Back in nineteen-eighty-seven I was at the Westbrook Muster. While there I bought my first fife and drum recording. It was a white cassette of the first Mariner album, which had been released seven years prior. It was one of the few Westbrook Musters where I couldn’t wait for the weekend to end. I desperately wanted to hear what was on that tape, and to do so required making the trek back home where my boom box sat waiting for me in my Massachusetts living room.

The tunes started to roll, White Cockade, Adams and York, and Sailors Hornpipe. I was immediately drawn in. I was then seduced by the singing of Ruben Ranzo and the seamless transition to Clapboard Hill. All of it great and exuberant, but fully within the boundaries of what I had expected. I had, after all, been watching those barefooted bastions of sea music from the time I was a little boy and attending Sudbury Musters in the mid seventies. But, just as side one was coming to a close, the boundaries had been breeched.

Suddenly, from my crappy little speakers, came classical music fused with a complex matrix of fifes spinning around tunes that felt traditional, but not structured like other tunes I had learned. There were too many fifes for me to track and I went into a dizzy trance as the music moved from one tune to the next; a beautiful melodic waltz; a single fife sliding into a slip jig with the others soon in tow; tempo changes; slower; faster; reels; jigs; breaks; ornaments; teases; and something wild on the end that didn’t make any logical sense but seemed like the only way end. I clawed for the liner notes, praying to God it wasn’t going to have some lame title like Sonata in D. It was…it was…The Sea of Ale and the Dock Street Mermaid. Miraculous!

I never made it to side two. I never made it back to the beginning of side one. I only used two buttons on the boom box; rewind; play; rewind; play; rewind; play.

Suddenly a new thought fell into my teenaged brain. I was going to join the Mariners. It had never even been a passing thought until that moment. But, now it seemed so clear. I would join, and soon I would be playing such masterpieces.

Not long after, 1988 to be precise, I went to my first Ancient Mariner practice along with my buddy Roger Hunnewell. But, what I found was that the Sea of Ale was nowhere to be found. It was a complex piece of music that nobody, in 1988, new how to play, and nobody could located the sheet music. What I subsequently learned, was that the music was complex enough that the Mariners needed to bring in a ringer for the recording. Alan Reed, the only non-Mariner to play on the Mariner album, was brought in to play one of the four voices on The Sea of Ale along with John Ciaglia, John Benoit and Skip Healy. Incidentally, none of those guys were still active in 1988 either. So, the road to The Sea of Ale looked bleak.

Through the decades there were efforts to pull the music together. Jason Malli, most notably, was able to find some badly damaged copies of the original Ciaglia chicken scratch. We leaned that The Sea of Ale was actually two different medleys glued together for the recording. The Admiral of the Narrow Seas and another called Get Off Your Ass. We also learned that it had never been performed live, thought I’m sure that statement will be hotly debated. We also learned that the original masters of the recording have gone missing. Maybe they will show up someday.
 

 
Work was started to diligently transcribe and edit the music from the hard-to-read copies into a clean, workable format. Then the newly transcribed music, all seventeen pages, sat for another decade, waiting for the right moment and the right men, with the right amount and right mix of energy. I’m happy to tell you that twenty four years after I first heard The Sea of Ale and the Dock Street Mermaid, the music has been brought back to life, performed first on a grand stage in Basel, Switzerland. For four and a half minutes Scott Redfield, Joe Mawn, Marc Bernier, Eric Chomka and myself had the honor to play this great music with Skip Healy in what felt like a passing of the torch.
 

 
For me the circle is now complete, and in my mind I keep hitting those buttons; play; rewind; play; rewind; play; rewind.

This article was re-posted from baconworks.com.

Back in the summer of 1990 I jumped on a plane to Switzerland with my good friend Roger. Our first stop was the Lugano Fife & Drum Muster in the beautiful Italian part of Switzerland. After a brief stay in Lugano, which involved meeting my good friend Massimo for the first time and escapades at a youth hostile, Roger an I boarded an overnight train to Basel. The train was full, and Roger’s drum case was too wide to fit into the train car. So, his drum spent the night between cars and we spent the night trying to sleep in the aisle way. Being young and naive, and hearing horror stories of how the train cars often split during the night, leading the unsuspecting traveler to Liechtenstein instead of Basel, we felt fortunate to arrive in Basel in good shape, good spirits, and with all our instruments.

We then made our way to the airport, where we were to meet up with the Ancient Mariners, who were arriving for their visit with the Swiss Mariners. We walked in to find the Swiss Mariners, who we had never met, all standing in the waiting area, looking through a glass wall, where they were expecting to see the Ancient Mariners arrive at any moment. We walked up behind them and said hello, which entirely confused them since there was only one way through that glass wall…and we didn’t come through it. Apparently nobody told them we were coming early by train.

After a brief explanation, a good laugh was had by all. The Ancient Mariners showed up ten or fifteen minutes later, we all had the first of many beers and a week of celebrating had commenced.

Later that week, we performed for a couple thousand people at the Augst Roman Theater. The memories of that concert, until now, had been slowly fading, being replaced by more recent escapades in Switzerland. Today, however, I saw a video that was posted from that concert and the memories came rushing back.

