Storm Weather Shanty Choir

Norwegian Sea Shanty Ensemble

Frontman Haakon Steinar Vatle founded the Storm Weather Shanty Choir in 2000. The inspiration for these salty songs came from the 3- masted Norwegian tall ship "Statsraad Lehmkuhl", where Haakon sailed as crew and shantyman in the period from 1996 - 2005. - he is also probably the only one in the world with a masters degree on shanties (!). Haakon returned home to the island Stord on the wild, beautiful and stormy western coast of Norway, and gathered a bunch of long-haired rockers to combine his love and living interest in maritime history, culture of tall ships and shanties. And the rest is history - as they say. As rockers simply are a sort of landbound seamen, main Shantyman Vatle found his fellowship with Roald Kaldestad, Gisle Østrem, Vidar Vedå, Ronny Sætre and Rune Nesse. 20 years down the road, shantyman Vatle and his crew still have songs to sing, jokes to be made, and drinks to be drunk. The Storm Weather Shanty Choir is known for its hefty and inclusive concerts - and like all finer things of life worth experiencing, it seems they only get better as they age. The choir is known as a colourful element in both the folk music communities and in more rock-oriented music-scenes alike, and their fun and engaging shows are a definite must-see for all music-lovers.