The River in Sound & Image
A collection of video and audio recordings capturing life along Americaās waterways. Watch, listen, and explore the voices, landscapes, and histories that shape river communities. Browse the latest from our archivesāmoments of conversation, soundscapes of river life, and stories told in the voices of those who live them.
Recent Video
Stories from the river in moving pictures
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Sometimes you open a hatch and find a whole civilization.
This weekās adventure started with one of those innocent āhey, letās check thatā moments. We opened the forward locker where we store life vestsāand accidentally disturbed a long-standing treaty with several insect nations. We didnāt set out to launch an eviction, but when the sawdust starts falling and the structural integrity looks questionable, itās time…
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From Chaos, Shelves
The loft has been a shameful mess for, oh, about a decade. We finally did something about it. What started with a cardboard prototype turned into a full-on buildāpanel glue-ups from pallet wood, rusty vinegar stain, some sketchy lofting techniques, and boom: a custom shelf unit with a secret drawer and a little bit of…
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The Tribunal Convenes
There comes a day in every shantyboatās life when the accumulated cruft must be held accountable. Today was that day. Every object not nailed down faced trial. Some were redeemed. Others were detained indefinitely. A few were possibly innocent but didnāt make a strong enough case. Justice is complicated. What matters is that Dotty now…
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Dotty Work Day ā Engines, Bilges, and (Almost) Explosions
Keeping Dotty afloat takes a village and good tea. Today was one of those deeply satisfying shantyboat work days. The whole crew pitched ināChris got Freddy (our trusty outboard) humming beautifully; James battled bilge wiring; Miah took one for the team handling propane lines and sink leaks. And me? I kept obscure boat parts streaming…
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Weāre Not Going to LieāThis Oneās a Bit Urgent
Thereās no poetic way to say it: the federal government has effectively gutted the arts and humanities. Cultural projects everywhere, including ours, are reeling from this sudden defunding. Grants vanished, promised support evaporated. It’s tough out here for storytelling and truth. But weāre scrappy, and we’ve survived storms, pandemics, and river piratesāso weāre betting on…
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A Totally Reasonable and Not At All Overdramatic Fix
There are plenty of important things to do to get the shantyboat ready for the river. But today? Today is about comfort. Specifically, preventing the captain from thrashing their hand on jagged metal one more time. So instead of working on, say, navigation or rigging, weāve formed a shantyboat sewing circle, painstakingly whip-stitching 320 feet…
Recent Audio
Recordings and soundscapes from the riverās edge
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Stay A Little Longer
On warm nights drifting down the river, weād often sit on the deck with the lanterns lit low, a transistor radio tucked in the corner, and a scratchy country tune bouncing off the water. Bob Wills. Spade Cooley. Hank Penny. Weāve gathered some of those sounds for youāaudio recordings from the shantyboat, including āSongs Drifting…
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Songs Drifting From a Shantyboat – a Playlist
Music drifts across the water on warm summer evenings, mingling with the lapping of waves and the hum of distant voices. These songs echo the slow rhythms of river lifeāfamiliar tunes carried along the current, playing from a shantyboat radio or a dockside porch.
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That Was Weird: Rediscovering The River
Join Archives & Collections Catalyst, Marla Novo, and Abbott Square Music Coordinator, Gabriel Kittle-Cervine, for ‘That Was Weird: Stories from Santa Cruz’, a fresh take on Santa Cruz History with the MAH’s first ever podcast. This month, we sat down with Wes Modes, a local artist, activist, and community member with a great care and…
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The Tillers – Shanty Boat at Payne Hollow Kentucky
By and by, I’ll be coming up on Payne Hollow, the holler where Anna and Harlan Hubbard settled out after 5 years spent floating their shantyboat down the Ohio and the Mississippi Rivers in the 1950s. I’ve heard great things from my shantyboat friend Faith about Paul who was the Hubbard’s young friend and is…
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WAMC Albany: Searching For Hudson River Stories On A Shanty Boat
WAMC Public RadioBy Lucas Willard Listen Now to the WAMC Public Radio story: A recreated mid-century shanty boat is traveling down the Hudson River in search of stories. āA Secret History of American River Peopleā is a project by a California-based artist Wes Modes. Modes took WAMCās Southern Adirondack Bureau Chief Lucas Willard…
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BBC Slow Radio – Life on a shanty boat
A 20-minute watery odyssey – idling down the Tennessee River with the best thunderstorm in a tin shack you are ever going to hear… and some frogsā¦
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BBC Outlook – Building my own ‘shanty boat’
Wes Modes has spent the last few summers sailing along the great rivers of north America, collecting stories from the people who live on their banks. Wes travels in his homemade houseboat – or shanty boat – called Dotty.
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BBC Between The Ears – The Shanty Boat
In a rich tapestry of watery atmosphere, frustration, intimacy, fear and pleasure, we hear a slipping, sliding adventure, where the smell of pancakes, the slap of water and the smoke of cigars wafts over the waters of Americas great rivers.
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Looking Back at the War Against the Dakota People in Minnesota
I was reminded of these interviews recently, and how little I knowĀ when I heard a radio story about the U.S.-Dakota War.The conflict engulfed the very area in which I interviewed the Dakota men.Ā I hadn’t asked Arthur or Art directly about theĀ conflict, though we alluded to it when we talked about the Ft. Snelling Indian concentration…
Oral History Archive
Want to go deeper? Explore hundreds of hours of recorded interviews, featuring voices from river communities.