Folk music seems to rotate in recent history.

It was a big thing in the 60s, of course. The singer/songwriter with acoustic guitar singing protest songs was everywhere – Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Jonie Mitchell, Pete Seegar, Simon and Garfunkel, Peter Paul and Mary.

It made a comeback in the 90s in the form of the Indigo Girls, Tracy Chapman, Suzanne Vega, Alison Krauss, Emmylou Harris, Michelle Shocked, and Christine Lavin. Notice these are all women - there weren’t many men doing this.

We got a little bit in the 2010s with Nickel Creek, Chris Thile, and Heather Nova.

Why not sea shanties as a foundation going into the 2020s?

PPS

My friend and colleague [Mary Malloy] (https://www.marymalloy.net) was on [NPR talking about sea shanties] (https://www.npr.org/2021/01/16/957593535/why-sea-shanties-have-taken-over-tiktok). She knows way, way more than I do about this part of history. Go listen. She’s terrific.