Great Big Sea

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Great Big Sea

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.[1] 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."[2]. 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.[3] Supporting members of the band include Kris McFarlane (2003) (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.[4] (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,[5] including Group of the Year in 1998 and 2005.

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.

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 in Late Summer/Early Fall to record new material for their new album which should release in February of 2008.

Charts

Year Album Chart Position
1997 Play Top Canadian Albums 9
1999 Turn Top Canadian Albums 9
2000 Road Rage Top Canadian Albums 9
2002 Sea of No Cares Top Canadian Albums 1
2002 Sea of No Cares Top World Music Albums 7
2004 Something Beautiful Top Canadian Albums 4
2004 Something Beautiful Top World Music Albums 3
2005 The Hard And The Easy Top Canadian Albums 3
2005 The Hard And The Easy Top World Music Albums 2

Discography

DVD

Other releases

See also

References

  1. ^ "CanadianBands". canadianbands.com. Retrieved November 26 2006
  2. ^ "Canehdian". Canehdian.com. Retrieved November 26 2006
  3. ^ "The Canadian Encyclopedia". TheCanadian Encyclopedia.com. Retrieved November 26 2006
  4. ^ "East Coast Music Awards inductees". ecma.ca. Retrieved November 26 2006
  5. ^ "Juno Awards/Canadian Music Hall of Fame winner and nominations". juno-awards.ca. Retrieved November 26 2006

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Great_Big_Sea&oldid=161556426"