Great Big Sea

Infobox musical artist |
Name = Great Big Sea


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Background = group_or_band
Origin = St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada
Genre = Celtic rock
Folk-rock
Years_active = 1993-Present
Label = Warner Music Canada
Rounder Records USA
Associated_acts = Murray Foster
Kris MacFarlane
URL = [http://www.greatbigsea.com www.greatbigsea.com]
Current_members = Alan Doyle
Séan McCann
Bob Hallett
Past_members = Darrell Power

Great Big Sea (often shortened to GBS) is a Canadian folk-rock band from Newfoundland and Labrador, best known for performing energetic rock interpretations of traditional Newfoundland folk songs including sea shanties, which draw from the island's 500-year-old Irish, English, and French heritage. The band also performs original material.

History

The band played its first official gig on March 11, 1993, opening for the Irish Descendants at Memorial University in St. John's, Newfoundland. [cite web | title= CanadianBands| work=canadianbands.com|url=http://www.canadianbands.com Retrieved November 26 2006] The founding band members included Alan Doyle (vocals, guitar, bouzouki, mandolin), Séan McCann (vocals, bodhrán, guitar, tin whistle), Darrell Power (vocals, bass, guitar, bones), and Bob Hallett (vocals, fiddle, accordion, mandolin, concertina, bouzouki, whistles, bagpipes). Power, McCann and Hallett had already been playing together with a woman named Jackie St. Croix in a band called "Rankin Street." According to Doyle, Rankin Street owned a PA, and he owned a van, which made Great Big Sea "a match made in heaven." [cite web | title=Canehdian| work=Canehdian.com |url=http://www.canehdian.com Retrieved November 26 2006] . They toured nearly constantly for the band's first several years, sometimes travelling as many as 300 days a year.

Power retired from Great Big Sea in 2003 to spend more time with his family and friends. [cite web | title=The Canadian Encyclopedia| work=TheCanadian Encyclopedia.com|url=http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com Retrieved November 26 2006] Supporting members of the band include Canadian freelance drummer Kris MacFarlane (2002) (drums, accordion, guitar, backing vocals) and Murray Foster (2003, formerly of the band Moxy Früvous) (bass, backing vocals).

The band won the "Entertainer of the Year" award at the East Coast Music Awards for every year between 1996 and 2000. [cite web | title= East Coast Music Awards inductees| work=ecma.ca|url=http://www.ecma.ca/s_51.asp Retrieved November 26 2006] In 2001, they decided not to submit their name for nomination in order to allow other bands to compete. They have also been nominated for several Juno Awards, [cite web | title= Juno Awards/Canadian Music Hall of Fame winner and nominations| work=juno-awards.ca|url=http://www.juno-awards.ca Retrieved November 26 2006] including Group of the Year in 1998 and 2005.

In the 2000 Canadian Federal Election, controversy occurred when Stockwell Day and the Canadian Alliance used the band's hit single, "Ordinary Day", at a rally without their permission. The band noted that this was a copyright violation and ordered that Day cease using the song for campaigning purposes. [ [http://www.cbc.ca/news/story/2000/10/24/sea001024.html 'Don't use our song,' Great Big Sea tells Day ] ]

Great Big Sea's first concert DVD and videos collection, the "Great Big DVD", saw release in Canada and the United States in 2003 and Europe in 2004.

In late 2005, the band released its long-awaited "traditional" album, "The Hard and the Easy", on which they recorded their favourite Newfoundland party songs. The title of the album comes from a line of the song "Tickle Cove Pond", one of two songs on the album about a horse falling through ice.

Also in late 2005, Great Big Sea released its first podcast, with clips of the band bantering back and forth in the studio mixed with various songs by them and other artists. They have since released several podcasts.

On February 9, 2006, the band's tour bus tipped on its side into a ditch on the Trans-Canada Highway about 80 kilometres east of Vancouver near Abbotsford. Their driver suffered minor head injuries, but everyone in the band was unhurt. The band went on to continue their tour including their performance that evening at The Centre in Vancouver for Performing Arts just hours after the accident. [cite web | title=Inside the Great Big Sea tour bus crash| work= Blogaholics.ca|url= http://www.blogaholics.ca/archives/2006/02/inside_the_grea.html Retrieved May 20 2008]

On November 21, 2006, the band released their second concert DVD, "Courage & Patience & Grit", recorded in Belleville, Ontario. It is also the second release by the band to be titled by a line from their 2005 song, "Tickle Cove Pond".

On June 13, 2007, the band stated that they are going to be going back into the studio during the late summer to early fall to record new material for a new album. It will be produced by Hawksley Workman, and should be released in June 2008.

On March 14, 2008, the band announced that the title of their new album would be "Fortune's Favour", borrowing a phrase from one of the songs on the album, "England". Prior to the release, a few of the songs that were eventually included on the album were played at live concerts, including "Love Me Tonight", "Walk on the Moon" "The Rocks of Merasheen", "Straight To Hell", and "Oh Yeah". On April 17, 2008, the band's website announced that the first single from Fortune's Favour would be "Walk on the Moon". People who pre-ordered the album from the band's official website were also treated to exclusive digital downloads of the songs "Belong (A Capella)" and "Gallow's Pole". The album was officially released on June 24, 2008 across all of North America.

Discography

Albums

Other releases

*2005: Podcasts
*2006: Podcasts
*2007: Podcasts

ee also

*Canadian rock
*List of bands from Canada
*Music of Canada
*Music of Newfoundland and Labrador

References

External links

* [http://www.greatbigsea.com The official website of Great Big Sea]
* [http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=A1ARTU0004061 An article on the Canadian band Great Big Sea from the "Encyclopedia of Music in Canada"]