Weekend Schedule
The Portsmouth Maritime Folk Festival runs throughout town from 10:00AM – 5:00PM on Saturday, September 26th 2026, followed by a free ticketed evening concert featuring our headline performers on Saturday night from 7:00PM-9:30PM.
The Festival resumes throughout town on Sunday, September 27th 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.
Download a printable poster to share!
2026 Headline Performers
Tom Kastle
Long before sea shanties went viral on the internet, Tom Kastle was singing them around the world and living the tradition by captaining tall ships on the Great Lakes. In the last decade, Tom has branched out to do film projects like Francisco Torres’ Delight In the Mountain, with Richard Riehle and Tom Wopat, and television where he hosted a short documentary that was nominated for an Emmy Award. On the theatrical stage, he has performed roles ranging from musicals to Shakespeare and played a political pundit with the legendary Ed Asner in God Help Us! Tom has performed a one man play for Fermat’s Last Theater Company, on Joe Hill, at universities, the Woody Guthrie Center, the American Labor Museum, and the People’s Voice Café in Greenwich Village. His new play Dan Seavey: Confessions of A Great Lakes Pirate was a sell out at the Playhouse at the Overture Center in Madison and will be touring throughout 2026.
Sara Grey, Kieron Means & Dave MacLurg
Mother-and-son duo Sara Grey and Kieron Means seamlessly blend their voices in a large repertoire of songs from the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. Their tight vocal harmonies are sung unaccompanied or enhanced by tasteful banjo and guitar arrangements.
Sara and Kieron have that magical vocal blend and rapport that comes from being blood relatives. Both share a deep respect for the sources of the songs they perform, and their accompaniments complement, but never overpower, the lyrics.
The songs they sing are mostly traditional, but also include newer songs in the traditional idiom. The duo’s repertoire showcases a wide range of North American folk material, including songs of loggers, songs of migration into the American West, New-World versions of classic British and Irish ballads, old-time Appalachian songs, and gospel music. The two have recorded many albums, some of which are on Folk Legacy as part of The Golden Ring These are also available in the Smithsonian on their Folk Ways label. 2019 marks the release of their newest CD on the Wild Goose label.
Both mother and son have lived in the U.S. and the U.K., performing and teaching at folk clubs, festivals and music camps on both sides of the Atlantic. Born in New Hampshire, Sara emigrated to the British Isles in 1970, where Kieron spent his childhood and where both became fascinated by the migration of songs between the U.K. and North America. Returning to the U.S. in 2015, Sara now lives in Middlebury, Vermont.
Kieron is known both as a fine singer and as a guitarist, whose innovative song accompaniments are inspired by American blues and Appalachian traditions. He lives in the Adirondacks in New York state.
Here they are joined by Sara’s husband, Dave MacLurg. Dave was born and grew up in Northern Ireland. He went to work in Liverpool and became involved in the folk music scene there. He became part of a very well-known sea shanty group, Stormalong John. They sang frequently in Liverpool as well as sea music festivals in France, Germany & Poland. They sang with Stan Hughill, one of the best-known shanty singers, who also came from Liverpool. They have created four CDs, and also sang with Stan on his last CD. He has taught shanties at the Summit School in Vermont, and the Maritime festivals in Essex, and Mystic.
Judy Cook & Cate Clifford
Judy Cook brings a powerful voice, a great-unaccompanied style and a deep respect for tradition to her performances of a huge repertoire of songs and ballads. Judy’s singing is marked by a command of narrative that pulls the audience in to really understand what the song is about. Her style and presentation are “a credit to the sources”. Since 1998 Judy has toured with her singing in the US and UK. Program descriptions, and information about book and recordings are at judycook.net.
Cate Clifford is a typically unaccompanied singer based in Rhode Island. With powerful vocals, sensitive harmonies, and engaging context gleaned from intensive study, Cate creates a vivid and accessible pathway to the songs she offers, the people and stories behind them, and the profound, timeless delight of sharing both. A proud member of AFM Local 1000, the Traveling Musicians Union, she has raised rafters and cracked hearts in homes, venues, festivals and recording studios on both coasts of the USA. She maintains that no set is immune to a dash of Sondheim or a sprinkle of Shakespeare.
Also Appearing
JD & the Stonemasons
JD and the Stonemasons are New England’s favorite source for high-energy folk music. Founded in 2021, the band creates original songs in the traditional folk style, and performs a huge variety of sea shanties, fiddle tunes, Irish ballads, and every kind of roots music from Blues to Bluegrass. Based in beautiful Sunapee, NH, they play all across the United States.
