Many a Mickle

Many a Mickle is composed of Jane and Peter Mickelborough, Carol Szewczyk and Colin Godfrey.

Their polyphonic style allows them to sing a wide variety of songs. They sing the well-known British sea shanties – the old working songs of sailing ships. In addition they sing ‘forebitters’, songs sung by sailors for their own entertainment. These songs, sad or happy, tell of fishing, of hunting the whale, of war and battle, of the life of captains and cabin boys. They sing of love, of desertion, of constancy and of death. Then there are the songs of the women who awaited the return of their menfolk.