Weekend Schedule
The Portsmouth Maritime Folk Festival runs throughout town from 10:00AM–5:00PM on Saturday, September 27th 2025, followed by a free ticketed evening concert featuring our headline performers on Saturday night from 7:00PM–9:30PM. This year the concert will be held in the North Church on Market Square.
The Festival resumes throughout town on Sunday, September 28th at 1:00PM and culminates in a Chantey Blast in Market Square from 5:00–6:00PM!
The festival is COMPLETELY FREE, thanks to your volunteering and donations.
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2025 Headline Performers
Reserve your free concert ticket here!
Chris Koldewey
Chris Koldewey primarily performs US and British traditional music, and the approach may include their historical and social perspectives and background. The songs can range from the “sublime to the ridiculous,” and everything in between. They may be sung acappella, or accompanied by concertina, banjo, guitar, mandolin, or cittern.
Chris has been singing folk music, and sea music in particular, since his early teens. He comes from a family rich in maritime traditions, and from an early age was exposed to a wide variety of folk music. Chris has had a long association with the Chantey Department at Mystic Seaport Museum in Connecticut. Two of his most memorable experiences were to chantey up the anchor on board the Bark Picton Castle during his three-week stint on board her during the summer of 2009, and to sail and chantey on board of the Charles W. Morgan—the only wooden whaler left in the world—in the summer of 2014. He has played concerts and festivals in both the US and the UK, and has led workshops dealing with a variety of traditional music forms at festivals, house concerts, music camps, and formal presentations.
Whether he is giving concerts, leading workshops or presentations, Chris enjoys the participation of those with him in keeping musical traditions alive.
The Ranzo Boys
The Ranzo Boys—Lafayette Matthews (he/him), Jules Peiperl (they/them), and Lindsey Smith (they/she)—are traditional folk singers putting the queerness back into maritime and folk music. Formed in NYC in 2020, they have performed at the Connecticut Sea Music Festival, the Portsmouth Maritime Folk Festival, NEFFA, and the South Street Seaport Museum, and recorded eight songs for public radio later broadcast as a national NPR special. Listen for buzzy English harmonies, Appalachian ballads, sea chanteys, droney instrumental backing, and any song that can be remotely construed as queer.
Steve Turner
Steve Turner is a pioneer of highly sophisticated English concertina song accompaniments; he is a singer and multi-instrumentalist, playing mandolin and tenor banjo and accompanies himself on the concertina. He has performed at folk festivals, clubs and concerts throughout the UK and internationally.
Steve began his career in Manchester at the end of the ‘60s, with Geordie band “Canny Fettle,” touring for 8 years and making 2 albums. After winning the UK Melody Maker’s national “Stars of the 80s” competition in 1979 he turned professional and went on to release 4 solo albums.
He produced his 5th album in 2008, the highly acclaimed “Whirligig of Time” which featured UK luminaries Martin Carthy, Nancy Kerr and Miranda Sykes. He has since released a further 4 albums with his latest 9th album “Curious Times” featuring Martin Carthy and receiving excellent reviews.
Steve’s performances are characterised by strong melodies and a warm connection with the audience.
“For me, in terms of song accompaniment, he is the foremost Concertina player of his generation – the master!” (Pete Heywood, Living Tradition Folk Magazine)
“One of the best voices in the business.” (Vic Smith, Folk Roots)
Also Appearing
Lynn Feingold
Lynn Feingold is an unaccompanied singer with a diverse repertoire that spans from heartfelt ballads and tender love songs to lively drinking songs and classic English Music Hall pieces, showcasing her extensive interest in traditional music. She spent many years performing at Blanchard’s Tavern in Massachusetts before managing and performing with The Old Howard Troupe, an English Music Hall ensemble.
With a deep interest in traditional ballads, Lynn, along with her sister Karen Haffner, created the Traditional Ballad Singing Competition for Students held annually at South Shore Folk Music Club, Duxbury, MA. For almost 20 years this initiative has encouraged young individuals to explore and perform traditional ballads in a welcoming and supportive environment.
Lynn actively participates in administrative roles within a variety of traditional music and song organizations, while still making time to enjoy folk music festivals, pub and chantey sings, ballad swaps and other informal folk music gatherings with friends.
Jackson Gillman
While living on Mount Desert Island for 30+ years, Jackson Gillman developed a large repertoire of songs and stories with a Downeast/Acadian flavor. He now lives on Cape Cod and has performed at the New Bedford Whaling National Park and Working Waterfront Festival, Salem Maritime Festival, Cape Cod National Seashore, CT Sea Music Festival, and many others. He has taught college storytelling courses and is often tapped by colleagues for private coaching.
