John Masefield Show

Glasson Dock 2008

Salt-Water Ballads – The Masefield Show      

An entertainment, which celebrates the collected sea poems of John Masefield, published in 1902 under the same title.      

Andy Kenna has set a number of the poems to music and by interspersing them with authentic sea shanties, he invites the listeners to judge for themselves the artistic quality and authentic flavour of Masefield’s work.      

Andy brings the Golden Age of Sail back to life accompanying himself on concertinas, treble and baritone, guitar, and bodhran, in a style which would have been quite at home in the fo’c’s’le or on the open decks of the ocean-going square-riggers of Masefield’s Merchant Navy.      

Reviews of “Salt Water Ballads”      

“The selection of poems is marvellous, and the music that Andy has composed, to set the poems to, sounds very appropriate to the period. He’s done a great job. This collection is certain to take a place among the most respected of the sea poets set to music.  I can’t say enough about how impressed I am with the project.” 
Rick Spencer
Mystic Seaport Forebitter      

Masefield’s authentic depiction both of the brutal reality and the haunting romance of life under sail a century ago was well served by Forebitter’s lively performance. Indeed, certain items, such as the well-known Sea Fever were given a new freshness; one heard them almost as if for the first time. We shall be able to repeat the pleasure by listening to Forebitter’s CD with its ten settings of ‘these poor songs to brace the arms that help the winches round’”      

Roy Palmer – Review of Forebitter’s ‘Salt Water Ballads Concert’, Ledbury