Great Big Sea to play home date at Mile One Centre; band hopes Obama hears 'Ordinary Day' February 14 2009 (No Copyright Infringement Intended).
They've been playing to large crowds since 1993, but the members of Great Big Sea still get nervous on stage - only when they're performing in Newfoundland.
"Our moms are always there," explained band member Sean McCann. "Maybe we'll convince them to babysit for us this time."
"Our moms are always there," explained band member Sean McCann. "Maybe we'll convince them to babysit for us this time."
They've been playing to large crowds since 1993, but the members of Great Big Sea still get nervous on stage - only when they're performing in Newfoundland.
"Our moms are always there," explained band member Sean McCann. "Maybe we'll convince them to babysit for us this time."
The band - McCann, Alan Doyle and Bob Hallett, along with supporting members Kris MacFarlane and Murray Foster - will play at Mile One Centre March 14 in support of their ninth studio release, "Fortune's Favour," as part of an Atlantic Canada tour. Opening for them will be Vancouver-based Spirit of the West.
While Great Big Sea has had the opportunity to play with dozens of bands over the years, including The Chieftains and The Pogues, Spirit of the West is one the band is particularly looking forward to working with, since the members consider them a longtime influence.
"I remember seeing Spirit of the West years ago, when they came to Newfoundland first, at a Peace-a-Chord concert," McCann said. "There were just three of them, and they were playing traditional tunes and reels and jigs and stuff like that, with the flute and the mandolin, but they really attacked it with an aggression that was more punk rock than anything else. It had a real effect on us and we started doing some of their tunes. Their intensity is something we certainly paid attention to, and tried to bring to our own show as we progressed."
While Great Big Sea's success has progressed since their debut, self-titled album was released in 1993, their energy remains the same. Even after singer/guitarist/bass player Darrell Power retired from the band six years ago, they've continued playing the same high-pace, animated live shows they always had. Over the past year, they've concentrated mainly on performing in the States, and recently returned from a fan cruise called Ships and Dip, hosted by Barenaked Ladies.
Went gold
"Fortune's Favour," produced by Hawksley Workman, was released across North America last June, and went gold by September, meaning every album Great Big Sea has ever recorded has been certified gold or platinum in Canada. It's predicted the CD will reach platinum status by the time the 2009 Juno Awards are held in Vancouver March 29. Great Big Sea is nominated for the group of the year award.
While McCann is "delighted" with the nomination, he's taking it with a grain of salt, for now.
"I think this is probably our 50th nomination, and we've never won one. Maybe this will be our lucky year, who knows," he said with a chuckle. "It's great to be nominated for group of the year, but I'm afraid to start hoping, because we've been invited to the dance before."
More impressive than the Juno nomination, McCann said, is the fact that Great Big Sea's song "Ordinary Day" was voted among CBC Radio 2's top 49 songs to send to U.S. President Barack Obama.
In January, CBC held a vote for "49 Songs from North of the 49th Parallel" that would best define Canada for Obama. "Ordinary Day" was included with songs like The Guess Who's "American Woman," Neil Young's "Rockin' in the Free World," and Stompin' Tom Connors' "The Hockey Song."
"I hope he gets to hear it," McCann said of Obama. "I'm very proud of him. He's got a lot of weight on his shoulders, and I wouldn't want his job right now."
Eager to play
Nervous or not, the band members are looking forward to playing in St. John's next month, and showing local fans the show they've been putting off in places like Hollywood. It's the best live show Great Big Sea has ever done, McCann said, adding it was designed for big stadiums.
"Expect a lot of energy, and a very strong visual show," he said. "I don't want to give anything away, but we spent a lot of time designing our stage and our sets. We're trying to excite every sense."
"Our moms are always there," explained band member Sean McCann. "Maybe we'll convince them to babysit for us this time."
The band - McCann, Alan Doyle and Bob Hallett, along with supporting members Kris MacFarlane and Murray Foster - will play at Mile One Centre March 14 in support of their ninth studio release, "Fortune's Favour," as part of an Atlantic Canada tour. Opening for them will be Vancouver-based Spirit of the West.
While Great Big Sea has had the opportunity to play with dozens of bands over the years, including The Chieftains and The Pogues, Spirit of the West is one the band is particularly looking forward to working with, since the members consider them a longtime influence.
"I remember seeing Spirit of the West years ago, when they came to Newfoundland first, at a Peace-a-Chord concert," McCann said. "There were just three of them, and they were playing traditional tunes and reels and jigs and stuff like that, with the flute and the mandolin, but they really attacked it with an aggression that was more punk rock than anything else. It had a real effect on us and we started doing some of their tunes. Their intensity is something we certainly paid attention to, and tried to bring to our own show as we progressed."
While Great Big Sea's success has progressed since their debut, self-titled album was released in 1993, their energy remains the same. Even after singer/guitarist/bass player Darrell Power retired from the band six years ago, they've continued playing the same high-pace, animated live shows they always had. Over the past year, they've concentrated mainly on performing in the States, and recently returned from a fan cruise called Ships and Dip, hosted by Barenaked Ladies.
Went gold
"Fortune's Favour," produced by Hawksley Workman, was released across North America last June, and went gold by September, meaning every album Great Big Sea has ever recorded has been certified gold or platinum in Canada. It's predicted the CD will reach platinum status by the time the 2009 Juno Awards are held in Vancouver March 29. Great Big Sea is nominated for the group of the year award.
