Whidbey’s ‘Shanty Piper’ publishes book of bagpipe sea songs

Don Scoby recently published a book of history and sheet music for the highland bagpipe.

A new book by a local musician sends bagpipers out to sea.

Don Scoby, Whidbey Islander, post commander of the Scottish American Military Society and avid bagpiper, recently published a book of history and sheet music for the highland bagpipe. Unlike his previous book on Scottish-American military music, this one is a collection of sea shanties — perhaps the first of its kind.

Sea shanties, songs sailors sang when working, date back hundreds of years in many cultures prior to the advent of steam powered ships.

At this time labor, not the wind or water, was the force of merchant vessels. Sea shanties synchronized and paced repetitive tasks. Rowing often made the beat of the song.

Shanties resonate among cultures across the world, and Whidbey is no exception— local musicians, maritime enthusiasts and historical events keep these tunes alive on the island, and Scoby’s book fuses this culture with his love of bagpiping.

The inspiration for the book came from when Scoby saw the Shifty Sailors, a decades-old local group that sing songs of the sea. Something clicked watching some of the performers command the stage.

He realized the similarities in the simplicity between folk music and Scottish bagpipe music.

“If you take out the embellishments, a lot of the melodies are really just, ‘Mary Had a Little Lamb,’ ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star,’” he said.

The Shifty Sailors were “the gateway drug,” he said, launching his deep dive into the history of shanties and consulting local musicians. He learned that the sailors of old went all over the world, and the music spread and mixed. Many sailors wrote lyrics, but they recycled the melodies of other songs.

“When you grow up hearing, ‘What do you do with a drunken sailor?’, it’s something drunk sailors sing, and then you find out there’s a whole other universe of music out there,” Scoby said.

At events across Whidbey, something about shanties speaks to islanders.

“Whidbey and the water are inextricably linked,” Heidi Hiatt, member of the Scottish American Military Society, wrote in the book’s forward. “It is a place where the most gargantuan ships and tiniest kayaks cross the horizon.”

When selecting the tunes to transpose to the highland bagpipe, Scoby had to take some creative liberties, he said. “Purist” bagpipers say there are only nine pitches that can be played on Scottish bagpipes.

With alternate finger positions, one can play 15 or 16 pitches, he said.

One of Scoby’s favorite shanties is “Rolling Down to Old Maui,” a mid-19th century song expressing the anticipation of a crew returning to Maui after a season of whaling in the Kamchatka Sea.

In his research, Scoby found cultural link after cultural link. Songs of the American Revolution, he said, can be traced back to European shanties.

While smaller crews boarded steam engines, sailors carried the tunes with them into the forest as they began logging.

“It’s reasonable to assume that some of the guys getting ready for the Revolutionary War were setting up their camp, singing a work song,” he said.

Scoby knew he’d find the connection between sea shanties and the Scottish bagpipe, but the scope of the lineage became impressive.

“Before I started the project, I just wanted to make the music,” he said, “and then I found our people in the music along the way.”

“The Shanty Piper” is now available on Amazon. Learn more about the author at bagpiperdon.com.

Photo by Sam Fletcher
Don Scoby, local author and bagpiper, released “The Shanty Piper,” a book of sea shanties for the highland bagpipe.

Photo by Sam Fletcher Don Scoby, local author and bagpiper, released “The Shanty Piper,” a book of sea shanties for the highland bagpipe.

Photo by Sam Fletcher
“The Shanty Piper,” a book of sea shanties for the highland bagpipe, was released recently by a Whidbey author.

Photo by Sam Fletcher “The Shanty Piper,” a book of sea shanties for the highland bagpipe, was released recently by a Whidbey author.