The Springbank Voyage, the new album from Shetland folk musician Barry Nisbet, tells the story of the Clydebuilt four-masted sailing barque Springbank and her 1908 journey from Hamburg to Mexico. 

The ship’s crew included a woman from Liverpool, a captain from Newfoundland, five Shetlanders, one Orcadian, and various sailors from England, Scotland and Denmark. Heartbreak, danger, wonder and tragedy followed the voyage round Cape Horn to their destination.

A skilled guitarist, fiddler and songwriter with music that has been compared to influences from the late Iain MacKintosh to the Waterboys, Barry Nisbet is inspired by stories, both historical and contemporary. His songs give a sensitive, occasionally humorous take on past and contemporary events; his fiddle has a style that derives from the local Cullivoe Fiddlers tradition in Shetland. 

He says: ‘The story of the Springbank has fascinated me since I first heard it from storyteller Lawrence Tulloch in Shetland as a child; my retelling for this album is inspired by many of my own experiences sailing square rig ships in the Pacific between 2000-2008’.

Says Shetland fiddler Jenna Reid: “My friend Barry has written an album of wonderful music. I love it but most of all I’d like you all to love it too. Barry is one of the most gifted people I know – at home with any stringed instrument or captaining a ship on the seven seas. Find him here with his music, beautifully drawing on the traditions of Shetland and his life on the water.”

The Springbank Voyage has been funded by Creative Scotland and supports Scotland’s Year of Stories, 2022.

Recording took place in early 2022 at TPot Studios, Perthshire with musicians including Pepita Emmerichs, Adrian Dacre, Eilidh Grant, Theo Barnard, Stephen Jack, Miriam Iorwerth, Harry Bird and Ellen Gira. Spoken word samples are incorporated from Lawrence Tulloch (1942-2017), Alice Jamieson, and Helen Nisbet.

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