Houston Press 2007 Best Of Houston

Best Pirate Band (2007)
Flying Fish Sailors

From their name to their repertoire, historical nautical themes permeate all that the Flying Fish Sailors do. Each of their albums features a sea shanty or four, and even shanties about such landlubberly subjects as mowing the lawn, and U-Haul trucks. (If you ask them nicely, they’ll don “pseudo-pirate” attire for a gig.)

Guitarist Jay Lee fondly recalls playing a set on the tall ship Elissa in Galveston “” “When we would do the sea shanties, the volunteers on the Elissa knew the words and they would sing along, and it was really cool,” he remembers. So far, that’s been their only show on the briny deep, but they’ve played hundreds of gigs on land. “We’ve laid siege to every place from the Red Lion to the Mucky Duck and boarded many a bar,” Lee says. As the Sea Captain on The Simpsons might put it, “Arrr, this be the yarrest band thar be.”