Raucous crowd requested for The Albany Shantymen’s live CD recording at Albany Town Hall

The Albany Shantymen will take to the boards of the Albany Town Hall on Saturday to record a new album — and they want you to come along to add to the atmosphere.

Singer Andrew Collins said it would be the group’s first “live” album after three studio-based recordings.

“Shanties are such a live experience, so to get some real authenticity we thought let’s do a live recording,” he said.

“Now that this beautiful building has been fixed up — and they hire it for pretty cheap and run the bar — we thought ‘Yes, let’s do it.

“This is our second attempt at it after the first one was scheduled for the peak of Omicron.”

Collins said the group wanted the crowd to be part of the CD.

“A bit of hollering, hooting, foot stomping and whatever they want to do,” he said.

There will be collection tins at the venue to raise money for the Community Living Association’s SingAbility program, which has run out of funding.

“We want those singers to get the program back up and to sing at the Christmas pageant,” Collins said.

The recording session will run from 7.30pm until at least 10pm.

Entry is free.

Tickets can be booked by following links from The Albany Shantymen Facebook page.

“Chances are you can just come down on the night though,” Collins said.

“We want this beautiful old building with its great acoustics at capacity to really build that atmosphere.”