When it comes to pirates, Tom Mason and the Blue Buccaneers don’t just talk the talk, they walk the plank. Well, at least they sing about it. The group isn’t just singing about the pirate life – they do an entire dress performance that mixes history lessons and cultural references with what defined pirates, past the stereotypes.
If You Want to Be A Pirate is 10 tracks that demonstrate the lives and times of the buccaneer lifestyle. Of course, it’s mostly sanitized for impressionable young minds. And the ecological message is strongly emphasized, with “Treasure Through the Trash” and “Treasure the Sea” essentially making the same point:
We brought our shipload of detritus to dispose of on dry land
But as we neared the shore we only saw more rubbish on the beach’s sand
There was paper and plastic and styrofoam
there where the swimmers should be
So we took out our rakes to correct the mistakes
of messy humanity
I’m going to steer clear of seagoing-related puns (mostly). Judging a group strictly on their music is the task at hand. Mason and company are accomplishing a commendable achievement, in bringing the era of sea roving plundering and peril to life. If You Want to Be A Pirate offers a cautionary tale of blowhard-y nostalgia and equates it to treachery in the era of technology. Lest ye be warned, as the parrot flies.
If You Want to Be A Pirate is available September 7 from Tom Mason’s website, Amazon, and Apple Music.
Here is the video for the band’s song, “Talk Like A Pirate Day”:
