We finished Billy Joel's River of Dreams last night at Singing Aloud. All it needs now is a little polish on the rhythm of the responses, and a strong voice to lead the sopranos who have the tune, and it will be great. Our a capella group numbers have settled, with a solid core of about 14 - 16 'regulars'. It'll be a wrench to be away from them for so long during boating season later in the year.

I promised our conductor that I'd send her the link to Billy Joel's a capella song 'The Longest Time' but I was distracted when I found out about his love of boats. He grew up on Long Island, and worked on a oyster boat for a while.

This song, The Downeaster, Alexa, was written in the 1980s, and is about the depression that hit the "outer lands" when the government instituted heavy-handed fishing regulations that put many fisherman (who had been doing so for generations) out of work, which in turn hit the local economies of these areas hard.I think the song captures the ocean and the hardships faced by fishermen whose livelihood is threatened.


The Downeaster Alexa

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