"McCann Moves To Mainland"…A fan's response.

I was interested to read this interview with Sean McCann about his up and coming charity event and his visit home to Newfoundland.

It was good to see how positive Sean was and that it seems like he has finally moved on from all the negativity with Great Big Sea. Unfortunately he still couldn’t resist to take a little dig at his former manager and his former self about his previous perspectives about what was important in life and charity work.

While I have only been a fan for a couple of years, charity work for others has always been on the Great Big Sea agenda, before and after the great big break up.

Earlier this year I was lucky enough to see Sean McCann, Mark Critch and a few other notable Newfoundlanders at a charity event in St. John’s. It was great to see Newfoundlanders who perhaps don’t get credit or recognition for their achievements receive it. The event brought the community together and raised a lot of money. This is only one event Sean and the other members of Great Big Sea have done over many years.

It had been a long time since I had laughed and cried so much in a couple of hours. The event certainly challenged the many romantic notions I had about Newfoundland and Newfoundlanders and gave me an education on some of the issues that affect their day to day lives. I also got to achieve one of my personal dreams of seeing him perform in St. John’s.

So Sean McCann, please give yourself a break.

The article has been circulated on my Google + page for those fans interested.

“McCann moves to mainland.” By Tara Bradbury published on 10 December, 2015 for The Telegram. (no copyright infringement intended)

After 20 years in the music industry as part of Great Big Sea and a handful more as a solo artist, Séan McCann came to a realization. His personal epiphanies have been well-documented over the past couple of years, but this one was career-focused.

Séan McCann has found his way to Ontario, but will return home next week for a special performance with members of the Easter Seals.

Even when you’re one of the province’s most recognizable and best-loved musicians, it’s hard to make a living in the industry when you’re based on the island. So he moved away.
As of the past summer, McCann and his family are officially residents of Manotick, a suburb of Ottawa. He says he has played about 60 shows since then, including gigs on his fall “You Know I Love You” tour.

“I can drive an hour in any direction and play a show,” he says. “I miss Newfoundland, but I wasn’t getting the work. I love what I do and I want to keep doing it, and it’s important to be able to do it without the heavy travel expenses.”

McCann’s not gone forever, though, and will be back in St. John’s next week for a performance with members of Easter Seals at the Sheraton hotel on Thursday. As he did last year, McCann will share the stage with some Easter Seals participants at a luncheon event that will raise money for the organization’s various programs.

McCann was introduced to Easter Seals about three years ago, having been invited by music therapists to work with some members of the organization.

“To be honest, my former self would not have done that. My former manager wouldn’t have looked at the request, so I wouldn’t have even seen it,” he says. “I was blown away. They melted my heart, and it needed to be melted at that moment. They have really had an effect on the decisions I have made ever since. They moved me in a really deep way.”

At Thursday’s event, McCann will perform with Anna Santos, Ashley Martin-Hanlon, Olivia Ash, Evan Mullins and Kyle Hannames, in what he expects will be a “heart-bursting” show.

“One of the cool things about Easter Seals is they help all kinds of people. They each have unique challenges, so it’s about not thinking in terms of disability, but in terms of different abilities,” he says.

McCann has fully recovered from surgery on his throat, which he underwent in Toronto in June to remove a cyst from his left vocal chord. The cyst had been causing him pain and forcing him to use more effort than usual to sing over the past four years or so, and he says he’s been singing like he did 20 years ago ever since.

While he’s touring, he’s writing, and has learned how to self-record. After his recent tour, he had about 200 voice memos saved on his phone; snippets of new songs.

“Every tour for me leaves a vapour trail,” he says. “Songs come to me from a sort of peripheral vision. I’m driving around myself, looking at everything and not stuck in a tour bus like I used to be, and I’m letting those experiences wash over me.”

McCann plans to go to the Banff Centre in the spring to finish writing, and hopes to record a new album sometime after that.

“The challenge is helping yourself,” he says, repeating the mantra to which he has been devoted over the past couple of years, and which inspired his “Help Yourself” album in 2014. “I still have stuff to say, and I’m finding my way. But I’ll be back home for anyone who needs me.”