Tag: mandolin

These are your only days

by Lucy Simister, posted in Blog

Forgive me for being a bit philosophical today but I’ve just released a track on YouTube that means a great deal to me. It’s a folk song called Only Days and it was inspired by our photo album.

Everybody has favourite photos that capture a moment, an image that brings the memories back of happy times, on holiday or at family gatherings, a picture that crystallizes and experience and freezes it in time. This song flips through our personal photos. I know that your experiences though different from ours – and the images snatched at the time will do the same for you and I urge you to get that album out and have look into your history. Relive those heart-warming moments from the past. For us, Only Days allow us to do just that.

I beg you to realise that making memories is what life is all about – or at least it should be.

This song started with early camping trips – we didn’t have a lot of money when the kids were little – and we would take off for a few days sometimes only a few miles down the road and pitch a tent, just to give the kids the experience of camping. Even the nettle stings and the insect bites were a part of the memories of it all!

We’ve had the great good fortune to travel quite widely and so the song mentions some of those memories too – for these experiences I will be eternally grateful. When we were in Thailand the owner of the cabin we stayed in invited us to join him while he planted a tree. I would like to revisit and see how our tree is doing now! It was quite a few years ago now so I bet it’s grown! We felt deeply honoured to have been a part of that experience. It feels like we have left a little bit of ourselves planted there!

Think about your own experiences! Go out and make new ones. Next time you look out of the window and the weather is shocking (as indeed it is while I am typing this!) get your coat on and go for a walk. By yourself or with someone – get out there and see what experiences might be waiting to greet you. You never know when a story will present itself to you – a story that you can relate to friends, that you can exaggerate for laughs.

Make the most of your lives. This quote, usually attributed to Confucius, says it all: “We have two lives, and the second begins when we realize we only have one” 

Go out and do something outrageous, courageous, amazing, fantastic – brave – bold and above all KIND.

Please have a listen to the song and if you like it give us the thumbs up and subscribe to our channel – it helps us a lot and encourages us to write and perform more music which is what we love doing.

And if you don’t know what to do – do something. Life isn’t going to come around asking if you want to come out to play – you have to go looking for it.

Interesting Folk…

by Lucy Simister, posted in Blog

Since our last post we have been keeping busy indeed! It seems a while ago since I got around to posting about our wee tour around the UK!

Back in te middle of July we were in sunny Exmouth – and I can tell you that they really put on a show there! If you haven’t visited Exmouth in Devon and you happen to be nearby get along and see the place – the folk there are friendly and will welcome you as they did us. We played our usual brand of folk songs of the sea, and a couple of shanties – and the audience were up for a party! They joined in and sang along. I’d have to add what a great community they are down that way. The festival was more of a general music festival with every type of music available so keep an eye out for next year’s offering – it will be well worth it!

The at the end of the month we made the epic journey to Withernsea. A lovely little place north of Hull but unfortunately rain stopped play! With the best will in the world there isn’t a lot of point in performing when the audience clear off home to take shelter! Still – nice people and good vibes even if we ended up a little damp!

In the meantime we have been busy on our YouTube channel and have uploaded a few new folk and traditional maritime tunes:

Check out this one for example – Bully in the Alley

This an old favourite with as many versions as there are shanty crews!

And here is a very old folk song – the Night Visitor – beautiful and mysterious in my view – and while you may think that is a song about infidelity, you may change your view when you learn that this is a folk ballad from a tradition of ‘night visitor ‘ songs that often describe a visitor from beyond the grave – and then the song takes on a far greater poignancy.

Anyway give it a listen and do please remember to subscribe to our channel and like/comment on any – especially if you have song suggestions that you would like us to perform – always happy to oblige!

Our next little outing will be next week – 16th August 2025 – when we will be trekking up to Morecambe for their annual maritime music festival. We will be playing three slots there so check out the programme and get along to see us if you can!

Tarra all and take care XX

Songs from the Birdcage

by Lucy Simister, posted in Blog

As you may know from previous posts we play a lot of songs of the sea and shanties and similar nautical and marine related pieces on guitar, fiddle, mandolin and bodhran so it is really welcome to get any feedback from our audiences.

So – as you might imagine – I’m absolutely thrilled to say that we received the following testimonial from the organisers of the Pirates in the Port festival in Newport Gwent.

“An excellent duo with brilliant and varied musicianship. Charismatic, energetic and original they harmonise very well and really got the audience going. Highly recommended. Bois Y Bryn”.

We had a fantastic time over in Newport and if anyone reading our page lives near enough to Newport South Wales and sees an opportunity to listen to Bois y Brin Shanty crew – just go and do it – you won’t be disappointed. They are accomplished and entertaining! Check out their facebook page here!

On other ship and shanty related matters we will be playing at the Birdcage in Brixham for an afternoon of shanties and songs of the seas organised by Andy from the local and highly respected shanty crew Missin’ Tackle – there will be several of us performing but as yet I am waiting for confirmation who will be there – as I know I will post it on Facebook and on the website here.

And the Venue for this illustrious concert will be …

The Birdcage. Hence the title of the post. See what I did there?

SO here’s a link to the Birdcage pub in Brixham – which is a great little venue. I performed there in another shanty crew, the always entertaining The Marldon Wonky Donkeys -back in May and really love the atmosphere there – if your near come and say hello!