The Maritime Music Directory International (MMDI) Ltd. is a 501(c)(3), non-profit organization that operates a web portal where you can connect with maritime-themed musical acts and the places at which they perform.
The internet has gotten so crowded today that the big search engines can’t keep up with it. They limit what they index, making it harder to find a lot of websites. We designed the MMDI to be easy to find, and we link “sea shanty” related websites here so fans, scholars and the press can quickly connect to the mariners’ music that we all love. We’re doing this all for free; no memberships are required to access or to be listed in this directory.
Here is what you’ll discover:
- Locations that you can go to hear maritime music, which include everything from multi-performer festivals to single-group concerts to local sing-outs and house concerts
- Maritime-themed musical groups and solo performers, including both professional and non-professional groups such as shantychors or choirs
- Members of maritime-themed bands: a list of the individuals contributing to the maritime music genre, past or future, that are members of a musical performance group (see above)
- Maritime-themed musical recordings, past or future, as associated with either the maritime-themed venues, or maritime-themed musical performers as cited above. This is a hyperlinked list of names of the recordings that allows visitors to the MMDI to follow the links off of the site to purchase this music elsewhere
These listings are thoroughly cross-linked to each other so that venues can indicate which music group performed at their event, for instance; or, what music groups an individual was a part of. The purpose of this is to allow musical scholars, sea shanty fans, and the press to have greater access to the genre and its history as a whole.
About The MMDI Crew
Amy Shea is an American educator focused on science and safety procedures and protocols. She is a former Air Force logistics technician who understands the long-time role of freight operations in world history. Shea is now a board member for the the Maritime Music Directory International, Ltd.
Dean Calin observed that the “sea shanty” craze that swept the world during the Covid pandemic was doing a great disservice to the hundreds of existing groups whose mission it was to perform and preserve this kind of music. Only about a dozen musicians were receiving attention in this genre, and of those, a third of them had no prior experience with this music at all! Along with a career in sales and marketing, as well as over two decades of performing professionally as a maritime musician, Calin began the MMDI project to develop a user-populated data source for the genre – a free reference for everyone to discover the excitement and popularity of mariners’ music.
Gunnar Wiegand has joined the MMDI team as our Germany Editor. He has been performing maritime and folk music from his Salzhemmendorf home town for over 40 years. In addition to being a successful musical entertainer, he has proven to be a skilled communicator and researcher for our efforts to uncover lost or hidden musical acts and festivals. We are very happy for him to work with us on our project!
Janice Fulton (AKA “Flossy”, AKA “Albannach Lass”)
Flossy is delighted and excited to join the MMDI team, representing Australia and New Zealand. Flossy was born in Scotland and grew up there until emigrating to Australia in her early 30s in 1994. Flossy’s musical background is steeped in Celtic folk music. She sings as “Albannach Lass” (“Scottish Gaelic for “Scottish Lass”). She is one of the original members of “The Shantilillies”, from 2018 (all female group), which became the “Amity Rogues” (mixed male and female group) in 2023. Flossy presents a weekly radio show called “Foundations of Folk”, which features shanty, maritime, traditional and contemporary folk music each Sunday in Albany, Western Australia on Great Southern FM 100.9.
Joseph Morneault One of the four founding members of The Jovial Crew (along with Cliff Halsam, Paul Elliott, and Howard Hornstein), Jos also ran a contradance band called The Wild Colonial Boys for some ten years. He performs with David Littlefield as Littlefield & Morneault, was a third of the short-lived group Longsplice, and although more a product of his family in New Brunswick, Canada, he lived during his tween years on Staten Island and would busk on the ferry to and from Manhattan and in Battery Park. Jos is a naval and social historian since the late 1980s and has been a woodwind craftsman since 1986. He currently owns his own atelier in Connecticut since 2017. Jos is the founder of the Connecticut Sea Music Festival and with a group of dedicated and talented persons formed the Maritime Music & Tradition Society to run the event.
Katarzyna Marcinkowska is a contributor to the Polish publication, Szanty24.pl, working alongside Kamil Piotrowski. She will be reviewing and editing listings of Polish musical acts, band members and venues & events.
Melissa Kaprelian Melissa Kaprelian is a Wisconsin-based nonprofit leader with extensive experience in grant writing, marketing, and community development. With over 15 years of elected public service — including her current role as a Racine County Supervisor and her tenure as a Racine alderman — she brings a deep understanding of civic engagement and organizational governance to her work. Kaprelian previously served as founding President of Discover Racine, championing the cultural and economic vitality of the Lake Michigan shoreline community. She serves as a board member for the Maritime Music Directory International, Ltd.
Patrick J. Knapp, Jr. is a maritime and maritime music enthusiast who has been performing with Bounding Main since 2024. He has an extensive history of public performances with (French) Horn with several ensembles around the Midwest United States. Knapp is now a board member for the the Maritime Music Directory International, Ltd.
Stefan Reid is an original member of Pressgang Mutiny out of Toronto, Canada. He is one of the co-hosts of the excellent video program, The Shanty Show. He will be looking after listings and other MMDI business related to North America.
Tony Goodenough has joined the MMDI team as our UK Editor. Tony has been an instrumental part of the maritime music scene for many years. He was a member of the famous, London-based maritime music group, The Shanty Crew, from about 1980 through 1995. His ubiquitous song, “Pump Shanty”, has been performed all around the world and has very often been misidentified as a “traditional” sea shanty! Tony speaks French fluently and he has dramatically increased the number of MMDI listings in both France and the UK.
Matthew Loeffler is our freelance WordPress specialist. He graduated from the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, studying Web Design. In 2024 and 2025 has been able to make critical improvements to our site.
David HB Drake has moved onto other projects.
Our researcher, Jon Peterson, is a maritime-themed musician, an historical reenactor and an environmental theater performer with years of familiarity with the genre. Jon has moved on to other activities.
William Xu is a skilled freelancer whose day-job as a Web Application Developer & Systems Analyst at The Los Angeles Film School allows him the opportunity to contract with us to move the MMDI toward completion.
Jean-François Blais, creator and animator of “Bordel de Mer – the sea shanties podcast” imported the Mark I MMDI into the Mark II WordPress configuration around July 1, 2022. He had to step away from the project for health reasons. He continues to perform with the popular, Quebecois shanty band, Brise-Glace.
Justin Marcinkus hand-coded the original Mark I version of the MMDI. He has moved on to other projects.
Kurt Niedrauer contributed extensively to the data input for both the Mark I and Mark II versions of this web site.
The Maritime Music Directory International, Ltd is a registered 501(c)(3) educational, non-profit and tax exempt organization, based in Racine, Wisconsin. You can donate to the MMDI here.