This is a video of the Ancient Mariner Chantey Men singing a goofy, crowd-pleasing song called the German Clockwinder. What the Chantey Men didn’t know was that the rest of the Swiss Mariners and Ancient Mariners had spontaneously lined up behind them and started bopping up and down, and singing along…if you can call ‘boop, boop’ singing. And, in the end, for reasons I never understood, we all decided to fall down. Goofy, corny, odd, but the crowd loved it. I guess sometimes people just want to see the entertainers make clowns of themselves. And we did. But, more importantly for me, it was the first real moment that I understood what a special group of friends I had, both here and abroad.

Incidentally, Roger and I are the baby faced ones hanging out somewhere over in the left side of the line.
 

What better way to get the blog back up and running than a little trip over the pond. Here’s a sampling of a day from the 1990 trip to Basel, Switzerland. A lot of familiar faces looking awfully young, and a few that have moved on to Fiddler’s Green.

Enjoy.

From the grounds of scenic Fort Griswold, the Nutmeg Junior Ancients Muster.

Two very nice photos by Lisa Kirt-Palm:

The fort has quite the history and a beautiful view over the river of downtown New London.

From the Fort Griswold website: “This is the historic site where, on September 6, 1781, British Forces, commanded by the infamous Benedict Arnold, captured the Fort and massacred 88 of the 165 defenders stationed there. The Ebenezer Avery House which sheltered the wounded after the battle has been restored on the grounds. A Revolutionary War museum also depicts the era.”

The obelisk in the left of the first photo that bears remarkable resemblance to the Washington Monument, being designed by the same Robert Mills, is also open for climbing, all 160-something steps.  And from those lofty heights I captured these interesting, if mediocre, photos of the Westbrook Juniors on stand.

The Muster Season’s winding down, but there’s still time to get out and lift a pint with us in Marlborough or Sudbury MA. Hope to see you there!

Two generations of the ‘Pirate in Chains” meet on the 50th Muster Field.

When I saw this photo, all I could think of was, “The Thrill of Victory and the Agony of Defeat,” a reference to the Jim McKay voice over for ABC’s “Wide World of Sports” from the 70’s.  For those not familiar, or wishing for a refresher, here it is.  I only remember the first 20 seconds, up through the famous ski jumping wreck.

Our fearless leaders, the Swiss and American Commodores, Walter Buchler and Kevin Brown.  They’re affectionately dubbed, “The Commodes.”

Here they are at our 50th Anniversary Muster, celebrating upon hearing the proclamations of “Mariner Day in Connecticut” and “Mariner Month in Guilford!”

Unlike my friend, Greg Bacon, it takes me a lot longer to process these Mariner good times, a lot longer to find words to help me and others understand.

Case in point: I only this week listened to the full recording of our show in Augst, Switzerland from 2007.

Not wanting to wait until 2011, when I have something germane to say, I’ll be sharing photos of the events that capture glimpses into what made the 50th Anniversary so special for me, and I suspect others.

This one’s from Felix Freuler.

To celebrate the Mariners 50th anniversary, we wanted to do more than just host a muster. Sure, party’s are fun, we’ll be the first to admit it. But we wanted more. We wanted to pull back the curtains and give a glimpse of what it is to be a Mariner. There are great medley’s, such as The Whipple and the Gaspee, penned by, among others, the legendary Ed Olsen. There is also the constant reminder that, like Ed, there were many other great Mariners that, sadly, are no longer with us.

We do our best to keep their memory and legacy alive not only by carrying an oar with all their names affixed, but also retelling their stories. Like how Norm Ott once saved a young polliwog from certain death after pissing off another well known drum corps. Like how Roy Watrous could spin a classic tune, called Billy Budd, and give all the credit to the machine that he worked on day in and day out. Like how Babe Kelly could snap to attention and put on a brilliant show after being a bit over-served. Like how Sean Egan could strike up a conversation with beautiful women using outlandish pickup lines. Like how Freddy Bruder helped to start the Swiss Mariners. Like how Howard Hornstein battled, beyond all comprehension, ALS, and remained a vital contributor to the Mariners until his passing. There are many more. Some hilariously funny, some stunningly sad and some inspiring. Throughout the muster we tried to tell these stories. Some as vignettes while we were performing and others as conversations over an ale.

We hope those that attended the muster saw not only a fife and drum corps celebrating a milestone, but also learned a bit about the past, a bit about our music, a bit about our style of fun, and a bit about the brotherhood we share with each other. In short, we hope you learned a bit about The Mariner Spirit.

After scouring the web I have collected here a handful of photo’s that do a nice job of capturing some of that spirit. In addition, we will be posting a series of entries that capture not only the Mariner Muster, but our entire week through the Deep River Muster.
 

The Mariners take the stand during the tattoo.
 
Our Swiss friends arrive in style donning Fasnacht masks.
 
As the sun sets festive lanterns are lit. We stole this idea from the Swiss but have a lot to learn about technique.
 

The stage is lit.
 

Before the parade the bass section lines up.
 

On the Oar or On the Street.
 

Cliff leading us in The German Clockwinder.
 

The Mariners watch as other corps perform.

For other great photo’s from the weekend check out:
Set 1
Set 2

Lastly, thank you to all the corps that participated, gave use thoughtful gifts, performed great music, shared a beer, told your stories and made this a great celebration!

The Swiss Mariners have landed, the muster field is being prepared, the ale’s are on ice, everything is in order for the Mariners to kick off their 50th Anniversary Celebration!

 

 
This photo is circa 1960 near Lake Qonapaug in North Guilford.