Alex Harvey and Shinbone Alley

Celebrate Herman Melville’s birthday with a rousing evening of sea shanties and street ballads performed by Arrowhead favorite Alex Harvey and Shinbone Alley.  You’ll be encouraged to sing along and we’ll celebrate with birthday cake.

Come early and picnic on the grounds and step into the tavern and warm up those swashbuckling vocal chords with a selection of hard ciders from Berkshire Cider Project and beer from Hot Plate Brewing for sale during the event. 

Alex Harvey  is an old-world folklorist who performs street ballads and songs of the sea in a project he calls Shinbone Alley. At his performances listeners learn to celebrate the haunting intercultural exchange of 18th and 19th century maritime music – whose ingredients travelled from the furthest corners of the globe to be remade and stitched anew by sailors of every shade and shape at port and at sea. By encouraging the audience to join in on most of the tunes in his concerts, Harvey and his Shinbone Alley build bridges of time through communal singing. From Sea Shanties to Broadsheet ballads to Come-All-Ye’s to Last Good Nights to Hard Luck Satires to Lovesick Dirges to Whaling Serenades – this music was meant as the earliest form of group therapy. And so it is again – a sepia-toned balm for our topsy-turvy time.

Use the BOOK NOW button to purchase tickets, $15 for BCHS members, $20 for non-members. Become a member and start receiving discounts on event tickets.

This event is sponsored by Massachusetts Cultural Council and Housatonic Heritage.