After performing songs and stories throughout the US and provinces for over 40 years, he was inducted into the National Storytelling Network’s Circle of Excellence and received their Oracle Award in 2020.
Linn Phipps
LINN PHIPPS is a traditional singer of songs in English and Scottish Gaelic, especially sea songs and shanties, mainly in Scotland and the North of England. She has recently performed at maritime festivals in Brittany, America, Oban, Portsoy, Morecambe, Lancaster and Arnside.
Linn also leads song learning workshops both in person and online. She is a Medallist at the Royal National Mod in Scotland, having gained the Silver Pendant (first prize Medal) for Solo singing by Learners of Gaelic. She sings in song combos including The Mermaids and The Rosabellas. Linn is looking forward to her first visit to Portsmouth!
My Druthers
Rebel songs of Ireland & the Sea! Consisting of a rotating lineup of all-stars from the Connecticut music scene, My Druthers bring us aboard a tall ship bound for Ireland with their blend of traditional Irish rebel songs and sea shanties. The fellas have been hitting it hard these past few years with shows throughout New England, the Midwest & Southeastern US, as well as England, France, Thailand, Singapore, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam.
The Druthers brothers haul to the fore a lifetime spent in punk rock and rebel folk scenes, and they bring that energy and aggression to the stage in the form of shanty nights, pub sings, Irish festivals & concerts both at home and abroad. Renowned for their raucous & rowdy take on the age-old tradition, it’s hard not to raise a pint, stomp your feet, and sing along with these salty rebels and CT shantymen!
The fellas have performed with: the Tossers, Off With Their Heads, Derek Warfield & the Young Wolfe Tones, the Dreadnoughts, Lenny Lashley’s Gang of One, Ian Millar (Irish Rovers), Enter the Haggis, Dublin City Ramblers, Jesse Ahern, Mike Rivkees (the Rumjacks), Dylan Walshe, Daniel Mason (Hank III), the Peelers, Skald (France), Sean Dagher, Kilmaine Saints, and many others.
Alan Short
Alan Short has been singing since childhood—slipping into folk clubs since early teens and performing many genres of music, from choral to rock, with a lifelong interest in traditional folk music and in particular, maritime music. Originally from England, he has lived in the USA since the mid-80s. Frequently performing in NY and Connecticut, London and Budapest folk clubs and venues, he is one of the founders and a regular performer at the Port Jefferson Sea Music Festival for 5 years now and a regular performer in the Port Jefferson Dickens Festival. He is a member of the New York Packet. He has performed musical roles in the folk genre in various New England theaters. This year he has performed at the Connecticut Sea Music Festival in Essex.
A.J. Wright & Yves Corbiere
A.J. and Yves are 2/3 of the band Skylark, having temporarily lost Kate to graduate school this semester. They bring enthusiasm and a wealth of historic knowledge to the Maritime stage, and have been thrilled to be elbow deep in hornpipes in preparation for this year’s festival.
Skylark Trad Band is a trio of folk musicians with a broad range of instruments and a repertoire that spans maritime music, folk music of the British Isles, early American music and a smattering of other traditions. The band shines in tight harmonies, strong vocal tones and a depth of knowledge about the songs, tunes and instruments that they play, making their shows both entertaining and informative.
Anayis (AH-nah-ees) “A.J.” Wright (they/them) is a distinctive voice in traditional folk who captivates audiences and scholars alike with their connection to maritime music, English folk, and shape note. A.J. has played English concertina for twenty years, cello for even longer, and incorporated ukulele, mountain dulcimer, whistle and more into the rotation over the years.
Yves Corbiere (she/her) is a classically trained violinist and folk musician. She was a founding member of the band Firecreek out of Fayetteville West Virginia, worked as a chanteyman at Mystic Seaport Museum in Mystic Connecticut, and teaches piano on the side. She carries on a long line of singing sea songs from her maternal grandfather who was an oysterman, and sang and played the organ on the Vaudeville stage in the 1920s and 30s, and his mother, who was a singer and a fishmonger. She is thrilled to be in beautiful Portsmouth this year for PMFF.
Hilo
Hilo is an unaccompanied traditional song duo with tight harmonies and
loose shtick. On Earth, Laura Ciporen and Lissa Michalak can be found in
New York City. In space, they can usually be found on Hilo station, using ancient songs to help coordinate their work on the engineering crew.
Their colleagues have compared them to a giant can of space worms.
But affectionately.
They can be contacted at hilotradsongs@gmail.com.
