Keeping the tradition alive: how Duluth’s sea shanty group began

DULUTH, Minn. (Northern News Now) - A new sound is filling the Lincoln Park Craft District: sea shanties.

What began as a handful of friends singing six feet apart in a parking lot during the pandemic has grown into a massive gathering where over a hundred Northlanders come together every other Sunday to sing traditional maritime work songs.

The group, now known as All Hands, meets at the Duluth Folk School in Lincoln Park.

“Before that, we were Dirty Hands,” said Paul Webster. “A bunch of blacksmiths and farmers and people who worked with their hands a lot.”

Webster serves as the group’s shantyman, standing at the front and guiding the crowd through each song.

“The shantyman is a guy who’s too old to do all the other stuff and just gets to sing, and knows the timing for everything,”