Rant and Roar contained 14 songs, many that are still being sung today and include 'Ordinary Day', 'When I'm Up', 'Mari-Mac', 'The End of the World', 'Fast As I Can', 'The Night Pat Murphy Died', 'Goin' Up', 'Lukey', 'Old Black Rum', and 'Rant And Roar'. The album also contained a hidden song 'Jolly Beggarman' written by Great Big Sea. The album was recorded at The Battery and The Nickel Sound Works in St. John's, Newfoundland.
I found this really interesting article 'Arts in America; Giving Newfoundland's Celtic Melodies a 90's Sound' published in the New York Times in 1998 before the release of the album. The article is copied below for those fans interested. No copyright infringement intended.
The photograph is from the cover of the album 'Rant and Roar'. No copyright infringement intended.
I have circulated some official videos and recordings from this time and the Great Big Sea vault on my Google + page. I really enjoyed revisiting these. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did. The music remains as beautiful, engaging and moving as ever.
'Arts in America; Giving Newfoundland's Celtic Melodies a 90's Sound' by Anthony DePalma published on 21 May, 1998 in the New York Times.
https://www.nytimes.com/1998/05/21/arts/arts-in-america-giving-newfoundland-s-celtic-melodies-a-90-s-sound.html
Newfoundland rhymes with understand, and no one does, at least not in the eyes of the people who live in what is surely one of the most isolated and eccentric places in North America.
To other Canadians, Newfoundlanders -- with their penchant for munching cod tongues and living in places like Come by Chance -- are fair game for cheap laughs and petty put-downs, a staple of television comedy. The dim Newfoundlanders, for instance, thick as tar, trying to put together a Newfie jigsaw puzzle -- consisting of just one piece.
Behind the funny facade and the broguish accents there is a quirky, durable island, usually called just the Rock. It's a tough place, especially since the cod disappeared a few years ago. Instead of silvery fish, now it's oil that's pulled from the sea.
But one aspect of Newfoundland life that has remained constant is the music, a traditional blend of folk songs and Celtic melodies. The pubs of St. John's, the capital, continue to produce fine groups, and none have had more success recently than Great Big Sea, a band that combines the traditional music of Newfoundland with a modern pop beat.
The band has had wide appeal. For the last three years it has been named entertainer of the year at the Canada's East Coast Music Awards. Its first two major-label CD's, ''Up'' and ''Play,'' have each sold about 200,000 copies, huge amounts in Canada's comparatively small market. The singles are played on Top 40 radio in Canada, and their music videos get time on Country Music Television.
On June 2, the group will release its first United States recording, ''Rant and Roar,'' on Warner Brothers' Sire label. It will also tour coast to coast in June, opening for Sinead O'Connor and the Irish group, the Chieftains. It will play the Guinness Fleadh, a festival of Gaelic music in New York City, on Randalls Island, on June 13.
The four young men of the band, all from Newfoundland, play acoustical and traditional instruments, including the mandolin, the squeeze box (accordion) and the bodhran (a goat-skin drum).
Alan Doyle, 28, the group's husky-voiced lead vocalist, described Great Big Sea as a 1990's contemporary band that plays traditional Newfoundland-based music. The sound is an offbeat mix of folk and pop music played in a broad-shouldered and rigorous style. Some of the recordings are new compositions that echo melodies of the old sea chanteys; about half are traditional tunes juiced with pop.
''The music has a contemporary sound,'' said another band member, Darrell Power, 28, in an interview before a performance in Vancouver, ''It just so happens that some of the songs are 200 years old.''
These are songs that celebrate life on the sea, but there is often hardship and heartbreak in the lines. The songs on Great Big Sea's recordings are as evocative of Newfoundland as were the Beach Boys of California.
And that, the lads agree, is their biggest challenge as they gear up for their United States tour.
''Some of the things that made us unique and interesting in Canada are going to work against us in America,'' said Bob Hallett, 29, who plays the squeeze box. ''In our experience and in a lot of other Canadian artists' experience, Americans don't think of Canada as the place where really cutting-edge and exciting music happens.''
Speaking of the French-Canadian singer Celine Dion, he added, ''This is the land of Celine.'' Ms. Dion and other popular Canadian artists, like Alanis Morisette and Sarah McLachlan, have left their Canadianness behind. The problem for the Great Big Sea is that their connection to Newfoundland is the heart of their act.
Steven Savoca, who handles Great Big Sea for Sire Records in New York, said he expected it to be more difficult for the band to cross over into mainstream music in the United States than it was in Canada. ''I'm not sure that potential is there,'' he said. But he finds the recent popularity of the ''Titanic'' soundtrack, with its emphasis on Celtic sound, encouraging.
''One thing about the band is that they sing timeless melodies,'' Mr. Savoca said. ''You need only hear them once, and they stick in your head.''
After graduation from college, the four members of Great Big Sea took more or less regular jobs: Mr. Hallett as a magazine editor, Mr. Power as a teacher, Mr. Doyle as a tour guide and Sean McCann, 29, as a bouncer.
''We grew up wanting to be rock stars, too,'' Mr. Power said. ''But traditional music was right under your nose all the time.''
They took their name from one of those traditional songs, a tune about a tidal wave, the great big sea, that devastated the northern shore of Newfoundland.
''What we liked about it as a song and why we ended up with it as a name is that while the song itself is about a disaster, the sound is very sprightly and upbeat in tone,'' Mr. Hallett said. ''There's no sense of despair about it at all. It's characteristic of a lot of Newfoundland tunes.''
About half the songs they band members record are traditional and half contemporary, often written by band members. ''Rant and Roar,'' the title of the American release, comes from a timeless chantey celebrating the Rock.
We'll rant and we'll roar like true Newfoundlanders,
We'll rant and we'll roar, on deck and below,
Until we strikes bottom inside the two sunkers,
When straight through the channel to Toslow we'll go.
They collect such songs from their families and friends on Newfoundland, like Fergus O'Byrne, the Irish singer. ''They are like hymns in the kind of collective power they have,'' Mr. Hallett said. ''It's like a really good hymn or Christmas carol. You want to sing along even if you can't sing.''
The contemporary songs try to capture the same power but don't always succeed. A phrase like ''When I'm Up I Can't Get Down,'' one of their recordings, can't compare to enduring lines like ''There's no other life for a sailor like me/ Than to sail the salt seas boys/ Sail the seas.''
Still, their pride in Newfoundland means that the Great Big Sea refuses to wear so'westers or pose with fishing boats or lobster pots the way some people expect.
''We are the next generation of Newfoundlander,'' Mr. McCann said. ''There aren't many guys out there with lobster pots anymore.''
And they are sensitive enough about their image to write restrictions into every contract. If the term Newfie is used in any promotion, the band will not play. If there are sou'westers, fishing nets or lobster pots anywhere near the stage, the contract calls for them to be removed.
''We can make an audience understand where we come from,'' Mr. Doyle said, ''without having to stand there with a lobster pot.''
