Away Santiana! Call and response shanty

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Away Santiana! – Folk Band Shanty with Spirited Instrumentals

In my version of “Santiana”, I’ve kept the original call-and-response structure that made this shanty such a staple of shipboard work, but given it a full folk band treatment. Alongside the strong chorus vocals, you’ll hear spirited accordion, fiddle, flute, and bodhrán passages—turning the pauses between verses into lively instrumental breaks, much as a crew might have embellished a familiar tune when the work rhythm allowed.

Historically, “Santiana” (also Santy Anna, Santy Anno, Santiano) dates from the mid-19th century and refers to the Mexican General Antonio López de Santa Anna. The events in the lyrics are a creative re-interpretation of history—many versions celebrate Mexican victories that, in reality, went to the United States during the Mexican–American War. Sailors often altered facts to suit the mood, the audience, or simply because the song travelled faster than the truth.

Shanty researcher Stan Hugill recorded that “Santiana” began as a pump shanty, later becoming a capstan shanty as iron ships replaced wooden ones. The steady, driving rhythm is ideal for work like weighing anchor, and its robust chorus makes it equally effective as a forebitter (a song sung off-duty for entertainment). My setting leans into that capstan feel—forward momentum and unity in every beat.

Over the last fifty years, the song has appeared in many guises:
• Paul Clayton and The Clancy Brothers brought it into the folk revival repertoire in the 1960s.
• Odetta (1956) and The Kingston Trio (1958) recorded a California Gold Rush variant.
• The Weavers sang of a voyage from Boston to California.
• The Longest Johns included it on their 2018 album Between Wind and Water, and later in a mixed French–English version with Justine Galmiche (SKÁLD).
• Groups from Germany, Wales, Iceland, and Norway have recorded versions in their own languages, from folk treatments to rock and even metal interpretations.

Other lyrics have been set to this same melody—notably French singer Hugues Aufray’s 1961 hit Santiano, about a voyage from Saint Malo to San Francisco. Like many shanties, the tune is flexible, the chorus infectious, and the verses endlessly adaptable.

My version draws on the narrative strain of the Mexican–American War while embracing the seafaring vitality of a working shanty. I imagined it not just as a work song, but as a performance below decks or on the fo’c’sle head—men stamping their boots in time, voices ringing, instruments driving the pulse. It’s a nod both to the hard graft of shipboard life and to the camaraderie and release music brought to those far from home.

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