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.
Paddy Mills
Paddy Mills is a Maine-based folk singer and songwriter whose music carries the salt air of the North Atlantic and the stories of the people who live by it. With a voice both warm and weathered, Paddy’s songs navigate the waters between tradition and modern life — celebrating working folks, coastal communities, and the enduring pull of the sea.
Mills has played coffeehouses, concert halls, schooners, ketch’s and festivals across the Northeast, earning a loyal following for his evocative songwriting and unpretentious style. His performances feel like conversations between old friends. Downeast Magazine wrote “listening to Paddy play guitar and tell stories was hypnotizing”. His original songs, such as Cribbage in the Corner reflect his deep connection to Maine’s maritime culture and the people who make their living close to nature’s edge.
When he’s not writing or playing songs, Paddy spends as much time as he can with his wife and four kids on the coast of Maine, simply messing about with wooden boats.
Long Tide
Long Tide perform traditional & modern ballads, sea chanteys, & other folk music, both a cappella & with historically-informed instruments. Mike is an award-winning songwriter & member of the Jovial Crew, Ian is a historian specializing in his hometown of Deep River & its ivory trade; they have both taken part in the CT Sea Music Festival since its inception & served as board advisors & Deckhand singers for the 2026 Festival.
London Julie
London Julie are Justine Donovan, Ramona Connelly, and Gina Dunlap. Justine and Ramona were stalwarts of the Anglo-Celtic sessions at The Press Room that gave rise to this festival. Gina has been a performer and writer of Celtic and maritime music for decades. Justine and Gina are also past organizers of PMFF.
Castlebay
Maine folk duo Castlebay presents songs and stories from Maine’s Anglo-Celtic and seafaring traditions. Their vocal and instrumental skills on Celtic harp, 14-string guitar, and their engaging rapport have been enjoyed throughout the east coast and in Europe. Castlebay has released numerous recordings and their first book, Songs of Ships & Sailors, was published in 2022.
David Coller & Diane Chodkowski
David Coller has been writing and performing in the folk/Americana genre since his teens, which, simply put, means a VERY long time. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in music from the University of Southern California before moving on to the east coast and a career in the medical world but continued to play in bands, duos and as a solo performer in southern California and after that, Connecticut, despite being waylaid by a wooden gaff-rigged schooner (if you’ve ever owned such a thing you’ll understand.) He is now back in the music business in a serious way, releasing his first CD in 30 years “When Summer Comes”, in April, and was also a finalist in this year’s Falcon Ridge Folk Festival Emerging Artists Showcase competition.
A sailor from the age of nine, it isn’t surprising that the music of the sea, traditional and modern, has been one of his long term interests both as a writer of songs and as a performer. His newest CD, “Blue Water” is devoted to that music.
Diane Chodkowski caught the chantey bug as a Sea Scout in high school, and has had many adventures with David on his gaff-rigged wooden schooner. She has been singing harmony in the folk world since the 80’s in NYC, and has sung or recorded with many wonderful musicians, including Hugh Blumenfeld (former CT State Troubadour) and Peter Yarrow, and was a member of the acclaimed female trio Madwoman in the Attic.
The Sea Dogs
Sea Dogs is comprised of five musically talented members of Gloucester’s Three Sheets to the Wind chantey group with over 25 years of experience singing and playing together in many venues.
Sea Dogs members include Peter Souza vocals and guitar, Audi Souza vocals, Ernie Pigeon vocals and guitar, Amy Pigeon vocals and Gary Foreman vocals and banjitar.
We have run and participated in successful pub sings in many locations such as, the East Regiment Beer Company’s 4th Sunday of the month pub sing in Salem and continue to manage our Gloucester pub sing at Jalapenos Mexican Restaurant on a bi-weekly basis.
Sea chanteys, ballads and songs of life many years gone by are the groups’ primary focus. We love to have fun and thrive on audience participation as we sing through our varied venues in different locations… as you will see.
Jerry Bryant
Jerry Bryant is a singer, entertainer, and independent folk scholar focused on curating great songs from the past 500 years of American, Irish, and British traditions. His repertoire includes hundreds of traditional and contemporary folk songs, with a special emphasis on the musical artifacts of maritime culture. Accompanying himself on concertina, guitar, banjo, ukulele, and bones (not all at the same time), he presents old and new songs that open windows on the human experience.