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It should make sense that last month John Kraus and the Goers dropped “Jug of This,” the ensemble’s second album inspired by sea shanties – except it doesn’t. And not just because these sea shanties sound very little like what you might expect sea shanties to sound like, something akin to a nostalgic collection of chanty choruses and heave-ho harmonies.
What does make sense is the source material. Though largely improvised aboard merchant marine ships in the 19th century to help coordinate shipboard work, sea shanties are traditional folk songs that, despite heavy Afro-Caribbean, French and American influences, are most commonly associated with Irish and Scottish musical traditions. And Celtic folk is something that the nucleus of the Goers – frontman Kraus and drummer/percussionist David Dutton – are quite familiar with: Since the early 1990s, each has performed and recorded with several ensembles indebted to the tradition, starting with one of the most eclectic OC bands of the 1990s, Trip the Spring, and continuing through Barnacle, Bodhi and, since 2013, the Goers.
Also logical: the sea. Kraus has worked aboard tall ships since 1996, eventually earning a 200-ton master’s license, which allows him to skipper a vessel up to 200 tons and within 200 miles of the coast. Today, he captains a ship out of Dana Point for a maritime educational institution.
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