Katelyn Weisbrod interviews Dr. James Kahn as part of her article, Warming Trends: Forests Are the Best Big-City Water Filters, Plus Veggie Burgers by Default, Sea Songs by ET’s Doctor and a Reminder to Eat Fresh Food in the Fridge
KW: Why did you choose to have each song on the album be a sea shanty?
JK: I decided to write a whole album of shanties about various contemporary dilemmas, primarily climate dilemmas, but environmental crises in various ways. So there’s a couple songs specifically about climate change, some about habitat loss and species die offs and Covid-19. Shanties were originally written as work songs by the sailors of the 17th and 18th centuries facing stormy seas and the elements and I felt like we’re going, metaphorically, and in some cases, specifically, physically going through the same things. We have our own storms that we’re trying to weather and face, and it seemed like the shanty was a good genre to talk about those things that we’re facing, those elemental crises.
