Following the sudden Maui fires last year, hundreds of organizations created fundraising campaigns to offer their support to the devastated community. While everyone was asking for money, one international group went a different route to raise funds — by requesting "as many voices as possible."
"The Steepholmers Shanty Band is looking to raise funds for the people of Maui, who are suffering tremendous loss and devastation," the callout email read. "We cannot imagine just how awful it must be to be affected by this terrible disaster. We have, therefore, embarked on a project in which every shanty band and singer can contribute, should they wish."
The shanty band is located in Weston-super-Mare, outside Bristol in the U.K., and regularly sang "Rolling Down to Old Maui." The traditional sea song can be traced as far back as the 1850s. The lyrics tell of a whaling ship crew looking forward to a stop in Maui after a season in the frigid Bering Sea. Lahaina was the capital of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi and its harbor was a popular stop for fresh supplies and vices such as drinking and prostitution.
"Initially, what we asked shanty bands around the country was to sing it at their next gig and collect donations," Nigel Glanville-Gittins, the musical director of The Steepholmers, told HPR.
"And then, like a crazy fool that I am, I sat there at one of our rehearsals, and I said, 'Well, we could always do a sort of like Band Aid version and invite basically shanty crews and folk singers and musicians from around the country to record our arrangement.'"
He estimates about 200 to 300 hundred musicians sent in recordings and it took him four weeks to mix it all down to a single track.
"It was a learning curve for me just actually putting all these tracks together. It's not a studio quality track, as you can imagine, because people have recorded this in their front rooms, or in a hall, or anything. And it was difficult because timing was slightly out, and you have to edit bits in and edit bits out."
Glanville-Gittins said he eventually came out with what he thinks is "quite a powerful track," saying, "It moves me every time I hear it."
He also contacted the music legend Mick Fleetwood, whose eponymous restaurant, Fleetwood's On Front Street, burned in the fires. The drummer sent his thanks to The Steepholmers Shanty Band, which is a registered charity that raises funds for the Royal National Life Boat Institution, an organization of a network of lifeboat stations around Great Britain that is solely funded by donations.
But why help a community on the other side of the world?
"I think it's just the connection, the connection through the song," Glanville-Gittins said. "It seemed like there's a community in, well, in terrible distress with these wildfires causing devastation everywhere. And we wanted to know how we could help."
The finished song is available on Bandcamp and can be downloaded for a £1.00. Glanville-Gittins said they have donated about $2,500 to the Maui Foodbank so far and will continue to donate profits from the song.
