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about
Island Girls is a preview single from our new musical, Miss Mitchell.
The song was inspired by the poem "Nantucket Girls Song," an anonymously written poem dating to at least the mid-1800s, which captures some of the female-led ethos of Nantucket during this time period. While the men were out at sea for years on end on whaling voyages, women ran the island.
MISS MITCHELL shines a light on Maria Mitchell, a pioneer American astronomer and educator, and her close, complicated relationship with her “binary star” sister Phebe.
Miss Mitchell was originally commissioned by Ensemble Studio Theater and the Sloan Foundation. It has received additional support from the National Endowment for the Arts, White Heron Theater, and New York Stage and Film.
lyrics
I wanna be a sailor’s wife
A purse full of money and an easy life
For a sailor is so seldom home
I’ll have a will that’s all my own
I’ll marry him first, then he’s off to sea
So I can stay and live a life that’s free
I wanna be whalers bride
With a shop to keep and a store to mind
For a whaler’s journey’s good and long
I can fill my days with work and song
For Island girls are strong and free
and that’s the way, the way we’re made to be
For when he says ‘goodbye my love, I’m off across the sea’
First I’ll shed a lonely tear, then laugh because I’m free
I don’t belong to anyone
I’m out with the stars and up with the sun
I read the world and understand
I won’t be kept by any man
For Island girls are strong and free
and that’s the way, the way we’re made to be
For Island girls are strong and free
and that’s the way, the way we’re made to be
credits
released May 9, 2022
Written by Tommy Crawford and Alex Grubbs
Laura Dadap - lead vocals, cello
Alex Grubbs - acoustic guitar
Tommy Crawford - acoustic guitar
Tony Aidan Vo - backing vocals, drums
Eloise Eonnet - backing vocals, tambourine
Kristin Slaney - backing vocals
Recorded by John Gilmartin
at Caleb Cressman's Studio, Nantucket, MA
July 2021
Mixed by John Gilmartin
Mastered by Gerry Putman
at Cedar House Sound, Sullivan, NH
Special thanks to Almanack Arts Colony, Caleb and Callie Cressman, Jascin N. Leonardo Finger, The Maria Mitchell Institute, Jill Sandole, The National Endowment for the Arts, Ensemble Studio Theater, The Sloan Foundation, and White Heron Theater
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