, dead!

There was a soldier on the battleground in 1917
He turned there to his buddy with his face a ghastly green
He said “We made it both through Passchendaele, the Somme, and Flanders too
But now my number’s up my lad for I’ve gone and caught the flu”

chorus

Well a nurse was in the hospital when Tommy was brought in
When he sneezed she caught a face full that was flying in the wind
She wrote a letter home to England to tell them of her plight
But the letter never got there ’cause the postman too had died

chorus

From the meadow-lands of Somerset and o’er the bounding main
To the shores of old Americay they sung the same refrain
Mothers, fathers, uncles and aunts as well as the odd nephew
Brothers and sisters and bosses and lovers were all got by the flu

chorus

Well a farmer out in China watched his family dropping down
And a businessman in Cairo hit the street without a sound
And an eager little Bolshevik in old Sevastopol couldn’t keep up his grinnin’ at Lenin as Comrade Virus took its toll

The band has been together for over 16 years now. It’s odd to think about the events that lead to the forming of the band. Odd to think about the naming of the band.

When we formed up we did all traditional music. Jigs, reels and songs from the British Isles peppered with the occasional sea shanty sung by Joe in his rich, deep voice with Greg and I providing the bully-boy chorus.

One of the sea shanties we sang was “Blow The Man Down” which referenced a sailor who ran afoul of the law when he is accused of being a crewman of the infamous Black Ball line and defends himself by claiming to be a Flying Fish Sailor just in from Hong Kong.

In the days of tall ships the various trade and passenger routes were plied by different sailing companies. The “Black Ball” line had a reputation of having the fastest packet ships sailing between the UK and America. The faster you got to your destination and back, the quicker a sailor would paid and get back to England.

The success of the Black Ball line depended on a strong captain who was quick with the lash who would tolerate nothing but complete dedication to the task at hand to ensure the profitability of the voyage. One could imagine that a sailor from one of these ships might cause a wee bit of trouble when returning to port in the UK and might come under the scrutiny of watchful policeman.

Sailors on the Flying Fish line of ships plied their trade on voyages to the sunny South Pacific and were rumored to have an easier life. A Flying Fish sailor was one who preferred the lands of the East and the warmth of the Trade Winds to the cold and misery of the Western Ocean that Black Ballers endured. They did not have the reputation that sailors of the Black Ball line had and it makes sense that, when confronted by a policeman, a sailor might try to reduce suspicion by claiming to be a “Flying Fish Sailor.”

So I suppose that we picked that name primarily because of the reference in the song. The double meaning of the term used by a sailor to alleviate suspicion when confronted by the authorities combined with the idea that a Flying Fish Sailor enjoyed the more recreational destinations of the Far East and Asia also has significance. Plus, the image of a Flying Fish is quite whimsical and people seem to like to say the word “fish” a lot and the nick name “The Fish” has stuck with us to this day.

—

The Flying-Fish Sailor
Written in 1922

The Western Ocean roars and rolls
With all its deeps and all its shoals,
And many a thundering win-try gale,
And many a storm of sleet and hail;
But let who likes have rain and snow,
And driv-ing fog and drift-ing floe,
For South away and Eastward Ho!
Is the road for the flying-fish sailor.

And when at last the day comes round
We’ll yank the mudhook from the ground
And to old England we’ll return,
Our pockets filled with pay to burn;
With a painted fan and an ivory comb
From foreign lands beyond the foam,
And a golden ring for the girl at home
That waits for the flying-fish sailor

Sign up for our e-mail list by clicking HERE

You will be notified of changes to this site….that means when shows are posted you will get an e-mail! High-tech Fish!

If you need to contact the band please email jaylee@houston.rr.com