Lynz Morahn
Lynz Morahn asked her parents for a violin when she was five years old, and music has been a love of her life ever since. In high school, she was honored to participate in regional and state choirs, and as an adult, she has turned her violin into a fiddle and found great joy in folk music and social singing communities!
She is regularly found playing, singing, and teaching around campfires, in living rooms, and at festivals and camps such as Rustic Roots, Fiddle Hell, Fat Toad, TradMaD, and the Portsmouth Maritime and Connecticut Sea Music Festivals. She released her first album in June of 2019.
The Portermen
The Portermen, based in Newburyport, were formed in 2015 by Galway, Ireland native Rob McKeown, a lover of traditional music, who inspired his friends to sing as well. The Portermen perform at various venues on the North Shore and around New Engnd. They’ve performed aboard the USS Constitution, were featured on TV’s Chronicle, and host a monthly open singing session at The Port Tavern.
Roll and Go
Roll & Go is a Maine based group of men and women who love to sing sea shanties and other songs of the sea. Over the past 40 years their spirited performances have earned them a striking reputation among festival and concert goers in Maine and New England.
Roll & Go has been featured at the Mystic Sea Music Festival, the Great Schooner Race in Penobscot Bay, the Maine Festival, the Maine Maritime Museum in Bath, the Maine Historical Society, the Maine State Museum in Augusta, the Portsmouth Maritime Folk Festival, the Pilgrim Museum & Monument in Provincetown, as well as many tall-ship special events and community concerts. The shanties are sung unaccompanied, combining strong solo work with tight harmonies on the refrain and chorus. The ballads are generally backed up by banjo, guitar, concertina, washtub bass and/or penny whistle. In 2002 they released their first CD, Outward Bound. Their second CD, Rolling Down to Sailortown, was released in 2006 and their most recent CD, Look Out!, was released in 2010.
The current roster of four people is a diverse mix of individuals. Eli Dale of Portland is a retired administrative assistant. Norris Dale of Portland is a retired quality control engineer. Charlie Ipcar of Richmond is a landlord and retired housing renovator. Jeff Logan of Portland is a street minister for the homeless. With Roll & Go you’ll hear the old songs brought back to life, and some newer songs that highlight current conditions in our merchant marine and fishing industry. Whether you’re young or old, you’re bound to have a lot of fun!
Audi and Peter Souza
Audi and Peter have teamed up to make a powerful duet who perform sea chanteys, ballads, sea songs and a variety of other songs for festivals, dockside, vessel, public and school events, assisted living/nursing facilities and fundraiser benefits …. They maintain a bi-weekly chantey sing with fellow singers from Three Sheets to the Wind at Jalapeños, Gloucester, MA, every other Monday from 5 to 8 pm and on alternating weeks they maintain a Zoom session on Mondays, 7 to 9 pm, open to the public on alternate weeks. Open link is on Facebook Gloucester Chantey Night weekly. Peter and Audi perform independently as well as with Three Sheets. Peter and Audi are also associated with the Schooner Adventure out of Gloucester, MA.
You can listen to many of their songs on their YouTube channel: A & P Souza.
They have performed at Portsmouth Maritime Festival, Rockport First Night, Marblehead Maritime Festival, Mystic Seaport, Folk Song Society of Greater Boston, Boston Seafood Festival, Cantab Lounge, Gloucester Schooner Festival, Lowell’s Boat Shop, Portsmouth Tall Ships, L’Hermione tour, Charles W. Morgan-New Bedford and Charlestown with the USS Constitution, 30th & 34th St. Jacques South Coast Newfoundland Arts Festival, 300th Anniversary Boston Head Light, Salem Antique and Wooden Boat Festival, Gloucester Meeting House, Shirley-Eustis House, Old South Meeting House, USCG Boston, Salem Maritime Festival, New England Folk Festival, Trustees of Reservations Castle Hill Crane Estate events, Schooner Adventure sails, yacht clubs, assisted living/nursing facilities, memorial services and house concerts.
Take a ride through sea history with their musical presentations, harmonies and individual singing styles.
Maritime Skills Demonstrations By
The Dirty Blue Shirts
The Dirty Blue Shirts is an experiential history collective of living historians, scholars, and artists who know that uncovering history is dirty work. Its members worked together on the front lines of Mystic Seaport Museum for nearly 20 years in the Chantey and Roleplaying Programs and on the Special Demonstration Squad, where their blue shirts got the dirtiest. Now, they bring customized, museum-quality programming to historic sites throughout New England, offering presentations and workshops on environmental history, blacksmithing, fiber arts, woodworking, historical dress, original and traditional music, immigrant history, theater, and, of course, maritime culture and history.