Lou Jones

Lou Jones is a British writer who moved from South Devon, UK where she enjoyed many folk and shanty festivals, to live on the island of Mauritius which also has a rich seafaring history.

She mainly writes stage plays and lyrics so she put these two loves together and wrote an album of songs which are original sea shanties and songs of the sea. This album is called Sea Shanty Shanti by Lou Jones and although she wrote all the lyrics, she collaborated with different composers and singers in Mauritius to create the album.

Each individual song tells its own story but collectively they all tell a bigger story, which is being developed into a theatre musical, about sailors on an 1840 clipper ship in the Great Tea Race from England to China. They stop off at Mauritius for spices as part of their journey giving it an island style twist.

All songs are in English but a few have a little French, Spanish, and Mauritian Creole mixed in. The mermaid’s haunting mystical song, Vini Vini, which means “come, come” in Creole, also has some lines in Celtic language.

Sea shanties are not well known in Mauritius so she is introducing people to this type of folk music.  To continue sharing shanties and to keep this genre alive, she would love to see shanty singers around the world performing some of her songs at maritime and folk festivals.