We’ve got chantey men. Then we’ve got guys that just like to sing, which is the category that most of us fall into. Marc Bernier is a guy who is a bit of both. He especially likes a song if it will make you laugh. But don’t let the humorous songs fool you, he knows his stuff. Fifing for decades, banjo player, singer, character. He even worked at Mystic Seaport for a million years. Here’s a nice photo of Marc giving an insiders tour of the Seaport to me and four of our Swiss Mariner friends, Niggi, Andri, Reto and Lukas. He also has a number of CD’s available. You can find them on his web site.
 

 
After a great day at the Seaport, we went to the Griswold Inn for some chanties with our friend Cliff Haslam. And after the Gris we found ourselves making noise back at the Firehouse, surprise, surprise. Here is one of the many recordings I captured that evening. The recording is of Marc singing a version of Derry Down. At the beginning of this recording you can hear people requesting a song called Moose. Moose is a great song. This is not Moose. The next time you see Marc, however, request Moose, you’ll not regret it.
 

 
Good times.

As part of our week of celebrations we invited along our great friends from Switzerland. It is impossible to adequately describe how we feel about these guys. But, I can tell you that when we get together we have lots of fun playing music, telling jokes and singing songs over a few ales. For this visit, we had a new pad for all wayward Mariners to hangout. That place is affectionately known as The Firehouse.
 

 

The great thing about The Firehouse is that it is ours. It is owned by a Mariner and for the week the Swiss were here it was home to any that chose to make it so. Here is a list of other cool things about ‘The Firehouse’:

• We can play fife and drum music there until any hour of the morning.
• It is decorated with classic Mariner photos and memorabilia.
  
• It has beautiful stained glass.
  
• It has beautiful pint glasses…at least when there’s beer in ‘em.
  
• It has a walk in cooler with more kegs of beer than your average liquor store.
  
• It sleeps a hundred men in an assortment of hovels and lofts.
  
• There are lofts in the Firehouse where you can sleep till noon and it is still black as night.
• There is a bar in the kitchen.
  
• There is a bar upstairs.
• There are two urinals.
• The bathroom has a cool fire mural in it with a scantily clad fire woman.
   
  
  (incidentally, this painting reminds me of a song about my mother being a fireman…but I’ll save that for another time.)
• When your done in the bathroom, you can ring the fire bell.
• You can hang stuff from the red pipes that wind across the ceiling…and that is exactly what we did.

I set up three microphones for the week and flipped on a recorder anytime there was activity in The Firehouse. They were unobtrusive and guys never really noticed them. What I have, consequently, is a weeks worth of recordings. Fife and drum, fife and table, fife and pans, songs, jokes and laughter. Really it is just recordings of what we do when we hang out together without the crowds of a muster or a performance. Some of it is mellow, a lot of it is not. None of it is rehearsed and most of it is from the wee hours of the morning after spending our days on Block Island or our evenings at the Griswold Inn. And like any beautiful piece of wood where the grain and knots give it character, so too these recordings come with an occasional knot and definitely a bit of grain. I think that is what gives them their charm.
 

The first recording I would like to share is of a tune called Planxty Bill Gallagher. This is a tune that John Ciaglia wrote as a study after Roy Watrous. One reason I enjoy this tune is that we never play it until the Swiss arrive, and every time I think, ‘wow, what a great tune, we should play this’.

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!

Here are the Swiss from last year…

Can anyone tell us more about this event?

YouTubed again…
The first two videos are of a cocktail corps we sent to the Saratoga muster earlier this year. The second video is really just a continuation of the medley we are playing called Eagle and the Anchor.
 

 

 
This next video was shot at the Westbrook muster. You will notice that the corps is a wee bit larger.
 

Ahhh, Wogs.
 

 
Every Mariner…before becoming a Mariner…starts out as a Wog. Time spent as a Wog gives both the Wog and the Mariners an opportunity to see if the Mariner-Wannabe is a fit for our disorganization. We recently voted a handful of new guys into the wonderful world of Woghood. The above picture captured just a few of their scruffy mugs.

Who are these guys? Fifers, drummers … well I could tell you all about them, but sometimes it is just more fun to listen.

Below are a couple of clips from our gathering at Dan’s Firehouse last weekend. The first, sung by one of the wogs, is a takeoff of and old drinking song called Fathom the Bowl. This version, written by Chris Lussier, another wog, is called Don’t Play the Trombone and has words like…

play fifes from grenadilla
cocobolo for sticks
and drink apple cider until you get sick
and sing lots of chanteys until you will moan
but please at a muster don’t play the trombone

I’ve just included a clip here since the whole song would require me to put up a parental warning and I’m just not willing to do that. If you want to hear the song in its entirety, you’ll just have to become a Wog.
 
The second clip is of another Wog playing a tune called Calliope House on the Mandolin, while a couple of us back him up.
 

 
I like both clips because they represent the type of musical diversity that feeds into our fife and drum repertoire. I also like them because it peels back the curtain on the type of loose fun we have at Mariner rehearsals.