The Puget Sound Revels will celebrate the coming summer with a solstice sing-along event Thursday at King’s Books in Tacoma.

But in addition to honoring the new season, the Revels also will warm up South Sounders for the impending Tall Ships Tacoma festival with sea chanteys and other songs about life at sea. (The summer solstice starts Friday.)

The event is an “informal and low-key” singalong, said Revels executive director Mary Lynn. “We’ll have song sheets and song leaders, but it’s all geared toward anybody who wants to sit in.”

But, Lynn warns, “We’re not singing old Beatles’ songs.” The evening will include English and Irish drinking songs, sea songs, work songs and “seasonal summer kinds of songs,” she said. Oddly enough, some of the songs cover more than one category. “Give Me the Punch Ladle, I’ll Fathom the Bowl,” for instance, is a “funny old favorite” drinking song that alludes to life at sea, Lynn said.

There’s no need to be familiar with the songs on the schedule, Lynn said. Anyone can sing and have fun, and instruments are encouraged. The drinking songs especially aren’t much of a challenge. “They’re not difficult,” Lynn said. “I mean, they were sung by drunk people.”

Most of the songs will have choruses or other repeatable parts that participants should be able to pick up quickly, Lynn said, adding that the song list likely will feature some more recognizable American tunes in addition to the English and Irish tunes.

“We’re going to include what we think are the most accessible songs,” Lynn said. Some songs are patterned after the familiar “12 Days of Christmas” song where every verse adds another layer until everyone is singing a lengthy song.

“They keep building and building, and by the time you get to final verse, you’re singing this huge fun song,” Lynn said.

The Puget Sound Revels is part of a nationwide family of revels. Lynn said the local group borrowed the sea chantey idea from a group of Revels in Cambridge, Mass., and decided June’s Third Thursday ArtWalk was the perfect time for a warm-up to the Tall Ships festival.

Throughout Tall Ships week, Revels members will appear in three shows as the Dead Reckoning Revels Singers. “The chorus is going to sing some just fabulous songs,” Lynn said. “The music really will give people a window into what it was like to live at sea.”

The Puget Sound Revels incorporated in the spring 1992 and produced its first show a year later. The group’s annual Christmas Revels show at Tacoma’s Rialto Theater has been a holiday tradition since 1994.

Bill Hutchens: 253-597-8460

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What: The Puget Sound Revels present a Solstice Sing

When: 7 p.m. Thursday

Where: King’s Books, 218 St. Helens Ave., Tacoma

Admission: Free

Information: 253-272-8801

Times, dates and locations for the Dead Reckoning Revels Singers performances at Tall Ships:

July 4, 2-2:45 p.m., Northwest Passage Stage

July 5, 7-8 p.m., Tradewinds Stage

July 6, 6-6:45 p.m., Treasure Cove Stage