Books will be available for purchase.

About the event and their new book

For the last twenty years, Castlebay has been gathering songs from pre-1945 Maine archives in both institutional and personal collections as well as audio field recordings. These songs were collected in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and have heretofore been unpublished.

Their book, “Songs of Ships & Sailors” was published earlier this year. Their intent is to make these songs easily available for not only musicians and traditional music enthusiasts but as a resource for educators and those interested in social history.

They have arranged some of these songs and will perform them for this program as well as a few original songs of the sea. They will also discuss the history and social context of the songs.

About the authors

For more information, visit Castlebay's website.

Since 1986 Castlebay has been weaving together Maine's nautical and British Isles legacies transporting their audience through time and across the Atlantic. Julia Lane and Fred Gosbee have loved and researched traditional music for most of their lives and blend history, legend, and experience into their personable performances. Finely crafted ballads with evocative imagery and beautiful melodies depict Maine characters, history, and life close to the elemental beauty of the sea and shore. Rich and exuberant renditions of traditional and original songs are supported with Celtic harp, 12-string guitar, fiddle & woodwinds

Julia Lane, singer, songwriter, and folklorist, has been playing the Celtic harp since 1989. Self-taught, she rapidly became a skilled and exciting player, winning the Senior Professional division at the New Hampshire Scottish Games Harp Competition in 1990 and 1991 and the International Irish Harp Competition at Stonehill College in 1992. Her vocals have been compared favorably to Judy Collins and Jean Redpath. Julia has done extensive research in folksong archives throughout New England.

Fred Gosbee, singer, songwriter, and storyteller, plays classic and 12-string guitar, violin, viola, and Irish flute. He learned many traditional songs from his family, who worked as lumbermen in the forests of New Brunswick and Maine. His original songs have been sung and recorded by other artists. Fred has engineered most of Castlebay's recordings and has also built Julia’s harps and many other instruments.

Experience

Castlebay has toured the Eastern US and Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland, and Kosovo performing at festivals, museums, schools, and folk clubs. They have released over three dozen recordings. Notable festival experience includes five International Festivals of the Sea in the UK, the Mystic Sea Music Festival, the New Bedford Working Waterfront Festival, the Golden Link Festival, and the Somerset Folk Harp Festival. Since 2003 they have annually toured the east coast in the late winter from their home in coastal Maine to Florida, performing in libraries, concert series, folk clubs, retirement communities, and house concerts.

Major Works

In 1994 they composed, arranged, and performed the “Skye Suite,” a multi-media concert piece inspired by their first trip to the Isle of Skye. This was performed several times in New England and Scotland. In 1999 they were commissioned by the Galloway & Dumfries Arts Association to compose instrumental music for “Sang O’ the Solway,” a two-hour concert piece celebrating southwestern Scotland. This was performed several times in Scotland in1999, 2000 and in 2001 at the Celtic Connections festival in Glasgow.

In 2006 Julia wrote the book and score for The Grand Design, an historical play with music based on a 1740 shipwreck of Scot-Irish immigrants on Grand Manan Island in the Bay of Fundy. This has been performed several times in Maine, New Brunswick, and South Carolina.

Julia’s book, Bygone Ballads of Maine, vol I, Songs of the Sea, Ships & Sailors, was published in December 2021 by Loomis House Press in Minneapolis.

Most Unusual Gig

In 1996 they performed on live television for a cooking demonstration by Her Royal Majesty’s Commando Chef Team as they flame-broiled plaice at the first International Festival of the Sea in Bristol, England. We still have their cookbook.