In 2012, a group of friends sprawled across different University of Idaho departments came together to form a band. They harmonize together, share jokes and laugh together. The band, Bigger Boat, sings sea shanty and maritime songs, performing across the Pacific Northwest since 2013.
The name of the band originated from the popular film “Jaws” as an inside joke toward Rochelle Smith, a librarian at UI, who is a huge fan of the movie.
“(Bigger Boat) is a quote from ‘Jaws’ in which Roy Scheider’s character says, ‘we’re going to need a bigger boat,’” Smith said. “I think largely it’s a way of mocking me because I’m a huge fan…Everyone gets it, and it’s a nice little joke.”
Members of the band are spread across the university; Rob Ely is a professor in the math department, Ben James is a professor who teaches film studies, Smith works in the on-campus library and Dylan Champagne is the only person who doesn’t work for UI but is a composer and musician.
Before the band started, Smith was introduced to Champagne and immediately started discussing their love for sea shanties.
“There was a potluck welcome dinner for (Champagne and his partner) and I’m the librarian for the department so I attended, and our hosts introduced Dylan to me by saying, ‘you both like sea shanties,’” Smith said. “She vanished and it was amazing. It was like, that’s the best introduction anyone has ever done.”
After that, Smith said, “let’s do a sea shanty band,” according to Ely.
The band all has their own connections to sea shanties. Champagne grew up partly on a houseboat where his mother would sing them to him, while James is from Forest of Dean, England, which is famous for supplying oak to the tall ship construction that happened in the 18th century. Smith is from the Caribbean who grew up with water all around a small piece of land. And Ely is from Colorado, a landlocked state, but is a huge fan of folk music.
The band focuses on shanties in the English language, but shanties are found across France, Spain, Germany, Portugal and other countries, Smith said.
“The thing I really like about shanties is that they’re very easy to sing along with,” Ely said. “Strictly speaking a shanty is a works song, and it has a repeated part. You’d be pulling up a sale, maybe a bunch of people would be on reps and they’d be doing it all at the same time…it’s a lot of fun because the audience can join in and sing along.”
Shanties are a part of the tradition of work songs, and though they started in the 18th century, they are still being sang and composed today.
The band started performing in 2013 and they have in Moscow at the Farmers Market, at rendezvous in the park and at various venues. They have performed in Sandpoint and in Seattle twice at the Folklife Festival.
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the band has not performed for one year. It is challenging to practice over Zoom because the timing is off, so the band calls every-so-often to catch up and chat.
In quarantine, they have started quirky traditions by dropping off smoked herring and tequila at each other’s doorsteps.
“Whenever we get together, we have a Poseidon adventure,” Ely said. “We drink tequila with lime in it, and then eat a piece of herring.”
Smith said tequila is what makes it an adventure, and no one expects tequila and herring at the same place at the same time. The drink is a representation of their band because no one expects a sea shanty band in a landlocked state.
Recently, sea shanty has become a trend on TikTok with the song “The Wellerman” going viral.
“I think there’s a real hunger for things that feel like they are about togetherness, or about people, which I think is what sea shanties (are trending),” Smith said.
Toward the beginning of the pandemic there was a lot of ugliness that came out of people, like getting into fistfights over toilet paper, Smith said.
“I think sea shanties were an antidote to that and a bomb to remind us that people are not terrible,” Smith said.
Ely said he is curious if people start getting more interested in sea shanties as a result because they are about singing together, but isn’t convinced yet. For someone watching TikToks for a minute and are exposed to sea shanties, their attention span is focused on one intriguing thing for a couple of seconds and then swipe away, Ely said.
To learn more information about Bigger Boat, check out their Facebook page.
Emily Pearce can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @Emily_A_Pearce