BOARD
Chris Maden
President
Chris started singing chanteys in 2002 in San Francisco. Upon moving to Portsmouth in 2008, he was amazed and delighted to find a fantastic community of traditional music and this wonderful festival right on his doorstep. He was a volunteer that first year, and a performer in 2009 and several subsequent years. He became President of PMFF in 2019.
Gail Finn
Secretary
Gail Finn is descended from a long-line of talented musicians and singers and grew up in a large family surrounded by music… dad on guitar and mom on the piano and all of us, parents and siblings, singing together. Music of all types was encouraged to be shared and welcome in our house and since no TV was available, there was a lot of listening to the radio, playing records and reel-to-reel tapes and sharing songs we all learned in school. At age 10 (4th Grade), I went to Mystic Seaport on a class trip and saw the Morgan for the first time and heard the sailing stories and in 5th Grade visited the New Bedford Whaling Museum and learned the sea song “Blow Ye Winds in the Morning”. After many visits to the Mystic Seaport Festival and visiting
tall ships in New London, CT, Nova Scotia, Canada, Dublin, Ireland, Portsmouth, NH and other ports, I continue to be fascinated by tall ships and enjoy listening to and singing sea songs and chanteys.
Nick Noble
Treasurer
A lifelong lover of music and singing, Nick has hosted THE FOLK REVIVAL radio program on WICN (Worcester Public Radio) since 2008. Introduced to the Portsmouth Maritime Folk Festival in 2009, since then he has hosted an annual three-hour show featuring maritime music and artists from the PMFF lineup. Beginning in 2014, he has regularly hosted venues at the Festival and has twice been a featured PMFF performer leading the crowd in singing as “Nick Noble & Friends.” A retired educator and author of seven books on historical topics (including one on folk music history), Nick has been a member of the PMFF Board since 2019-20, currently serving as Treasurer.
Jamie Bishop
Planning Committee Chair
Volunteer Coordinator
Artist Committee
Though she’s originally from Texas, Jamie’s felt the pull of the New England coast and the Atlantic Ocean since she first visited them when she was five. She likes to think it’s because her 10th great grandmother, who’s a ghost on the Phantom Ship of the New Haven Colony (1646), calls her to the sea. Jamie has always loved community singing, but she fell in love with maritime and traditional folk music at Mystic Seaport’s Sea Music Festival and the Old Songs Festival in 2002. Her love of the music inspired her to found Maude’s Music and Maude’s Closet Concerts in 2005, organize Western Mass. Pub & Chantey Sings in Williamsburg, MA in 2007, and Northampton Pub & Chantey Sings in 2012. Currently, Jamie is a traditional folk singer who plays a little ukulele, whistle, and concertina. She is currently a student studying French, history, and music, and a member of her church choir. Jamie has served on the PMFF Advisory Committee since 2019 and has been a full board member since 2020.
Jeff Keller
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Lynz Morahn
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Persis Thorndike
Persis Thorndike’s mother sang sea chantey’s to her at bedtime from the time she was small. Persis has been singing science fiction folk music since 1994, and discovered PMFF and chantey singing (again) in 2015. Persis comes to the Board with a long history (30 years) of running folk festivals and science fiction conventions, and has spent the past two years running the virtual PMFF’s and the monthly chantey sings along with other festivals. Persis has been on the PMFF Board since 2019, and is happy to sing along with almost anyone!
ADVISORY COMMITTEE
Jay Boland
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Janet Buck
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Cate Clifford
Cate Clifford has had a soft spot in her heart and her calendar for PMFF since she first attended. She’s honored to have had a hand in carrying its traditions forward with the new Crew, as a Board and Advisory Committee member, since 2020. As a singer and student of traditional music, as a human whose heart found home in the New England tradfolk community, as an evangelist of social singing, she loves this festival. Whoever you are, however you got here, she hopes you do too. Welcome! She thanks the PMFF Crew for all all all they’ve done and given to make this thing Go, this year and before.
Julia Eager
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Nicole Hourihan
Nicole first started playing fiddle in Boston back in 2011, soon became a fiddle teacher themself, and has been in the local folk music scene ever since. They have sung live on WICN Radio and collaborated on several CDs, and nowadays they perform live gigs in the southern Maine and New Hampshire area. Nicole spent five years working on submarines and is currently a deckhand based out of coastal Maine. They have been a festival volunteer since 2012 and joined the PMFF Advisory Board in 2019
Bill Lehrman
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Linn Phipps
Linn has hugely enjoyed making new, virtual links with worldwide singing communities through Zoom sings during the pandemic period. She is passionate about finding ways to sustain these amazing links. She has been involved as a deliverer and volunteer at virtual folk festivals, particularly across the USA, for nearly two years. For over 40 years a Gaelic singer. Linn started shanty singing in the lockdown. Now she hosts a Sopranos shanty crew and sings with many regular UK/ US shanty sings. From her base in the UK, Linn will be leading on PMFF’s Virtual component in September 2022.
Amy Pigeon
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Ernie Pigeon
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Heidi Slaney
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In addition to the above, we also rely on an extended network of people who contribute their time and skills in various ways too – and we thank them all!