How Rocker John Kraus Found a New Musical Direction While Earning His Sea Legs
- Joel Beers
- 16 hours ago
- 6 min read
The Fullerton musician, who has played in Orange County bands since the 1990s, has released his second album with his current band, the Goers.
It should make sense that last month John Kraus and the Goers dropped “Jug of This,” the ensemble’s second album inspired by sea shanties – except it doesn’t. And not just because these sea shanties sound very little like what you might expect sea shanties to sound like, something akin to a nostalgic collection of chanty choruses and heave-ho harmonies.
What does make sense is the source material. Though largely improvised aboard merchant marine ships in the 19th century to help coordinate shipboard work, sea shanties are traditional folk songs that, despite heavy Afro-Caribbean, French and American influences, are most commonly associated with Irish and Scottish musical traditions. And Celtic folk is something that the nucleus of the Goers – frontman Kraus and drummer/percussionist David Dutton – are quite familiar with: Since the early 1990s, each has performed and recorded with several ensembles indebted to the tradition, starting with one of the most eclectic OC bands of the 1990s, Trip the Spring, and continuing through Barnacle, Bodhi and, since 2013, the Goers.
Also logical: the sea. Kraus has worked aboard tall ships since 1996, eventually earning a 200-ton master’s license, which allows him to skipper a vessel up to 200 tons and within 200 miles of the coast. Today, he captains a ship out of Dana Point for a maritime educational institution (whose name remains diplomatically omitted here).
But none of it was part of the plan, especially for someone who is more artist than authoritarian. Sea shanties would never have popped up on Kraus’s radar had he not pursued a career in the tall ship industry (yes, there is one). It’s a career he stumbled upon quite accidentally; one that he was both unaware of and runs counter to his natural disposition – specifically, an aversion to receiving or giving orders.
“I have been a captain longer than I was a deckhand and I find it interesting that someone who doesn’t feel like they have respected authority their entire life has ended up in an authoritative position,” Kraus says. “I do not miss the irony of that.”
Music Calls First
Music was Kraus’ first calling, and that’s something that makes perfect sense. His father sang in a barbershop quartet. His two older brothers and two older sisters (he’s the youngest by eight years) were, and are, musicians (he performs with his brothers in a Dixieland jazz band). He still fondly recalls singing along with the church choir at the Fullerton Episcopalian church his family attended. And discovering the music of Jethro Tull and meeting Dutton – an “obsessed with U2 drummer” he says – in junior high led Kraus to a lifetime of playing in all kinds of bands.
He found a home as a founding member of the aforementioned Trip the Spring, an integral part of a frenetic, hyper-creative Fullerton artistic scene in the 1990s that included visual and theater artists, poets and bands ranging from Room to Roam and Relish (which along with Trip cracked the top 42 of on the 2003 list of the greatest OC bands ever as determined by the OC Weekly), to Honeyslide, Moonwash, which features guitarist Shon Sullivan, who would go on to tour with Eliott Smith and other notables, and Plato’s Stepchildren.
But after tours, epic desert shows in Calico, and sniffs from record labels, by the mid-1990s the difficulty of sustaining a life playing music was intruding, and Kraus was looking for a direction – but the compass wasn’t pointing anywhere directly.
The Sea Comes Knocking
“I was going to (Fullerton College) but not seriously,” Kraus said. He was paying the bills by working at a health food store and at a local YMCA. One of his responsibilities at the latter was leading a teen camp, and one of the places he picked was Doheny Beach in Dana Point. The day of the camp, Kraus and his group wandered onto the beach at Dana Point and noticed a towering vessel. One of his camp members asked if the ship really sailed and Kraus made a snarky comment about it being cemented like the Queen Mary.
He was quickly corrected by someone who turned out to be Bob Smirl, a shipwright who invited Kraus aboard to see for himself.
“I made a half-hearted promise to show up,” Kraus recalls. “But there was something about how dangerous the ship seemed. Climbing the rigging stuck in my head. So I did show up.”
That first visit turned into a habit. Kraus was soon volunteering, then working on the ship – and hearing sea shanties sung by crusty old-timers who brought global sailing experience and, often, big voices.
“They’d just bust out these songs,” Kraus says. “None of them played instruments. It wasn’t the songs themselves that struck me – it was the fact they were continuing a tradition passed down without technology. No Spotify, no radio. Just voices, passed down. That’s largely gone today.”
The song "Is It Time? (Cornish Farewell)" is on the new album "Jug of This" by John Kraus and The Goers. It was previously released as a single in 2024. It highlights the mash up between the sea shanty and modern musical roots that shape the sound of the band.
Old Stories New Sound
Kraus was also intrigued by how relatively simplistic they were, which made them musically adaptable, and how the lyrical content ranged from hopelessly romantic to rough and rowdy. He admits he’s no sea shanty purist – some might bristle at the sonic and lyrical reworking – but he’s happy to treat the original lyrics and melodies as a foundation, layering in new words and rock, folk and other musical influences to create something entirely new.
That sound is tough to pin down – but that describes most of the music in Kraus’s past projects, from Trip’s progressive/Celtic folk to Barnacle’s self-described “Appalachian punk”; it’s always defied easy labels. Gary Williams of Honeyslide may come closest, calling the Goers’ seafaring material “psychedelic sea shanties.”
Whatever it is, it’s unique, and part of that is the other musicians in the Goers, which include trombonist Bob Aul (Kraus’ brother-in-law) who supplies the bass; and two members of the highly acclaimed roots band Rose’s Pawn Shop: violinist Tim Weed and singer/guitarist Paul Givant.
Sea shanties comprise about half the current album, with Kraus’ originals filling it out. Either way, Dutton says Kraus’ writing always sparks exploration.
“John is one of those musicians who has always come to the table with something he’s written on guitar but that always seems to have something going on underneath,” says Dutton. “He’s not a three-chords-and-the-truth kind of guitarist; he brings all these nuances, and I can hear things within his music that aren’t there but seem like they could be – whether it’s strings in one part or a banjo, or whatever. And we can talk about these while we’re recording or just sitting around jamming. And he’s so open and creative that it just makes for a very exciting way to create and play music.”
Live, the Goers play the shanties Kraus and bandmates have developed, as well as a legion of original songs and covers ranging from Tom Waits and the Pogues to the Waterboys and Styx (“Come Sail Away” has never sounded better) to Jethro Tull. But while Kraus is as comfortable playing and producing music, or captaining a vessel, he strives to keep each aspect separate in his personal life. Few of the people he works with onboard his ship know his musical side, and he doesn’t brandish the fact that he’s a captain on stage.
“I try to keep those things separate because I don’t want anyone to think that I represent (his employer) through my music, and I don’t want anyone to think that just because I have a day job I don’t take music seriously,” he said. “If someone finds out about one through the other, fine, but there’s a tendency for some to think that if you’re dedicated to the sea, that’s it—or if you play music, that’s all you do. I don’t want to be boxed in. I’d rather be viewed on my own terms.”
For information on upcoming shows and how to download “Jug of This,” visit www.johnkrausandthegoers.com.
