The 12th annual Portsmouth Maritime Folk Festival celebrates songs of the sea; the Pawtuckaway Music Festival celebrates songs of the Seacoast.

Traditional sea songs have been blowing across the oceans for at least the last six centuries, and probably much longer. “It’s very difficult to pinpoint,” said local musician and folk collector Tom Hall. “We know sailors were singing while they worked as far back as the late 1400s. But as far as it being a regular activity, I think the earliest we can go is 1830-something.” 

American author Richard Henry Dana referenced maritime music in his classic 1840 memoir “Two Years before the Mast.” Many songs originated from the West Indies or Africa, while others developed throughout Europe and spread around the globe from bustling seaports in England. 

“No matter where you went in the world, every town had what they called a sailor town where there were whorehouses, taverns, cheap lodging and boardinghouse keepers. That’s pretty much a universal thing,” Hall said. “The songs traveled all over the English and American merchant services. And even the Dutch and Germans, they were singing songs in English because they didn’t have that many in their own languages. But there were some in every language. Liverpool was one of the major seaports in the world, and because there were so many Irishmen coming to Liverpool and working there, a tremendous Irish influence came into the music.”

The flavor of these sea songs from around the world can be sampled during the 12th annual Portsmouth Maritime Folk Festival on Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 24 and 25. Around 15 featured acts will perform at roughly a dozen locations throughout downtown Portsmouth, keeping a centuries-old tradition alive on the Seacoast.

The main event takes place on Saturday night at the United Methodist Church on Miller Avenue, featuring native Maine folk icon Gordon Bok, local quartet Great Bay Sailor, and English-born folk musician John Roberts.

First held in 2000, the Maritime Folk Festival stems, in part, from the Friday afternoon traditional music sessions at The Press Room. Hall has been involved in hosting those sessions since their inception nearly 30 years ago, in 1982. 

Another long-time performer at the traditional sessions is Jeff Warner, who co-founded the festival with Peter Contrastano. The pair helped organize an outdoor concert of maritime music on the grounds of Strawbery Banke Museum in 1999. The following year, in keeping with the traditions of the British Isles, they spread the festival throughout the community, fanning out from the “quarterdeck” in Market Square. 

Hall and his wife Linn Schulz are now producers of the festival. As they settled in for an evening of folk songs at The Press Room on a recent Friday, they reflected on the festival’s success over the past decade. Guests travel from Boston, Vermont and northern Maine to attend the event each year, while others stumble across the music by chance as they stroll around downtown Portsmouth.

Noting that all the performances are acoustic except the Saturday night concert, Shulz said organizers strive to keep the festival intimate.

“Things have grown, but we don’t want to get too big, because the whole point of it is the fact that we are bringing the music to the people right here,” she said. “You’re at arm’s length from the performers. You can participate with the performers. If it gets too big, we lose that.”

One of those performers is local musician Emery Hutchins, who performs an eclectic array of Irish, Scottish, British and American folk songs on guitar, concertina, banjo and bodhran. He said traditional sea songs provide a window into local history.

“I really think you get a flavor of what it was like 100 years ago or maybe even 200 years ago,” Hutchins said. “If you listen to the lyrics, you can tell what times were like back in those days. It was rough going, you know? It was really rough going.”

Hutchins said his grandfather was a schooner captain who got caught in a hurricane in Boston Harbor in 1893. Back then, he notes, there was no advance warning of storms. His grandfather and the rest of the crew miraculously survived, anchoring down the boat and waiting out the storm overnight.  

“They tied it off and anchored real solidly in the harbor, and then they all got down below decks,” Hutchins said. “He never thought he was going to make it through the night.”

On top of the mortal dangers of the sea, sailors faced deplorable working conditions and often earned next to nothing for their troubles.

“In fact, after Dana published ‘Two Years before the Mast,’ they started passing laws for the benefit of sailors because the conditions were so horrible,” Hall said. “If you were a merchant sailor you got paid a regular salary. If you were on a whaler, you got a share of what the ship brought home, and it could be a pitifully small amount.”

Those hardships come across in the music, echoing the fishing and shipping industries that have long been fixtures of coastal New England. Even songs that originated in other parts of the world often resonate locally. Shulz pointed to “The Sandgate Girl’s Lament.” The song came from northern England and features mention of a keelboat, similar to the gundalows that once navigated local waterways.

Festival headliner Gordon Bok, who grew up in the boatyards of Camden, Maine, spent years working on various schooners and yachts, and his songs often reflect those experiences. Bok has performed around the world and has appeared on Garrison Keillor’s “A Prairie Home Companion.”

Other featured performers in this year’s festival include Jeff Warner, Alison Lee Freeman, Charlie Ipcar, Knockabout, Chris Maden, Mudhook, Proper Ladies, Mark Ryder, Bob Stewart and Bob Webb. 

A new addition this year is a children’s program that Warner will lead at RiverRun Bookstore on Saturday morning, introducing a new generation to traditional sea songs. For a full schedule of events, visit www.newenglandfolknetwork.org/pmff/.

2011 Pawtuckaway Music Festival

Saturday, Oct. 8

In 2010, Joey Pratt and friends followed their dream to create the first-ever Pawtuckaway Music Festival. In doing so, they put another pin on the map of the Seacoast music scene. It all came together thanks to some “amazing volunteer work, borrowed equipment and sheer luck,” Pratt says. This year will feature performances by a family tree of Seacoast musicians, including Audrey Ryan, Dan Blakeslee, Gramafoma, Fire Tower, Jonee Earthquake Band, Cuddle Magic, Gideon Brown, A Minor Revolution, and Tim Horgan, visual art by a dozen local artists, and performing arts as well. There will also be plenty of field games and fun. It takes place 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.; tickets are $7 in advance, $10 at the gate, and $4 for children under 12. Visit www.pawtuckawaymusicfestival.com.