Trans Trio’s Ship-Shape Queering of Maritime Music is Seaport Concert’s Free Booty

Queer History: Chanteys and Sailors

Sunday, July 26, 2:30pm

At the South Street Seaport Museum (213 Water St, NYC)

Get free tickets here

BY SCOTT STIFFLER | It’s late July, and Fleet Week’s swoon-inducing wave of sailors dressed in their tightest whites has come and gone. But that’s no reason to stop hanging out down by the docks! Turns out the sea, sans men, still has options for salty dogs in search of something alluring.

Set to rescue your dreary Sunday is this free afternoon of hidden history, revealed through songs and stories from The Ranzo Boys—New York City’s “premier trans maritime trio.”

Promotional press for the event promises a thought-provoking, joyful blend of “folk music, sea chanteys, and engaging storytelling” as The Ranzo Boys “explore queer narratives of the Golden Age of Sail—from Walt Whitman’s dockside trysts to sailors using sea voyages to transition to living as men—as well as the vibrant, queer community that continues to surround sea music today.”

Formed in NYC in 2020, The Ranzo Boys are Lafayette Matthews (he/him), Jules Peiperl (they/them), and Lindsey Smith (they/she). The trio, all traditional folk singers, took that shared background and set sail on a mission to “put the queerness back into maritime and folk music.” They’ve done just that, having built up a repertoire comprised of English harmonies, Appalachian ballads, sea chanteys, and “droney instrumental backing.” Eight of their songs have been featured in this national NPR special, and can also be heard on their website.

The Boys benefit from their bare bones instrumental arrangements, which lets listeners focus on the storytelling-strong lyrics and the trio’s tight vocals, dripping with melancholy and menace. Such is the case with Charles Gibbs, a biographical tune based on the real-life, 1798-born pirate, whose time on the high seas saw dozens of ships captured and, according to chatty braggart Charles, the murder of some 400 unlucky crew and passengers. Say The Ranzo Boys, in song:

We hoisted up the black flag

A pirate I became 

I then committed cruelties

Too dreadful for to name

No sex or age we spareth

But all we took were slain

No mercy did we ever show

For dead men tell no tales

“Dead men” indeed. History tells us that in 1831, Gibbs was hanged for his crimes—and while you won’t find those nice Ranzo Boys condoning the bloody business of a pirate’s life, it’s clear this trio of trans artists have found kindred spirits in the outsiders, rebels, and risk-taking adventure-seekers who populate their maritime-themed material. See it, and hear it, for yourself—July 26 at the South Street Seaport Museum. Click here for free tickets.

—END—

LGBTQCommunityNews.nyc is an independent, free source of queer-centric news, arts, info, and opinion content. Our website, podcast, and quarterly newspaper are funded by advertising revenue and reader donations. To support this project, click here for the GoFundMe campaign. Questions? Comments? Click here to contact us. To join the subscriber list of our free ENewsletter, click here.