Sing the dirtiest of sea shanties in one life and change sex in another.

June 12, 2023 5:26 AM

Happy Pride Month! Louisa Jo Killen [Wikipedia] was a folk singer in the UK tradition. She spent most of her career performing under her birth gender and name Lou Killen [5m, 2008 performance]. Here is a 2010 performance in her preferred gender. [6m, very low audio] Her transition shortly before her death led a very conservative community into enlightenment. On this day: The Clancy Brothers' Louisa Jo Killen dies in 2013 [Irish Times belated obituary] Before Caitlyn Jenner, Louisa Jo Killen, Folk Song and Shanty Singer [Old Salt Blog] Thank you nebulawindphone for mentioning her.

I'm ashamed I can't sort through this person's history to provide more examples of her music, and have nothing to share of her talking about her life. Maybe others can share songs or interviews if they have them to share.

posted by hippybear (9 comments total)

Thanks for posting this, as someone raised by a Clancys fan dad who sent me to school in their trademark white aran sweaters.
posted by johngoren at 5:44 AM on June 12, 2023

Thank you for posting this! I was thinking of posting something about Louisa Killen to mark the 10th anniversary of her death (coming up in just a few weeks, on 9 Aug) and had been collecting a few links to share.

Here's Pleasant and Delightful sung in 1963, and here it is again in 2008 at the Bridge Folk Club in Newcastle, with an enthusiastic crowd of old folkies joining in the chorus. (I don't wish to criticise the Longest Johns, but their 2021 version feels so mannered when you put it alongside Louisa's performance.)

This Bandcamp page has a collection of sea songs and chanties, including some of the classics of the genre ('Lord Franklin', 'Shoals of Herring'). Here's another favourite: The Flying Cloud. (I suppose Ewan MacColl's recording remains the standard, but I think Louisa's version is better.)

This thread includes a message from Louisa shortly before her death: "I have had a good life and I don't regret any part of it. I have had wonderful experiences and relationships and many of you have been very important in my life. Thank you for that - it wouldn't have been the same without you! I think of you all at different times and in different ways, and I always give thanks for my friends. The energy of my friendships sustains me in so many ways."

I like this quote from the NYT obit: "Ms. Killen told friends in her last days that she had never regretted her life as a man — or her life, however brief, as a woman. Her only disappointment was in not having acquired a more feminine voice. The trademark strapping tenor remained a constant."
posted by verstegan at 6:08 AM on June 12, 2023 [5 favorites]

I had no idea about this part of the Clancy Brothers' history. Thanks for making me one of today's lucky 10,000!
posted by gentlyepigrams at 6:48 AM on June 12, 2023

Also, can I gently push back against the idea of the folksong community as 'very conservative'? If you look at the comments in that Mudcat thread I posted above, you'll find some surprise from people who only knew her as Louis Killen, but the overwhelming response is one of affection, admiration and acceptance. I don't mean to discount the very real prejudice experienced by transgender people, but I see that thread as a reminder that it doesn't have to be that way. Another world is possible.

After all, the folk tradition is full of songs about young women who pass as men in order to go to sea (one of which Louisa recorded, though I can't find it online), so the idea of gender fluidity maybe isn't so hard for the folksong community to accept ..
posted by verstegan at 7:16 AM on June 12, 2023 [4 favorites]

i always wondered if the shitty joke at the end of a mighty wind was generally transphobic or was a specific, injoke against Killen.
posted by PinkMoose at 9:17 AM on June 12, 2023

Its Sea Shanty festival where I live this weekend. The whole town goes out drinking and there are acts at 20+ sites pretty much all day Friday-Sunday. There always seems to be one classic song that gets sung by more groups than others, but plenty of classics overall, plus lots of other stuff, Breton, Irish, Dutch, Cornish, new and traditional. Some big venues, some cozy courtyards.
posted by biffa at 1:42 PM on June 12, 2023

One of our faculty presented on “The Erotic Sea Chanteys of Stan Hugill” on work songs, their narratives, and the people that sang them-and this post is takes the edge off of my missing it, thanks for sharing!
posted by childofTethys at 2:44 PM on June 12, 2023

Thanks for sharing this. It made me very happy.
posted by olykate at 8:23 PM on June 12, 2023

Sea shanties, eh? Don't forget Gavin Friday's Whores of Baltimore.
posted by Paul Slade at 12:37 AM on June 13, 2023