Historic Songs of Fishing

Performance by Stephen Sanfilippo

Stephen has been performing songs of the sea since the mid-1970s, concentrating on researching and singing songs of coastal and maritime life of Long Island (New York) and Downeast Maine. He performs vocally, and on 5-string banjo, Anglo-concertina, guitar and harmonica. For this performance, song topics will range from an 1870 Maine banks fishing schooner ballad to spearing eels.

Stephen has performed at several Mystic Seaport Sea Music Festivals since the early 1980s, and his been a presenter at five of Mystic’s Music of the Sea History Symposiums. His current activities include teaching “Mariners’ Songs & the Maritime Experience” at Maine Maritime Academy, organizing the monthly Chantey Sing at the Pembroke Library, and performing naval songs of the Civil War at major cultural venues throughout the state of Maine.