While McCann is "delighted" with the nomination, he's taking it with a grain of salt, for now.
"I think this is probably our 50th nomination, and we've never won one. Maybe this will be our lucky year, who knows," he said with a chuckle. "It's great to be nominated for group of the year, but I'm afraid to start hoping, because we've been invited to the dance before."
More impressive than the Juno nomination, McCann said, is the fact that Great Big Sea's song "Ordinary Day" was voted among CBC Radio 2's top 49 songs to send to U.S. President Barack Obama.
In January, CBC held a vote for "49 Songs from North of the 49th Parallel" that would best define Canada for Obama. "Ordinary Day" was included with songs like The Guess Who's "American Woman," Neil Young's "Rockin' in the Free World," and Stompin' Tom Connors' "The Hockey Song."
"I hope he gets to hear it," McCann said of Obama. "I'm very proud of him. He's got a lot of weight on his shoulders, and I wouldn't want his job right now."
Eager to play
Nervous or not, the band members are looking forward to playing in St. John's next month, and showing local fans the show they've been putting off in places like Hollywood. It's the best live show Great Big Sea has ever done, McCann said, adding it was designed for big stadiums.
"Expect a lot of energy, and a very strong visual show," he said. "I don't want to give anything away, but we spent a lot of time designing our stage and our sets. We're trying to excite every sense."
Sean McCann flies solo by Tara Bradbury published on 5 February 2011 (no copyright infringement intended).
If Merle Haggard or Johnny Cash had spent much time in Newfoundland, their CDs might have turned out a lot like Séan McCann’s latest one.
Less than a year after his debut solo release, “Lullabies for Bloodshot Eyes,” McCann is releasing his second, called “Son of a Sailor,” on Tuesday, mixing old-time country with a touch of local traditional music.
The new album was written, McCann said, in hotel rooms, dressing rooms, airports and tour buses over the past year, Great Big Sea’s busiest one to date.
“Lullabies” was a personal, introspective album dedicated to his two sons (Keegan, 5, and Fin, 3), and this one is a dedication, too: to a disappearing way of life.
“I was born out in Carbonear, but my family’s from Gull Island and Northern Bay. We had dories in the water; we could get up in the morning and catch tomcods, cut out tongues. I spent my days out on the water, rowing around and jigging cod, and I had a great time,” McCann explained. “I think those days are, by and large, gone. You’re not allowed to do that now, but there are no wharves to do it from, anyway, and there aren’t that many young children out around the bay anymore.”
The new album features first-person narratives, like “The Reply (The Ballad of John and Mary),” telling of the decades-long love story of McCann’s grandparents, and “Soldier’s Song,” profiling a deployed soldier, longing for home.
McCann was inspired to write the title track for his grandfather, while the first single, “Simple Song,” was written for Keegan, who asked his dad for something upbeat.
“He said, ‘Dad, I like your songs, but a lot of them are kind of slow — can you play a fast one?’”
McCann said. “He loves it. I caught him singing it in the bath last night.”
McCann wrote the album’s 10 tracks with a very distinct concept in mind — a country-Newfoundland infusion — and brought in two musicians he calls “the guns” to help him: Figgy Duff’s Kelly Russell and Newfoundlander Craig Young, who spent time in Nashville as a guitarist for country star Terri Clark.
The result, McCann said, is exactly what he was hoping for.
“By using them both, I have one foot in traditional Newfoundland music, and another foot in Nashville, and it mixed together so well,” he explained. “Whether or not it’s successful, it’s exactly how I wanted it to be. I wanted it to sound like an old Merle Haggard record, but I wanted it to be based in Newfoundland.”
Some of the tunes on “Son of a Sailor” aren’t entirely unlike the music McCann writes and performs with Great Big Sea, albeit more toned down and, like “Lullabies,” far more intimate, both in terms of content and nature.
“Great Big Sea has a very specific job, and that is to rock, and there’s not a lot of room for the stuff that’s on these (solo) records,” McCann said. “I think they just wouldn’t fly at a Great Big Sea show because people come there for a different reason. We’re a Newfoundland party band and we do that really well and I’m really proud of that, but I know I’m reaching different people with these records.”
While McCann has been working on his solo CDs, his Great Big Sea bandmates have taken up other projects, too: Bob Hallett released a memoir, “Writing out the Notes: Life in Great Big Sea,” last year, and is working on other books, and Alan Doyle has appeared in the Ridley Scott movie “Robin Hood” and on an episode of CBC-TV’s “Republic of Doyle.”
The group plans to take a little downtime over the next 18 months or so, in order to spend some time at home and work on solo projects, but will come back with a vengeance for its 20th anniversary in 2013, McCann said.
“That’s when you’ll see us back with a big tour and a big record,” he said.
McCann’s already been performing some of the songs from “Son of a Sailor” in small bars and other venues across the country on Great Big Sea’s days off, and said he’s been enjoying being back in an intimate-type show setting for the first time in two decades.
He’ll officially release the CD Tuesday — on the sea, fittingly.
Great Big Sea will join The Barenaked Ladies and others for the fourth annual Ships and Dip cruise on the Caribbean aboard the Norwegian Dawn, and McCann will hold an album launch off the coast of Cozumel.
“Son of a Sailor” will be available at Fred’s Records and O’Brien’s Music in St. John’s on the same day, as well as on iTunes.
