Rose and Dragon, The

Clifford Long, Dusty Rose, and David HB Drake performed from 1990 to 2003 in the Milwaukee and Chicago area and as far as Annapolis MD specializing in maritime, shanty and pub songs from a mythical pub called “The Rose and Dragon”.

Cliff and David met while serving as shantymen and educators aboard the HMS Bounty in 1990 while docked in Sausalito, CA. Cliff was returning to Chicago and David came in from Milwaukee to fill the shantyman position for the rest of the Pacific tour. During the overlap, they did a dockside concert together and promised to do it again when David got back home.

The following summer David was booked at the Door County (WI) Maritime Festival and invited Cliff to join him. Their mutual friend from their days at King Richard’s Renaissance Faire, Dusty Rose, came along and sang along on almost every song. On the way home, Dusty said we should open a pub and feature sea music and “The Rose and Dragon” was formed. (the name being a variation on “The Rose and Crown” with Dusty as the ‘rose” and the irony that Drake is derived from “Draco the Dragon” and Long is Chinese for Dragon.

They performed for many years at Milwaukee’s Irish Fest, The HMS Bounty, The Wisconsin Maritime Museum, The Door County Maritime Festival, Chicago Navy Pier, The Wisconsin Lake Schooner Project during the building of Wisconsin’s Flagship, the schooner S/V Denis Sullivan, and much more.

A restored video of one of their live concerts is available on YouTube; you can find the link in the Links section here.

This video, the only available record of the group, was shot in 1995 in Chicago Il. A VHS copy of raw footage was found in 2020. Information on the original videographers and location have been lost. Any information would be appreciated.  This concert is a Video Restoration by Peter Crysdale / SEVLABS, 2021.

A CD and downloadable file of the soundtrack of this video will be available at www.davidhbdrake.com upon completion (hopefully soon).