On October 1, 2015, the 791-foot long El Faro was steaming on a regularly-scheduled route between Jacksonville, Florida, and San Juan, Puerto Rico, when it voyaged into the eyewall of Hurricane Joaquin northeast of the Bahamas and was overcome by winds and seas. All 33 persons on board went missing.
“The complete loss of a large U. S.-flagged vessel and crew at sea is extremely rare in the 21st century,” says Popiel in a press release about the song. “The El Faro is one of the most striking examples since the loss of the Edmund Fitzgerald on Lake Superior in 1975. After reading the transcripts of the El Faro crew’s discussions during their final day, I was stirred to pay a musical tribute to them.”
Popiel says the tune represents his contribution to pop rock’s various ship story songs, and he cites Gordon Lightfoot’s “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” as an inspiration.
“With ‘El Faro,’ I decided to take a slightly different tack with the lyrics,” he says. “[It’s] less about ‘here’s what happened’ and more about ‘what would you do?’ and ‘how does it feel’? Having served onboard ships during a number of storms in the Atlantic, I remember the uneasy feeling of the vessels battling green water over the bow, steel shuddering immensely, and taking rolls big enough to throw you out of your bed, all while being seasick. Certainly, whatever the crew of El Faro faced and felt was far worse than that. These courageous men and women, and the families they left behind, deserve to be remembered.”
Popiel performed all instruments on the track, including acoustic and electric guitars, mandolin, bass guitar, piano, drums and vocals. He recorded, mixed and mastered the track at his home studio in Cleveland, Ohio.
This article appears in Best of Cleveland 2023.